PRODUCER’S PERSPECTIVE Ken Davenport, Broadway Producer, Off-Broadway, Theater

Netflix for theater. It's here.

Ok. It's not here here.  It's over there here.  Like in the UK.  

The Brits beat us to the screen this week when www.DigitalTheatre.com went online with a few titles of taped theatrical productions that can be viewed in the privacy of your own home.

DigitalTheatre's plan is to create a "library of diverse and acclaimed productions from some of the finest theatre talent around."  

They've got a production of Far From The Madding Crowd up right now available for 8.99 GBP (or about $15 bucks) and are promising more in the future.  

Here are a couple of statements from the contributing theatres:

We’re always looking for ways to bring our work to the largest possible number of people. And the potential of digital technology to connect with a worldwide audience is genuinely exciting.

    - Dominic Cooke, Royal Court

There needs to be a revolutionising of the capture of live theatre, and we are enjoying the pursuit of that ambition with Digital Theatre.

    - Michael Boyd, Royal Shakespeare Company.

These guys have got it right.  A video revolution is coming.  It has to be.  Our attendance is waning.  A new audience isn't being born.  It's getting harder to pull people away from screens and get them into a theater. 

So perhaps we use what has been our greatest fear (those screens) and turn it into an asset.  

PBS has done it in the past. And seeing Into The Woods and Sweeney on TV certainly didn't deter me from seeing those shows live when they came back to Broadway.

The Met has been successful in putting operas in movie theaters around the country.  My 80-year-old Dad loves them, and now he wants to come to NYC to see an opera more than ever.

- Legally Blonde didn't lose all of its business here in NYC after a couple of plays on MTV.  And the tour is doing quite well . . . hmmmm.

- The Rent final performance DVD was pretty dang cool (I bought it), and even better than the movie in my opinion.

Of all of the options out there now, I think the Rent model is what could work the best.  Take a show that is closing, memorialize it, market it and use it to get people excited about another show live. 

It's like distributing a DVD after the movie has left the theaters.  

The unions would have to play ball to make this financially feasible, but if the show is closing, shouldn't they be more inclined to do it?  If all of the employees who worked on the show while it was being taped got a piece of future sales?  It's found money for the employees (and the union benefit funds), and since the show would be closing, there shouldn't be any fear that the Producers would be benefiting from the taped production as a promotional tool for Broadway (there is a question about using it to promote sub rights and tours, but certainly a profit participation for the union employees could make up for it).

The Digital Theatre folks are on to something.  And we better get on it as well, and stop guarding what we do like it's the Queen.  

Because this could be one of the few ways we have left to get what we do out to the masses.  

What happens when two competitors combine forces.

There are few industries like ours where our greatest friends can be our fiercest competitors.  It makes for some awkward opening night parties.

But look at what's happening just a train ride away!

Where else but in the City of Brotherly Love have two competitors found a way to work together and help each other get through these tricky economic times.

The Philadelphia Theatre Company and The Wilma Theater activated their wonder-twin powers yesterday when they announced a "Best Of Broad Street" subscription package (the theatres are across the street from each other) that allows Philadelphians to create a season subscription by choosing two plays from one theatre and two plays from the other.  

There used to be a time when people would subscribe to a season for one play/musical/event.  Sort of like going out to dinner, ordering a steak and taking whatever vegetables come along with it.  

Not so anymore. People are pickier than ever, and if the whole meal isn't appetizing, they're staying at home and having cereal.

Kudos to the boards of these two forward-thinking institutions for crossing the street and meeting on the median.  

What Broadway Producers and Publicists can learn from The Balloon Boy.

What a big balloon bozo.

I'll admit it. I'm a huge fan of creative "stunts" designed to get your "product" attention.  In a cluttered marketing environment (like, I don't know, Broadway?) the right story can get you more attention than you could ever afford.

I've done a few in my day, from allowing virgins to get in free, to being the first musical to endorse a political candidate, and so on.  Some worked. Some didn't.  And with some, we were betrayed by hypocritical politicians who claimed they were for the little guy (when the truth was they were only for their own "little guy").

Regardless of the wackiness of some of the things I've done, or some of the things others have done successfully, they were always based in truth, and exaggerated for fun from there.  

And no one got hurt in the process by the exaggeration.

Unlike the insanity of the parents of the Balloon Boy.

One of the most famous Broadway stunts is the David Merrick Subways Are For Sleeping poster campaign, where he found individuals with the same names as the biggest critics in town to give him great quotes about the show, and he put these quotes all over the poster.  See photo.

Fun, right?  And truthful.  (The ad also had pictures of the "critics" so he couldn't be accused of trying to overtly mislead the public - of course no one knew what those guys looked liked in those days anyway).  

Was Merrick pushing it?  Yes, but the campaign was also a subtle comment on the value we put in a name, therefore brilliant.  

The crazy part is that Merrick got even more press from getting caught than he got from the campaign itself (he admitted that he had come up with this idea years before but he couldn't find anyone with the same name as Times critic, Brooks Atkinson.  When Atkinson retired in 1961, Merrick was good to go).

And that's the barometer of whether a stunt is worth doing.

Ask yourself . . . if I get "caught," will I benefit even more?  If someone busts me, will I look like a balloon boy boob, or an inventive entrepreneur.

If you're even close to looking like a BBB, then go back to the drawing board.

Start with the truth and use your creativity to take you to heights higher than any BS balloon could take you.

Another thing I learned from the airlines.

The theater industry has learned a lot from the airline industry. 

The airlines taught us about premium seating (first class). They taught us how to get rid of their unsold inventory with email blasts.  They taught us the ways of yield management.

And now they are teaching us about the upgrade.

I flew out West to see American Idiot at Berkeley Rep. on Saturday morning.  I was doing one of my favorite things to do when traveling coast-to-coast and making the trip in one day.  First flight out, and red-eye back.  No one even knows you're gone!

I flew Virgin Airlines, which is pretty comfortable in coach, although the leg room is almost as bad as it is at a Broadway theater. 

When I checked in for my red-eye back, the self-check-in computer popped up a screen offering me a chance to upgrade my ticket to First Class for only $250.

Huh.  I considered it even though I didn't even think about going First Class when I bought the original ticket.  But since I knew how important it was that I slept the whole way home, and since I had saved myself a night at a hotel by not staying in San Fran, I did it.

After I clicked "buy" . . . I started to think about why it was such an easy choice for me . . . and then I started to think about how we could do the same thing in the theater.

It was obvious that the airline had some unsold first class tickets that they were willing to offer at a discount last minute.  Why not, right?  Get every dollar you can, before that flight takes off (curtain goes up) and the premium seat goes dead.  Additionally, by popping up only the upgrade price, it looked like a bargain. I already bought and paid for the coach ticket.  I wasn't adding the coach ticket plus the upgrade together to calculate the total fare, which is why it was easier to buy.  And just like that, Richard Branson had a few more of my bucks.

We've all been to shows where the rear mezz or the balcony was sold, but the better seats weren't, right?  And during intermission, or right before the show starts, there's a mass movement of audience members scrambling to the better seats, even though they paid the cheaper price. 

What if we could get those people paying a bit more and filling up the seats beforehand? 

How could we do it?

• What about sending the balcony seat holders an email 24 hours (or even less) before the show with a chance to upgrade for only $20? $30? (See, doesn't it sound like a bargain already?)
• What about a sign at the box office advertising an upgrade?
• What about having the box office staff up-sell an upgrade when tickets are picked up at the window?
• What about putting a seller in the house itself that roams the balcony before the show starts?

Upgrades are awesome.  Parsing the purchases in two makes them both seem more manageable, but ends up making you more money.  At the same time, the upgrade gives the audience member a better experience than they were expecting.

I know I slept a lot better on that flight home, thanks to my upgrade.

How to monetize a niche social network: a case study . . . by me!

BroadwaySpace.com got in front of the powers that be at iMediaConnection a few months ago. Then those powers reached out to me and asked if I'd write a case study on niche social networks.

I did.  And, lo and behold, they just published it!

You can read it here.

And when you do, you'll understand this photo.  But no, that's not my mom.

Attention vendors: you're not the only ones with a pitch.

I got an unsolicited mass email last week from a company that provides a 'service' to the Broadway community.   I was a little bugged by the impersonal feel of the salesy-email so I banged back a quick reply:

"Why yes, I am interested in your service, although I do have a current provider.  Since you asked me about my interest in your product, might I ask you if you have ever considered investing in a Broadway show?"

I got a response pretty quickly.  The vendor kind of e-laughed at me and with a haughty tone said something like, "Oh no, we don't do that."  Then he went on to try and sell me his product (which, frankly, I could have gotten from a zillion providers online - and probably cheaper . . . he had obviously just gotten lucky and nabbed a couple of Broadway accounts).

I was surprised at his response.  Although, honestly, I don't know why.  Given the previously mentioned impersonal feel of the salesy-email, I shouldn't have been surprised at all.

It would have been nice of him to say that he entertained all sorts of ideas, especially if he was trying to get a face-to-face meeting with me.  His reaction made it seem like doing what I do, and what so many others do, is bonkers, but he was more than happy to suck from the Broadway teat for his entire career.

When I was first starting out, I told another vendor that I wanted to be a Producer.  She laughed.  She tried to convince me to forget it and go into servicing the industry and getting paid for it.  "There's no money to be made on Broadway, but there's a lot of money to be made off of Broadway," she said.

There are a lot of vendors out there that do give back to the business, in the form of investment, etc., but then there are those that just seek to get fat off the people taking big risks.

To those, I say this:  the map of the Broadway world has changed a great deal over the last five years.  There are more competitors than ever.  There are more ways to do it yourself than ever.  If you're not willing to even think about giving back to the industry that has fed you for so long, you may find yourself starving soon enough.

The Phantom sent me an email. Ooooh, creepy.

I signed up to receive email alerts from Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber some time ago. If you've never checked out Webbie's website, you should.  The guy video blogs, emails, and more.  He's got to be the most social networking-savvy Knight there is.

He's definitely the most social networking-savvy Tony Award-winning musical theater composer there is.

The irony is . . . he doesn't need to be.

Or does he?

We all know Phantom II is gearing up, and we all know our industry's success rate for sequels. So perhaps Sir Andrew knows that he's got to take advantage of every viral aspect he can, if he's going to get this chandelier to fly.

Well, so far so good.  

Earlier this week, I got this email from The Masked One directly:

Ladies and Gentlemen,

At 11 O'Clock on the eighth day of October 2009, I will be making an announcement of global importance.

Should my commands be ignored, a disaster beyond your imagination will occur.

Amor Numquam Moritur.

Your Obedient Servant,

The Phantom

Ok, a little cheesy, yes.  But definitely fun. And for the real phantom phans, definitely cool.

But that's not it . . .

Today, I got a follow-up email from the Love Never Dies site offering me a chance to be one of the few people who could witness this announcement live in London.

Oh, and did I tell you that The Phantom tweets?  

That's a lot of buzz-building e-activity around a show that's had a pretty enviable brand for the last twenty years.  And all their e-efforts are working.  Sir Andy got me to visit this website to watch their trailer.  And after watching the vid, for the first time since hearing about this sequel, I got excited about it.

You know the coolest part about their use of this technology?

When the original Phantom first opened on Broadway . . . it didn't even have a website.  Think on that for a moment!  

You've come a long way, Phantom baby.  It's nice to see your Master keeps up with the times.

Who was the first Broadway discounter?

Have you ever wondered where it all began? 

What started the discounting phenomenon?  And more importantly . . . who started it?  

Was it The Geislers, the geniuses behind BroadwayBox.com?  Was it TDF, the org. behind the TKTS booth?  

Was it David Merrick, The Abominable Showman? (a must read, btw)

While all of the above had major impacts on the distribution of Broadway tickets over the last century, one guy beat them all to the slashing-prices punch . . . and he did it in the 19th century.

That guy was a Hungarian immigrant named Joseph Leblang . . . and he started it all in 1894!

Joe had a tobacco shop on 30th Street and he got free tickets in exchange for putting up show posters in his window. Well, smarty-pants Joe started selling those passes for cash.  And since it was all profit to him, he sold them at less than full price.  

I'm sure the shows weren't too happy about him undercutting their full price at first (just like we're not happy when a full price buyer stumbles upon BroadwayBox when googling the name of a show), but when he started moving an enormous volume of tickets, they started sending him extras to sell!  He started putting people in the street to bark for business, and even had flyers like the one on this page.

Sound familiar?  It's the basic model of the TKTS booth, which started almost 80 years later.

Joe took something that was handed to him, and turned it into a business. At the same time, he revolutionized an industry.

The irony is that a zillion other shop owners were given those free tickets.  They all could have done the same thing.  They all could have made that money . . . and more importantly . . . made that significant impact.

Opportunities are out there.  You just have to keep your eyes open, and then act on them.

For a full description of how Joe did it, read this great article on NYTix.com.  

Why your marketing has to be on and off.

As much as I'm a big believer in online marketing, I'm an even bigger believer in all online marketing initiatives being followed up with an offline event.

It's important to remember that all relationships, including those between customers and products, are solidified when there is some sort of in-person connection.

Think about the first time you met someone that you had a long "email only" interaction with.  The relationship went to a different level as soon as you shared a handshake, right? 

Think about the first time you went to see a concert of a rock star that you had heard only on CD.  You became a bigger fan when you saw that artist live, right?  (If you are like me, you probably thought he pointed at you once during the show.)

If you're trying to build a passionate fan base, whether you're a person or a product, it's important that you find a way to bring people together offline.  It makes whatever you're pitching more tangible, more real, and therefore more valuable. 

It's why politicians have fundraising dinners.  It's why playing chess in person is so much more fun than playing chess online.  It's why book clubs exist. 

Online is awesome, but don't forget to turn the switch "off" every once in awhile.

BroadwaySpace is doing its first ever offline event on September 29th.  We're heading to Planet Hollywood for some grub and to mingle with other Broadway lovers, then heading over to be one of the first audiences to see Memphis.  Food.  Show.  Theater folk.  For only $40. 

If you want to go, there are a few spots left.  Visit www.BroadwaySpace.com and scroll down on the left-hand side of the page. Click on "Memphis Meet Up."  It's gonna be fun. 

I feel there's something between us. Oh wait. It's a wall.

A lot of customers I talk to are scared to buy tickets at box offices. 

I wonder why . . .

Could it be the bullet proof glass and the creepy sounding microphones?

Broadway used to be a cash and hard-ticket business.  Barriers of bullet proof glass were necessary to protect potential smash-and-grabs.  

But is this customer-service obstacle necessary in 2009, when the majority of tickets are purchased with credit cards, when we have e-tickets, when box offices don't have to rack-and-stack as many performances in advance because the tickets can be printed as needed, and so on?

Yes, there are times when thousands and thousands of dollars worth of inventory are held behind those walls.

However, I've been to banks that don't have the barriers box offices have. What about Walmarts?  Apple stores?  Jewlery stores?  God knows Tiffany's keeps their valuable items behind glass, but you still get to talk to the seller face to face.  In fact, Tuffany's is smart enough to know that their sales depend on that face time.  

Surely there are plenty of other security measures we could put into place in the 21st century that could have the same, if not more of a protective effect as our ancient methods that undeniably have a detrimental effect on our consumers' purchasing experience.

I'm all about safety.  

I just want to make sure my customers feel safe as well.

And when I can create a closer bond between my customers and my sellers, there is a much better chance that my customers will come back.