Ken Davenport - Opinions from a Broadway Producer

Favorite Quotes Vol. XXV: The definition of frugality.

The biz page of The NY Times had an interesting article the other day about pharmaceutical giant Teva, a company that doesn't have the brand name of a Pfizer or a Merck, but is the biggest generic drug maker in the world.

The opening of the article described how its competitors' (mentioned above) executives both had private planes to shuttle them on both corporate and personal trips.  The CEO of Teva, however, flies commercial flights when traveling domestically in the US and when he heads overseas?  He flies business, not first.  And Teva is a company with a market capitalization of 51.92 BILLION bucks!

There were two quotes that jumped out at me that all of us can learn from.  The first was from Ronny Gal, an analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein who said this about their travel methods: "The day they get their own plane, is the day I downgrade them."

But it was William S. Marth, the biz class travelling CEO who said the sound bite of the article for me.  

When describing the company's incredible success over the past decade (their profits have jumped from 135.5 million to a whopping 2 billion dollars), along with his business practices up and down the balance sheet, Mr. Marth had this to say . . .

"Frugality doesn't mean doing less.  It means doing as much or more with less."

There's a big difference between cheap and frugal.  

You don't want to be cheap.  

But when faced with a business that has economics like ours, frugality is a necessity.  

(Not So) Favorite Quotes Vol. XXIV: Won't you be my neighbor?

One of the couples on my floor loves the theater.  They go on a regular basis, have great taste, and are always asking me for recommendations on shows to see.

Oh, and get this . . . they always pay full price.  (insert "whoopee!" here)

Last week, I ran into them in the elevator and they told me they were on their way to see Red.  I started asking them my usual string of mini focus group questions:  how they heard about Red, if they could describe the artwork, and then I landed on my finale of, "Where do you go to get your tickets?"

Their answer was Telecharge . . . but then the husband's eyes widened and I could tell he wanted to share some sort of secret.  Here's what he said:

"Yep.  We buy on Telecharge.  And pay full price.  But we never buy in advance."

My heart sunk . . . and I kind of wanted them to move to another building.

He continued:

"Yeah.  We find we get better seats when we buy last minute. Whenever we try to get something in advance, we always get crap. But if we go online the day before or even the day of, we usually find gold."

When I heard this, I wanted to move . . . to Tallahassee. There's something wrong with a ticketing purchase process that reinforces full-price buyers to wait until pulling the trigger.  

So what's the problem?

There are probably a few issues at work here, but I'd bet a couple of full-price tickets to Red that the issue most at work is that theaters and shows are holding too many of their best locations for House Seats, etc.  House Seats (or quality locations held for use by the Producers, Theatre Owners, Actors, Designers, etc.) that are not used get dumped back into the general pool of available seats 2-3 days before each performance, which is why there is sometimes a flood of good seats available closer to the performance.  My neighbor was probably getting the tickets held for the Set Designer, or one of the Principal Actors, etc.

The problem is . . . there are so many people that have House Seats in their contracts, that up to 75 prime orchestra seats can be held . . . for every performance.  I mean, is the Set Designer or Principal Actor really going to use 2 or 4 seats every night???   

In survey after survey, our audiences tell us that the #1 thing that they want is a great seat . . . and we're holding them back.  

By serving our own selfish needs, we're causing our customers to do one of three things:

- Not buy at all (there's really no better seat than on your own couch).

- Wait until something better opens up, thereby decreasing our ability to build advances.

- Find better locations elsewhere . . . translation:  they are going to brokers.

That last one is the most ironic.  Everyone in our biz has been concerned about the huge amount of business going to third party ticket brokers.

Well . . . news flash:  we're part of the reason our audiences are seeking them out.  

We've got to find a way to give our customers as much access to the best seats possible.  And one of those ways is to decrease the number of house seats we all hold.

Then, after we've decreased the number of house seats . . . we can start charging for them.  (For more on house seats, click that link) 

Favorite Quotes Vol. XXIII: Only in New York. Kids.

Here's some fun for a Friday:

I was getting my hair cut yesterday, and I found myself in the chair next to a talkative tween.

At one point, I was staring down at my iPhone, cursing AT&T, wondering how in the heck I could not have any service in the middle of Manhattan, when the tween screamed.  

We're talking a Halloween is coming, blood curdling, "I See Dead People" scream.

Everyone in the salon turned to look at her just in time to see her start to cry.  And cry. Her eyes were like sprinklers, and someone had obviously pulled the tween alarm. 

"What's the matter?" said the stylist.

The tween was staring straight in the mirror.  For the first time, she caught a glimpse of her new haircut.

"It's too short!  What happened to my hair?  I hate it!!!"

The rest of us in the salon smirked.  It was sort of sweet (sort of).  Here was a kid that thought she got a bad haircut and wasn't afraid to tell the stylist exactly how she felt.

The stylist tried to calm her, as did everyone else in the place.

"It looks great, hon.  You look so pretty.  It's not too short.  It's so stylish!  You're adorable!"

"No, no, you don't understand, " said the tween.  "I'm going to have to get a whole new headshot now!"

Now there's something I'd never hear if I were getting my haircut in Sturbridge! 

Favorite Quotes Vol. XXII: Fair is fair.

I was fortunate enough to be tapped to produce this year's NYU Tisch School of the Arts Gala honoring Ron Howard and Brian Grazer, Sheila Nevins, Marcia Gay Harden and Diana King (I was even more fortunate to actually go to Tisch, where thanks to one of my professors, I was introduced to a guy who would kick start my career).

We had a kick-off party in LA at the beginning of the summer, and one of NYU's benefactors, Steve Tisch (who knows quite a few things about kick-offs, since he's a co-owner of the NY Giants), offered this piece of advice for folks beginning their careers:

Remove the word fair from your vocabulary.

Things happen all the time in this world (and so often in this industry) that just don't make sense, that don't seem fair, and sometimes, that just aren't right. 

Don't try and figure it out.  You never will.

Scream it out for ten seconds, then suck it up, and soldier on. 

It sounds like Steve does something like this.

And if you read that Wikipedia entry, it looks like it's working for him, so it's gotta be a good idea for the rest of us.

Favorite Quotes Volume XXI: We lost one.

Broadway mourned the loss of Broadway producer Morton Gottlieb last week.  Although I never met Mr. Gottlieb, he was always close to my heart, because he came up like I did (or I came up like he did, whichever is more respectful), as a Company Manager first . . . in 1948 (I wonder what filling out house seat orders was like back then).

Morton's biggest hit was Sleuth (which I hear may be on its way back to the boards in the next season or two - I'm just sorry, Morton won't be able to see it).

He did leave us with this great quote about what it takes to do what we do, which is not much, and a helluva lot at the same time:

The Broadway Theater is the only place in the world where the easiest way to break in is by starting at the top.  You don't need experience, you don't need a license, you don't need money.  All you need is chutzpah.  You call all the agents and say, "Here I am - a Producer!"

We'll miss you, Mort.  

Read the full obit here.

Favorite Quotes Volume XX: Agents have to work it too.

The William Morris Agency has been in the news a lot lately because of its recent merger (to put it politely) with the younger company on the block, Endeavor. 

So I figured if the WMA was in the news, why not on the blog, especially when their high ranking execs say things like this:

I didn't have connections, I didn't have experience and, initially, I didn't really know what I was doing. But I did know I could outwork just about anybody. If everyone else read two scripts a night, then I would read four. If everyone started reading four, then I would read eight. That was my competitive advantage: I just wanted it more.
                                                            - Mike Simpson
                           

There's a lot to learn from this one:  hard work, staying ahead of the competition, desire, etc. 

But I use it to remind myself that Producers aren't the only ones that work hard.  Those on the "other side of the aisle" have their own set of challenges just like we do, and it's important to be able to see their side of the story.

Producers have to be able to see things from many perspectives.  And the best can put themselves in the shoes of the actors, the directors, and yes, even the agents.

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Favorite Quotes Volume XIX: A contrarian quote.

This entry marks a first for the Favorite Quotes category on The Producer's Perspective: this is the first time that I've ever quoted someone twice.  

One of the most common doomsday questions heard in marketing offices all over the country is, "How are we ever going to get people in their 20s to come to the theater???"

Usually there's so much silence after that query, you'd think God pushed the mute button.

Last week, when that question came up at the Broadway League Conference Town Hall Meeting, Producer and now Two-Time Producer's Perspective Quotee Mike Isaacson  gave us this goodie:

Why is it that we are always asking how we're going to get people in their 20s to the theater?  Do you ever hear nightclubs wondering how they are going to get 50 year olds to go drinking until 4 AM?

Obviously Mike didn't mean that we should ignore young audiences altogether. He knows, as you should, that (insert Whitney Houston's voice here) "the children are our future" and we should dedicate time and resources towards expanding that audience.

But that time, and those resources, should be proportional to where the majority of our audience comes from (which can differ for each show).

And could it be that theater, like an expensive wine or traveling to see the pyramids, is an acquired taste that comes with age . . . and more importantly, disposable income?

If you're in your 20s, and you only see one show a month now, will that increase when you're in your 30s?  40s?  

Let's hope and pray that this happens.  Actually, let's do more than that. Let's do something about it as well.  

Favorite Quotes Volume XVIII: A lyric that'd make Sondheim jealous.

I'm a lucky member of the BMI Librettist workshop, and every year we get together with the song writers to collaborate on scenes for a musical based on a movie.  This year, it was Woody Allen's Match Point, a thriller that uses tennis as a device to the tell the story of  . . . uh . . . planning the murder of your mistress that's having your baby so you can continue living your charmed life with the wife you don't love but whose parents have more cash than Daddy Warbucks.

In his song, Doug Maxwell, served up this ace:

      "Victory isn't as sweet when you win by default."

This quote took a moment to really register with me, because we all want winners, right?  And at the end of the day people only see the scoreboard, they don't see the game, so as long as we come out a head, who cares, right?

Not me.  For me, the game is only fun if it's played.

In addition to BMI, another one of my weeknight activities is a basketball league that I've been in for about ten years.  There are playoffs and championships and trophies and everything, so every win counts.  

But it just ain't the same when the other team doesn't show up and we get a check in the win column because of a forfeit.

The next time you're having a rough moment in the development of your show, or your script, or you're life . . . remember Doug.  Sure, it'd be great if the first draft of your script was like Noel Cowards first draft of Blithe Spirit (which was 98% unchanged before its first performance).  Sure, it'd be nice to have a billion bucks show up on your door step.  But surely, your smile is not going to be as big on opening night if it was just plain easy.  

So, play the game.  Sweat it out.  There's nothing sweeter than a victory from a hard played game.
 
And let's face it, we're all underdogs in this business because of the incredible odds stacked against us.  But underdogs are the ones carried off the field when they win.
  
And ain't no one getting carried off if it's easy.

Speaking of folks who don't have it easy . . . click here to visit Doug Maxwell's not-for-profit that assists blind composers and performers through the U.S.  

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Favorite Quotes Volume XVII: The buck stops. Period.

There are a number of great quotes in this Variety article about how Broadway Producers will go about building productions both physically and creatively during the economic mudslide we're in, but my favorite is from Legally Blonde and Catch Me If You Can Producer Hal Luftig.  

Hal also produced Thoroughly Modern Millie (which I company managed), and with his partners, staged one heck of a comeback to win the Tony Award for Best Musical, despite a poor NY Times review that had us all worried that the toe-tapper wouldn't last the summer.

When discussing how he was keeping a tighter rein on the economics from day one, Hal had this to say to possible critics of his current policies:

"Inexpensive doesn't mean cheap."

Hal is right.  

It's easy to be cheap.  And it's lazy to be lavish.

But finding a way of doing something of the same value for a lesser price is an art.  And in this climate, it's a necessity.

Favorite Quotes Volume XVI: An entrepreneur speaks about raising money.

My latest fav read as I wait (and wait) for the (over crowded) 1 train during rush hour is Entrepreneur magazine. 

While Broadway and Off-Broadway theater Producers have a lot to learn from each other about the business of producing, we can learn even more about business in general from businessmen and women in other industries (too often we forget that we even are a business).

The truth is, every time we start a new show, we are opening a new "start-up" company, and many of our issues cross industry lines . . . including raising money.

In a recent issue of Entrepreneur, franchisee Jay Palmer of Floyd's 99 barbershop, talked about his recent financing woes and his inability to get a loan.  So, he was forced to do what Producers do every day . . . appeal to a private investor. 

We found a personal investor and brought him into the shop. We gave him a shave and a haircut, [showing] him that the concept is great and the experience is unbelievable--great music, great vibe, great atmosphere. I wasn't even there [when he visited the store].  After all that, he was happy to write a check for $150,000. He had some financial figures, but [it came down to] seeing a stream of people coming in and out the door, knowing our customers and our employees are happy, and realizing this is a good business.

Jay's story once again proves that the most important P in the marketing mix is Product.

Numbers are essential.  But even the best financial plan or best recoupment schedule means bupkis unless the product is fantastic (you need fans to be fantastic) .  Think about it . . . it would be great if you could recoup your show in 3.5 weeks at 35%, and that certainly decreases the risk. But if your show is Bobbi Boland, then what good does that killer financial plan get you?

So what's to learn from Jay the entrepreneur? 

Create a great show.  Then get it up on its feet, in the most fully realized way possible (the money I raised for The Awesome 80s Prom was the easiest I ever raised - because the workshop WAS the show.)

Because if you build it, they will write the check.

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More fun from entrepreneur:  check out their list of best and worst marketing ideas ever.