Ken Davenport - Opinions from a Broadway Producer

What we can learn from the life of Steve Jobs.

I don't know if Steve Jobs ever even went to a Broadway show, but I do think he was one of the greatest Producers who ever lived.  

He built things the world didn't even know it needed.  And he did it in a showman style that would have made even David Merrick proud.

He had a few hits early in his career and then a few flops.  But that didn't keep him from doing what he loved day in and day out . . . which led him to even bigger hits later on.

I never got to meet him (he has always been the person I would choose to have dinner with if I could pick anyone in the world).  But I was told that he had to personally approved my iPhone commercial, and man, when I heard that, I thought it was the coolest thing ever.  I didn't even care if the thing ever aired.  I just remember thinking, "I hope I did him proud."  (If you ever run into me, ask me to tell you the story of how he apparently didn't like how I held my iPhone . . .  so duh, I changed my grip.)  

Visionary, genius, innovator, etc.  These are all worlds that are tossed around when describing him, but none of them do him justice.

I think we should just retire the name Steve, and instead use it as a synonym for all those words combined.

He made the world a better place.  

And more importantly . . . he inspired people to want to make the world an even better place.

He was just so . . . Steve.

Rest peacefully in 'the cloud', Mr. Jobs.  

 

(Got a comment?  I love 'em, so comment below!  Email subscribers, click here, then scroll down, to say what's on your mind!) 

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FUN STUFF 

- 7 Days to Godspell!  Read the day-by-day account of producing Godspell on Broadway here.

- Spend an hour with me at Godspell tech!  Click here for info on how!

- Tune up your marketing materials at my new seminar!  Learn more here!

- Win 2 tickets to see The Blue Flower at Second Stage Off Broadway!  Click here!

I'm speaking at the Apple Store. You coming?

I've had a long history with Apple products.

And it goes back a long way before the iPhone commercial.

I was coming-of-age at the same time as the personal computer, and thankfully I had parents that fed my dream of being Matthew Broderick in WarGames (minus the global thermonuclear war part).  I worked on Radio Shack TRS-80 Terminals, had a Texas Instruments TI-99, and peeked and poked on the Commodore 64.  But my favorite home computers were the pre-Macintosh Apple II and IIe.  I can't tell you how many nights I stayed up way past my bedtime playing Zork (insert end-of-an-80s-movie chants of "Nerd" here).

And now, it's not uncommon to see me typing on my MacBook Air, with the iPad right next to me, as I talk on my iPhone.

So, you can imagine how much fun doing that iPhone commercial was for me.

The only thing cooler would be speaking at the flagship Apple Store.

And now that's happening!

Next Monday, April 25th at 7:00 PM, I'll be speaking at the 5th Ave store here in Manhattan.  The subject?  My favorite:  Broadway Plugged-In.

Hope you can make it!  Maybe they'll set up Zork on an IIe for us!  

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FUN STUFF

- Take the Broadway Investing 101 Seminar.  Click here for dates in NYC and LA.

- Come to the Director-Writer Speed Date!  RSVP here.

- Win 2 tickets to see Born Yesterday on Broadway and a free dinner.  Enter the Sunday Giveaway here.

At The Booth app is now available for the Blackberry!

At The Booth, the app that tells you what's available at the TKTS booth, hit the platform trifecta today!  

Not only do we have an iPhone version and a Droid version, I'm thrilled to announce that the app is available for The Blackberry starting today!  

And the Blackberry app features the same features as the iPhone version, which includes complete info on all Broadway and Off-Broadway shows, links to reviews, photos and more!  

Blackberry users, go to your app store, and download that sucker . . . and then use it to see more theater!  

Download it today!

(Oh, BTW, one of the reasons that the Blackberry version took so long to release is that we had to configure it for the many different models of the Blackberry that are in the market.  We've tested it on most, but if for any reason, yours doesn't work properly, drop [email protected] a note and we'll rectify it.)

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The LA Seminar is SOLD OUT!  

But the social still have some room!  If you're in LA and you love the theater, come to the social THIS SATURDAY NIGHT!  Click here for more details.

The next NYC seminar is on March 19th. Save $55 if you register by 1/31/11.

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Enter to win FREE tickets to Driving Miss Daisy in this week's giveaway!  Click here!

 

 

New feature: The most read posts of the month.

I'm obsessed with Google Analytics. I even have a Analytics app for my iPhone so I can constantly keep track of all of the web stats on all of my sites.

One of the most important statistics I look at for the blog is what articles are the most read every month.  By doing so, I can see what you like, as well as what you don't like, and I can tweak what I talk about going forward. If you like budget-talk, I can try and do more of that. If you like blogs about box offices, I can do more of that.  If you hate when I talk about fast food . . . well, I'm going to keep doing that anyway.  

I got to thinking that you might enjoy seeing what the most popular blogs of the month are, which is why I'm debuting a new feature today!  (And I also thought this might help any of you folks that may have missed a post or two throughout the month.)

So, every month I'm going to publish a recap that will list two posts:  

1. The most read post of the month.
2. The most commented on post of the month (see what riles people up).

So, here they are for November:

• The Most Read:  You Make The Call:  Which Show Would You Produce?
  
  
• The Most Commented On:  What Every High School Musical Should Have.
  

See you in a month! 

 

I can't stop thinking about Microsoft.

On Monday, I wrote about the fall of Microsoft and the rise of its competitors over the last several years, most notably, Apple.

While I know there were various factors at play as the companies swapped places in their race to be the most innovative tech companies on the planet, I couldn't help but think of one specific difference between the two tech giants that was related to something we've discussed here before .

In June of 2008, Bill Gates, the visionary that created the Microsoft brand and the man responsible for its global domination at the beginning of the computer age, stepped down as the head of his company.  And I'm sure in the years before that, he was working in a diminished capacity which was just kept quiet so as to not alarm the shareholders.

At the same time that Mr. Gates was backing off, Steve Jobs, the man behind the Apple brand, who rescued it from almost becoming obsolete, was seizing more control and was even more active in the operations of the company, despite fighting pancreatic cancer.  

In other words, at Apple, the lead producer, the man with one, singular sensational vision, was still in the game.

Now, Bill G. retired to do incredibly philanthropic work, so I'm certainly not faulting him for his incredibly generous move.

But one has to wonder . . . if the man who convinced IBM to buy a non-proprietary operating system was still running the company, would they be where they are now?

Maybe . . . like Jobs, Bill will come back.

I don't know.  Tech isn't my industry.

But I do know that in our business, as I wrote about in this blog, if you want your shows to keep on working, the guy who put the boat in the water has gotta keep sailing it, or it'll sink.

Favorite Quotes Vol. XXIX: What does Microsoft have to do with us?

Poor Microsoft.  They just can't seem to do anything right these days.

Actually, that's not true.  They just can't seem to do anything first these days.

CNN had a great piece on the fall of Microsoft last week, and believe it or not, I found it relevant to Broadway.  The article described how this monster of a company, that led the charge into the computer age, has since fallen to the back of the pack, while their old competitor, Apple (whom they had previously easily bested), and their new competitor Google, jumped out in front.

Microsoft is getting beaten in search, in tablet computing, and, mark my words, Microsoft Office lovers, they will soon be beaten in software, when cloud office docs take off (my office recently dropped Outlook for Google Apps Gmail, and while it may not be the exact same experience, it's free, it's updated constantly, and it takes up no space on my servers.  That's 10 versions of Outlook right there . . . in one office.).

When asked why she thought Microsoft had fallen back, Analyst Laura DiDio gave us this gem . . .

In this age, the race really is to the swift. You cannot afford to be an hour late or a dollar short.

Now, I'm not sure about the dollar part.  I think a lot can be done with less in 2010 than twenty years ago, as long as you can make up for the cash in creativity.

But I do think Laura is so right on the moolah with the first part of her statement.  Because of the speed that modern technology allows, it's more imperative than ever that if you have a great idea for a piece of software or for a TV series or a new private sale solution for Off-Broadway shows (!), you act on it right away, before some else does.

Don't sacrifice quality, however.  You know what happened to Friendster when they jumped out too fast. (And if you don't know what Friendster is, I've proved my point).

Complacent companies (Microsoft) and industries (Broadway) can no longer sit back and let the customers come to them.  

The information age affords us the opportunity to be faster than ever before.  

And if we don't take that opp, someone else will.

 

 

How many of you save your Broadway ticket stubs?

I saved them all.

When I was younger, I'd get my Playbill, and that ticket stub (which is no longer a stub, thanks to ticketing scanners) would go right in the middle.

Full embarrassing disclosure: when I was in high school, I used to take the cover of my Playbills, the ticket stubs, and a few choice photos from inside the Playbill, and I'd create a poor-man's decoupage that I framed and put on my nightstand.  I guess my hope was that they would help all of my Broadway dreams come true.  (My Secret Garden Playbill/photo combo even had an autograph from Daisy Eagan!)

Ok, so I was a lonely kid . . . but it was pretty obvious what I was going to do when I grew up.

This post isn't about my awkward youth (there isn't enough space on the entire internet for me to go into that), but rather that ticket . . . which for me, and for so many of you, I bet . . . was a souvenir.

And a souvenir is merch . . . and merch is marketing.

The ticket as a souvenir is slowly but surely disappearing as we transition to e-ticketing, and eventually mobile ticketing technology (having the ticketing scanners scan an image on your phone itself, which requires no paper product at all).

And as much as I'm a huge fan of this technology (and of all technology), it's going to take us a long time to adopt it.

Why?

• We're always slow to adopt technology.
• Our customers like hard tickets.

While hanging out at the booth last week, I watched a woman turn to another and say, "Did you get 'em?"  Her friend smiled, then fanned out five Billy Elliot tickets like a winning poker hand.  They both literally screamed with joy.  Now imagine what it would have been like if she showed her friend a UPC image on her phone.

Wah-wah.

Broadway tickets still have a Willy Wonka "Golden Ticket" effect that we don't want to disappear too soon.  

They are a tangible passport to entertainment that can create a positive emotional response about our product . . . whether or not you choose to frame it. 

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UPDATE:  Two days after I wrote this blog, it was announced that New York State became the first state in the nation to pass a law requiring paper tickets. To read more about it, click here.

My blog is an iPhone app!

I'll admit it.  I've got app fever.

My iPhone is filled with everything from subway maps to free wifi finders to a blackjack card-counting trainer.

So, when I found out that I could turn my blog into an app, I jumped on it faster than I pre-ordered my iPad.

If you want The Producer's Perspective app, click here.

Or search for "Ken Davenport" or "Broadway" in the app store, and look for the TPP icon.  It's free!

And speaking of apps . . . remember this post that called out for ideas for new apps?  Well, we've got an app in the works.

Stay tuned for its pre-summer release.