The Show Goes On (One Night a Week)
By LINDA BUCHWALD
Ed Gaynes manages the St. Luke’s Theatre, currently shared by five shows, and the Actors Temple Theatre, currently shared by two shows. He also produces four of the productions that run in those spaces. Why, one might wonder, would anyone take on so many projects at once?
“It had gotten out of control doing the regular eight-show-a-week scheduling,” Gaynes says. “The contracts and the rents and everything were so ridiculous that it was costing $300,000–500,000 to do a small play and a lot more to do a large play. It was very hard to recoup that money if you could even raise it in the first place. Now, by sharing space, we’ve cut the budgets not just in half, but literally by 75% because there are all different agreements with the unions and all the costs are less and you maximize your audience.”
By running less frequently, these shows have time to build their audiences. “A lot of those shows [that have eight performances a week]—unless something really works out—can open and close very quickly,” says Eugene Pack, creator of Celebrity Autobiography, which runs once a month at the Triad Theatre. That show has found success by having famous people read from autobiographies of other famous people.
“We’re now still up and running three years later because we didn’t do the traditional Tuesday through Sunday,” Pack notes. “There’s something exciting about keeping the longevity because it’s not every single night. If you’re every single night and it’s not successful for whatever reason, you’re done.”
In the case of Celebrity Autobiography, attracting audiences is easy. The show doesn’t have a huge advertising budget, but when Mario Cantone reads from Justin Bieber’s memoir, the press pays attention. Typically, the show has a line around the block and audiences are packed into the small Triad space. “It creates this unique, once a month event [where] you’re in the right place at the right time, and it’s so much fun as opposed to something you can do any night of the week,” Pack says.
Cross-promotion is also a key marketing tool. The Triad and St. Luke’s have multiple shows running, so audiences come to one show and sometimes buy tickets for other productions in the same space. Since You’ve Got Hate Mail often features celebrity performers like Julia Duffy and General Hospital actress Meg Bennett, it’s easy to imagine the Celebrity Autobiography crowd buying tickets.
The limited schedule is not without its challenges. Out of town visitors may want to see a show, but they may not be in town on the night that it’s showing. But for producers like Gaynes, the pros outweigh the cons: “None of these shows would have been produced otherwise,” he says.
—
Linda Buchwald is a writer based in New York City. You can find her on Twitter at @PataphysicalSci