When asked, many people will name spring as their favorite season. Snow melts, trees bud, flowers bloom and the sun shines. What could be better? Spring also brings the excitement of Broadway season announcements. If you’re like many theatergoers, this is the time of year when you wait in anticipation to see what shows will be visiting your local venue during the upcoming year. With so many productions playing in New York, and even more touring, it can be difficult to guess what shows will actually land in your city.
A lot of activity happens behind the scenes before seasons are ever announced. Shows are routed, booked and important decisions are made. In fact, programming a Broadway season is an extremely intricate process.
So exactly how does your season come together? Here’s a quick Programming 101 to explain some of the basics.
TO TOUR OR NOT TO TOUR
The process starts over a year in advance when programming departments contact booking agents and producers of shows that are currently playing on Broadway. At this stage, important decisions about which shows will tour are being made based on a number of factors. Producers weigh the show’s success on Broadway, appeal to a mass audience, subject matter and even technical size before deciding if they’ll send it on a national tour.
Once a producer makes a final decision that their show will tour, they start considering which cities will be a good match. At the same time, Broadway Across America’s programming department in New York is speaking with local theaters and presenters about potential engagements. They must weigh all options to decide collectively which shows they are most interested in and what will work best in their market. Content, trends and suggestions from ticket buyers are all important considerations.
ROUTING – A JIGSAW PUZZLE
Once cities and shows are matched up, they move into a complicated process known as routing. Routing is the technical part of building a season. There are a number of considerations including the distance of cities relative to each other, mileage and availability of buildings.
Sometimes venues simply aren’t available because communities support the arts in a number of different ways. The same building may house a resident theater company, the local opera or be used for a variety of other types of entertainment. Particular dates are often allocated for Broadway productions, further narrowing options.
The easiest way to describe routing is to compare it to a jigsaw puzzle with many pieces. Everything has to fit together to create a picture of what an entire season’s worth of programming will look like across the nation. However, it’s even more complicated than that because when one show moves, the entire puzzle changes.
DECIDING FACTORS
With the many layers and complexities, it’s easy to understand why it is difficult to please everyone. Questions are occasionally asked about why one city is hosting a particularly popular show when another one isn’t, or why one gets the hottest production in January and the other doesn’t see it until July.
Where a city falls on a national tour can be attributed to a number of factors, but size does make a difference. The majority of producers like to play major metropolitan areas early in their tours because there is a larger audience base and more opportunities for national publicity coverage. Because of this, shows will often play markets such as Chicago, Boston and Minneapolis in their first year of touring. Producers then use sales data and audience feedback from these larger markets to help measure the success of the show on the road. If a tour is deemed successful it can have a long life, and often tour for many seasons.
Local ties to a particular production, its creators or stars can also play an important role. When HAIRSPRAY launched its national tour, Baltimore was a natural choice for producers and presenters alike. The musical takes place in Baltimore and many references to the city are made throughout the show. MAMMA MIA! is another example, where it's particularly popular in areas with strong Scandinavian ties.
Despite a number of challenges, the final goal is to offer audiences throughout North America both memorable and diverse seasons. Watch for more information from Broadway Across America regarding programming for the 2006-07 season in your favorite venue.
By: Stacy Housman
