Ken Davenport - Opinions from a Broadway Producer: Yesterday's "Robot Vomit" poll got me in a pollin' mood. So, I had Intern Emily and a few of her friends hit Times Square, armed with a clipboard and a question. This one was more general. Emily et al asked 100 theatergoers in Times Square, "If you could change one thing about the theater . . . what would it be?"
Saturday, October 29, 2011
What's the one thing you would change about Broadway?
Ken Davenport - Opinions from a Broadway Producer: Yesterday's "Robot Vomit" poll got me in a pollin' mood. So, I had Intern Emily and a few of her friends hit Times Square, armed with a clipboard and a question. This one was more general. Emily et al asked 100 theatergoers in Times Square, "If you could change one thing about the theater . . . what would it be?"
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11 comments:
The survey done here actually reveals some useful commentary for the state of the theatre and some fairly viable suggestions. I'll call out a few:
Staggered matinees through the week - We've seen posts on this blog before about shows that vary from the Wednesday matinee and how they gain a competitive advantage from the lack of choices on that day compared with the mass of potential theatregoers around Times Square. Tuesday afternoon may be dicey when working with Equity (daylight day of rest), but maybe you could shift things further in order to produce an equitable matching of supply and demand.
Service fees - after watching and chatting with people in box offices, there are just some fees that are purely extraneous, and if asked, the box office managers will freely tell those in the business that it's there for extra income. A theatre's going to hire custodians whether or not they charge a "Facilities Fee" on every ticket, and sooner or later that fee is just going to produce profit rather than all going into paying custodial. If lower fees can help us build better relationships with our patrons, that's worth considering, isn't it?
Waiting systems/Phone/Technological Connectivity to Ticketing Systems - this exists already, but are fairly expensive subscription systems for the theatre to rent and operate. Hiring a coder may be worth it to create some ticketing systems (things like the credit card processing applet are already open-source), and may actually help to regulate ticket purchases for certain events, like festivals or rush ticketing.
I think a lot of the things that these people said are typical. There can also be more shows, better seats, easier ways to buy tickets etc. However, I think the fact that there are a limited number of shows is part of the selling point for Broadway. If you are coming for a week there is plenty to see on and off of Broadway and you will go out of your way to ensure you are getting to see what you want to no matter the cost. I would also be curious as to how many people in the TKTS line were local and how many were from out of town. Maybe the responses would be different.
Know your audience is a somewhat unspoken subtext in this article. Sure, ask a bunch of people already in line to buy tickets to see Broadway shows what they might change and I'm sure a lot of the responses would be, "Nothing!"
Ask a bunch of college-age students pursuing Arts degrees if they think it's important to fund the Arts and I'm sure the majority of answers would be, "Yes!"
Ask a bunch of young teens what they'd change about Justin Beeber's latest album and I wonder what answers you'd get.
More interesting might have been to ask the people who perhaps left that line without buying tickets why they didn't or average people who weren't buying tickets at all why they weren't and see what kind of answers they'd get. That might be more telling.
Jacob! had some interesting points. When doing research, it is important to understand who you are talking to. The purpose of changing things would be to get people who were not standing in the TKTS line to join that line (or better yet, buy full priced tickets). However, the responses are still useful and interesting. I particularly liked the ones that suggested pairing dinner or drinks with the ticket. Of course, you would have to do this carefully to not raise the ticket price too much or not cut into your profit (ha ha, profit). Maybe some sort of discounted bundle would work. The other suggestion that I liked a lot was the addition of matinees (or staggered show times). Why do all of the Broadway shows have the same performance schedule? Maybe they can work something out so you can see three shows in one day if you wanted to. Or maybe some shows could move the matinee to Tuesday and others to Thursday. Of course, it would be important not to reduce the demand or uniqueness of a Broadway show by adding too many performances (plus, AEA rules).
These are interesting responses.
I must say though, I don't think we (or the author) should be patting ourselves on the back because so many people said "nothing", I think at least 90% of those weren't legitimate, thought out responses, but were a person's best bet for getting out of the conversation quickly without being rude to the poll-er.
I like the idea of dinner before the show the most. You could pay a little extra for that option, but you wouldn't have to choose it. Eating before a show is always nice, but it can be stressful if the wait is longer than you thought, or you are in New York for the first time and you get lost finding the restaurant, or your food takes forever to get there, and suddenly you are stressed out and worrying about making the show on time. Having a dinner sponsored by the show would eliminate all these things.
some of those items on the list i found interesting, so it made me wonder.. if i could change one thing about broadway what would it be? well for me - i really liked the idea of making ordinary people stars, rather that using celebrities. its an important part of theatre, the rising of a new prodigy or talent. Giving these potential superstars a chance to blossom is important! I am always interested more in movies when i have never heard of the cast because i have no preconceived notions of what their performance will be like.
It seems like the majority of people who were interviewed either liked what they were getting. Wanted more amenities to come with their ticket (i.e. dinner, drinks). Or they wanted discounts or deals. Basically these things boil down to money people don't want to pay as much or if they do they want everything to be perfect and to get more bang for their buck. I think this is fairly understandable given the price of tickets. There were some outliers one person wanted less stars and more actors which I found very positive and two people wanted dance pieces. People also wanted to stray away from musicals and do more serious theater, so I guess that what people want is to get a lot for their money and to see a show that is both moving but also entertaining. That seems pretty logical to me!
This survey actually has some really good ideas. More matinees would be great addition I think. I know every time my family goes to New York we try to fit in as many shows as possible and my parents are just so exhausted by the end of the day they sometimes fall asleep at the later shows. It's not the shows fault they usually love it! but it's just so late they can't stay up any longer. And personally for me I would love it if people started dressing up again for shows. I miss the days when going to a show meant being able to wear my favorite nice dress and pearls and of course seeing a good show!
I find it pretty interesting that almost all of the answers from this poll were about physical elements. More leg room, smaller theatre, better parking, food, drinks, etc. There was one vote for more original stories, and one for more dancing. But besides those two, there were no votes on improving the quality of the show itself, only the environment around it. I would like to hear more fully thought out suggestions on what patrons actually think about the art itself, rather than the flourishes that accompany it.
This survey has to be taken with a grain of salt, since it likely is only actually catching a very defined audience, the NYC tourist crowd. Of course they are going to want the spectacle of their show to be bigger, things more comfortable, and free stuff. They are on vacation after all. As anybody who has ever tried to walk through Times Square on a Friday night knows, it isn't exactly like being on a cruise ship. When is of note is how people evaded the question of cheaper tickets by focusing on the TKTS booth. People seem to want to find ways to decrease wait times, if not even eliminating the waiting at all be offering advanced sales. This shows a fundamental misunderstanding of the intent of the service. TKTS does have an iPhone app that allows you to check currently available shows, wait times, ticket prices, etc. at any time of the day. If you check it a few days out of when you're looking to buy tickets, you can get a pretty good idea of what your options will be. I agree Broadway ticket prices have gone through the roof, but if you want to catch a discount, you're probably going to have to give up something in return. Your time and a bit of comfort seems fair.
I feel like this survey is preaching to the choir a bit. I don't want to seem disingenuous but
shouldn't we be asking the people who don't “love” the theater what they would change? or at least people that are not so involved that they are reading a producers blog. That would most likely get rid of a lot of the don't change anythings. Past that this list reminds me a lot of the post about orchestra attendance and how to improve it. I would be curious if the same solutions would work in both situations.
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