NYTimes.com: When Howard Panter saw the budget for the 2005 Broadway transfer of “Sweeney Todd,” which he had produced a year earlier here in the West End, one line item surprised him — $50,000 for the pots and pans that would adorn the minimalist set. He told his producing partners in New York that he and John Doyle, the show’s director and designer, would go to a little junk shop down in the seaside port town of Hastings and get everything for just 500 pounds (or about $900 at the time).
4 comments:
If you have a fat budge for a theater production, I say be grateful and use it because you have it. On the other hand, the environmentalist in me says it is always good to try and use your resources and save however you can in order to lessen manufacturing and such. Its great to have a budget and I think as an actress and a person I will use budget where I need it and try and make, reuse, or recycle things where I can.
This article is particularly interesting because it continues to raise questions on the issue between Broadway and London. Howard Panter reminds me of Cameron Mackintosh in some ways. He had successful shows in Britain and wanted to come to America but was surprised by the staggering costs just like Mackintosh. Both men found a way to reinvent the theatre wheel and produce successful shows. I hope that Panter has the same amount of luck that Mackintosh had. One interesting thing about Panter is that he owns the theatre house that his show will be performing in. I'm interested to see if that alters his success or failure as a producer on Broadway.
Personally, I think he looks like a cross between David Holcomb and Bono from the right angle. Personally, Id never heard of him, but I am glad that I have now. To make a comparison, he would be the big business of theater, and I can see how he could quickly have quarrels with longstanding labor unions, however I hope not. While Big Business is usually synonymous with corporate greed and company-serving interests, if the ATG really is audience focused, I think it could be a really good thing. Many shows being backed by the same company could give the struggling ones a little slop room with the profits of the successful ones, or it could possibly support other struggling art, which would be admirable.
There were two quotes from Mr. Panter that really jumped out at me in this article.
“And also, the Lyric is wonderful. It’s a world-class stage, and most stages on Broadway arguably are not world class — rather shallow, no real depth.”
This is something I'm constantly reminded of when looking at Broadway theatres. The houses and the backstage areas are extremely tiny. It makes shows very difficult to do and that I think is one of the reasons behind shows being so expensive. In order to have all the fancy stage things happen in these theatres you must find creative (and often expensive) solutions to make it fit in backstage footprints that are designed for a much smaller size show. So you should be prudent in what you are spending, but know the limitations of your space and if you have to exceed these limitations then you have to be prepared to spend the money.
“You can’t be the biggest,” he said, “and not have people throwing things at you.”
This was the other quote from Mr. Panter that I think people need to be reminded of. This is an industry which makes broad generalizations and opinions on people's work that vary all over the place. You can't please everyone so you have to make sure that you are happy with the product that you are putting out there. I think lots of people tend to take criticism to hard and it doesn't do them a lot of good. Take the criticism and learn from it is what is important. But realize that if you are going to move forward and up in your career it will be hard to avoid having things thrown at you. So be prepared and have a thick skin.
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