Backstage: New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo has approved extending the Empire State Musical and Theatrical Production Tax Credit program for four more years, according to Forbes. The tax credit demonstrates that New York loves not only its Broadway shows but also its Broadway tours.
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This article is so interesting. When a new show goes out on tour, there are a lot of factors that come into play. One of the big things is the cost of teching the show. When a new show goes on tour the producers have to pick the city that will be the cheapest to tech. With this tax credit more producers will tech the shows in New York. This will have huge impacts on towns in New York. One example of this is “The Lion King” relaunch in Syracuse brought in 53,000 audience members and set a record as the highest-grossing theater event in the city’s history.” The fact that a touring show had that many audience members in one city is crazy. The economic growth of Syracuse must have been crazy during the weeks it was there. This tax break is a huge deal for shows and the cities the show will tech in
It’s a good thing the Governor kept the tax credit for touring productions. New York is the home of Broadway and it should be the home of Broadway touring as well. Tours that set-up, tech, open and run in the state often have 3-4 weeks in their starting theatre. Not only does this bring in money to the local economy but it also gives these theatres that house these tour starts some much needed recognition. NY state is home to some of the most beautiful theatres in the country and without these tours coming through, most of these palaces would soon become obsolete, run down, and eventually torn down. It also provides another valuable aspect for a tour, that is the challenges of loading into and out of a place that is very old and contains some very delicate plaster work. While it would be thought of as a traditional space, many of these places contain areas that were not designed for rigging. In Rochester, NY at the Auditorium theatre, the rigging points over the orchestra pit are difficult to get to. You have to enter the ceiling and walk on a very narrow board to the pick point. One slip or wrong move and you’ll go right through the lattice work and into the pit below. I wish more tours would start in upstate NY, especially Buffalo and Rochester.
As the 2016 election and Brexit highlighted, there are significant cultural divides between cosmopolitan cities and declining industrial towns. New York state suffers from this divide within its own state boundaries. New York city has few equals in the world, let alone the country, so the upper part of the state often seems neglected at the expense of New York City. This additionally creates a cultural divide where much of the state feels that it is second fiddle and distant from New York City. As such, initiatives such as this that are aimed at bridging that cultural divide by bringing attractions from within the state to the people upstate is a great way to do so. Additionally this seems to provide economic benefits since the theaters that hosted the Lion King in Syracuse saw historic ticket sales. Hopefully more cities in New York state will try and bring broadway shows to their cities so that their citizens will get to experience the shows. Initiatives like this are a great way to bring culture and the arts to communities that are not exposed to it as often as others.
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