When Chloe and I were in New York last month, we waited in line for a few hours to try and get student rush tickets to Venus in Fur at the Manhattan Theatre Club. We were shunned. The show (which closes tomorrow) has had an incredibly popular and successful run on Broadway for the past few weeks. It’s one of a series of shows on Broadway that are part of non-profit theatre companies making a splash on the Great White Way. The big thing about non-profit theatre is that it is subscriber based. Their seasons are pre-planned with each show having a confirmed open and close date. However, with theatre companies like Lincoln Center, the MTC, and the Public having such smash hits on their hands, they’re finding ways to extend the runs and continue rolling in the bank. Shows like War Horse, Anything Goes, and Venus in Fur are being extended long past what their subscribers has believed.
I don’t know how I feel about this. On the one hand, thank God I have another chance to go back to New York and see these shows. If they were to actually close when they were supposed to, I would miss them. On the other hand, what about the new shows that are supposed to be in those time brackets? Are they being pushed aside for profit? What if that show is the next big piece of theatre to change the world? Because of these decisions, respectable non-profits are looking like profit-making, Tony-seeking hit factories. But is that such a bad thing? I don’t know that it is. If they’re able to create this new and innovative work, and people are flocking to see it, that’s one small step for man and one giant leap for mankind.
This NYT article highlights the successes of these non-profits and illuminated me to my own thoughts on the subject. I think I can empathize most strongly with this subscriber:
“I can appreciate longer runs because it gives me a chance to see a play that might otherwise close after a six-week run, but I so worry about new plays that are getting crowded out,” said Kathy Flynn, who subscribes to both Manhattan Theater Club and the Public Theater. “I used to think that these nonprofit theaters were all about producing new plays. Now they seem to be in the hit business.”
I don’t want the new plays to be “crowded out”, but I want to be able to see the stuff that’s going on now. At the end of the day, it’s always about money. People don’t think they make enough and there’s not enough to go around. It’s just unfortunate that even the non-profits seem to be dragged into all this money-business now.
….doesn’t mean I still don’t want to see Venus when it’s back in February though…
