THE NEW ROAD to BROADWAY by STEPHANIE PRUGH B.A
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
THE NEW ROAD TO BROADWAY By STEPHANIE PRUGH B.A., University of Colorado Denver, 2006 M.A., University of Colorado Boulder, 2014 A dissertation submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of the University of Colorado in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of Theatre and Dance 2017 This dissertation entitled: THE NEW ROAD TO BROADWAY written by Stephanie Prugh has been approved by the Department of Theatre and Dance Dr. Bud Coleman Dr. Oliver Gerland Kevin Rich, M.F.A. Timothy Orr, M.F.A. Douglas Langworthy, M.F.A. Ina Marlowe, M.F.A. Date________________ The final copy of this dissertation has been examined by the signatories, and we find that both the content and the form meet acceptable presentation standards of scholarly work in the above-mentioned discipline. IRB Protocol # 15-0128 iii Prugh, Stephanie (PhD, Theatre) THE NEW ROAD TO BROADWAY Dissertation directed by Professor Bud Coleman Since the 1980s, a number of plays and musicals have transferred to Broadway from a professional nonprofit theatre. This growing trend was highlighted by the fact that a significant number of the 2015 and 2016 Tony nominated productions originated at or were produced by a nonprofit theatre. These professional nonprofit theatres, generally referred to as regional or resident theatres, are actively shaping the theatrical work that is appearing on the Great White Way. From 2000 - 2016, the Tony Award for Best New Musical has been awarded to nine productions that came from a non-profit theatre company; essentially the out-of-town tryout model that served as a popular method to work plays or musicals in the past has transformed into the regional/resident commercially enhanced model. These regional-to-Broadway transfers are gaining momentum with well over 100 Broadway productions having come from a regional in the past sixteen years alone. In the past, in order to get a show to Broadway, there were only four two ways: the road, transferring from London, transferring from an Off-Broadway theatre or opening directly on Broadway. Producers would take a Broadway hopeful show out of town, work out any kinks in the relative privacy of a town far enough away from New York that critics wouldn’t venture out to see it, then sail into New York with hopes of a successful run. This model, for the most part, has given way to the nonprofit/commercial relationship as a result of several mitigating factors including reduced funding from iv important sources such as the National Endowment for the Arts and the Ford Foundation and an increase in production costs. As the cost of producing musical’s continued to rise, the nonprofit began to play a vital role in the development of new works, raising the question of whether or not a nonprofit should receive financial compensation for their role in the development of work that eventually transferred to Broadway. By examining the effects of the nonprofit/commercial relationship through four different nonprofit companies – The American Repertory Theatre in Cambridge, Massachusetts, The La Jolla Playhouse in La Jolla, California, The Denver Center Theatre Company in Denver, Colorado and the Public Theater in New York City – we explore the various effects the commercial partnership has had on the nonprofit theatre – impacting the financial stability of an organization to increasing the organization’s presence on the national stage – the nonprofits’ have created a new road to Broadway. v To my grandmother— the woman who ignored boundaries, climbed mountains, and loved limitlessly. To my grandfather – the man who changed the world, and offered it to me. To my mother – the pure and limitless incarnation of love, patience, and encouragement. thank you. always. vi Acknowledgments. Countless thanks to Dr. Bud Coleman for sharing his passion, his time and his knowledge with me. You have challenged me, and made me a stronger scholar, artist, and person. Many thanks to all of the theatrical artists who participated in my research, I am forever indebted to you for sharing your brilliance. Dr. Oliver Gerland, many thanks for helping me grow on solid ground. And a special thank you to my dissertation committee, Douglas Langworthy, Kevin Rich, Timothy Orr, and Ina Marlowe. To Lindsay – for the hours, for the laughter… for the journey – I couldn’t have done this without you. Your kindness and your heart are everything a person could ask for, hope for, and need. Thank you friend. vii CONTENTS CHAPTERS I. THE OLD ROAD TO BROADWAY…………………………………………………………………..1 II. THE AMERICAN REPERTORY THEATRE ………………………………………………………. 31 III. THE LA JOLLA PLAYHOUSE …………………………………………………………………………. 56 IV. THE DENVER CENTER THEATRE COMPANY ……………………………………………….. 78 V. THE PUBLIC THEATER ………………………………………………………………………………… 97 VI. THE NEW ROAD TO BROADWAY ……………………………………………………………….. 121 VII. APPENDIX……………………………………………………………………………………………………140 BIBLIOGRAPHY ………………………………………………………………………………………….. 145 1 Chapter I: The Old Road to Broadway Once upon a time, professional theatre in America operated centrifugally: From the creative crucible of New York City, theatre spun out, via the touring circuit or the scattered outposts of resident stages, to the nation at large. Today that dynamic is precisely reversed. Theatre in America is centripetal: Its creative fires burn in hundreds of cities and communities, and that energy flows from the regions to New York City, where the commercial sector has grown dependent upon its sprawling not-for-profit counterpart for virtually every aspect of its well- being. Broadway is still the place where talents are validated and economic prospects escalated, but it is no longer the singular, or even the primary, front of the nation’s theatrical creativity. (O’Quinn, “Going National” 2005) In 1974, theatre professionals from both the nonprofit and commercial sectors met to discuss the state of the American theatre. What proceeded was an intense (sometimes violent) exchange of creatives who couldn’t seem to find a way to co-exist. As the nonprofit regional theatre movement had gained ground and financial support from government and private funding – such as the Ford Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts – they had moved further and further from their commercial counterparts who, at the time were struggling to keep Broadway afloat. The question at hand was whether or not a partnership between the nonprofit and commercial theatre could somehow be possible. The answer, mostly from the nonprofit sector, was no, absolutely not. In a few short years, however, the defiant regional theatre would change its mind, but it would take another twenty-six years before a meeting between the two was held again. Fast forward to 2017 and the nonprofit/commercial relationship is a vital part of keeping the American theatre alive financially and artistically. In the past thirty years over two hundred plays and musicals have transferred to Broadway from a professional nonprofit theatre. This growing trend was highlighted by the fact that a significant number of the 2015 and 2016 Tony nominated productions originated at or 2 were produced by a nonprofit theatre. These professional nonprofit theatres, generally referred to as regional or resident theatres, are actively shaping the theatrical work that is appearing on the Great White Way. In the past sixteen years, the Tony Award for Best New Musical has been awarded to nine productions that came from a non-profit theatre company; essentially the out- of-town tryout model that served as a popular method to work plays or musicals in the past has transformed into the regional/resident commercially enhanced model. These regional-to- Broadway transfers are gaining momentum with over 100 Broadway productions having come from a regional in the past seventeen years alone. As a reflection of the growing trend of regional-to-Broadway transfers, the 2015 Tony nominations revealed that three out of the four new musical nominees could trace their roots back to a regional company (“Behind (Almost) Every Tony Nominee: a Nonprofit Theatre”). This is also true of the 2016 Tony Awards, with three of the five new musicals nominated for the top prize originating at a nonprofit theatre. But even more impressive than the number of Tony Awards and nominations non-profits have gathered is the fact that over the past decade, almost every musical or play to win a Pulitzer Prize can trace their origins back to a nonprofit, examples include The Public Theater’s Hamilton: An American Musical, which won the award in 2016; the 2008 winner August: Osage County began at Chicago’s Steppenwolf Theatre Company, the 2004 winner I Am My Own Wife began as a Page-to-Stage production at the La Jolla Playhouse in California, and the 1996 winner Rent began its Broadway journey at the New York Theatre Workshop (Marks, “Arena Stage Bans Media”). It is safe to say that over the past thirty years, the regional and nonprofit theatre scene has exploded into a smorgasbord of innovative and exciting laboratories that are defining 3 nonprofit theatre as the place to see where American theatre is developing. As Robert Falls, Artistic Director of the Goodman Theatre in Chicago opined, “New York is a place to celebrate new work rather than originate or nurture it. That’s our [regional theatre’s] responsibility” (qtd. in Zoglin). The evidence of the nonprofit theatre companies’ role in the origination and nurturing of new works across the country has never been more robust, introducing the American public to such celebrated works as A Chorus Line, Jersey Boys and Fun Home. Before the birth of regional theatre, a producer had one of two ways to get a show onto Broadway: the out-of-town tryout and the direct on-Broadway opening. If you didn’t live in New York City, you had only two ways of seeing the latest hit Broadway show: via a New York-based tour or a summer stock company (O’Quinn, “Going National”).