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Opinion: The Collapse of the Theatre Season Subscription Model, Terry Teachout in the Wall Street Journal, April 26, 2013

Author, drama review and WSJ columnist Terry Teachout sees that because of financial pressures, regional theatre programming is collapsing toward the safe center:

Theatre's Expiring Subscription Mode

by Terry Teachout, April 26, 2013

Terry Teachout (image: Amazon.com)

[. . . .] [N]ot only are solo and small-cast plays increasingly taking the place of large-scale shows, but I've noticed in the past couple of years that many regional theaters are also opting for significantly less adventurous fare. More familiar comedies and recent Broadway hits, fewer challenging new shows and revivals of great plays of the past: That seems to be the direction in which American theater is moving.

But is it all about the recession? Not long ago I spoke to the artistic director of a well-regarded theater company somewhere in America that's feeling the pinch. No names: I'll call her Ms. X for the sake of convenience, though "she" may or may not be a woman. In addition to running the company, Ms. X is a stage director of high seriousness, one whose work I've praised in the past. Yet her company is inching away from the kind of programming that led me to start reviewing its shows in the first place. I didn't ask why—we were talking about something else—but Ms. X volunteered an explanation, and though I wasn't taking notes, this is more or less what she said to me:

"I'm in the ticket-selling business. If I don't sell tickets, we shut down. We used to do it by selling subscriptions. That gave us money up front, and it also made it easier for me to do serious work, because people were buying a five-show package, and they trusted me to give them a well-chosen, wide-ranging package each year. We'd do a comedy, a new play or two, a classical revival, maybe a couple of modern classics. August Wilson, Tennessee Williams, that kind of thing. Sometimes they didn't like all five. Maybe they never did. But they still went home feeling like they'd gotten a balanced diet, they'd done their duty to theater. And that used to matter to people. It really did. They thought that seeing good shows made you a better person.

"Then the subscription model fell apart, for a lot of reasons. Some subscribers got too busy, or too old, to commit in advance to five shows on specific dates. Some of them couldn't afford to buy all five in one pop anymore. And young people never have gotten in the habit of subscribing to anything. On demand, that's their motto. Anyway, it all added up to the same thing: We had to start selling individual shows instead of a package. When that happened, everything changed. Instead of trusting us to give them something good, people started playing it safe, and we had to play safe with them. We didn't have any choice. The last time I tried putting on a classical revival, our single-ticket sales dropped by nearly half. And we've had to start using name actors as often as we can. Doesn't matter what the show is: It's the star that sells, not the play.

"Look, I'm as serious as I ever was. And I don't waste money, either. I didn't pile up debt by building a big, fancy theater complex, which is what's gotten a whole lot of other regional companies in hot water. And I think we're still putting on good shows here—but more and more of them are middlebrow shows. Safe shows. And more than anything else, it's the collapse of the subscription model that's done it to us. It's as simple as that."

Is it? Or was the old-fashioned subscription model always a snare and a delusion, an easy-money honeypot that seduced growth-happy companies into losing sight of their artistic missions? While I'm sure that the answer varies from company to company, there seems little doubt that the model itself is going bust. According to the Theatre Communications Group, nationwide revenue from subscribers plunged 18% between 2007 and 2011.

What now? Modernize the subscription model? Or scrap it altogether and try something completely different? If I knew, I'd start a theater company. But I do know that if regional theater wants to save its soul, it'll have to find new ways to sell tickets. Otherwise, it's going to be "The Odd Couple" and "Clybourne Park" over and over again, forever.

—Mr. Teachout, the Journal's drama critic, writes "Sightings" every other Friday. He is the author of "Pops: A Life of Louis Armstrong." Write to him at tteachout@wsj.com.

Click to link to the article at the WSJ on-line

Opportunity: Discount of 20% on Lion King Tickets via TravelZoo Austin

$43 and up - 'The Lion King': Select Evening Shows, 20% Off





Disney's hit musical "The Lion King" -- called "a gorgeous, gasp-inducing spectacle" by Time magazine -- comes to Austin this winter. Travelzoo subscribers can secure tickets to weekday evening shows at Bass Concert Hall for 20% off, starting at $43.

[available until January 17, 2013]


Why we love this deal

• Tuesday-Thursday night performances are available Jan. 22 - Feb. 7 for $43-$59, regularly $54-$74

• The show features acclaimed songs including the Oscar-winning "Can You Feel the Love Tonight"

• This Broadway hit has won more than 70 major awards worldwide and rarely discounts tickets

City Theatre Announces 2012-2013 Season

City Theatre Austin announces its 2012-2013 season

 at 3823 Airport Rd, Austin (click for map)

Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean Jimmy Dean
by Ed Graczyk

October 2012

Vampire Lesbians of Sodom

by Charles Busch
October Late Night, 2012

Mrs. Bob Cratchit’s Wild Christmas Binge
by Christopher Durang December, 2012

Othello

by William Shakespeare
February, 2013

Moon Over Buffalo

by Ken Ludwig
March, 2013

Twelve Angry Men

by Reginald Rose
May, 2013

Much Ado About Nothing

by William Shakespeare
June, 2013

A Streetcar Named Desire

by Tennessee Williams

July, 2013

Grease

by Jim Jacobs and William Casey
August, 2013

All shows are pending with City Theatre scheduling and royal rights availability.

City Theatre 2012-2013 Season Tickets

Email or call us to purchase your 2012 - 2013 season tickets. 512 - 524 - 2870 or info@citytheatreaustin.org

For the low price of $175. Almost a $100 savings; pay for six shows and attend three more at no cost. It's less than $10 a show! Includes two general seating tickets to all of the CTC productions in the new season.

Do you want to have front row seats waiting for you? Our front row and second row reserved subscription is only $325 - a $125 savings.Offering a terrific savings on the 2012 - 2013 season ticket subscription.

Opportunity: Zach's Three-Show Groupon Deal

Published by Groupon on January 24. This offer for best-category tickets to Zach's Next to Normal, Dividing the Estate and Xanadu will remain posted through January 26:

Click panel above to go to the Groupon page; click here to view second panel with additional information at AustinLiveTheatre.com

Zach Theatre Offers Discount Tickets for Hairspray, until June 12

Found on-line:

Zach Theatre is "papering the house" for the opening of the musical Hairspray, via the on-line discount marketer www.LivingSocial.com.

This deal is available through Sunday, June 12, according to the posting. Click on the image to go to the site.