Before becoming co-producers of the 2017 Tony Award winning Broadway musical revival of Once on This Island, my husband Jesse and I didn’t know much about Broadway other than we loved musical theater. But here are ten things I learned on our co-producing journey.
- You don’t need to have any experience in the theater world to be an investor or co-producer of a Broadway show. You do need a decent sized chunk of money that you’re okay losing (we thought of it more as a donation to the arts) and some contacts or networking skills. When we heard that Once on This Island (OOTI) was going to be heading back to Broadway we knew nothing about the business of Broadway, but my husband was intrigued with the idea that maybe we could somehow be a part of it. On a whim, he emailed the lead producer Ken Davenport. After going back and forth on our decision to take a leap and finally arriving at a solid “yes”, we signed some papers, wired some money, and we were co-producers!
- Most Broadway shows do not recoup their investment. If you are thinking of investing in a Broadway show as a get rich quick option, you’d better look somewhere else (though I’m pretty sure those don’t actually exist so just work on something you love). Only 1 in 5 Broadway shows make back their initial investment–and this statistic was in the pre-Covid world! There are so many expenses involved in the daily running of a show, from renting the theater itself, to paying the cast, musicians, and all of the crew, paying the theater staff to man the box office and take the tickets, and so much more and the only money that actually comes in after the show opens is from the audience. That means most of the money you “invest” in any show will not come back at all let alone make a profit. There are some lucky ones like Wicked or Hamilton that have made their investors big money, but that is kind of like winning the MegaMillions lottery.
- Attendance matters. The only way a Broadway show has a long life is through theater lovers buying the tickets. Everything depends on ticket sales. Broadway is a business and they have to bring in more money each month than they are paying out to keep running. Which means if you love a show and want to see it on Broadway, Go see it! Don’t wait, because it might not be there next year. And if you love the show see it again and talk about it on all your social media to get your friends to see it! Even a great show that everyone loves can’t continue if those 500-1,933 seats (depending on the theater) aren’t filled eight shows a week for the whole year! That’s a lot of people! So bottom line is, if you want a show to keep running, support it. Go see it as many times as you can, you’ll get something new out of every time you see it! It’s amazing what you notice a second time or a third. After seeing Once on This Island over 25 times it was incredible to me how little things were different in each performance or how we noticed new details, like one night we saw when little TiMoune magically switched costumes. Of course the show was technically the same each night, but depending on several factors like the crowd’s energy, whether the show was just nominated for 8 Tony Awards, whether the actor was singing through a cold, etc they put different flourishes on different notes. One night in Hamilton, when Lin-Manuel Miranda was still in the cast, he mixed up two lines of a song and sang them out of order, if we hadn’t seen it a couple of times we may have missed it but it was a charming moment that I will always treasure.
- The experience of investing in a Broadway musical is worth considerably more than the money put in. Even though we didn’t make any money investing in Once on This Island, what we got in return was so much more valuable than money. First of all, sitting in the theater watching an incredible cast perform our favorite show, knowing that we were a small part in bringing it to Broadway brought tears of joy to my eyes. Then there were all the fancy parties to attend which were lots of fun, but the most rewarding part of the whole journey was that we met so many amazing people, some of whom we have become very close friends with. More than anything these relationships have enriched our lives.
- Revivals typically don’t last as long as original musicals. I don’t think if I had known this before investing in Once on This Island it would have swayed our decision to become co-producers at all, but it would have made the closing announcement less of a shock to me. Going in, I thought OOTI could last 10 years, I mean how could it not? It was one of the most beautifully powerful shows on Broadway and the story deals with important topics like classicism, colorism, and the power of love. And the cast was an incredibly talented group of people which included super star Lea Salonga! But the original Once on This Island which opened on Broadway in October of 1990 only ran for 469 performances (Playbill.com). The 2017 revival lasted 458 performances (Playbill.com), only eleven fewer than the original which is actually considered a very successful run. Sadly, the truth is that there simply isn’t the demand for enough people to fill the theater each night for a musical revival like OOTI that isn’t as well known. Even the 2018 revival of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Carousel only lasted six months with 181 performances (Broadway.com) despite it getting rave reviews and being one of OOTI’s main rivals at the Tony Awards that year. Read this interesting article in Playbill.com for some interesting history of revivals that did outlast their originals.
- STAR power sells tickets. There is no doubt about it when Hugh Jackman is in a Broadway show people will buy tickets just to see him. I didn’t realize though how much of a difference it makes in how long a show can run on Broadway and I also didn’t think about the fact that for every big name star a show is bringing in they are also paying a huge premium to have that star. For OOTI, we saw ticket sales drop as soon as Lea Salonga left. She was amazing as Erzulie, but so was the incredible actor that took over afterward. In fact when Darlesia Cearcy moved into the role of Erzulie, she was phenomenal and was recognized in an article in BroadwayBox.com about replacement stars who stunned with their performances. In my opinion, people should have flocked to the box office to see her as well.
- Reviews and buzz matter. Press reviews come out on Opening Night. The reviews are written prior to the actual Opening performance but after the show is “frozen”-when no more changes can be made. The Opening Night performance finishes and producers, cast members, and investors head to the Opening party to toast “Happy Opening.” Then the reviews start coming in. A good review can help propel a show to the top of Broadway buzz and bring it much needed attention from the masses, a bad review can break a show. Luckily for us, OOTI received wonderful reviews. The New York Times wrote “Revived and Ravishing!”
- The Tony Awards are an incredible experience. Before we were co-producers of OOTI I hadn’t really thought about the Tony Awards and I certainly never thought I would go to one! As part of our OOTI journey we were invited to celebrate our favorite show at the crown jewel of Broadway, the Tony Awards at Radio City Music Hall surrounded by Broadway’s A-listers. To see the cast of OOTI perform on the Tonys stage and receive thunderous applause was one of our favorite moments of the whole year. Then as Christine Baranksi announced Once on This Island as the winner of the Tony Award for Best Revival of a Musical, our entire section erupted as if we’d won the Super Bowl. I stood cheering, clapping, and crying as my husband and son ran to the stage with the rest of the OOTI producers to accept the Tony Award. In those few seconds we became Tony Award winners too. It was a night that even in our wildest dreams we could never have dreamed.
- How long it takes to get a new show to Broadway. Most Broadway shows begin their lives several years or even decades before they open in a Broadway theater. There are so many steps in the production. First the book needs to be written along with all of the lyrics and music. Then it goes through several stages of development workshops where actors will run through parts or all of the musical in front of a limited audience of potential producers. Changes are made and they do it again, until it attracts enough producers who want to put money in and believe that it deserves a chance to be staged. Often, shows will do at least one out of town production as a higher level work-in-progress where they can test how audiences react to it, usually at developmental theaters which help fund part of the production costs. More revisions occur and sometimes the producers decide to do another out of town trial or maybe it finds a home in an off-Broadway theater. All of these productions take time and money. Finally, if the stars align and a theater is open and willing to take on the show, it can finally have its birth on Broadway. Hadestown, one of the newer shows on Broadway right now, had a 13-year journey in order to get to the Walter Kerr Theater. (Playbill.com)
- Closing Night is one of the most beautiful performances of a Broadway run. Opening Nights are amazing with so much excitement and energy for the beginning of a show. Special performances at the Tony Awards, Good Morning America, or the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade also seem to have a bit of secret sauce added that kicks up the intensity. But my favorite, even though it is heart wrenching, is the closing performance. The last show the cast will ever perform together on Broadway is maybe more special because of the fact that it is the final one. It is a fleeting moment that must be treasured. Most of the people in the audience on closing night are the fans who love it the most who come to pay their respects to a life that is about to end too soon. No matter how long a show runs, if it truly speaks to you like Once on this Island did for us, the end is always too soon. There is so much love for the show and the cast that standing ovations are given throughout the performance. On OOTI’s closing night, I felt that the incredibly talented cast was finally getting the appreciation that they deserved every single night of the run. At the end everyone was in tears and no one wanted to leave the theater. I will never forget that night.
If you want to learn more about our journey as co-producers of the revival of Once on This Island on Broadway, read One Year on Broadway available to order on Amazon or at most other book retailers.
