In 2004, for the first time in 35 years, Boston Ballet will have to find a venue other than the Wang for their Nutcracker.

Quote from today's Globe:



Yet another salvo fired in the ongoing struggle between supporting the arts and having a profitable business...

Oh, fendrock, this is really sad news...and hard to believe!?! What could they be thinking by importing Radio City Music Hall's "extravaganza"? Ugh. It's embarrassing.

Is there no recourse? :angry:

According to the article, Boston Ballet gets a discount rate when using the Wang.

So the Wang will make more money by having a more commercial venture in the house.

I'm pretty sure there is no recourse (legally, anyway), and I wonder if this means they will end up with the show outside of Boston??? (Lowell or Foxborough have big auditoriums.)

Parking is horrible for the Wang, which is right in the middle of Boston, so maybe a more accessible (read: suburban) venue would actually have some people attending who wouldn't otherwise.

Problem with suburban venues is they're very hard to get to for people who live on the OTHER side of Boston.

In the world of my dreams, the Boston area has a performing arts center that is easily accessible by car and by public transportation, has ample well designed parking (no 45 minute waits to escape after a performance), several theaters of varying sizes to accommodate various performances and with good sight lines from all the seats, and access to eateries of varying types and price ranges. All with good food and attuned to the need for patrons to make curtain times. Did I leave anything out? Oh yes, a commitment to the organizations that perform there! In the real world, I expect Boston Ballet will find another venue and cope with the impact.

Ironic that this came out in the paper on national Take Back Your Time Day, geared to thinking less about the bottom line and more about quality of life.

In case you'd like to express an opinion, The Boston Channel (ch. 5) is doing a poll: What holiday show would you rather see at the Wang Center?

Follow this link to vote in the poll

So far, it looks like 77% would rather see Nutcracker...hopefully that'll continue.

bbfan--What you are describing is the Kennedy Center here in Washington.
(I am not completely sure about the parking since I usually just park on the street.)

Where one would put such a place in Boston, though, is a tough question.
Maybe on the site in Somerville (?) where they were talking about an IKEA?

I always found the parking at the KC very convenient and relatively inexpensive, though the price has gone up lately.

Something like Kennedy Center or Lincoln Center would be nice... finding a good space for in could be a challenge. There is an area near the waterfront but that would be expensive and not so easy to get to, even after the Big Dig is done. Somerville could be an interesting choice... I'm leading us off topic though.

The Nutcracker/Radio City Musical Hall problem is going to koeep cropping up, I think. The entertainment industry has discovered there's a Holiday Market and are programming "family friendly" entertainments during the Christmas season. I've heard/read reports ini several cities where an ice show, or Cirque du Soleil, or the Rockettes, or a Christmas play with big name stars has come in and really cut into Nutcracker ticket sales.

Mikko should have a conversation with Raymond Lukens about Miss Saigon and Hartford Ballet at the Bushnell.... or perhaps he doesn't consider Hartford a city.

The film industry has understood this for years -- since I've had a child I've been very aware of the upcoming "holiday films," which open just before Thanksgiving to take full advantage of the possibilties.

I read in the paper today that Mayor Menino has suggested the Hynes Convention Center as an alternative.

Apparently the Nutcracker was held here one season in the past (maybe 1982?), when what is now the Wang needed roof repairs.

We went to the Nutcracker the year it was in the Hynes. It was a relatively last-minute situation, the then-Metropolitan had roof trouble and there was a need to relocate while it was repaired. I don't remember how much in advance of the season that happened; it might even have been after the fall season had started. At the time, the Hynes space was quite sterile, and I recall feeling that it detracted from the performance. However, the Hynes has been refurbished since then, and with sufficient lead time it could be that the space would be more charming. We sat in a balconey area with good sightlines; I don't know what the floor seats were like and don't remember how the orchestra was accommodated.

I think the Hynes location - in Copley Square area - would be a good location for an arts center. Lots of parking around, very good access via public transportation, restaurants etc. The things I mentioned elsewhere I'd like to have.

Another location that has been mentioned for possible Nutcracker is a new theater in the new convention center on the waterfront. The building isn't finished so have no idea what that would be like. The location feels like 'can't get there from here' because of the road construction, one would hope that would improve....

I guess we'll hear in a few weeks. Meanwhile, we can look forward to Nutcracker this year in the Wang.

Read today somewhere (Herald? Globe? Phoenix? Can't remember and lost the paper) that Wang is rumored to be contemplating a multi-year contract for the Rockettes.
Looking at that poll (the Nutcracker leading now at 84%) who's going to go see it the first year, much less years to come? Everybody seems to be insanely polite about this, but I seem to be missing something here, is this not the most widely attended Nutcracker in the world or something ridiculous like that?

Okay, I found it, it's in this week's Phoenix (maybe somebody smarter than I am can get the link) Jeffrey Gantz giving all the pertinent information. He ends,
"Boston has never done anything to deserve a ballet company this big or this good, but we got it anyway. Now, if action isn't taken, we may lose it. The international arts world will be waiting to see whether Boston lets the world's most popular Nutcracker go homeless, and whether it lets one of America's finest ballet compalies go unsupported. We already lost game seven to the Yankees. Our biggest and best daily newspaper is owned by the New York Times. Do we have to trash Boston Ballet so we can watch the Rockettes?"

The Rockettes have put on shows in many cities. Both they and the Wang Center probably know what they're doing. Web polls are not a very accurate indicator of Rockette ticket sales. By virtue of its nature, the Web poll is going to attract mainly people who have a distinct interest in the article it accompanies --- namely, those who would rather not see the change.



Yes it is --- but it has also been shrinking for many years. Any rational business model must either take this into account or figure out a way to reverse the decline. One must question the artistic value of being the biggest or of having the most tons of confetti for snow.

Boston Ballet is big enough, it could put on multiple Nutcrackers in smaller auditoriums --- just like it now has multiple schools. It could do a smaller downtown Nutcracker, then one on the South Shore, one in MetroWest and one on the North Shore. That might help boost ticket sales by making it more accessible to the communities that support it. Depending on how it is done, it could also reduce production costs --- not to mention the possibility of employing more dancers in an age where there are thousands of great dancers with no work prowling the streets.

Umm, how would that keep down costs? Touring is EXPENSIVE. Even if you are just touring around the block.

I agree. Movable productions are not necessarily less expensive. The company is not that big....and it seems as if more wear and tear on the dancers is the only thing that would result. I don't see why or how they could hire more.

I agree that it is a sad thing not to have Nut at the Wang, as the Hynes Convention Center would seem more the venue for the Radio City Christmas show. The Wang is a beautiful, beautiful theatre and much of the magic of Nutcracker can only be enhanced by the exquisite setting for the production.

Let's hope that a solution will prove viable and not too costly for the company, as well as the audience which supports it.

I'm not talking about touring. I'm talking about mouting multiple small stay-in-one-place productions rather than one that's the biggest in the country. There are surprisingly few economies of scale in ballet, and it could easily turn out that this is at least as profitable a route to take as the current one.

A must-read article from today's Links gives the hard business facts of the Boston theatre space situation...not suprisingly, Big Business is the root of the mess, with Clear Channel assuming the role of Walmart ...


http://theedge.bostonherald.com/artsNews/e...g?articleid=336

A Boston Boy,
Watermill

Oh, don't get me started on Clear Chaneel. Their particular style of hardball used to be called illegal in this country.

citibob, do you mean seveal smaller productions of Nut running all at the same time? I don't think that would work if you only have on set of scenery and/or costumes, as I suspect BB has.

Yes, that's what I mean. Clearly it would require some re-tooling. The suggestion comes from the observation that whereas BB's business model of the 100,000+ Nutcracker is in danger, plenty of ballet companies do just fine financially on smaller productions. That combined with the fact that BB is many times the size of those companies means that it too could play the mid-size Nutcracker game as successfully as anyone else if it wanted to.

They may do fine, Citibob, but you still have the problem of only a certain number of dancers. You wouldn't really be able to take circa 50 dancers total and do more than one Nutcracker anywhere unless what you wanted to do was a student Nutcracker, and there are already too many of those in that market. Any Nutcracker purporting to be on a professional level but using, say, 25 dancers, would look rather spare and would probably require using a fair number of those dancers in many roles, which would be very difficult on them and risk increasing injury rates. The company is AGMA, and that may be a point of argument for those who think that the union's rules are restrictive on this, but my bet is that AGMA might have something to say about conditions, overwork, etc.

The Wang isn't the largest such venue at less than 4,000 seats. Ruth Page's Nutcracker (and they didn't have a company as such for many years that they did it) performed in the cavernous Arie Crown Theater at McCormick Place on the south side of Chicago, and I seem to recall that it had approximately 4500 seats (and a 90 foot proscenium!). Anything built for a place that large doesn't travel well as few theatres have the equipment to house a production like that. Maybe what it comes down to is that the ticket prices for a travelling road show like the Rockettes Radio City Music Hall thing are potentially higher and a big business entertainment conglomerate just has more guarantees to offer.

My particular feeling also is that it is fine to do a few weeks of a great big Nutcracker just about anywhere, but that some companies (and this may include Boston Ballet) fall for the idea that more is always better, add more and more performances per year when it isn't necessary, fail to recognize the potential saturation point and set themselves up for failure that way. It isn't any kind of admission of failure, though. for a company like ABT to do some seasons at the Met and others at City Center, so Boston Ballet shouldn't be looked down upon for doing some performances at the Wang and some elsewhere (not that you are necessarily doing so, but I have heard it mentioned as though it were a shortcoming somehow).

The theater availability situation seems to have reached crush depth. When I was working in town on a museum project, I wanted to check out the old Tremont Street Theater, and found that it had been converted into a Baptist Church. Well, at least the place came with a pipe organ! Boston used to have lots of theaters - not barns like the Wang, but of respectable size, and centrally located. Robert Joffrey used to say that it was better to sell out a smaller theater than have the show at a bigger place. The trick was to know when you can sell out the bigger place!

It always feels wonderful to have the professionality of one's company publicly questioned by someone who does not know it. Our Nutcracker has 20-25 dancers. It is often described as "intimate" by the press, but rarely "spare". We also have one of the lowest injury rates in the industry. Maybe it would look sparse on the Wang stage, but we've never put it up there. The fact is, a performance on a smaller stage in a smaller auditorium doesn't require as many dancers to fill it up.

In any case, hiring more dancers would not be a problem for Boston Ballet. As was pointed out earlier, they only hired 2% of the dancers who came to audition. They could easily hire another 2% for Nutcracker if they wanted to, just like Radio City hires its dancers for the Christmas season. Good dancers are easy to come by. Since dancer salaries are only a tiny fraction of a production's budget, hiring more dancers for the same number of ticket sales wouldn't necessarily blow the budget. (The scenery costs an ENORMOUS amount, and many of these costs are recurring. In past years, advertising has tried to wow us by telling us how many tons of confetti were used for the snow scene --- and then not recycled. I wonder how much that costs...)

I wasn't saying that the Wang Center is the largest auditorium in the country, although it is certainly one of the bigger ones. I WAS saying that BB's Nutcracker is the largest Nutcracker in terms of TICKET SALES.



I have a hard time believing that the ticket price for the Rockettes will be any higher than for Boston Ballet's Nutcracker. Nutcracker tickets already run about $90 for good seats, even $36 for lousy seats. That is more than NYCB, more than ABT, more than any show I've ever seen on Broadway. Probably that's because there is less competition than in NYC. I just cannot imagine the market bearing anything more than $90 per ticket at this point.

More likely is that the Rockettes have reigned in production costs. They pay their dancers very well. But orchestra, sets, etc. are probably all on a MUCH smaller scale.



I agree entirely. However, that is not their problem with the Nutcracker --- they can still sell plenty of Nutcracker seats, probably enough to justify the Wang Center for them. However, what is the Wang Center to do the rest of the year with such a big theater?

In general, the entertainment and media industry seems to be moving toward more choices, each one in a smaller venue. Big screen cinemas have given way to multiplexes. ABC/CBS/NBC has given way to 250 Cable channels. And I really, really believe that the future of ballet (and live theater in general) lies in a larger number of smaller productions.

Along the lines of choice, here's an idea for those who like the Holiday show but are sick and tired of seeing the Nutcracker for the hundredth year in a row... BB could produce MORE THAN ONE Holiday show. One could be a scaled-back Nutcracker. The other could be something else with a Holiday theme. It could certainly backfire if done wrong, but it could also bring back customers who used to see the Nutcracker but got bored of it after a decade. And the real dance afficiandos would buy tickets to both...

We have a definite shortage of theater space in Boston. We need more small-to-midsize theaters, and we need them more in places like Cambridge. The articles seem to indicate that part of the problem is with the Wang Center itself --- that they have a hard time paying their own bills.

Mel, do you know the address of the Tremont Street Theater? It isn't Tremont Temple Baptist Church, is it? That was always a church... (but is now facing the same problem as the Wang Center, that of filling the seats). Look at it on the bright side, in Cambridge we converted a Baptist Church into a theater.

The Tremont was at the corner of Tremont and Avery. Sarah Bernhardt used to play the place. It was the place in Boston where D. W. Griffith's Birth of a Nation had its Boston debut. It used to be rented by the First Corps of Cadets for their annual "Cadet Show" which in Hasty Pudding tradition, had the female parts played by the men. Their headliner was often female impersonator (Julian) Eltinge.

Just to address one point, Bob:

This is what one of the websites for the Radio City show says about the show:

"It takes over 100 people just to stage the Christmas show, including the cast and crew which loads in the production weeks before the show opens. The total cast of 55 includes Rockettes, singers, dancers, and more. The Radio City Christmas Spectacular includes: "Christmas In New York," which features ice skating, dancing snowmen, a bigger than life New York skyline and a dazzling production number by the Rockettes. The Radio City Christmas Spectacular features an ice rink built on a movable platform. Used during the "Christmas In New York" scene, the rink is made from an artificial surface with the same properties as real ice. Six little people and four children are in the production. Each little person is under four and one-half feet in height, but have big roles as elves in the "Santa's Workshop" scene. Over 300 colorful costumes and 200 hats were specially created for the cast members of the Radio City Christmas Spectacular.
Nineteen playful teddy bears star in the production's tribute to Tchaikovsky's "The Nutcracker." Called " The Nutcracker: A Teddy Bear's Dream," this number features polar, panda, Arabian and baby doll bears in a variety of sizes. During the Christmas engagement, The Grand Palace houses a "zoo" of live animals that appear throughout the show, including the grand finale, "The Living Nativity." This menagerie of animals includes five sheep, three camels, two donkeys, one dog and one horse. Scenery and eight sets were hand-painted and assembled from coast to coast with some elements produced in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Portland and Washington D.C.. The Radio City Christmas Spectacular is produced by Silver Dollar City, Inc. and Radio City Productions, in partnership with the Syncor, Inc., owners of The Grand Palace."

And I have friends who have worked wardrobe on this show. It's absolutely enormous.

Whoa! I didn't question anyone's professionalism. And I do know your company. But I think I already said that productions of the size you're speaking of already exist to such an extent that I don't know if there would be a point in Boston Ballet attempting to duplicate that effort. I suspect it might end up being seen locally much as the attempt by Clear Channel Entertainment to obtain the Wang Center, and greatly resented.



Bob, if they had 1000 people come to a Boston audition and hired 2 percent of those, that would be 20 people. Not all of them would be local, so they would have to offer housing, possible per diem, and the like. In hiring another theater, there would be another work crew (even if some of them were theater personnel, there would have to be another stage manager, another set of stage hands, another set of wardrobe personnel). There would be a very big outlay for costumes alone, even for a smaller cast, and for sets, even for a smaller theater. And that's not taking into account the different unions involved. I don't know whether Boston Ballet would even be allowed to employ people for a smaller production without the union's okay.



Do you think so?



I've often thought that a good way to compare numbers would be to take the same number of performances of a run, even accounting for the differences in theater size, and compare them that way. If you program more performances than anyone else, then there's a good chance you'll have greater ticket sales than anyone else, so it always seemed like a strange thing to publicize.



Don't know about that. I thought I recalled that over a year ago there was some noise about the top ticket price on Broadway going up to 100 dollars. Top at Radio City for that show is 95.00 that I can see. The market in Boston, though, is not IMO going to bear anything higher than it's paying now for a long while. Not certain of the top price at NYCB or ABT.



Well there's always the umpty-umpth touring production of The Lion King, which seems to be making the rounds these days....

The Wang lost the Lion King to another Theater I believe



Boston Herald article on the politics of Theaters in Boston

Don't mean to add "fuel to the fire" here, but the highest price Nutcracker tickets are $77.00. They range in price fro $19 to $77. Also, I believe BB reduced the number of shows they are doing this year considerably.

No fire, mom, just pithy conversation!

I had heard Boston Ballet were reducing the numbers of shows, it had gone way past 50 last I knew, and I had always wondered when the law of diminishing returns would kick in. I checked the NYCB site and their ticket prices vary; weekdays I think the high price was 82 dollars, weekends I think it was 93. I also seem to remember that Chicago Tribune Charities had always tried to keep Nutcracker prices down, though now that I've checked the site, their tickets range from 15 to 90 dollars too, and they are doing it now at the Auditorium Theatre, which has 4300 seats. According to their web site, the Wang Center has 3600+ (their usage) seats.

Interesting to compare:
New York State Theater @ 2737 seats
Arie Crown Theater Chicago @ 4500 seats
Wang Center @ 3600 seats
Metropolitan Opera @ 3800 seats
War Memorial Opera House @ 3200 seats.

San Francisco Ballet's Nutcracker has a top price for what is called Center Box seats of 130.00, 96.00 for Grand Tier and 86.00 for Orchestra Center.

I'm wondering what, if anything, any of the local Boston Ballet fans have done to register their indignation with the Wang Center Board of Trustees over their decision to evict the Nutcracker? I've written a letter to the Board, which I am also sending to Mayor Menino's Office and to the Boston Globe and Herald. I've also been telephoning friends of mine on the Wang Center Board and registering my opinion. I know it's not going to do much more than give me an opportunity to vent, but it can't hurt to express an opinion. I was appalled to read in Sunday's Globe that the touring company of the Rockettes has caused a severe downturn in Nutcracker sales to regional ballet companies throughout the United States. In turn, the regional directors have downplayed the "high culture" aspect of the Nutcracker, which I think is a grave mistake.

One friend on mine on the Wang Board suggested that the Ballet should alternate years in Boston and go to Providence and Worcester in between times to build audiences. There has been a lot of talk about the expense of taking a production on the road, but does anyone have a clear sense of how much it actually would cost to take a large scale production such as Boston Ballet's Nutcracker on the road? I need to marshall my facts in order to respond!

Festival Ballet Providence already puts up the Nutcracker in Providence. Not only would they be likely displeased to see the Boston Ballet nextdoor, it's also unlikely that BB would find enough ticket sales in a small market like Providence to meet their needs --- Festival Ballet has only 5 performances of Nutcracker 2003.

I think any talk of taking BB's Nutcracker on the road --- or putting it up in a significantly smaller space --- would entail a different production.

Someone mentioned the new convention center... The Democratic National Convention will be held there next summer, so the convention center will be as done as it's going to get by then. Whether the building has suitable space for ballet or can be readily converted is another matter.

On the other hand, by the time Nutcracker season rolls around in 2004 we may all be so engrossed in the recount of the votes in the presidential election that no one will care about the Nut.

In term of touring costs, depending on the venue and the number of dancers and whether the orchestra is going, the cost to tour (even just to Worchester) would probably be at least $100,00-$250,000. That hardly seems worth it to a company that is struggling financially already.

Why doesn't Boston have a Licnoln Center/ Kennedy Center/ Place Des Artes (Montreal)?

There will be plenty of empty space after they take down all those cranes at the big dig.

A logical location would be next to the new convention center, there seems to be plenty of space there.

MJ

Why doesn't Boston have a Lincoln Center? Why doesn't San Francisco?

The simple answer is that no one thoguht it was important enough to build one. Or maybe that's the short answer, not the simple answer.

I'd guess that NYC and Mexico Citiy are the only North American cities big enough to support a Lincoln Center, with its many (at least 6 that I can think of) theatres and 12 resident companies.

Now, as to why more cities don't have an equivalent to DC's Kennedy Center or Houston's Wortham Center, I suspect that LMC's right; it's a lack of vision.

Or Denver Center in Denver or the Music Center in LA...

San Francisco has actually pulled itself together in the last 20 years and built a rather nice facility in the Yerba Buena Center, but the theater is small and parking is expensive. And it took them a long time to get the funding in place.

Speaking of BB doing their Nut in a convention center... may I say that I thought the Arie Crowne was a god awful space in which to see one's first ballet? What a cavern... how it dwarfed the energy of the dancers... spaces that big are perphaps better suited to Rockette type shows... or maybe marching bands would be even better...

Why doesn't Chicago have a Lincoln Center either? It was once a centralized city, wasn't it? In the 90s when I lived in Chicago, the Loop was pretty dead... everyone was in the suburbs and getting anywhere involved long boring drives... very annoying to a NYer. At least LSD had a view. But there wasn't even a decent restaurant scene to support the theaters in the loop... it was like Wall Street, mostly closed down after the business day ended... no one hung out at bars or sidewalk cafes after a performance, or promenaded down the avenue... just long traffic jams of cars.

Another good example.

At least in SF we don't have to worry about a lack of restaurants. We have more than our share in EVERY neighborhood. I read somewhere that it would take 7 years to eat at every restaurant in SF if you ate 3 meals a day out and then you would have to start over because there would be all these noew restaurants because turnover is so quick.

There was a meeting for parents regarding Nutcracker 2004 tonight at BBS:

there will be a Nutcracker next season--by February BB will announce where.

the Wang contract with the Rockettes is not yet signed (according to the BB)--so the Wang is still a possibility.

additionally the Rockette contract is for alternate years--so maybe the Nutcracker could be at the Wang every other year.

Mayor Menino is on board to keep the Nutcracker in Boston.

perhaps the Wang is not the best place for BB--is very expensive even with "discount" (some figures thrown around: Wang gets $3 per ticket in addition to rent--$25,000/week was mentioned-- and all concessions and BB pays for time it does not use)

This was directly from the ballet--but I am not a reporter so...
As far as the financial relationship between the Wang and the BB--that may be fairly standard, I do not know--perhaps the Wang is just too costly for the BB.

It certainly seems that way.

I'm sure someting will come together. Especially if they have the mayor on board.

I'm glad Mayor Menino is committed to helping the Nutcracker stay in Boston but I was disappointed to see an interview with him and a news reporter saying that we should be "honored" that a New York production such as the Rockettes should come to Boston. I don't think he would say that if the Yankees wanted to play their games at Fenway Park instead of the Red Sox.

I am wondering if I have missed something regarding the Wang and Nutcracker 2004. In a letter on Boston Ballet letterhead to the parents of Nutcracker children regarding Nutcracker pick up changes (made to lighten the conjestion caused by double parking etc) they state: "Help us keep the good will that we have been receiving as a result of the Wang's decision for next years Nutcracker going and please do not double park" Am I reading too much into this or does it appear that the BB has been granted a one year stay?

Moderators, if this is too speculative please delete.

I read this as "help keep us on the good side of the public approval fence. Let's minimize the inconvenience to others: don't double park. We don't want to give anyone ammunition for complaints."

Just my thought on it.

Just came on to say "false alarm"--probably would be better worded as PUBLIC SYMPATHY/good will (like the buyout of the private performance and the $3 million gift) as Wang seems to be in no position to be generous (according to article in Globe today).
Anyway fingers still crossed!

In today's Boston Globe, link in Todays Liniks section:



Over a half a million dollars. I would not exactly consider him a CEO of a major corporation.

Had no idea an administrator of a large performing arts center made that kind of money, given what many performing artists make such as ballet dancers and orchestra musicians.

I think he's overpaid too, but in all fairness, dancers and musicians aren't expected to go out and bring in millions of dollars personally.