While the movie industry claimed it was in a slump (not factoring in mega DVD sales) and the music industry was hurting, Broadway had its best year on record in 2005, raking in more than $825 million in ticket sales, a whopping 10% over the previous year. In fact, according to Broadway.com, the week ending Jan. 1 was the best ever in the history of the Great White Way, with $25.2 million in gross sales and an average capacity of 93.9%. No wonder Hollywood brought out big-screen adaptations of Rent and The Producers (which, ironically, was a movie in the first place). News of increased revenues is commonplace for at least one sector of the entertainment industry each year, but what makes these figures remarkable is how shaky the fate of Broadway was following the 9/11 attacks. Attendance was way down, and an entourage of stars performed in Times Square before a live television audience to promote the latest shows to lure people back into theatres. Given the high price of shows, it was actually a great time to go to the theatre because it was more affordable for the average person. One could simply purchase nosebleed seats at a cheaper price, and then descend during the show into the empty seats down below. But now the tide has turned, and not only are musicals and plays doing well again, with robust attendance figures, but national tours of Wicked, The Producers and Chicago are out in full force.
Another Broadway milestone was achieved on Jan. 6 when the 7,486th performance of Phantom of the Opera took place at the Majestic. Funnily enough, it was an Andrew Lloyd Webber staple that actually outstripped his own beloved Cats to become the longest running show in Broadway history. According to Playbill.com, since its Jan. 26, 1988 debut, Phantom of the Opera has grossed almost $600 million, which also makes it the highest-grossing show in Broadway history, with 11 million seats sold. BBC News online also reported that Phantom is "the most successful entertainment venture of all time, with worldwide box office takings of more than $3.2 billion," with 65,000 performances staged in 119 cities throughout 24 countries. Who says live theatre is passé?
Naturally, the fact that business is booming on Broadway is not only great news for theatre owners and stars, but also for the sound designers, live engineers and other crew members that work hard on these shows. It certainly provides plenty of consistent employment! Many of the blockbuster shows out there have certainly been experiencing nice runs. Beauty and the Beast has notched more than 4,800 performances, Rent broke 4,000, Chicago has racked up over 3,800, while The Lion King has nearly surpassed 3,500. Thanks to strong word-of-mouth and audience appeal, Wicked, Spamalot and The Lion King shatter the $1 million ceiling every week.
The general public usually looks first to huge productions with large ensemble casts, scores of lights and a kickass sound system, and shows like Wicked and Spamalot certainly have a lot to offer visually and aurally, and they are as much a challenge for a sound designer to create as for a live engineer to execute. Just chatting with Scott Sanders about working the desk on Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, with its 120 channels of sound, made me wonder if he is not some Broadway reincarnation of the eight-armed Indian deity Vishnu. (I figure he just hides his extra limbs until the lights go down.) Like many live engineers on Broadway these days, Sanders works a Cadac console, which seems to be becoming the unofficial desk for the Great White Way.
Two recent Broadway musicals with healthy production values that caught my ears were Jersey Boys, the real-life story of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons, and Sweeney Todd, an arty revival of the Stephen Sondheim show about the "Demon Barber of Fleet Street." Both were impressive for different reasons. The central cast of Jersey Boys actually sang the famous Four Seasons songs and won over the crowd, particularly the efforts of newcomer John Lloyd Young as Valli. Meanwhile, the 10-member cast of Sweeney Todd all acted, sang and juggled multiple instruments. That must have been a real pain to mix. Both shows have inspired original cast recordings. (Look for coverage of both in this column soon.)
Having an overabundance of audio inputs, however, is not always the secret to sonic flair. This past year, the limited engagement of the dark, small ensemble The Pillowman proved to be a treat, with sparse, microphone-free sound design punctuated by powerful sound effects and a couple of intense montages. Some members of the audience might have felt like it was work to actually focus on the show and simply shut up, but that was certainly a welcome concept for those of us who like to watch and listen.
Off-Broadway has also been a thriving Mecca for talent, as evidenced by the shows covered in this column, including the trippy children's horror show of Shockheaded Peter, the kooky solo antics of the One Man Star Wars Trilogy and the percussive punch of Stomp. As has been said already, one does not need an arsenal of mics and amps to create engaging sound design. Of course, OMSWT had literally one mic and two speakers in its off-Broadway run near Times Square. And it was pretty funny.
There may be some people complaining that the Great White Way is littered with Disney tie-ins, movie knock-offs (Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, The Producers, Hairspray) and jukebox musicals using pop songs to tell unrelated stories (Mamma Mia!, Movin' Out), but there are plenty of original productions going strong, including Doubt, Avenue Q and The Light In The Piazza, a Lincoln Center production which won six Tony Awards. Then there were original solo shows performed by Billy Crystal (700 Sundays), Whoopi Goldberg (Whoopi) and Mario Cantone (Laugh Whore). But many of the shows inspired by other material have their merits, and overall, the diversity of shows on and off Broadway has been quite heartening.
Now if only the Tony Awards would get off their keisters and finally create a category for Best Sound Design. It was nice when Sara Ramirez personally thanked Spamalot's live engineer Bones Malone when she received her Tony Award last year for Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Musical. And many soundmen have said that they do their job best when no one notices their work. But the fact remains that it takes a lot of effort to be sonically invisible. So how about a little recognition, folks?
