The musical is the most American of art forms. But is it killing the drama, the most universal of art forms?
Colorado theater audiences turned out for musicals in nearly five times the numbers they did for comedies or dramas, according to a Denver Post survey of the 99 Colorado theater companies that staged at least one production in 2004.
Seventy percent of the 1.7 million theatergoers attended a musical, compared with 15 percent each for comedies and dramas. That’s attributable mostly to the nearly 500,000 who attended the Denver Center Attractions’ Broadway touring musicals, including “The Producers” and “Hairspray.”
Even when considering only material produced here in Colorado, audiences are more than twice as likely to choose a musical than a drama or comedy.
“If all people want when they go to the theater is a musical, then theater has no hope anymore of being contrarian to popular belief,” said LIDA Project artistic director Brian Freeland. “It has no hope of being a source of dialogue for important community and societal issues – unless, I guess, you are going to sing about them.”
But Steve Wilson thinks musicals have a bad rap.
“Musicals combine the best of several art forms – singing, acting, dancing,” the Colorado Theatre Guild president said. “I was a Shakespearean elitist throughout my young life, but I have come to respect what they can accomplish in their deepest form. Musicals can be intensely moving. They can touch us in much deeper ways, in cases, than even a good drama can.”
Denver Center for the Performing Arts president Randy Weeks is not surprised by the popularity of the musical and says it’s nothing to apologize for.
“Why do major film studios focus on summer blockbusters versus, say, the stuff Miramax puts out?” Weeks said. “It’s what people want. A musical tends to be more readily available to a larger number of people. Musicals are good for theater because they are accessible. They open the door for people to try other things.”
And he won’t hear any suggestion that it is a lower art form. “If you look at any given musical at the time it was being produced, it was cutting edge for its day,” Weeks said. “If you look at anything from the Rodgers and Hammerstein collection, they were usually breaking ground in some form.”
The Post’s survey determined that Colorado theaters generated $54 million in ticket revenues alone in 2004. Children’s theater accounted for more than 285,000 audience members and $1.43 million in ticket sales. The totals do not include college or high school theater.
Of that, $27,486,314 was spent on national touring shows around the state. But even setting national tours aside, the survey reveals the overwhelming popularity of musicals. After the DCTC, Colorado’s largest local theater company ($4,340,441), the next eight most attended companies primarily produce musicals. Other than DCTC productions, the nine most attended locally mounted shows were all musicals, led by the New Denver Civic’s “Menopause the Musical” (58,077). In 10th place was the Arvada Center’s production of the 69-year-old comedy, “The Women” (14,965).
The most attended local drama was the Denver Center’s “A Christmas Carol” (25,673), and the top comedy was its “The Misanthrope” (18,103). The most attended non-DCTC drama was the Colorado Shakespeare Festival’s “Romeo and Juliet” (8,441).
Despite the overwhelming disparity in audience preferences, Colorado theaters produced far more dramas (130) than comedies (106) and musicals (97) in 2004. Freeland hopes these survey results do not dissuade artistic directors from producing more dramas in the future.
|
DETAILS
|
|
|
“If the goal is a completely capitalistic market economy, you would be laughed out of any other industry to go against your market,” admitted Freeland, whose experimental company’s mission lies far outside attendance figures. “But we all have to step back and ask ourselves, ‘What is the purpose of this art form? Are we losing what this is all about?”‘
Wilson said any healthy theater community must offer a balance of programming. “It’s essential to the continued evolution of the sophisticated theatergoer that we continue to produce dramas, and lots of them,” he said.
Other findings from the survey:
Colorado theaters offered more than twice as many holiday-themed productions in December than Shakespeare plays (27 versus 13) for the entire year, and audiences out-attended them by 5 to 1. Most of that can be attributed to the 159,041 who attended the touring “Radio City Christmas Spectacular.”
Shakespeare is hanging in there at the Colorado Shakespeare Festival, where 27,905 came out for three productions, and at the DCTC, where an impressive 22,409 saw “The Merchant of Venice.” But the Bard’s on life support elsewhere in the state. All other Colorado companies combined to mount only nine Shakespearean works; each drew an average of just 900 per production.
Colorado is not known for new works, but local companies produced an impressive 49 world premieres or original works. Most were not plays but sketch comedies, and they drew an average of only 1,208. The DCTC musical “Nat King Cole & Me” led the way with 14,329. LIDA’s “Bingo Boyz Columbine,” a wrenching examination of the school massacre, took six months to develop but drew only 465 people to 17 performances.
Colorado’s 10 dinner theaters generated just under $10 million in revenues and drew 351,794, which accounts for 22.1 percent of the state’s overall attendance. Though the industry has been sluggish since 9/11, that total is down only about 15,000 from 2002.
In 2004
257,741 people attended a Christmas-themed production.
59,413 people attended one of 13 Shakespearean productions.
59,212 people attended one of 49 newly created original works.
57,541 people attended a melodrama.
$48.31 was the average ticket price for a national touring show.
$26.33 was the average ticket price for all other shows combined.
– Click to view a complete rundown of how every Colorado theater ranks by attendance..
– Click to view a complete list of children’s theaters, and a list of the top attended locally produced, DCTC and touring shows in 2004.
Theater critic John Moore can be reached at 303-820-1056 or jmoore@denverpost.com.
