The reborn Chicago Theatre has been lit up and open for six months now
–but does it really work?
Competitors are always effective signposts, and those up against this new kid on their block praise the Chicago`s aggressive programming and admit they`ve felt the pinch.
”It has hurt,” says Randall Green, executive director of the Civic Center for the Performing Arts. ”We went head to head against them for
`Cabaret,` and they got it. Last year, we were dark a total of only eight weeks. I expect this year that will jump to 15 or 20.”
The musicals `Zorba` and `My One and Only` did well at the Civic Opera House last year, and those are the kind of shows Green now considers ripe for the Chicago. Magician David Copperfield, who just finished a run at the Chicago, did well at the Civic last year, too.
”I can`t speak about how well they`ve done from the financial standpoint,” Green adds, ”but from all appearances, they have brought a wide range of shows to the theater. The real test will come when the honeymoon is over and they`ve used up Frank Sinatra and the other big-name artillery. Can they continue to deliver a product people will want to see?”
”Let`s just say the competition is keener,” says Elizabeth Kearns, director of theater operations at Arie Crown Theatre. ”To me, theaters are like churches–you don`t knock `em.” But her view of the strength of that competition is revealing: Referring to the revitalized Chicago, Kearns said,
”I just hope this doesn`t turn into a one-theater town. With four theaters in the 4,000-seat range now (Arie Crown, the Auditorium Theatre, the Chicago and the Civic Opera House), ours is the market producers ought to consider first.”
The theater`s owners and operators, meanwhile, are satisfied with the progress.
”We`re very pleased,” says Margery al Chalabi, a partner in Chicago Theatre Restoration Associates, which bought and saved the theater from demolition. ”The theater has been active–so much so that we`ve been hard-pressed to find time to undertake some minor repairs. The programmers have done a remarkable job, and a wide array of Chicagoans have been coming, from all income levels, ethnic groups and areas, city and suburban.”
But perhaps the bottom line comes from the business associates who hope to turn a profit from the theater`s bookings. ”We`ve been delighted with this marketplace,” says Eric Weisman, a managing partner with Chicago Theatre Productions Inc., the theater`s year-round tenant. ”The grosses have been phenomenal.” Chicago Theatre Productions, Inc., rents the venue from Chicago Theatre Restoration Associates.
Despite occasional media barbs claiming empty seats, Weisman counters that attendance has been high and even record-breaking. He cites the year-end issue of Amusement Business, an industry publication, which reported that the Chicago Theatre, in only four months of operation in 1986, hosted four of the five top-grossing engagements of the year for theaters in the less-than-5,000- seat category.
The only downside for Weisman and his organization so far has been costs. High grosses don`t always mean high profits, and, in the case of the Chicago, higher-than-expected operating costs have eaten up a lot of the shows`
profits.
”Union costs in this city are excessive, advertising rates are high and we probably pay higher rent here than any theater in any city at our level,” Weisman says.
”We`re subsidizing their rent,” al Chalabi says. ”They`re paying what they agreed to pay.”
Weisman and associates spent approximately $1.5 million in one-time start-up costs as their share in the reopening of the theater. So far, they`ve been able to recoup only $10,000 of that from show profits. ”We`d hope to regain that capital in 12 to 18 months,” Weisman says. ”It will probably be more like 18 to 24 months, and even that`s a projection.”
The upkeep on a 65-year-old structure, especially one almost every visitor regards as a personal landmark, proved more costly than imagined.
”You just can`t have paint peeling off the walls,” Weisman notes. Top stars are expensive, too. ”We may have grossed, say, $700,000, during Mr. Sinatra`s five performances, but, while I can`t release it to you, let`s just say that way more than 50 percent of that money went to him.”
But the success of the bookings has convinced those concerned of the Chicago`s viability. ”The key is not so much the economics of one show, but in diversifying the entertainment we present. We`re trying to make this place a performing arts center–that`s the crux of everything.”
Weisman said new attractions may include:
— More contemporary artists, performers of the likes of Whitney Houston, Anita Baker, George Benson and Luther Vandross, possibly showing up as early as this summer;
— Both a jazz and a rhythm and blues series;
— A classical music series, starting in the fall and running through the spring of `88;
— A movie series, with at least one classic showing per month, and occasional specials, analagous to the silent movie series accompanied by live orchestra at New York`s Radio City Music Hall;
— A lecture series, featuring businessmen, scientists and ”even former Presidents.”
Musicals and variety acts will continue to be mainstays. Details won`t be released until later, but Weisman said 80 percent of the Broadway series for
`87-88 is lined up and ”we think it represents the best product available.” Some observers have charged that the theater`s first-year programming has been too conservative. Weisman responds that middle-of-the-road variety is just that: middle-of-the-road.
”And I don`t think the word for Peter Allen or Joan Rivers would be conservative,” he adds. ”We`re willing to present anything that`s technically possible, as long as it`s in the realm of good taste.”
Weisman took over direct responsibilities for programming in November, when Ray Shepardson, the theater`s general manager, left to pursue his true love, renovating old theaters.
(Lou Volpano began work earlier this month as the new general manager, although Weisman said his duties will be more day to day than Shepardson`s were.)
Weisman decided 18 months ago not to attend medical school (he graduated from the University of Michigan with a degree in cellular molecular biology). Instead, he joined the New York-based show-business organization run by his father, Eliot. At only 25, ”I do get a skeptical eye now and then.”
He counters that skepticism with 18-hour work days and an aggressive approach. He argues, for example, that there`s no reason the Chicago shouldn`t snare the eventual touring version of ”Les Miserables,” even though, as a property associated with the Shubert Organization, it would be expected to play the Shubert Theater here.
”The Chicago Theatre is an idea place,” he says. ”We take fantasies and turn them into reality.”
The reality around the theater has brightened as well. Al Chalabi says that tenants are lining up for the adjacent Pace Building, which her group owns as well as the theater, and that the promised restaurant with an entry into the Chicago`s second-floor lobby is coming, too–negotiations continue with serious, prospective restaurateurs.
As for worries that the big names have all been used up or that the thrill of experiencing the theater may wear off, no one connected with the Chicago gives those concerns serious thought.
”One of the earlier musicals, `Singin` in the Rain,` did disappointing business, but the crowds have been getting bigger and bigger,” says Texas-based Allen Becker, another partner in the tenant arrangement. ”People love coming back, and, as time goes on, the musicals have been doing better with each show. I think we`re getting people who are returning to musicals for the first time in years, just because they love coming to the theater.”
