Bemoaning a ”lack of product,” and with six of its nine usable Broadway houses dark or not presenting theatrical attractions, the Nederlander organization, the second largest theater owner on Broadway, is preparing a series of concerts to fill its huge 1,933-seat Gershwin Theater in the fall.
The organization has booked one musical and one play for its other theaters-”The Grand,” a musical version of ”Grand Hotel” directed by Tommy Tune, and ”Orpheus Descending,” with Vanessa Redgrave re-creating her critically praised London performance in the Tennessee Williams play.
James M. Nederlander, the organization`s chairman, and Arthur Rubin, its general manager, say that although negotiations are going on for other shows, nothing else is definite.
”We`re working on it,” Rubin said.
But none of those productions are for the Gershwin, the largest theater on Broadway, so the concert plans are going forward. Rubin said that the concerts would be similar to the Barry Manilow show now at the Gershwin, that Donna Summer was definite and that other possible performers included Gladys Knight, Gregory Hines, the Four Tops, the New Kids on the Block and Patti LaBelle.
Nederlander and Rubin maintained that the concert plans did not indicate they were curtailing their theatrical presence.
”We`re in the legitimate theater business,” Rubin said. ”That`s our basic business. There`s nothing wrong with doing a season of concerts.”
But their plan is the latest indication of the problems the Nederlander organization has recently had in filling its theaters.
The last couple of years have not been the organization`s best. It has had hits in ”Me and My Girl,” the long-running musical at the Marquis Theater, and in Jackie Mason`s one-man show, now closed, at the Brooks Atkinson.
The jazz-and-blues revue ”Black and Blue” is doing 70 to 75 percent of capacity at the Minskoff, and the three Tony Awards received last Sunday could help make that show a hit.
On the other side of the ledger, the Nederlander organization lost more than $5 million this season on ”Legs Diamond,” which played at the Mark Hellinger Theater.
Before ”Legs” closed in February, Nederlander, saying there were no new musicals around, rented the Hellinger for five years, at more than $1 million a year, to the Times Square Church, which had leased the smaller and difficult-to-rent Nederlander Theater on West 41st Street. The church moved into the Hellinger right after ”Legs” closed.
To many theater people, the leasing of the Hellinger, which was the original Broadway home of ”My Fair Lady” and which has long been considered one of the best and most beautiful theaters for musicals, was a sad symbol of both the state of Broadway and of the Nederlander organization.
Almost all the major musical hits of the last three years -”Les Miserables,” ”The Phantom of the Opera,” ”Jerome Robbins`s Broadway”-have been performed in theaters owned by the Nederlanders` chief rival, the Shubert Organization.
Like the Shuberts, the Nederlanders sometimes produce their own shows to help keep their theaters lighted. But in contrast to the Nederlanders, the Shubert Organization has plays or musicals in 11 of its 17 theaters. The Nederlander organization has 12 Broadway theaters.
Two of the Nederlander theaters, the Harris and the New Amsterdam, are on 42d Street and were operated as movie houses for many years. Their future is closely tied to the ambitious Times Square redevelopment project, in which several huge office towers and a merchandise mart are to be built on the seedy block and six other theaters are to be renovated.
Plans call for the Harris to be turned into a small 499-seat Broadway house and the New Amsterdam to be restored as a big musical theater.
The non-Nederlander theaters to be renovated-the Liberty, the Victory, the Lyric, the Times Square, the Apollo and the Selwyn-would be controlled by a nonprofit organization called the 42d Street Entertainment Corp., which would be a subsidiary of the quasi-public corporation managing the Times Square redevelopment project.
Nederlander said he was waiting for the much-delayed project to go ahead before he renovates and reopens his theaters.
”We`re not going to do anything until we`re assured that the project is going to go forward,” Rubin said, ”because otherwise, if I fix those theaters up and spend a couple of million dollars, who`s going to book them?” Bookings, of course, are a problem now, but Nederlander said he was confident that if the two theaters are renovated he will be able to fill them. ”This business is cyclical,” he said. ”Something will come along. Something always comes along.”
Long the Avis to the Shubert Organization`s Hertz, the Nederlanders have sometimes co-produced plays with their rivals, most recently ”Les Liaisons Dangereuses” and ”Nicholas Nickleby.” But more often than not they have been competitors.
”They are tough competitors, and they have an advantage,” Nederlander said. ”The Shuberts work for a foundation”-the Shubert Foundation, which is parent to the organization. ”We`re private entrepreneurs. It`s our own money.”
Because of its nonprofit status, he suggested, the Shubert Foundation can give money to nonprofit theaters around the country, thereby getting ”first crack at the shows that come from those nonprofit theaters.”
The Shuberts also have an advantage, Rubin said, because they own all of their theaters outright-”they were handed theaters with no mortgages.”
”We acquired every one of our theaters,” he added, ”and all of them have mortgages. So they can give different terms. They can give the theater away. They can take a `Les Miz` and say, `Well, you can only play seven performances a week because they`re building over the theater, so we`ll pay you for the eighth performance as if you played it.` ”
”They can give them the theater for nothing,” Nederlander said. ”We can`t afford to do that.”
Nederlander said there was another major difference between his company and the Shuberts, and that this difference made him feel optimistic.
That difference, he said, isthe size for big musicals, he said, while almost all of his theaters fit that bill.
(He does not consider the Shubert Theater suitable, he said, because it has what he considers an unsellable second balcony. That theater, however, has had a hit show-”A Chorus Line”-for more than a decade, and many people in the business feel that its prime Shubert Alley location makes it an attractive house.)
Because all the large Shubert houses are booked, big new musicals are more likely to consider his big, empty houses, like the Gershwin, Nederlander said.
”We have an edge there,” he said, ”because it doesn`t make practical sense for a producer to take a big show and book it in a small theater. We also have all the new houses, the Marquis and the Gershwin and the Minskoff, and they`re viable theaters.”
The No. 3 Broadway theater owner, Jujamcyn, also has large musical houses, the Martin Beck and the St. James, but they are occupied. Its Virginia Theater is empty but is considered difficult to book, in part because it is on 52d Street, away from most other theaters, and in part because of its sight lines.
The big problem, Nederlander said, is product, or rather the lack of it.
”Once there`s enough product,” he said, ”we`ll be able to book these big houses, because the Shuberts don`t have enough of them. This season they`ve been very fortunate. We`ve been unfortunate. That changes.”
”We had `Annie` and `La Cage aux Folles` and `Nine,` ” Rubin said.
”We`ve had our share of hits in the past. And next year it could be different.”
In addition to ”The Grand” and ”Orpheus Descending,” a Broadway musical version of the movie and television series ”Fame” is a possibility, Rubin said.
Nederlander said a musical of ”The Scarlet Pimpernel” is in the planning stages, with book by Arthur Kopit, music by Frank Wildhorn and direction by Mike Ockrent. They have also been working on a revival of the Jerome Kern musical ”Roberta.”
Nederlander and Rubin are also preparing to mount a national road company of ”Starlight Express,” which they plan to send to many of their theaters across the country.
A good deal of the Nederlander organization`s income-much-needed income during their Broadway difficulties-comes from their theaters outside New York. Those indoor and outdoor theaters-including the Pantages, Wilshire, Fonda and Greek in Los Angeles, the Golden Gate, Curran and Orpheum in San Francisco, the Fisher in Detroit and the Pacific Amphitheater in Costa Mesa, Calif.-present concerts as well as plays, and the concerts often bring in a great deal of money, he said. The rock star Rod Stewart recently sold out two nights at the 18,000-seat Pacific Amphitheater, he said.
In London, ”Me and My Girl” has been a hit at the Nederlander-owned Adelphi.
”That show is grossing more now than it did in its first year,”
Nederlander said. ”So I don`t think we`re having a bad season at all.”
The Nederlander organization also owns the 75-year-old landmark Palace Theater, which has leased its air rights. It is closed while a 43-story hotel is built in front of and above it. The project calls for substantial theater improvements.
Nederlander defended his decision to rent the Mark Hellinger to a church. ”I didn`t have a show for it,” he said. ”I thought I might as well do something with it-rather than let it sit dark-and pay the taxes on it.”
”I could have sold this circuit 16 times,” he said.
”People have been saying the theater is dead ever since I`ve been in the theater. But the theater`s still alive and kicking, and it will always be.
”It`ll turn around. We`ll come up with hits. I`m not worried about that. And if you have a hit, the audience is there. It`s clear that people will go to the theater. It`s a question of getting something that somebody wants to see.”
