`Thrills and laughter. Concert after. Get your girl and go!”
So urge some of the early lyrics in “Show Boat,” the 1927 classic musical reborn as a modern blockbuster at the hands of Canadian impresario Garth Drabinsky.
When “Captain Andy’s floating show” finally lands at the Auditorium Theatre with its first preview Thursday, its trumpeting will have resembled the coming of a theme park more than a Broadway musical.
Potential patrons have been bombarded by an unprecedented $2 million ad campaign for more than a year. Some innocent customers, after the first wave of the blitz, naively thought the musical was opening last March–after all, they had already been seeing ads for three months by then.
To echo its own lyrics, “Show Boat” is, in the end, just a show. But it promises to be as big as any in Chicago theater history, and it is another important chapter in an ongoing relationship with one of the most dynamic and, some would say, foolhardy showmen of the age.
“Chicago is quite simply the greatest city in America,” Drabinsky said with characteristic enthusiasm on the eve of the production’s arrival here. “To spend a weekend in Chicago is to have a fabulous time. My aim is to create a destination point for tourism based on live theater.”
There have been long-running blockbusters at the Auditorium Theatre in the past, of course: “Les Miserables,” “The Phantom of the Opera” and “Miss Saigon” all enjoyed long runs and huge ticket sales.
But already “Show Boat” has set some records. Its advance is expected to reach $15 million by Thursday, Drabinsky says, about $2.5 million more than the New York advance two years ago and more than a million more than the “Phantom” advance here in 1990.
By comparison, the original Toronto company of “Show Boat”–now playing in Vancouver and then headed for L.A.–recently completed a St. Paul run that grossed a total of only $10.8 million (which still broke records in the St. Paul-Minneapolis area).
Though tickets are on sale only through July, Drabinsky is here for a long haul too. That will mean direct employment for 170 workers, including 73 actors (about half of whom reside in Chicago year-round), 30 musicians, 37 stage crew members, 21 dressers and six wig masters. There are also additional box-office staff on the payroll, along with concession workers and ushers.
But the economic tentacles of the show reach beyond the Auditorium and snake throughout the rebounding Loop. Dulcie Gilmore, the Auditorium’s executive director, says that the show will generate more jobs once you include parking attendants and restaurant workers. Using estimates of the show’s monthly attendance, Gilmore says about 750,000 people can be expected to see the show in one year, generating a grand total of $70 million in income in the south Loop.
“Show Boat” last played downtown at the same theater in 1933. But that production didn’t boast a computerized, 48-foot Cotton Blossom show boat; 500 props; and 50,000 pounds of counterweight required to balance the sets. Eight computers manipulate the sets and lighting, and 17 1/2 miles of electrical cable turn it all on. This “Show Boat” is very much a ’90s theatrical spectacle.
Of course, the show could flop. Or could it? Drabinsky’s approach, despite lavish outlays in production costs and advertising up front, seems to guarantee enthusiasm and word-of-mouth intensity. With a comparatively small advance of $5 million, “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat” managed an original run of 16 1/2 months in 1993 and 1994 at the Chicago Theatre and a return visit of eight weeks, thanks to Drabinsky’s marketing genius.
He is not just counting on Chicago. His 250-mile net of advertising in nearby cities includes such sizable markets as Detroit. Already, he has generated group sales from the likes of Lockport, N.Y.–an unusual sell for the Auditorium, Gilmore said. A Wednesday matinee student program, between March and July, has booked 8,300 students from Indiana, Wisconsin, New York and even North Carolina, as well as Chicago-area schools.
“Garth is full of interesting surprises,” said Gilmore. “The show is booked for an open-ended run, with a contract that calls for a three-month closing notice. So he could leave anytime with only a three-month warning, although he’s selling tickets beyond that already. For all I know, he could keep it here for four years. I wouldn’t want to anticipate his moves. Whatever he does, it won’t be commonplace.” Certainly the Auditorium has nothing at the moment booked to follow “Show Boat.”
Drabinsky does expect a certain mutual enthusiasm. “There’s a demand for this show all over the world, and unlike with `Joseph,’ we have world rights,” Drabinsky said. “It’s expensive to mount a production, so there won’t be that many companies started up.” Chicago’s will be only the third company mounted so far, and Drabinsky indicates he won’t mount any more in North America. Slow sales down the road would mean “Show Boat” might sail out of here.
“I’ve never speculated publicly on how long we’ll stay in Chicago, though with this advance, it’s safe to say we’ll stay for a year. How can I not be happy? We never knew when we set the date we’d open with such an astonishing figure,” he said.
“Beyond that, it’s safe to say we’ll play Chicago as long as we’re selling out.”
