The Bursting of the American Theatre Bubble

Say what? I didn’t realize there was an “American Theatre Bubble”. That’s cuz I just made it up. Not in a vacuum, mind you, but in response to Charles McNulty’s interesting article in the LA Times.

In his desire to explore the state of our economy and how it connects with the state of our theatre, McNulty draws some interesting comparisons:

Sad to say, the most acute economic statement to come from our theater in the last year was the hue and cry that resulted when the producers of “Young Frankenstein” wanted to charge $450 for premium seats, and the outraged Zagat set acted as though their expense accounts were being cut in half.

I missed the hue and cry because I live in LA and “hue and cry” is our soundtrack. But it’s a good point. I remember when I did live in NYC how people kept saying, “They keep raising those Broadway tickets prices and they are going to eventually completely price out the average Joe.” What would “Joe the Plumber” say?

Apparently, we have reached that bubble. Certainly Broadway will continue to market to the tourists and the affluent, because it makes them money, but what happens when people run out of money and stop going? Will this usher in something new, something smaller, something simpler, a more socially-conscious theatre for the more socially-conscious times? Or will it simply further divide American Theatre (like the rest of the country) between the have’s and the have not’s? Where are the Odets and Millers and Williams of the new Millenium? And more importantly, do they even have a chance in a society where the bottom dollar rules?

McNulty goes on:

If this financial pain does anyone good, it may be in the way it compels us to return to simple, scaled-down pleasures, preferably at a 99-seater near you. During the speculative orgy of the last several years, the fanfare was allowed to become the art form. But the hype has grown too costly, and it’s time to hold our applause until it’s genuinely earned.

A little odd coming from the guy who touted the Taper, the Geffen, the Pasadena Playhouse and the Colony, in his “What to watch for” column in the LA Times Calendar Section a few months back. C’mon, Charles! You’re talking, let’s see some walkin’!

Nevertheless, the problem; small theatre lives in a PERPETUAL state of financial pain. So none of what Charles says is new to most of us. But why are the playwrights shying away from social commentary? Or are they? Is it just that that audiences are adverse to class-warfare on the stage in the same way that movie audiences have retreated from Anit-War films?

It may boil down to this: do we want our enterainment to be purely escapist, issue-free, undemanding spectacle; like all the big budget Summer films or the Broadway Musicals that make up about 75% of what is actually playing on the Great White Way? Or do we want something that speaks to our times, something that moves us to act, that moves us to rise out of our seats and do something? Maybe the answer lies somewhere in-between.

There is a danger in agenda-driven theatre. Especially for a playwright. We want our stories to become immortal, not some historical footnote to a long-forgotten time. There is nothing worse than calling someone’s work “dated”. Okay, calling someone’s work “irrelevant” might be worse, but you get my point.

Here’s the challenge: how do we make socially-conscious theatre for our times that strikes a univeral chord? This isn’t 1930 anymore, we are too sophisticated, too divided and too distracted for “Awake & Sing!” How about “Unplug and Vote!”? Or “Shut up and Help!”?

Start simple and think big. We’ll find it.