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Cavernous performing arts centers — similar to Salt Lake City Mayor Ralph Becker's proposed 2,500-seat mega-playhouse — buoy business, pose no threat to traditional arts groups and are thriving.
So say theater experts from Denver; Durham, N.C.; and Dayton, Ohio. They were flown to Utah by the Mayor's Office to help sell Becker's plan to erect a $100 million Broadway touring show theater on Main Street.
"It's a little bit of Disneyland, fairy tale, 'you've got to believe,' " said Randy Weeks, president of the 2,800-seat Denver Center for the Performing Arts. "But have a vision."
Weeks, along with his colleagues from Durham and Dayton, launched a whirlwind media blitz Wednesday — including a stint before The Salt Lake Tribune editorial board — arguing their theaters have produced all upside and little to no downside.
"These buildings are part of a city's infrastructure — it's what makes cities interesting places to live," said Ken Neufeld, president and CEO of Victoria Theatre Association, operator of the 2,300-seat Schuster Center in Dayton. "If you don't have these amenities, other places do — and that's where people will go."
In North Carolina, the goal with the 2,800-seat Durham Performing Arts Center was to boost economic development by leading with public dollars and letting private investment follow.
"We have continued to have success and sellouts, even in this economy," said Reginald Johnson, interim director of the Durham Department of Community Development. "Bigger doesn't necessarily mean better, but there is such a thing as too small. For us, we're in that right range."
Becker has made a Broadway-style theater one of his top priorities since taking office nearly four years ago. The blueprint — officials still are deciding between the southeast corner of 100 South Main or midblock at 135 S. Main —has been derided by arts groups, local playwrights and residents fearful of a taxpayer-backed boondoggle. But armed with an approving study, the mayor's inner circle insists the theater would make money as a regional draw. They also doubt the venue would act as a vulture, picking off patrons from the ballet, opera and smaller stages.
Weeks calls Denver's theater the arts' "workhorse" that consistently makes the city money. "It has retired the bond twice," he said.
That run is likely to continue next August when the unlikely Broadway smash "The Book of Mormon" makes its touring debut in Denver. "It wasn't any magic that I pulled," Weeks noted. "They [creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone] both grew up in Colorado."
The hit musical is also booked for a run in Chicago. The co-creators have said "Book of Mormon" will play in Salt Lake City someday.
Johnson noted the Durham theater has been open for only three seasons but already is ranked ninth in attendance for Broadway touring houses. Its recipe for success, he said, is also opening the doors for rock, blues, R & B, jazz, comedy and spoken-word performances. "The variety has been phenomenal."
Neufeld said Dayton's Schuster Center has attracted businesses and generated good will by welcoming the ballet and opera with Broadway shows "shoehorned" around it. "There's almost no crossover audience," he maintained. "They're not hiving off audiences, they're helping to build up other audiences."
And when "The Lion King" hit town, Neufeld notes, the theater worked with 25 restaurants and businesses to promote Lion King-themed menus and events. "There was a lot of civic pride," he said. "The joke was we were our little Times Square. When the show was over, we had 5,000 people on the street. It was fantastic."
Those visuals likely have City Creek Center executives salivating. And it may partly explain why the LDS Church has an exclusive agreement to sell the coveted theater property to the city.
Still, critics wonder why the venue is so large. After all, most Broadway playhouses average half the size of Becker's proposed theater.
One explanation is the short run of Broadway touring shows. If the curtain only rises eight times in about a week — like most runs in Durham — the pressure is on to sell a lot of seats. But Weeks points to another benefit: Denver's 2,800 seats allow the theater to offer an "entry point" price of $25 to $35 to counter the $130 to $150 prices charged for marquee touring shows.
Helen Langan, Becker's senior adviser, acknowledges the critiques of her boss's vision. But she has a ready counter-punch: the renovations of City Hall, the Utah Capitol and Salt Palace Convention Center all were controversial at the time. "Now, we can't imagine what our city would be like without those things."
Pressed about the misnomer of describing the venue as a "Broadway-style" theater, Langan has another quick answer.
"Broadway style got stuck in our collective vernacular," she explained.
Becker spokesman Art Raymond notes the city doesn't use the term anymore, opting for the sterile but more accurate "Utah Performing Arts Center."
"The re-education," Raymond said. "has been really difficult."
Theater panel for public at Main Library
Salt Lake City staged a panel discussion Wednesday night at the Main Library to discuss Mayor Ralph Becker's proposed 2,500-seat Broadway-style theater. Theater officials from Durham, N.C., Dayton, Ohio, and Denver were on hand to talk about similar performing arts centers in their cities.