Transcript

Rapid Response: In hard times, the show must go on, w/BroadwayHD’s Bonnie Comley

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41 Broadway theaters just really sat in mothballs for almost 18 months. So here is an industry that brings in 16 billion that is now unplugged. The industry started looking at okay We've gotta reopen. What does that mean? Lion King, Wicked, all of these shows are a brand. That's what we're seeing on Broadway is that there are multiple touch points for a brand. Yeah, have to uh be a little bit off center.

Thing to be an entrepreneur there's so many other safe things to go into to calculated risk, but you have to be willing to lose. You have to be willing to fail. That's Bonnie Connley. Broadway producer Board president of Broadway's Drama League and CEO of Broadway HD. Even as the delta variant has pushed up covet nineteen infections.

Broadway theaters are reopening, resuming their show must go on mantra. I'm Bob Safian. Former editor of Fast Company, founder of the Flux Group, and host of Masters of Scale Rapid Response. I wanted to talk to Bonnie because she's been on the forefront of merging live theater with new digital engagement. The business of Broadway is entirely unique, yet at the same time, it offers a window into the challenges we all face when rebooting longstanding practices and expectations.

Bonnie is charged with expanding Broadway's fan base and exposure. Recognizing that some things about the theater experience need to be modernized. The pause of the pandemic created an opportunity to re examine how the business and the art might both evolve. To engage new audiences in new ways.

I'm Bob Safian and I'm here with Bonnie Comley, board president of the Drama League and CEO of Broadway HD. Bonnie is talking with us from her home in Manhattan as I ask my questions from my home in In Brooklyn. Bonnie, thanks for joining us. Thank you so much for having me and shedding a light on Broadway.

Yeah, Broadway has come back to life in recent weeks, in recent days, with anchor productions like Hamilton and Wicked. Bringing up the curtain after a long, long hiatus. But the future of Broadway is still Far from certain tourists

Still in short supply in New York City, the Delta variant. Deeply embedded, impacting the country, the world. The road to us getting here even has not been a simple one. Can you paint the scene for me of Where you were when the lights went out, when Broadway shut down, and how You personally were impacted and reacted?

Sure. I was at work in my Manhattan Times Square office. We were aware of this virus that was coming. And then on March eleventh, we actually had one of our employees test positive. We had the opening of a show for the new musical six on the next night. were co-producers on the minutes that was supposed to open on March fifteenth. And we had Broadway HD employees in several different offices around the US. Everybody. We were all out of work overnight. Now, at that point, you were on the board of the Drama League. You weren't the president, right? I was vice president of the board. I've been on the board for about twelve years. And basically what the Drama League is, is it's a mentoring organization for early career stage directors. So every year we look for these

fellows that we bring on and we give them an opportunity to direct in front of a professional audience in New York City. And we were at that point with these directors in different places looking at the safety of their crews. So we were doing micro grants at that time. Five hundred dollars for your groceries because in that moment. directors fall between the cracks. You know, they're not in the acting unions. So we were just trying to help people get by at that time. It's just looking at basic needs, not you know artistic expression. I wanna get back to Broadway H D in a minute, but

First, between the drama league, you mentioned there were a couple of productions that you were producing that you were After the initial physic of shutdown to now, has it been mostly a matter of waiting or have there been sort of phases of activity like change that the industry's gone through during this period.

So when these shows shut down and sending everybody home and thinking, okay, so we'll see you next week or in two weeks when we all done with the quarantine. But what happened with the shows that we were working on, as well as other shows that were actually in previews or rehearsals or going on Broadway, was the cast getting together. In the Zoom конференці. Two Rehearse. They did that for months because we all thought, Oh, well, you know, everybody's just gonna keep their vocal chops up to speed because those doors are gonna fly open and everybody's gonna come back in. And then after, you know, about a year. Well, that's not

how anybody thought it was gonna go. Then it was looking at an industry had to get up and get back together. Together. And that happened probably just about two months ago. Basically when I think the vaccines were coming out. Okay, it's time to get together and we've got to reopen. What does that mean? But it was getting theater owners and 13 different unions that were representing a hundred thousand people What are they gonna feel safe? With

And it's kind of a marvel that they all agreed so quickly. In fact, the Broadway producers, in a leap of faith, they started selling tickets before those agreements were reached because they were so confident that everyone wanted to pull together and come up with these rules. This happened through the Broadway League, the trade association for the forty one Broadway Theaters, yes? The Broadway League sent these rules out. The audience and everyone in the cast and crew needs to be vaccinated. Everyone in the audience needs to wear a mask. Everyone in the audience needs to prove that they're vaccinated. Under 12 has to prove with a negative COVID test. Broadway in the 41 theaters here are the heart and the brains of this network of 200 other Broadway touring theaters that go across the country. So they're setting the standards and sharing best practices. And I know the finances of these productions have gotta be a lot a lot more challenged than they anticipated being two years ago or a year and a half ago at this time.

Well, Broadway is a very low margin business anyway, because so many of the costs are fixed. There's only forty one theaters, there's only a certain number of seats in those theaters. All the unions have set. minimums for what it is that they require for their union members to receive. So when you go in and producing a show, you are handed a lot of costs that you're just Fixed. And then it's competitive, but it's an amazing business. And then when it works, it works in not always Hamilton numbers, but it's really very successful. And as a business, it probably should have died out years ago because of the high risk, only about, you know, four out of 10 shows actually recoup their investment. So it's really supported by people that just believe in this art form and want to see it go forward, which I think, again, is just very hopeful. Yeah. For some businesses, the enforced downtime of Covid and lockdown sort of enabled a rethinking of practices and assumptions what the future might look like.

To what extent did that happen with Broadway? You know, when you had the time to sit. and reflect. On any business. Because there's really nothing going on. Those forty one Broadway Tier just really sat.

In mothballs for almost 18 months. And I think you know that reflection time on what was on stage, what was going on backstage, how do we communicate, how do we engage audiences, all were looked at very differently. Broadway is a very progressive industry. And with a progressive industry, you're looking at what are the types of stories that are being told. Who are the people that are telling those stories? How do we market those stories to people that are in the audience? And you know, with my company Broadway HD, what we've always done is try to expand. The fan base. Broadway HD is a streaming service. We have over three hundred and fifty full length stage plays and musicals. And the Broadway ticket buyer has for as long as the Broadway League has been keeping the demographics is basically the same.

person. It is an over 40 white woman that usually buys the tickets. You know, so a lot of those stories that are on stage are to attract that demographic. But then as I said, when you have the time to sit and say, hey, you know, in a typical year pre-pandemic There's three hundred and fifty million people in the United States, seventy five percent would go and see a movie in the movie theater. But only fiftin percent. We'll buy tickets to a live show. So there's a whole universe of people just in the United States that for whatever reason they don't know about them, they're not comfortable, they don't feel like they belong there, it's not my thing, you know, to go to Broadway.

There's a whole universe of people that we can address and say, you ought to come here. You know, so is it that we're not putting the right shows on stage? Is it not the right people telling those shows? Or is it, you know, that we're not marketing to the audience in the right way? So you're talking about the diversity of the audience and the diversity of the storytellers, the stories themselves. When you look at The last full season which was twenty eighteen to twenty nineteen, there was only two. Three women directing

out of the 41 shows, there was only two women composers out of those 41 shows. I think it was only one playwright, you know, like and then the numbers for people that are the BIPOC community, those numbers don't even register. So I think you know, when you start to look at that and say, well, why is that? And I think that, you know, there was a lot that came out of this pandemic. There is a new deal for Broadway that is an agreement that the producers came to with the theater owners to say, you know what, we need to change who makes theater. Your efforts at Broadway H D are built around expanding the audience, right? One of the things that we've done is say we're making theater accessible on the internet with Broadway HD. So you're giving an opportunity to somebody who either

It's geography that they just can't get to the forty one Broadway theaters or the two hundred touring theaters or Or they can't afford that ticket or there's some other sort of physical limitations for them, but if you can bring the theater to them And have them become fans, you increase the fan base. And I think there's been a lot of that of that looking and saying, How do we increase the fan base? To your point earlier, in a pre-pandemic year, sixty percent of the tickets to Broadway shows were bought by people that were from out of town. So with all the uncertainty of Who can travel to Нью-Йорк Ситі, у контра тоді ЮС.

We still have sixty percent of the theater is empty. So how do we get those other people there? And that's increasing the fan base and letting people know that these shows are available, these shows have stories that they can relate to. Cause it's not about who gets to see the theater, it's also the diversity that we're creating with these things is whose theater. gets to be seen. When you've built substantial wealth through your business, it's often tied up in a single equity position. The upside is real, but so is the risk, and knowing when to act isn't always obvious. Creative planning works with business owners to build a strategy around concentrated equity.

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Hey listeners, Bob here. If you listen to Rapid Response on Masters of Scale, you may be missing half the show. Because every Friday we release a second rapid response exclusively in the rapid response feed. The guests and topics are just as compelling and timely from Ford's CEO to NASA's administrator to the lessons from The Devil Wears Prada. It takes about 10 seconds to find, just search rapid response wherever you listen to podcasts and hit follow to make sure you never miss an episode. I hope to see you there. Before the break, we heard Broadway HD CEO Bonnie Comley talk about the disruption of the pandemic and the opportunity it created for improving Broadway's appeal.

Now Bonnie talks about how Broadway brands are embracing digitization, from Springsteen to Wicked. She also talks about overcoming the fear of cannibalization, the implications of a try before you buy business model, and how Broadway is inherently entrepreneurial. So you mentioned sort of the live theater experience gets mothballed. But for Brahma H D with streaming and virtual access of all kinds of entertainment kind of exploding.

It could be kind of an opportunity. Did that happen in your business? And how prepared were you for it technologically and otherwise? It was absolutely a boon. Our subscriber numbers. Just shot up. Streaming was the only option. For the people that missed theater, that used to go, the ticket buyers, it was an opportunity for them.

We saw the power of what the internet can do with a nationally internationally recognized brand. But it's the power of that brand that the Broadway League has created for the last 50 years that makes people know exactly what that genre of entertainment is, and they want it. And this unexpected boon, it's kind of been a coming of age moment for watching theater on a screen. Streaming theater is not a replacement for theater, it is an additive. I mean, would there be as many football fans in the United States if you said, Well

If you don't get to that stadium You can't Watch it. People told me, oh, nobody's gonna want to watch a Broadway show on their phone. In fact, they do watch it on their phone. So when Broadway HD launched six years ago, we were spending our marketing dollars in US and English, and that was it. We weren't looking for anybody else. And within days we had people reaching out through our customer service and social media platforms to say, I'm trying to watch your show, but you don't take my currency. So it was kinda like

It was eye opening of how many people were out there that were hungry and that were underserved for Broadway shows. And then six months later, with the Roundabout Theater Company, we were able to live stream. She loves me, and we had eighty four different countries that had tuned in at that time. You mentioned earlier that Broadway is a low margin business, but it is a big business. In twenty thirteen, actually, the National Endowment for the Arts and the Bureau of Economic Analysis got together and released a study that in fact said that live theater. Arts and culture creates more and impacts the gross domestic product larger in a bigger way than transportation, construction,

Or agriculture. Once you say this is a huge industry People rally around because why is it a huge industry? Why are people attracted to this? How do I get in on it? How do I make money with it? And I think that has been tracked ever since. And if you look at just the Broadway in New York City, those 41 Broadway theaters in the last full season sold almost. Fifteen tickets and The economic impact of what that did for the city was close to 16 billion dollars.

And the pandemic just severed that. New York City is a trillion dollar economy. So here is an industry that brings in sixteen bill as an impact.

That is now Unplugged. Because Hotels could open up and restaurants could open up and other businesses were opening up, but Broadway has still been shut down. You know, it's like a petri dish and like a perfect experiment of like if we unplug this one industry, what happens? What we found was it's not just 16 billion that was missing. The Broadway League has created.

Broadway and New York City to be a destination for tourists and people around the globe. They come hier. for Broadway. So if you take that out of the equation It's not quite the same thing anymore. And I think that was recognized by the government in the shuttered venues operator grant that was just made two months ago for these.

theater and live concerts and live performance venues. There was a fifteen billion dollar grants worth of money available for these because they do understand the importance of what these organizations, these big huge arts and culture organizations provide for their communities. Even beyond the economics, right? There's a social impact too. on a social impact what you see for Times Square. And you know, these other urban areas that house these big Broadway theaters across the country. When they're operating, we've seen and we've tracked that.

The Population is more likely to be educated, they're more likely to graduate from high school, they're more likely to go on to a trade school or a college, they're more likely to vote, they're more likely to donate and volunteer for community service. So it just makes for it. much more cohesive Community, which translates to a safer community. So without these arts organizations, you're missing that. You know, theater affects everybody on so many different levels, and without it, we're feeling the loss from it.

As you were talking about Broadway HD and the digitization impact, the ability to reach and broaden the audience, it sounds very logical. But at the same time, I can also imagine that there are folks in the industry who might be a little resistant. To the idea that there is the exclusivity of getting people in the theater and that experience being special. Has that reaction to Broadway HD shifted at all over the last

Eighteen months. Well the Fear of cannibalization is the term that we use within the industry, which is the fear of Та прос інвести твіті мільянда. To produce a Broadway live stage performance.

And trying to sell tickets for one hundred and twenty five dollars for each ticket. If there is a version of this show streaming online At a Broadway HD or Disney Plus or Netflix. that's the fear of cannibalization, is that somebody's gonna see the digital version and say, Oh, I'm gonna replace that with the live experience And there's no definitive evidence Every show is different. There's not a one size fits all that you can say, Oh, look at this one. This is

Perfectly representative of the industry. Cause if there was a one size fits all, we would of all create a Hamilton, you know, or a rent. So I think that looking at that now and sitting and watching social media, watching what people's reaction is to it, so that people that were ticket buyers are thrilled with Broadway HD and saying Broadway HD is a 247 reminder Of what we miss about Broadway. And live theater.

And that's what it's always been. It's always been something to create. An interest in the live stage performance. So we have high quality Broadway and Broadway caliber productions that are on a stage. They're captured in high definition, high quality TV film captures. And then they're streamed on an easy to use, high quality. user friendly platform.

We haven't seen what the results are because Everything isn't opened up just yet, but the signs are there. And I think that with this Broadway season. Specifically We're seeing the digital assets in a whole new way that we've never ever seen before

Can you explain that a little? What's different? What I mean by that is Each of these shows is its own product. So Lion King Wicked all of these shows are a бран.

Lion King was first an animated movie. And then they made it into a musical on Broadway. Wicked was a book that then they turned into a musical. And I think that that's what we're seeing on Broadway is that there are multiple touch points for a brand. The streaming piece is really evident with what's going on this season as things open up. You have Springsteen came back and it's streaming on Netflix. Wicked just did a concert version that wasn't the entire script, but you know, again, another touch point for this brand. And is that gonna take away from the live experience?

I don't think so because I think people do get the excitement with a real good digital capture, I think, that people S Fiel The excitement that they're missing. I'm curious our audience are entrepreneurs and business leaders. When you reflect on this period.

Are there Overarching lessons that you Draw. From this experience for you, for your business.

You know, you have to be a little bit off center. to be an entrepreneur because regardless of the industry, regardless of the business, there's so many other safe Things to go into than the entrepreneurship side of it. And I think entrepreneurship is something that is learned. My parents had their own business, they had an elevator business, and the failures that happen, you know, on your kitchen table and watching somebody get through all of that and the excitement and the fulfillment that they get from that. Was really contagious, I guess. So I think that was why it allowed me to take risks, but you have to be willing to lose. You have to be willing to fail. Mm.

So what's at stake for you for your business at this moment. In this time. The real challenge for us is the content, because as theater around the world is looking a little bit different, we're saying, Where are we gonna get the next shows? We had did a couple of captures in Australia, we did some in the UK because they were opened up first and then the variant came along and things. Shut down again. So it's where are we getting the content? But as I mentioned, more people within the industry are seeing this as

Начас анарену сор, Putting what I've always advocated for, put the full length digital capture. costs into the capitalisation of the show. and put it into your marketing. budget where it belongs because I feel that the full-length digital captures of a show are long form commercials.

For the show. And I think that the tricky part is what we call windowing, which we saw with Scarlett Johansson recently, where her movie came out and it was supposed to just go into the movie theater first, but it was streaming at the same time. I mean, Scarlett Johansson suddenly she didn't worry as much about what proportion of the revenue she got from streaming, and suddenly it's a bigger piece of it that she's not getting a piece of. Right. So there must be some versions of that that go on and For your business too, if you know, a stream version of a show suddenly has a lot of people, does the cast get paid differently? The Broadway shows, as I mentioned, are all entirely unionized. So with Broadway HD captures in the Broadway theaters.

Everyone that is supposed to get compensated gets compensated. And again, that's not necessarily a cost that we can negotiate. Those are fixed. And I guess that cost in this environment of digital capture It's being embraced as a worthwhile investment. I do think that they are seeing the value of brand familiarity. So people become familiar with the songs, they become familiar with the storyline. The risk is eliminated because if they watch a Broadway HD show, you can say, Oh, I love that. I can't wait to go see it in person. Now I'm willing to spend a hundred and twenty-five dollars a ticket and bring my family. So now I'm willing to risk that six hundred dollars for us all to go to see a show.

It opens up a whole new possibility of try before you buy. So it's a way to try it at a much lower cost before you lay down your hundred and twenty five dollars for that ticket. Well, Donnie, this has been great and I do hope that we can keep everybody in the theaters and keep the theaters moving. I know I I'm a big fan of the arts in a theater and I really appreciate your sharing all this. Insight with our audience. Thank you so much, and I so appreciate the support for the industry. Thank you for having me. Masters of Scale Rapid Response is a wait what original.

The show is recorded remotely using sanitized audio gear. I'm your rapid response host, Bob Safi and host for Masters of Scale is Reed Hoffman. Our executive producers are June Cohen and Darren Triff. Our supervising producer is Jay Punjabi. Ar producers are Jordan McCloud, Christina Gonzales, and Marie McCoy Thompson.

Our music director is Ryan Holiday. Original music and sound design by Daniel Nissenbaum and the Holiday Brothers. Audio editing by Keith J. Nelson, Steven Davies, Andrew Knault, and Mike Gallagher. Mixing and Mastering by Aaron Bastanelli. Special thanks to Emily McManus, Sarah Sandman, Kelsey Capitano, Tim Cronin, Charlie Menesis, Adam Heiner, Anna Pizzino, Ben Richardson, Mina Kurosawa, Saida Sapieva, and Colin Howard.

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