‘I’m Still Committed to the Same Mission We’ve Had’

Question: Future expansion will take years before it happens. How do you increase and diversify audiences until then?

*

Answer: One of the things we’ll do this coming season is expand the use of Founders Hall. We already have a chamber-music series and jazz-club series. We are looking at the initiation of a couple of other new series.

Q: Will it be a pop series? A rock series?

A: We’re talking about a kind of cabaret series. And we’re also exploring what I would describe as a Broadway revue series, not with elaborate scenery or staging. It will be an opportunity to hear the music that so many of us feel is part of musical-theater history.

Q: The center already has a more elaborate Broadway musical series.

A: This will be a supper-club situation. We haven’t fixed on the final format. But it will be an intimate setting, where performers can be close to the audience.

Q: What sort of artists will you book in the cabaret series?

A: I don’t want to announce them yet. We’ll do that before the end of the summer, in time for the fall. They’ll be the sort of artist who might have played at the old Algonquin in New York.

Q: Will these be weekend events only?

A: Mainly Fridays and Saturdays. Two shows a night, to make it economically possible. With the musical revues, I think we’re going to have to go to a Thursday night as well.

Q: These are still relatively small changes. How else will you adjust the programming mix?

A: I clearly will be part of Jerry Mandel’s team. Programming strategy and policies will come from discussions with him.

Q: What would your advice be?

A: In any organization you need to constantly review your mission. I’m still committed to the same mission we’ve had [of presenting classical music, dance, opera and Broadway musicals]. I believe our board and our community and certainly those of us who work here are still committed to it.

But that doesn’t mean you can’t enhance that. There are some things that work really well in a 3,000-seat house, and others that want to play bigger places. Of course with the pop acts, a really hot pop act doesn’t want to play here when they can go to a larger venue where the capacity and the income [are] greater.

Q: You have the Royal Ballet coming next week. Dance presentations, especially ballet, are notoriously expensive. Why is that? And how much does it cost to present a weeklong engagement of a major ballet company?

A: It depends on a lot of things: whether they’re on tour or whether it’s an exclusive appearance; what kind of repertory they’re doing; the size of the production and the scope of the scenery. If you need a rough estimate, I’d say it costs about $1 million to book an international ballet company for a week. That’s why you need a subsidy.

Q: How does that compare with a Broadway musical?

A: The range is $750,000 to $800,000, depending on the show, the size and the deal that’s cut with the producers. The Broadway series does not require a subsidy. We find that it sustains its portion of our budget projections and produces a bit of a surplus.