I’m posting this in MPSIMS rather than GQ because I don’t think this has a definite answer. That said…
Imagine the possibilities! Assuming I had buckets of money, filled out the necessary paperwork and paid the appropriate royalties, what’s to stop me from opening up a bunch of theaters and hiring casts to perform Rent, Guys & Dolls, Phantom of the Opera, Bring in Da Noise Bring in Da Funk, etc. etc. in my town? Does New York hold a monopoly on this kind of entertainment?
So, do other cities (besides London) have thriving theater/musical districts? And, why hasn’t anyone thought of this in Branson? Oh the possibilities…
[Nathan Lane (from Guys & Dolls)]
I know, I know! I could make a fortune!
[/Nathan Lane]
Bucks. You’d need to have enough capital to lose for a long enough time to train the locals to think of the theater as one of their entertainment/social options. And you’d need to lose that money putting on good shows with good casts.
Lots of cities have theater districts; we have such here in Houston, and we get some good shows. And we have little theaters, too, that are fun to attend now and then.
But theater is an old medium that has not maintained its former prominence under the seige of alternate venues. And New York is pretty firmly established as ground zero, so all the best assets in a world of limited funding go there.
Perhaps you could get a start by promoting Springfield as a sort of farm league Broadway. Have several venues (unlike most cities that have one, possibly two first-run theaters) and become the alternative pathway?
There’re a few locales that have become alternates to L.A. for musicians wanting to get a recording career going (Nashville, Austin).
I still think you’d need to be prepared to lose a bunch of money before the balance sheet turns black.
Minneapolis is widely known as the Broadway of the Midwest (I know, damning with faint praise). But there are quite a few theaters here, and several plays have had their grand openings here (Lion King, What-his-name and Elton John’s Aida, too, I think, among others.)
Not to mention, we do have a street named Broadway.
Because Lawrence Welk is so very very much more entertaining than any of those newfangled theatre shows. Besides, that might lower the average age from 60 to 55.
Buffalo has a decent theatre district, one that’s disproportionately large compared to the city as a whole. For all the areas’s failures, the Buffalo region has a pretty decent nightlife and a vibrant arts scene.
Could the Las Vegas strip be considered the equivalent of a “Broadway?”
The New Haven area has a pretty good theatre scene. Yale Drama School puts on shows at a few theatres, and a lot of 1st run shows tune up for a couple of weeks or so b efore heading on to Broadway.