PlayhouseSquare announces 2011-2012 Broadway Series
Depending on your interests, the rites of spring can vary. For Cleveland Browns fans longing for football, that special day is when the NFL announces the following year’s schedule. For theater lovers all over Northeast Ohio, their Christmas morning-esque feeling comes when PlayhouseSquare Vice President of Theatricals Gina Vernaci announces the next season’s Broadway Series.
CoolCleveland attended this recent press event, which was a spectacle of sorts featuring video presentations of all the productions: Million Dollar Quartet (Tue 10/11 to Sun 10/23); La Cage Aux Folles (Tue 11/8 to Sun 11/20); Hair (Tue 1/17 to Sun 1/29/12); Memphis (Tue 2/28 to Sun 3/11/12); The Addams Family (Tue 4/10 to Sun 4/22/12); Come Fly Away (Tue 5/8 to Sun 5/20/12); and Sondheim on Sondheim (Tue 5/30 to Sun 7/22/12). In addition, the Chicago cast of Million Dollar Quartet flew in to rock the joint.
Afterward, CoolCleveland talked to Vernaci about next year’s series, past successes and the Broadway Series’ importance in Northeast Ohio.
CoolCleveland: Next year’s season is so diverse. When you look at the shows, what ties it all together?
Gina Vernaci: I think there’s a great narrative that laces through the entire season that has a lot of really good storytelling. It starts with the Million Dollar Quartet telling the story of those four guys (Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis and Carl Perkins) and what was happening in their lives when you take that snapshot in one night in 1956. I think that kind of theme continues with La Cages Aux Folles. And Hair, of course, tells the story of the counterculture movement of the ’60s and ’70s. The storytelling of Memphis is so good based on the life of Dewey Phillips and his story of introducing race music to the world. The Addams Family — it makes everyone laugh, just the thought of it. Then the storytelling I love with Twyla Tharp that she tells through Frank Sinatra’s singing in Come Fly Away is so seductive and romantic. And it’s really topped off so beautifully with (Stephen) Sondheim telling his own story at the end of the season, his words. So it’s the storytelling, and of course there’s great music and great choreography on top of it.
When looking back over the Broadway Series’ recent history, it seems like PlayhouseSquare has been blessed with so many blockbuster shows such as Wicked and The Jersey Boys. How does that happen?
They were, but when Wicked started out it wasn’t a blockbuster. They didn’t know what it was when it first went on tour. The first season we had a two-week subscription and we only played it for a week over subscription. It wasn’t here for an extended run because it was uncertain how people were going to react to the show. As for Jersey Boys, people here didn’t know that until once the show opened and word of mouth started. And we believed in that show, which is why we had it here for an extended run for five weeks. We can define what those blockbusters are now. It’s looking at it in the rearview mirror.
As far as selecting the Broadway Series productions, do you look at it from a perspective of what Broadway has to offer or what Cleveland will embrace?
What Broadway has to offer isn’t always what I think will work in Cleveland. And I also think that a lot of times Clevelanders will be among the first to embrace shows. As an example, things that we might bring to town that stretch our audiences like Spring Awakening or Avenue Q. We were one of the first cities to jump on board and say we’ll do it. So in terms of thinking about what will work in Cleveland, it’s somewhat about what you think people want to see combined with knowing you need to put something out there that will stretch them a bit. And you can’t stretch them a bit with seven shows, but you can with one in the course of a season.
That said, which show do you feel will stretch the audience this year?
I think something like Memphis. So many people I know who have gone to see that show come back to me and they say they had no idea what that was about and they loved it. It’s that element of surprise. You try to sprinkle some of that in the season as well.
Finally, in your opinion, what role does the Broadway Series play in Northeast Ohio?
It’s the biggest event theatrically that occurs between New York and Chicago. We have 400,000 people a year come to see Broadway shows at PlayhouseSquare. It’s the engine that drives this organization. It’s what makes this end of downtown light up and certainly it’s what defines us at PlayhouseSquare. We do many shows at PlayhouseSquare but it’s very important to what we do in terms of creating critical mass in the district.
The seven-show Broadway Series subscription package ranges from $70 to $505 per seat. Subscriptions to the Broadway Series at PlayhouseSquare are now available by calling 216-830-7221 or going online to http://www.PlayhouseSquare.org.
[Photos: Top – Million Dollar Quartet photo by Joan Marcus; Bottom – Memphis]
Freelance writer John Benson spends most of his time writing for various papers throughout Northeast Ohio.
When he’s not writing about music or entertainment, he can be found coaching his two boys in basketball, football and baseball or watching movies with his lovely wife, Maria. John also occasionally writes for CoolCleveland.com.
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