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Musical Manufacturing
Building Frank Wildhorn's ‘The Civil
War' from the ground up in New
Haven recalls Shubert's glory days
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Business New Haven
2/22/1999
By: Sheila A. LaSella
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On February 16, the Shubert Performing Arts Center premiered the pre-Broadway musical The Civil War. This production has set up shop, and house, in New Haven during the two-month pre-production process. That's much different from the standard touring show that blows into town for a couple of weeks and then leaves with fistfuls of ticket dollars in hand.
As Caroline Werth, the Shubert's president and CEO, puts it, “At the moment, we are a manufacturing company.” The
operation is part of the Shubert's efforts to revive its legacy as a pre-Broadway house, as it was in its glory days from the 1920s to the 1950s.
That's good news for New Haven and all who lament the dearth of “manufacturing” in the state. But, manufacturing a musical? Yes.
For the past two months, approximately 150 workers from around the country have been assembling the show from the ground, or rather stage, up. The director, four-time Tony Award-winner Jerry Zaks, set designers, sound technicians, lighting designers, costume designers, musicians and stagehands have been working and living in New Haven preparing for the outbreak of The Civil War.
The manufacturing - a/k/a the creative - process will continue as The Civil War moves toward Broadway for an inaugural production at the newly restored St. James Theater in April. The cast and crew will revise their work during the show's stay in New Haven through March 7. From subtle lighting modifications to new sound waves, all will be tweaked before moving to the Great White Way.
Explains composer Frank Wildhorn (see accompanying story), “We want to take this and learn from it, and the audiences here, and use that to make changes within the content of the show.”
Typically, production for touring “Broadway” shows takes place long before they get anywhere near the Shubert. Sets are built elsewhere, the performance is already choreographed and lines memorized before the show lands, fully formed, in the Elm City.
A road crew of 40 to 60 workers then “loads the show in” for two days before it begins running. It's “an entirely different experience,” explains Werth, “than producing it at the Shubert.”
But it's an experience that has New Haven reaping a greater economic benefit than what a touring show would normally generate. Most of the economic flow on touring shows goes out of New Haven in the form of ticket revenues.
Even so, the Shubert spends “enormous dollars” in local media purchases and employs local musicians and stagehands for touring shows, thus importing some dollars locally. And, according to Werth, “Restaurants call our box office on daily basis to see where our numbers are and they order food on our sales - that's how directly tied we are to the economy in New Haven.”
Now imagine that influx, plus national theater personnel residing in town over a period of two months. Good news for local businesses and increased visibility for the All-America City.
Cast and crew have been putting dollars into New Haven's pockets while preparing for the musical. Local hotels, parking garages, restaurants and shops are just some of the businesses reaping profits from the Shubert's attempt to revive its past glories as a pre-Broadway house.
Some cast members have been living at the New Haven Hotel for the three weeks leading up to opening night, and the Owl Shop on College Street has been seeing good business from cigar-smoking director Jerry Zaks. As well, longtime theater-goers are inquiring about the old “clubhouse,” Casey's Restaurant on College Street, when they learn of the rejuvenation efforts at the Shubert. Says Werth: “Ask the Omni Hotel about business. This is typically their slowest month.”
Executive producer Gary Gunas of PACE Theatrical Group Inc. says his company has invested $1 million more in the New Haven deal than it would opening a show on Broadway - an investment that flows into New Haven via rent on the theater and cast living allowances, for instance.
There are six co-producers of The Civil War: Pierre Cossette, PACE Theatrical Group, Bomurwil Productions, Kathleen Raitt, Magicworks Entertainment Inc., and Jujamcyn Theaters. “It was Caroline Werth's persistence” says Gunas, that persuaded PACE to venture into development of the show.
Gunas also explains that more flexible union rules were instrumental in the decision to stage it here. He says that an entire crew of 60, for instance, under old union guidelines, would all receive wages for a three-day job, even if some of the workers completed tasks on day one. This time, however, it was “A day's pay for a day's work,” as Gunas puts it, which meant savings on his end and help in making the endeavor economically feasible.The Shubert opened in 1914 and was later dubbed “The Birthplace of the Nation's Greatest Hits.”
Oscar Hammerstein began his professional writing career at the Shubert in 1919 with The Light. The legacy was built upon throughout the 1920s and '30s by actors such as Sara Bernhardt, Al Jolson and the Barrymores.
During the '40s and '50s, Richard Rodgers and Hammerstein premiered Oklahoma!, The King and I and The Sound of Music at the New Haven venue. Newcomers like Katherine Hepburn, Spencer Tracy and Clark Gable showcased their novice talents here. More recently, Sidney Poitier, Robert Redford and Liza Minnelli performed on the Shubert stage
The theater earned its “birthplace” mantle by offering more than 300 world premieres, some 50 American premieres and about 200 pre-Broadway shows throughout is history to date.
It is this legacy the Shubert envisions reviving. A rich history brought forth into a modernized facility which underwent a multi-million dollar facelift in the 1980s, and contemporized by composers like Wildhorn, who remembers that songwriters in the Shubert's heyday created popular music which reached a wide audience. That is the genre his “pop” music falls into.
Will the Shubert's establishment efforts as a pre-Broadway house evolve into more pre-Broadway performances?
Werth says that she is talking to producers in New York and throughout the country hoping to restore the legacy. “I'm working on three possibilities for next season,” she says.
Features to attract potential investors include a lower-pressure out-of-New York safety net and a reputable stage crew. Performance anxiety abates in New Haven vs. standing exposed before the highly critical New York media on opening night.
The ensemble has time in New Haven to fine-tune itself and quiet first night jitters before scrutiny on Broadway. Producers like this, knowing that bad press can close a show in a single night.
And the Shubert's stage crew is one of the best anywhere.
Wildhorn praises the staff, saying, “The crew is first-rate.” Werth adds that she receives consistent feedback from company managers. “It's the best stage crew in the country and what that translates to is an enormous savings of time - and therefore dollars - for the producers,” she says.
Financial challenges for the theater may come in the form of technology. For The Civil War, additional lighting equipment, for instance, is essential. Temporary rigging was installed for the show, but the theater would have to be refitted to make this fixture permanent and part of the package deal. That would be prohibitively expensive.
Also, while the distinguished creative team has produced a show with the potential, as Werth puts it, “to become one of America's classic musicals,” and the show's portrayal of “stories of the real people” who endured the war may draw viewers, will the topic of The Civil War speak to as broad an audience as the shows that made the theater legendary the first time?
It's difficult to imagine that the subject of the War Between the States will capture the attention of younger audiences, for example, who inhabit a world where high-tech visual media is the entertainment of choice and ancient history is the Beatles, not Robert E. Lee.
But by showcasing late 20th-century issues, The Civil War may bring new audiences - and new accolades - to the Shubert stage and revive the glory days of its storied boards.
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