Behind the Scenes with Our 2020-2021 Broadway Series
Lisa Condit, director of marketing and pr at The Hanover Theatre, has the latest details on the timeline for our anticipated reopening and ticket sales for the new Broadway season. Listen to her interview with Hank Stolz and WCRN 830 AM, or read on for highlights.
Lisa: We have been reaching out to all of our subscribers and FLEX Package holders, and it has been an unbelievable experience for us.
Hank: I do love also the fact that everybody is there supporting The Hanover Theatre. You announced all those great Broadway shows and people are buying it.
Lisa: We’re very aware that there are a lot of people wondering where the money is going to come from for rent or groceries, so it is so amazing that in a time like this, we are getting the support that we are. This is such an unusual time period. Dates are changing. Our season, now, for Broadway isn’t starting until January. A lot of our subscribers and loyal patrons are in that dangerous situation where their immune systems are compromised or they’re older, and we have to be careful. The truth is, we don’t know yet what it’s going to take for people to feel comfortable coming back to the stage. As we get closer to the end of the summer, we’ll know more about the specifics, but we definitely remain committed that we’ll make sure it’s healthy or safe for everyone.
Hank: I trust The Hanover Theatre. I will go back when you tell me. I’m going to just assume that the theatre or other businesses I know have done all of that. When the theatre tells me that we’re putting on the show, I think people are going to be there. We know that everything has to open back up at some point, and we trust the people at the businesses we have supported. I have a good feeling about opening back up and seeing people coming out for the Broadway Series or any of the other events.
Lisa: Because our season has changed so much, we’re going to be talking about subscriptions for a much longer period of time. Usually, the big challenge was, how are we going to sell subscriptions when we will not have announced one of the shows? We’ve bought ourselves some time for the people who really want to know about the shows before they commit.
Hank: We do know five of the shows.
Lisa: The reaction has been really strong. We do have a couple of shows that are repeats, but they’re the classics like CATS, which has been re-imagined by the choreographer for Hamilton. Another show we’re excited to have back again is Blue Man Group, one of those interesting performance art experiences, still blue, all new. Plus, as a subscription benefit, you can exchange into one of the other shows.
I think people’s main concern is, “What’s the plan if you can’t open in January.”
Hank: Some of the most commonly asked questions don’t have answers. There is still some uncertainty. That must make it hard.
Lisa: It does, but, like always, transparency, honesty, waiting until we have the right answer, and, you’re right, we will do the right thing.
The other question we are getting a lot of has to do with the timing of allowing people to pick the shows that they want. You can rest assured that we’re going to sit with the seven shows as a subscription series, and single tickets for the first show will not likely go on sale until October or November, and in between that time is when we’ll have the FLEX Packages available.
The hardest conversation I’ve had is with people who have subscribed maybe as a five-show subscriber for the last ten years, and all of a sudden, they’re thinking, “What do you mean I’m not going to have that same seat every year and I have to subscribe to all seven in order to save that seat?” That is an area where we have had a lot of discussion about how do we honor that loyalty. It’s important to us. We’re working on a very specific way to take care of long-term subscribers before single tickets go on sale in the fall.
Our job right now is to connect with our community and our patrons and make sure that everybody knows what we’re planning, that we’re going to be safe and that we’re taking care of our loyal patrons.
