2,028 stories by "Ken Davenport"
Ladies and gentlemen . . . may I have a "percussive breakfast product" please? (In Chinglish, that would also be known as a "drumroll". :-) The winner of the Chinglish ti…
Whenever I think that marketing a Broadway show is hard, I think . . . well, it could be worse . . . I could be trying to market an opera. Opera just sounds old, right? It's like Museum. Or.…
Today is October 13th. And there are three very special things associated with this great day. - On October 13th, 1929, my father was born. Today he turns 82. Happy Birthday, Dad. Thank you …
Allow me to present three articles, from three of our major online trade sites: The announcement of the opening of the Lysistrata Jones box office on Playbill. The Porgy and Bess limited run…
Every week, Ryan Seacrest counts down the Top 40, in a tradition handed to him by the shaggy-voiced Casey Casem. It's a weekly "hit-list" that I listened to as a kid, and millions more list…
Little Billy Elliot broke a lot of hearts last week, when he announced he was hanging up his toe shoes and closing up shop at the Imperial Theater, where he has been dancing his bollocks off…
The following are the Broadway Grosses from the week ending October 9, 2011: Show Name GrossGross TotalAttn %Cap AvgPdAdm ANYTHING GOES $882,827 8,018 97.69% $110.11 BILLY ELLIOT: THE MUSICA…
For those of you reading my Godspell Blog, you know that I'm in the midst of teching Godspell. Techs for Broadway shows can be some of the most expensive and time consuming events leading up…
As you probably know, especially if you're reading the Day-By-Day blog, I'm currently in tech for Godspell. Tech means two things: late nights and junk food. Last night, at just after 10 PM,…
I don't know if Steve Jobs ever even went to a Broadway show, but I do think he was one of the greatest Producers who ever lived. He built things the world didn't even know it needed. And he…
Every week, Ryan Seacrest counts down the Top 40, in a tradition handed to him by the shaggy-voiced Casey Casem. It's a weekly "hit-list" that I listened to as a kid, and millions …
If I were a statistics guy (wait a minute, I am), I'd say that 75% of the questions I get in email form and at my 'Get Your Show Off The Ground' seminars are marketing related. Specifically,…
One of the most popular flicks of the last several weeks has been the Brad Pitt produced, Moneyball, based on the book of the same name. Simply put, Moneyball is about statistics . . . and h…
The following are the Broadway Grosses from the week ending October 2, 2011: Show Name GrossGross TotalAttn %Cap AvgPdAdm ANYTHING GOES $814,553 7,822 95.30% $104.14 BILLY ELLIOT: THE MUSICA…
When one of the most successful composers in musical theater history decides to make his producing debut with someone else's musical, you know something is up. That composer is none other th…
One of the economic challenges of a long-running musical or play is that because it's pretty much the same experience, it's hard to get an audience to come back a second time (which is one o…
I don't know where September went but it's g-g-g-g-gone. Let's see what interested you in what seems like the shortest month of the year. The most read post of the month: 5 Shows that Stand …
We're going international, y'all! On December 12th at 8 PM, we'll have our final reading of the year and this time, we've gone overseas to get our subject. Martha, Martha comes to us all the…
Patti LuPone should play Annie Oakley some day, because the woman is the 'straightest shooter' I've ever seen. When something's buggin' her, whether it's a photographer in a theater, or a ci…
Out there in the hills of Hollywood, it's not uncommon for a movie star to take on the title of Producer, either on his or her own films or on other properties as well. Look at the current h…
When 65% of our audience is from "out-of-town", there's no question as to how we should overweight our marketing and product development strategies in order to achieve commercial success (if…
Snapped this pic on Sunday eve as one of the first examples of media sharing in Times Square between two unrelated shows. This billboard (one of the baby bills in TS) first split pre-summer …
The following are the Broadway Grosses from the week ending September 25, 2011: Show Name GrossGross TotalAttn %Cap AvgPdAdm ANYTHING GOES $816,609 7,822 95.30% $104.40 BILLY ELLIOT: THE MUS…
Holy Nuns, batman! We had a new comment record for last week's contest with 240+ entries!!! Wowza! In case you missed it, the challenge was to rename a musical replacing one of the words wit…
When 65% of our audience is from "out-of-town", there's no question as to how we should overweight our marketing and product development strategies in order to achieve commercial s…
