For the past three years, the theater world has been in crisis. Across the country, companies have staged fewer shows and laid off employees. Some have stumbled financially while others — mostly in entertainment-rich cities like New York, Chicago and Los Angeles — have even closed.
The state of the industry has garnered headlines. A New York Times op-ed from last summer argued that American theater is imploding before our eyes, soon to collapse without a bailout.
Denver hasn’t been immune to these challenges. Attendance is down here even as it has dropped 20% nationwide since the beginning of 2020 — and could drop even further, according to American Theatre, a magazine that covers theatrical news and trends.
And yet Denver’s theater scene is doing measurably better than most. Unlike other cities, there have been no major closures. Instead, the buzz for some shows has built far in advance of their openings, while upcoming titles for next year have recorded impressive pre-sales.
It’s not by accident.
Denver stages have benefitted from a unique mix of funding and support, as well as successful efforts to attract younger patrons with bold titles such as Curious Theatre’s staging of “The Minutes,” a horror-drama that takes on systemic violence, or David Byrne’s daring “Theater of the Mind,” a mind-bending interactive show that world-premiered in Denver last year.
But the local scene is also balancing new theatrical works with comfort food that satisfies emotional needs and offers spectacle you can’t get at home. That includes the Denver Center for the Performing Arts’ (DCPA) touring Broadway production of “Frozen,” which was recently extended due to ticket demand, having already had its pre-Broadway premiere here in 2017.
“We’re still not having the banner year that most companies had in 2019, but the theater community here is coming out of hibernation,” said Betty Hart, president of the Colorado Theatre Guild. “This calendar year has been extraordinary for artistic quality, but we’re also representative of the national scene, which has seen declining attendance.”
The main act
Theater in Denver starts at the top, with the Denver Center Theatre Company and its parent, the DCPA, a nonprofit that resides at the city-owned Denver Performing Arts Complex. That city-owned complex’s biggest venues are the Ellie Caulkins Opera House, the Temple Hoyne Buell Theatre — DCPA’s Broadway venue — and Boettcher Concert Hall.
Following an encouraging 2022-23 season, and DCPA’s first full one after COVID, the organization is prepping for blockbuster runs of “MJ” (April 10-29, 2024), Disney’s “Frozen” (June 19-July 3, 2024) and “Wicked” (July 21-Aug. 4, 2024). Sales for those have hit pre-pandemic levels, covering more than 90% of its annual budget of $74.5 million, according to the DCPA.
In addition, DCPA has in recent years received about $17 million in public, pandemic-era support, and $31.1 million in Build a Better Denver, Elevate Denver and RISE Denver bond funds. But these robust figures — DCPA said it also secured $21.6 million from donations and fundraising drives last year — can obscure how deeply intertwined the art and finances truly are.
Stability doesn’t mean the organization is rolling in money. In fact, tickets sold for touring Broadway shows like “Frozen” pay for most of DCPA’s other ventures, such as the unprofitable, “mission-based” Theatre Company, whose annual productions put the “Denver” in DCPA.
In addition, theater subscriptions have declined in favor of single, less commitment-heavy purchases. DCPA still relies on those, with 26,000 subscribers contributing to last year’s total of 727,465 ticket sales, according to a draft community report from the nonprofit.
“It’s a very, very different world now,” said Chris Coleman, artistic director of DCTC. “Even though (DCTC) has stronger underpinnings than many in the field, we still have to be much more mindful of our resources and our choices. We’ve had to make incredibly difficult decisions quickly.”
Those decisions are both artistic and financial. The DCPA is currently polishing a five-year strategic plan and fundraising campaign, but inflation and labor shortages aren’t helping. Nor is a hollowed-out downtown and the perception that all theater, everywhere, is faltering.
“We’re trying to show donors that we’re a sound investment,” said DCPA president Janice Sinden.
One way to do that is to diversify its revenue streams by producing younger-leaning fare such as the surreal selfie installation “Camp Christmas”; another is to rent out its wholly-owned theaters for private downtown events. DCPA has also ramped up its collaborations with other theaters, done some smart marketing, experimented with dynamic pricing and upped its audience polling in order to convince people that theater tickets are still worth the price.
Coleman notes that audiences have also been excited by an uptick in work from “BIPOC writers since the pandemic,” which includes its acclaimed restaging of “The Color Purple” in the spring, which Mayor Mike Johnston said brought him to tears in a Denver Post interview.
“I understand the collapse narrative, because there are some really dramatic stories of closure,” Coleman said about the national scene. “But I also see people in Denver rising to the occasion.”
Stage left
American theater has long been buoyed by a mix of private and public funding, which is why most performing arts groups are nonprofits. Colorado has more than 100 theater companies of various sizes, according to OnStage Colorado, and dozens of venues at which to perform.
In the metro area, unique public funding from the tax-supported, seven-county Scientific & Cultural Facilities District (SCFD) is vital for those groups. The district pumped $68 million into hundreds of organizations last year, such the Denver Zoo and the Denver Botanic Gardens, but also theater, art collectives, music venues and dance.
But, like the DCPA, smaller companies are also having to make smarter choices more quickly.
For example, a handful of new, ambitious dramas and regional premieres are intended to whip up interest in shows like the Curious-hosted version of the Pulitzer Prize-winning “Cost of Living” by Denver’s Phamaly Theatre Company, which employs artists with disabilities.
Producers are also booking shows to draw new and younger audiences, whether it’s “Mean Girls: The Musical” or immersive experiments from companies like Boulder’s Catamounts, which recently staged the show “Pride of the Farm” on an actual farmstead.
Denver doesn’t wait until a title has been established or sanctioned by another city to produce it, said the Colorado Theatre Guild’s Hart, who’s also an actor and co-director at Boulder’s Local Theater Company.
“Look at the immersive shows the Catamounts are doing, or the (sales) success of Jeffrey Neumann’s ‘The Headliners’ at Cherry Creek Theatre,” she said, noting the novel settings and intimate dramas, respectively, that has lately drawn audiences.
In Golden, the city is dusting off a $17 million performing arts center for Miners Alley Playhouse, which has seen an increase in audiences this season, said artistic director Len Matheo, and has already surpassed its attendance and revenue of 2019.
“I credit this to not shutting down during the pandemic and always creating content and keeping our audience engaged,” Matheo said.
Denver’s Curious Theatre Company, which was founded in 1997 and showcases progressive works from playwrights of color, LGBTQ playwrights, or female playwrights, has also seen keen interest in new shows so far this season, which is a good sign, wrote artistic director Jada Suzanne Dixon and managing director Jeannene Bragg via email.
“We were delighted that our season opener, ‘The Minutes,’ exceeded our optimistic single ticket projections by $10,000 and are hopeful this represents a shift in sales trends,” Dixon and Bragg wrote. “We also saw a significant increase in brand-new attendees for that show,” which explored thorny and relevant political topics with dark humor.
But with its lifeblood subscriptions ($100 to $230 each) down by 30% compared to 2019, Curious has had to cut budgets, production sizes and performance runs.
“We are still in a recovery phase and working with about 75% of the earned income we had in 2019,” Dixon and Bragg said. “Individual giving is down as donors are becoming more discerning with where and how they spend their dollars.”
An unknown ending
To survive, though, theaters will need to go even further, said Alex Miller, founder of OnStage Colorado, a theater news and reviews website that was born five years ago. A former news editor at the Summit County and Vail daily newspapers, he’s also a veteran actor, director and playwright with a dual perspective on art and business.
“Unless they’re filling every seat every night with full-price tickets — which they’re not — theaters should make discounted seats available for kids and other people under, say, 30,” he wrote in an email to The Denver Post. “They need to be creative – offer a free beer for anyone between 21 and 30 on Thursday nights, have a weed ‘n’ theater night … and reach out to local colleges and universities with student discounts. …
“The same goes for communities like Black and Latino Coloradans who are woefully absent in most theater audiences — even with shows that feature these groups,” he added.
Theater leaders are counting on audience growth from new fans across the board, with public funding bringing in audiences who don’t always fit the high-income demographic. If not, Denver’s scene may begin to resemble its failing national counterparts.
“We want to make sure the stories we’re telling make sense to who’s in our audience and who’s in our community,” DCPA’s Sinden said of this season’s 32-title calendar.
“Because of SCFD and funding models here, it takes pressure off our philanthropic community. When you spread the peanut butter wider, where everybody pays a little, we’re able to substantially support new work,” she added. “For that we’re deeply grateful.”