MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:
Saying that a musical is on Broadway - it has a special cachet. But many of the biggest hits - think "Hamilton" - they start in more modest venues. This season, it seems like producers are looking off-Broadway to find the next big show. Jeff Lunden reports.
JEFF LUNDEN, BYLINE: It's been an omnivorous fall for off-Broadway musicals. There's the thumping electronic sounds of "The Heart," the story of a heart transplant, in a small theater near Times Square.
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UNIDENTIFIED ACTORS #1: (Singing, as characters) Keep time, keep rhythm, keep pulse, don't stop. Read the room, stay with them, get the (inaudible), stay on top.
LUNDEN: There's the British folk-inflected adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald's short story, "The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button," in an even smaller theater in Greenwich Village that introduced the world to "Hamilton" and "A Chorus Line."
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UNIDENTIFIED ACTORS #2: (Singing, as characters) Oh, all I want is to live a little life.
LUNDEN: And there's "Memoirs Of Amorous Gentlemen," an adaptation of Japanese manga in a purpose-built theater in an old industrial building on the far west side of Manhattan.
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UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #1: (As character) I've been jumping through hoops. Got them dancing in troops.
LUNDEN: This year, producers are starting shows off-Broadway because Broadway is so expensive.
PHILIP BOROFF: What it costs to mount a show off-Broadway may be a fraction of what it costs to do it on Broadway, but it is extremely difficult to make the numbers work off-Broadway, as well.
LUNDEN: Philip Boroff reports on theater finances for Broadway Journal.
BOROFF: The theaters are smaller. The tickets are lower, but you still often have big casts. You have to pay the musicians. And you may not have to make a million dollars to make your nut, but maybe you have to make half a million or 400 grand. That's still a lot of money.
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UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #2: (Singing, as character) One thing's for sure, I am in immured.
LUNDEN: Tony Marion is one of the producers of "Memoirs Of Amorous Gentlemen," which features the last score by the late pop star Duncan Sheik. He says he had to raise $5 million. That's the show's capitalization.
TONY MARION: That's a substantial capitalization for an off-Broadway musical. But I think if we were on 45th Street, I'm sure that number would be 18 to $22 million - right? - or maybe even some more.
LUNDEN: Tickets for the glossy production range from 49 to $129, significantly less than Broadway prices. Marion calls the off-Broadway run a first step in the show's development.
MARION: I do see a lot of my colleagues taking advantage of this model, you know, and starting something downtown and seeing, you know, where it can go, you know, and seeing the work that needs to be done. And if you don't go to Broadway, you still have a New York brand, and that New York brand can be really, really helpful as you look at international productions, you know, following the New York run.
LUNDEN: "Memoirs Of Amorous Gentlemen" is going it alone as a commercial production. The other musicals are being presented at nonprofit theaters with enhancement money from commercial producers in the hopes of transferring to Broadway. But Philip Boroff cautions...
BOROFF: Off-Broadway is a little bit of a perilous place to open a musical because then you run the risk that a local critic, The New York Times, may not like your show, and then it stigmatizes the show. But there are also, of course, examples of "Rent" and "Avenue Q" and "Dear Evan Hansen" and "Hamilton" that had successful off-Broadway runs, and then incredibly successful Broadway runs.
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LIN-MANUEL MIRANDA: (Singing, as Hamilton) I am not throwing away my shot. I am not throwing away my shot.
LUNDEN: Whether any of these shows take their shot on Broadway in the spring or next season is still to be determined.
For NPR News, I'm Jeff Lunden in New York.
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MIRANDA: (Rapping, as Hamilton) A lot of brains but no polished. I got to holler just to be heard with every word. I drop knowledge. I'm a diamond. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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