Could a state tax credit program help lure Broadway producers to build their national tours in Connecticut?
Perhaps — if it existed.
Major tour launches won’t likely happen anytime soon at the state’s main presenting houses, including The Bushnell in Hartford and New Haven’s Shubert Theater, because Connecticut lacks a tax credit program to compete with the lures offered by an increasing number of states, including New York, Rhode Island, Illinois and Louisiana.
Meantime, Massachusetts and Ohio have also considered tax credits aimed at encouraging music or theatrical production companies to conduct pre-tour activities, technical rehearsals and even perform shows there.
Connecticut theater executives say they’ve been able to attract some of this work in the past, but it’s getting harder as more states compete for it. Some theater houses want to renew efforts to get a state tax credit program, though they know it will be an uphill battle given Connecticut’s fiscal condition.
New York’s incentives were adopted in 2015, and have helped lure weeks-long technical set-ups and performances in Schenectady (“A Gentleman’s Guide to Love & Murder”), Rochester (“A Bronx Tale”) and Syracuse (a revival of “Fiddler on the Roof”).
States are interested in incentivizing this work because of its potential economic benefits.
For example, “The Lion King’s” technical set-up period and launch for its most recent tour in Syracuse had an estimated local economic impact of more than $14 million from travel, hotels, restaurants, and other activity generated by theatergoers and production staff, according to figures from The Broadway League — a national trade association for the theater industry.
“You can see how many more tours started in New York State after the tax credits were put in place there [five years ago],” says commercial producer Orin Wolf, a 2001 graduate from University of Hartford’s Hartt School.
New York’s tax credits allow show producers that hold technical rehearsals in the state to claim a 25-percent tax credit for certain costs. In the last four years, the state has granted tax credits to 18 startup tours, which are only allowed to operate out of theaters in upstate New York.
Wolf says Connecticut could benefit from a similar program where productions — which can spend several million dollars locally — receive tax credits for up to 20 to 25 percent of money spent for things such as stagehand payroll, hotel stays for cast and crew, food services, and other related expenses.
State tax credit programs for theatrical productions vary, but Wolf says they could provide tens- or even hundreds of thousands of dollars in savings, which can be a determining factor in where a touring production builds its sets, incorporates its lighting, sound, costumes and projections, rehearses its cast and musicians, fine tunes its production and even begins performances.
One of Wolf’s shows — “The Band’s Visit,” which last season won the Tony Award for outstanding musical — will prep its upcoming midsize tour for two weeks and then begin performances in Providence, R.I. — a state, he says, that has been at the forefront of offering tax credits that regularly draw tour launches to the Providence Performing Arts Center.
“That credit is very meaningful for a show like ‘The Band’s Visit,’ ” he says. (“The Band’s Visit” will play for a standard week’s run at The Bushnell next April.)
“If Connecticut were to do tax credits,” says Wolf, “the effect would be substantial because, beyond the financial aspect, it’s also nice to have cities that have proximity to New York. Clearly Connecticut would have an advantage there.”
Real savings
Connecticut currently does have entertainment-industry tax credits, but only for TV, film and digital media productions. The state over the years has pared back its tax credits for feature film productions after concerns were raised they gave away more money than the state actually took in.
Regardless, the state’s arts industry sees opportunity in a theatrical production tax-credit program.
John F. Fisher, executive director of the Shubert Theater, says his Elm City presenting house would benefit the most because of its proximity to New York, direct train line to Manhattan, history of production startups and expert backstage crew, and overall resources available in the region. (A major Broadway scene shop — ShowMotion Inc. — is located in Milford.)
There was a brief time when it looked like Shubert would become a go-to place to build and start tours.
PHOTO | CONTRIBUTED
New Haven’s Shubert Theater held performances of “Jersey Boys” in 2007.
The mega-hit musical “Jersey Boys,” in 2007 spent four weeks there readying its first tour and playing a few performances.
That launch was followed by preparations for the family-friendly hit “Matilda,” which stayed at the College Street theater for nearly seven weeks in 2015, also ending with performances there.
But then, about five years ago, more states — with the help of tax credits — began luring these preparatory productions away. A tour of the musical “The Addams Family” in 2012 had eyed The Bushnell — which had invested in the Broadway show — but was drawn instead to $600,000 worth of tax credits available in New Orleans.
“That was 10 percent of the $6 million production budget, which is significant,” says David Fay, The Bushnell’s CEO and president.
Fisher says there are still a few productions that begin at his theater without the tax credit lure, such as a new “Dreamgirls,” which will begin at the Shubert before going directly to tour in Asia. But, he says, they’re of much smaller scale and here for a shorter stay.
Even these more modest productions, he says, “are harder and harder to attract.”
Fay said there were efforts about a dozen years ago to lobby for tax credits but they went nowhere. Fisher says developing a tax credit proposal has become a priority for his theater.
Wolf’s advice for any future legislation is: “Keep it simple.”
“If the rules become too complicated or cumbersome, it really becomes a discouragement,” he said.
