To the editors:
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Subscriptions provide money to theatres up front, but they require a set schedule of productions to make sure subscribers get all that they paid for. Over the years, this has led to many successful productions closing before they were ready to do so, and many less than successful shows having to play out a set run when subscribers, and frequently the actors too, clearly are having a miserable time. And how did these productions end up on stage in the first place? It seems that subscriptions have led to one, two and sometimes more productions in a season ending up on the roster not because they grew out of the desires or the imaginations of the artists, but merely because there was another slot that needed to be filled.
Subscriptions also require of the purchaser money up front–sometimes a lot of money. At Mr. Newman’s Lyric Opera, a pair of subscriptions averages $700, and at the Goodman, Steppenwolf and other theatres $240 or more is not uncommon. At those prices, subscriptions are inevitably being marketed to, and purchased by, people whose annual salaries are, well, up there. What about the rest of the world? If we continue to target our marketing only to those who can afford this price tag up front, the theatre will become even more of a luxury item than it is already, its audiences classified by one predominant characteristic: they are rich. Opera may be a different story, but if theatre is to survive it must reflect the economic and cultural diversity of the city and the world around it. Otherwise it will die as the subscribers do.
