What Is The Best City In The USA (New York excluded) For Theater?

[GavestonPS]

LA small theater is pretty hit and miss. Some great work being done here but also a lot of "showcase" stuff where people are just trying to get agents or on a tv show.

But that's true of New York, too, unless things have changed a great deal.

I don't think the number of shows a city sends to New York is a good barometer unless your taste runs to large, commercial pieces. (Not that there's anything wrong with that.)

Finally, any city that holds a "William Finn Festival" gets my vote. I still say Chicago.

[Phantom of London]

What evidence is there that Chicago is the best? Someone has offered Who's afraid of Virginia Woolf, The Iceman Cometh with I believe the mighty Nathan Lane and 2 off Broadway offerings.

Also I know Kinky Boots and Big Fish are going to have their try out there. I also believe Chicago premiered The Producers, Spamalot, Young Frankenstein and The Pirate Queen.

What else makes Chicago or another city great?

[Addison D.]

I think you've phrased your question in a way that makes it impossible to answer satisfactorily. I'm not sure "evidence"--objective facts--can be supplied to support one's conviction that a given city is "the best"--a largely subjective evaluation.

In terms of shows that end up on Broadway, Chicago has a long track record of supplying shows to NYC. In my years as a Goodman subscriber, I saw Chita in 'The Visit', 'Bounce', 'The Rabbit Hole' and 'Hollywood Arms' in Chicago before seeing them in NYC. If I were better about saving Playbills, I would doubtless be able to list others.

It's also about having a community of performers large enough to be able to provide top-quality talent for smaller, local productions of shows in smaller venues. The casts in the Porchlight productions of the Finn shows were uniformly good to excellent. We take that for granted in NYC, but it doesn't happen everywhere, as the tryouts in 'Waiting For Guffman' illustrate so beautifully.

[trixigold]

Steppenwolf Theatre and Second City will always put Chicago near the top of the list for theater cities outside NYC. San Francisco has ACT and Berkeley Rep, so it deserves consideration.

[lightguy06222]

@owen22-

while the noho arts district has LOTS of theatres ,the EL PORTAL is the only house in the noho arts district that seats around 400... EVERY other venue in NOHO is 99 seats or less.

[broadwaybelter]

San Francisco is hardly "the best" theater town, compared to Chicago and New York. While, yes, there are prominent theaters such as Magic Theater and American Conservatory Theater; the quality of the smaller theaters borders on amateurish. Also, the amount of professional theaters that are readily accessible, are severely lacking.

[My Oh My]

Has anyone mentioned La Jolla?

It doesn't have the name recognition of, say, San Diego, which is close by, but the La Jolla Playhouse produces a lot of try-outs of shows that have eventually made it to Broadway. My brother drives up there with his wife a lot to see new stuff, and usually reports to me the stuff he liked, which has been a good number of shows.

That said, I agree with Gaveston in that I'm not sure number of shows that make it to Broadway is a good measure of that city's theatre scene. But I also know that a city having a bunch of 99 seat theatres that produce all sorts of stuff, typically features about one or two great productions among them. So quantity isn't usually a good measure either.

I instinctively chose Chicago because there seems to be a healthy theatre culture there. It certainly did give me a strong impression of that when I visited back in 2007. There were both big and small shows playing on every other block. I also know productions that are very expensive to stage, usually make it a point to book Chicago as one of the first cities they visit, and they book for lengthy engagements. I've also known Chicago to get several sit-downs of big shows. At least more than most other cities in the country. Again, that translates to a city who still values theatre-going, whereas the rest of the country has that one first run house and one or two touring venues. And that's it. :S

[best12bars]

Having lived in L.A. for 23 years, I'm definitely putting it at or near the top. It's got a huge theatre scene, particularly once you get away from all the Broadway tryouts and national tours that come through (not that there's anything wrong with that). And it runs the gamut from dinner theatre "cheese" to absolute state-of-the-art cutting edge. I saw many great plays and indelible performances over the two and a half decades I lived there.

Theatre in Los Angeles lives in the shadow of the film and TV industry by comparison, but it's still a thriving scene.

[theminutepast]

Chicago. They have sitdown productions, they get the tours right away, and they often have the out-of-town tryouts.

I lived near Memphis and it was a huge disappointment. Maybe you have to be in the theatre scene there to know what's happening, but as I recall it, the Orpheum Theatre was the only theater and they had very little in terms of plays and musicals.

[EricMontreal22]

Chicago would be my choice, as well. Back in October when I was reading the reviews for the revival of Sweet Bird of Youth there, it led me to other Chicago theatre sites, and I was pretty shocked at the sheer amount of options to choose from (though I admit this isn't always a reflection of quality, but still)--ranging from more experimental and small shows to large ones.

[GavestonPS]

But in all fairness, Eric, the "It's a Small World After All" ride at Disneyland is NOT representative of Southern California theater.

[luvtheEmcee]

Chicago. I don't know how many of the places listed can even appear in the same breath as Chicago. (I don't mean to sound insulting to the quality of work -- I have seen magnificent theater all over the country, but just in sheer volume alone.)

I came here after decades as a lifelong New Yorker who thought she'd never leave. I'm working on amazing projects, I see incredible work all. the. time. and I'm happy. I agree about the presence of musicals, but I hope that's changing -- and otherwise, the talent, the breadth, the depth, the ethic, this place is extraordinary.

(The transfers New York sees are only a tiny, tiny FRACTION of what you can see here, and are not always exemplary of the best. They're often great, but not always. And remember that Kinky Boots is not technically a Chicago transfer.)

[jpbran]

"No one has mentioned San Francisco, original home of Wicked (and in a slightly lesser voice, Lestat)."

Out-of-town tryouts...

[luvtheEmcee]

I love San Francisco almost as much as I love New York, but it has a surprisingly small theater scene.

[coryografer]

No one has mentioned Cleveland? The only theatre complex larger than our Playhouse Square is NYC's Lincoln Center. All the top tours come through here and we have Cleveland Playhouse (nation's oldest pro theatre). There are number of smaller professional theatres in the metro area and innumerable community theatres. There is always a wide selection of theatre experiences for anyone seeking good theatre. I think you would be surprised at the vastness of the theatre scene in Cleveland.

[goldenboy]

And Fort Lauderdale and South Florida is probably the worst:
Theatre Casualties include: Caldwell Theatre, Florida Stage, Rising Action Theatre,
Mosaic Theatre, Public Theatre and More.

[GavestonPS]

I grew up in Fort Lauderdale, goldenboy, and worked my way up through the Parker and the Miami Beach Theatre for the Performing Arts.

When Zev Bufman was the producer, they did star-package musicals and comedies (and even occasionally dramas) that were often quite good. Some imported; some originated in South Florida.

Is that no longer the case?

[GavestonPS]

To add to what best12bars and others have said above, Los Angelenos are quite used to driving, so we regularly attend shows in Orange and San Diego counties. It's a very spread-out theater scene, but when you add places such as La Jolla, UCLA and South Coast Rep to the Mark Taper Forum and the hundreds of 99-seat theaters, it's a rare evening when there isn't something within driving distance worth seeing.

And the acting and writing talent out here is extraordinary. Some can't make the transition from film/TV to stage, but most do.

[goldenboy]

There are no shows produced by Zev Bufman in South Florida. Haven't been for years.
Parker is now a rental facilty. They bring in things like Valerie Harper in Looped. There is no longer a Coconut Grove Playhouse (that was Zev Bufman's I think), No longer a Jackie Gleason Miami Beach Performing arts Center. It is now the Filmore Center.

There are houses that bring in touring companies. Arsht Center in Miami and Broward Center for the Performing Arts. No new theatre ..just touring companies.

The good theatre's aren't lasting due to the financial climate, Govt Arts funding Cutbacks.

[GavestonPS]

Sorry I wasn't clear. Zev actually lives somewhere near me now in California. He and I aren't in touch, but mutual friends from the old days have visited both of us.

The Bufmans (Zev's father was the silent partner) had their own money and their own arrangement with local banks. So though they filled in with available tours (the first I saw was Ethel Merman in CALL ME MADAM), they mounted their own shows to fill out subscription seasons. Occasionally their casting was a tad star struck, but on the whole, they did rather good musicals.

I moved to New York in 1977, but we had just presented the International Company of A CHORUS LINE in Miami Beach, so the change to running "rental houses" had already begun. I hear Zev expanded all over the southeast and then made a fortune by selling out to a large corporation.

(Yes, he did operate the Coconut Grove at an earlier time (early 60s), but that was before I worked for him. The Grove was declining demographically and its audience had been drying up for some time. It made a comeback in the late 70s, but I was gone and don't know if Zev was involved.)

I'm sorry to hear the South Florida scene is so disappointing. And I don't mean to imply it was ever vast, just that the Bufmans did present some good shows in the 60s and 70s.

[goldenboy]

There are two other things killing South Florida theatre. One is that many older people live in condo communities that bring in shows to their "auditoriums." Usually cabaret artists
varying in quality. The older crowd says there is no need to go to the theatre because of the "Condo Circuit." The other problem is the older Jewish audience is dying out.

[GatorNY]

When I was taking classes at The Theatre Lab in DC, I learned that (at least at that time) that there was more WORK for actors per capita in DC than any other place in the country.