Absence of Suburbanites Impacts More Than You Think

Many folks have read in the last few weeks that Broadway is suffering from a suburban theatergoer drought. That is true. Two things are important to note related to that. First, this impacts more than simply pure overall attendance numbers. Second, this isn’t totally unique to New York.

Let’s start with Broadway. According to stats released by the Broadway League, only 13.6% of the Broadway audience last season came from New York City suburbs. Most journalists cited the latest Broadway League demographics report in their articles, so they only went back to the 2006-2007 season, which is all that report did. But let’s go back further—to the first season of this century, the 2000-2001 season. To open up this century, 24.4% of the Broadway audience was suburbanites, and the years that sandwiched that year both had approximately 26% of their audience from the suburbs. Sadly, 13.6% is not only the lowest percentage in this century, it’s also approximately 10% points lower than where Broadway was when it began this century. This audience is also down in absolute numbers, with only 1.67 million folks from the suburbs attending Broadway last season. That’s also the lowest of this century.

You may think: “Well, as long as other people make up for it.” (Which they didn’t last season, but hope springs eternal.) But that’s too simplistic a view. Locals, meaning NYC and suburbanites, comprise a large portion of the straight-play audience. They also are more likely to attend shows in previews and at the beginning of their runs than tourists are. That has been the case since I’ve been covering the theater. Therefore, these audiences are unique and we either specifically need them or need their attendance segment to be covered by NYC audiences. An increase in tourists will not have the same impact. (That’s part of why I’ve always been confused as to why Congestion Pricing wasn’t top of the Broadway League “don’t do this” agenda, in place of ticket fee transparency and the proposed casino. We don’t need to give this audience one more reason to be unhappy.)

According to research done by Situation Interactive, suburbanites cite “concerns about safety” as the biggest reason they have not returned to Broadway. 51.4% of suburbanites cited that as the reason they have not returned. Only 25.3% of folks in the rest of the northeast corridor cite safety concerns as the reason they are not back; other domestic tourists seem even less concerned with safety with only 17.5% selecting it as their top reason. This makes sense—suburbanites watch/read our local news, which frequently contains reports of crime in the Times Square area. That stuff doesn’t reach other areas as much.

And that gets us to the second point, crime being perceived as high in cities is not unique to New York. When Lookingglass was forced to go into a semi-pause, then artistic director Heidi Stillman told me that she had been told by non-returning audience members that perceived crime in Downtown Chicago was one of the reasons they had not returned. I’m working on a new story, that I can’t quote from yet, and several regional theater directors, from various places in the country, have told me similarly as part of it. I spoke to a theater executive in Los Angeles who told me he had ticket buyers simply not show up to the theater when the garage directly adjacent to the theater was full; they were scared to walk from one a block down. Some of these theaters have increased their in-city audience, but are still seeing a softening in their suburban audience. It is not universal. However, it is on the minds of many leaders. When crime goes up in cities, or when there is even a perception of that increase, that may factor into a prospective audience member’s decision. That’s not unique to Broadway.

Industry Trends Weekly is a short column that runs in the weekly Industry Pro Newsletter. To read past columns and subscribe Click Here. If you have an idea for the column, you can reach the author at cara@broadwayworld.com.