By Paul Leighton
Staff writer
—
BEVERLY — The owner of the North Shore Music Theatre said he is "very encouraged" by ticket sales after the first two shows in the theater's comeback season.
Bill Hanney would not disclose exactly how many tickets he has sold since the theater reopened in July, saying, "The quantity isn't as important as the building process."
"As long as I know we're building this thing," he said. "A lot of people were very hesitant. Now they're confident, so that will build back up."
Hanney, a South Shore businessman who owns 10 movie theaters and Theatre by the Sea in Rhode Island, bought North Shore Music Theatre last year for $3.6 million after it went bankrupt in 2008.
The theater has staged two main shows so far, "Gypsy" and "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat," as well as Friday morning children's shows. Hanney said tickets sales were "good" for "Gypsy" and "very good" for "Joseph."
Many people are waiting until the last minute to buy tickets, he noted. The theater sold 400 tickets for the final performance of "Joseph" on the day of the show, he said.
"That's unheard of," he said. "It almost sold out."
North Shore Music Theatre sold more than 350,000 tickets for about 300 shows in 2007, according to financial forms the former owners were required to file when the theater was run as a nonprofit. (Hanney is running the theater as a for-profit business and is not required to file financial forms with the state.)
Those 2007 numbers average out to more than 1,100 tickets per show. Those shows included popular concerts by celebrities like Vince Gill, Kenny Rogers and Smokey Robinson, who also commanded big payments. Gill was paid $100,000 for his 2007 appearance.
Hanney has thus far stayed away from bringing in expensive performers. He said he has rented out the theater to an outside promoter for an Oct. 16 concert called "Harvey Robbins' Royalty of Doo-Wopp and the Superstars of Motown."
Hanney said he does not have to sell out every show to turn a profit, because he has cut expenses so much. The theater has six regular staff members, down from 65 under the previous owners, he said. He also plans to reduce costs by sharing shows with his Theatre by the Sea in Rhode Island and with Cape Playhouse, where his producing artistic director, Evans Haile, also works.
"The good news is that we don't have to sell that many seats," Hanney said. "We have saved so much money in the way I run the company. But you don't see that on stage. On stage is where you don't cut."
Hanney said it's difficult to sell out North Shore Music Theatre because it has 1,500 seats, more than some Boston theaters.
"That's 36,000 seats to sell for a three-week run," he said. "That's a lot of seats."
Former NSMT artistic director Jon Kimbell, who left before the bankruptcy, said the key to success is rebuilding the season-ticket base, which was once as high as 28,000.
Kimbell said that will take awhile, since thousands of ticket-holders lost money when the theater went out of business.
"When something like that happens, it takes a long time for someone to jump back on the bandwagon," Kimbell said. "Bill knows that. He knows it's not going to be slam dunk in the first year."
One indication of the theater's success is its effect on local restaurants. Tim Weadock, general manager of Not Your Average Joe's in North Beverly, said the reopening of the theater has provided a "significant" increase in business at his restaurant, although he said it has yet to match the boost it used to provide.
"Is it what it was when it was open two or three years ago? Not yet," Weadock said. "But it's only two shows in. We're hopeful. I think all the restaurants kind of missed them when they were gone."
NSMT has three shows remaining this season, "Dirty Rotten Scoundrels," "A Chorus Line" and "A Christmas Carol." Hanney said ticket sales for "A Christmas Carol," a longtime favorite at the theater that will be produced again by Kimbell, is on pace to be sold out.
"If I make $1 at the end of this season, I'd be the happiest guy in the world," Hanney said, "because I know whatever we do next year we'll do way better."
Staff writer Paul Leighton can be reached at 978-338-2675 or pleighton@salemnews.com.
