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PrintAltered Landscape Demands Response
Live entertainment in New Orleans hit important landmarks recently with the reopening of a major performance hall and the announcement that another big theater will return. The comeback of the Mahalia Jackson Theater for the Performing Arts has given the opera and ballet a full-time home and provided part-time quarters for the philharmonic orchestra, New Orleans Jazz Orchestra and other organizations that have had to scrounge for stages since 2005.
We also learned recently that the venerable Saenger Theater will be restored to its former glory within a few years. That means the splashy touring shows from Broadway and elsewhere that local audiences used to enjoy will once again return to Canal and Rampart streets. Even before the expected 2011 reopening of the Saenger, the company that will manage both the Saenger and Mahalia Jackson Theater says it will bring Broadway-style shows to the latter stage later this year.
The return of these venues is of course great news for lovers of theater and grand musical performances. But the expanding inventory of performance space also has other implications. The theater community in post-Katrina New Orleans has been surprisingly vibrant, in part because the city’s circumstances attracted fresh talent that bolstered existing resources. But small local theaters also have benefited from the absence of major competitors.
As the theater community begins to welcome back these icons, it’s a good time to assess what the future might hold for smaller stages. Collaboration has become a hallmark of New Orleans theater in recent years. Perhaps the concept could work in marketing as well. The number of local seats competing for ticket-buyers is growing fast. While small theaters must continue to compete with one another for audiences, they might benefit from pooling resources and doing some joint marketing to help expand the circle of theater-goers. •
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