Charlotte St. Martin is still out of touch
Greg Ehrhardt, OnStage Blog Editorial Staff
Charlotte St. Martin, President of The Broadway League, gave a 3 part interview to Broadway News (which you can read here, here, and here), and, as we like to say over at OnScreen Blog, it is truly definitive Charlotte St. Martin, showing her at her best and worst.
As much we like to (deservedly) pile on her, she does have some admirable qualities. She is a fierce defender of Broadway’s place in the culture, especially New York culture, and will always stand up for Broadway’s interests as competing forces try to take over Broadway territory in the hearts and wallets of tourists and residents alike.
Before we get to the “However” portion of this editorial, we interrupt this OnStage Blog editorial to make one thing clear. St. Martin doesn’t have any direct power to influence aspects of the theatre-going experience like ticket prices, casting, and show choices. She is, in essence, the commissioner of Broadway, the Roger Goodell of New York city theatre. She is the spokesperson of the industry and the representative of Broadway in dealing with government officials and public relations and other 3rd parties. This doesn’t mean she is blameless in many of the pain points of the current Broadway experience. What she says to the media and the public matters, A LOT. While she can’t snap her fingers and make ticket prices lower, she does have indirect influence on things like ticket prices. Her position on Broadway topics, and the topics she chooses to emphasize to the media, matters.
And now, back to the “However” section of our editorial.
However, St. Martin has always had tunnel vision as far as the business model of Broadway for the past, present, and future. She is a fierce defender of the current business model, which is essentially trickle-down economics for Broadway; make sure the wealthy customers are taken care of (According to The Broadway League’s own research, the average household income of the current theatre audience is $261,000), while leaving just enough breadcrumbs for everyone else and tell them they should be grateful for said breadcrumbs.
In other words, dare we say it, she tells the non-affluent theatre-going audience, “Let them eat cake.”
Read her own words and judge for yourself.
In Part 1 of the interview with Broadwaynews.com, one of the first pain points she brings up is the fact that international tourism is still down from pre-pandemic. St. Martin says:
“Of course, international tourists, the loss of them is significant because they are the ones that stay longer, buy more tickets. So you have to make up for somebody that buys five tickets with five different people that buy one ticket. That’s one of the reasons why domestic tourism is really very helpful. So I feel very good about it.”
Always pay attention to things “commissioners” emphasize. Her assertion that tourists, especially international tourists, buy more tickets than local audiences is of course factually correct.
But she never centers a solution around how to get local audiences to buy more tickets (like, say, lower ticket prices or a loyalty program). Her statement above suggests it is a fact of life that domestic tourists will not buy multiple tickets, and the only solution to get ticket sales back to pre-pandemic levels is for international tourists to come back to pre-pandemic levels.
In other words, creating an environment for domestic audiences to be willing and able to see multiple shows isn’t on her agenda. They are fine with breadcrumbs. She wants the international tourists back, who are insensitive to high ticket prices.
Hoooo boy.
Next, in part 1, she tries to claim that Broadway is more family-friendly than ever before. She says:
“[Back then,] 8 percent of our audience was under 25; now 15 to 20 percent is under 25. So that clearly means we’ve done more family shows.”
First, about 28% of the country is between the ages of 5 and 25. So it’s not exactly a crowning achievement to get to between “15% and 20% under 25. Also, I’m certain she has an exact number here between 15%-20% since she knows exactly 8% were under 25 back then. I suspect the real number is on the low end of the range. I would have loved for broadwaynews.com to push back on any or all of this, but oh well.
Second, since when is under 25 years old a good barometer for family-aged people? Are 20-year-olds children now? I hope St. Martin knows that you’re legally an adult at 18 years old.
My guess is the data she has isn’t so kind to those under 18 years old, so she cherry-picked the under 25 statistic and hopes no one thinks that it isn’t possible that hit shows like Hamilton have a unique appeal to the college-age audience.
I would have loved for broadwaynews.com to follow up on this, but, once again, oh well.
St. Martin is clearly content with kids, and college-age adults, most of whom are lacking in financial means, being underrepresented in the theatre audience.
Speaking of kids, St. Martin continues in Part 1 (yep, we’re still in Part 1, she said some amazing things in this interview, what can we say) about Kids Night in Broadway, a promotion we wrote about basically being a sham of a family night promotion. Guess what? She basically admits ‘Kids Night On Broadway’ is a sham!
St. Martin says about KNOB:
“Kids Night on Broadway is not really about selling tickets ’cause it’s a one-night thing, but it’s about reminding everyone with kids what shows are on Broadway that are good for kids.”
Read that quote again. She admits she basically used families as a prop to promote Broadway. She admits it was never about giving away tickets to families who can’t afford tickets at the list price. And, as we wrote at the time when you run a free ticket promotion on a Tuesday night during a school week, you’re damn right you’re not giving away many tickets.
Trickle-down economics might be too kind a way to describe St. Martin’s views about theatre economics.
But wait, there’s more.
In Part 2, St. Martin discusses the challenges of selling tickets to local audiences, some of whom work in the city, but who are still not yet working five days a week in the office. She says:
“What I do see is that more and more businesses are beginning to require less remote work. And we know from office occupancies that we’ve lost a lot of businesses that have moved out of the city or let their leases expire and they have more remote work. But on the other hand, you have [certain investment banks] saying, “You will be back to work or you won’t have a job in the office.”
She says this in a positive light (read for yourself), as if coming back to work in an office, in a city with what is usually an awful commute, even for locals, is a desirable thing for Broadway.
Now, again, as a simple matter of fact, transactionally, New York City businesses forcing their employees to work 5 days in the office is a better thing for Broadway.
But of course, working remotely for many families is a great way to help make ends meet and spend more time with their kids. Nope, according to St. Martin, speaking willingly to the media, working remotely is yet another obstacle in St. Martin’s eyes for Broadway to overcome, nothing more, nothing less. No mention of how maybe Broadway should be able to accommodate non-NYC residents and workers better.
Again, pay attention to what commissioners say and don’t say, and pay attention to the lack of empathy displayed. All of it speaks volumes.
We once again interrupt this editorial to say something good about St. Martin. In Part 2, she discusses how they handled the health and safety of theatre performers and crew during the pandemic, and we wholeheartedly agree with the safety measures The Broadway League, and other entities insisted upon to perform for audiences.
Now back to our editorial.
In Part 3, among other topics, she weighs in on ticket prices. This is a lengthy quote, because you really have to soak in all of this haughtiness:
“And I don’t subscribe to “Our tickets are too expensive.” Because on any given day, 50 percent of our tickets are less than $100. And on that same day, more than 75 percent of our tickets are $125. Look at what the sports team tickets are. Look at what the concert tickets are. At the end of the day, depending on the time of year and the shows that are there, 3 to 5 percent of our tickets are premium and the rest are regular price. I can’t get anybody to say that.
It just makes me crazy. All you have to do is look at the weekly grosses and you see the average ticket price. You can’t have a $59 ticket [available] and an average ticket price of $89 and say, “All of the tickets are expensive” — and half or more of [the shows with tickets at these prices] are Tony Award winners.”
Ok, where to begin?
First, according to The Broadway League’s own data, the average ticket price sold for a Broadway show in 2022 is $125 and has increased on average by 4% since 2000.
St. Martin’s comment that half of the tickets are on sale for less than $100 is, umm, consistent with the average ticket price being $125. ($100 would be the median ticket price for you math majors out there)
Second, she insinuates that a $59 ticket is cheap. I mean, maybe for a single person going (and that’s still a big maybe), but for a family of 4? That’s not cheap, and those seats are most certainly in the back rows of the balcony.
Third, her comparison of Broadway ticket prices to sporting events is interesting since, the alternative to seeing sports in person is watching them on TV. Can you watch Broadway on TV on a nightly basis?
And the comparison to concerts doesn’t hold either, since a specific artist only comes around a city maybe once a year.
Simply put, according to St. Martin, high ticket prices aren’t going anywhere because it’s our fault we see them as too high.
Charlotte St. Martin’s statements on the state of Broadway are simply out of touch. Just as the rich are prioritized in a trickle-down economy, the international tourists and the affluent local residents are prioritized, and Broadway has shown zero interest in making any efforts to make its marketplace work for those it inconveniences.
As we said at the top, it’s not like St. Martin could snap her fingers and lower ticket prices. We are well aware that, generally speaking, ticket prices are high because the costs of running a show are high.
But there was no mention of how to run a show at lower costs or run marketing programs aimed at increasing the frequency of attendance for local residents. There was also zero empathy shown towards those without means who want to see more shows or any shows at all.
At the bare minimum, St. Martin could have shown empathy. That’s what good spokespeople are supposed to do. Instead, if anything, she was defiant over the current business model that works for the rich and doesn’t work for everyone else.
We’ll end on this note: want to know the number of times the phrase “BIPOC” (or a similar phrase) was uttered in the 1,940 words printed by the interviewer and St. Martin?
Once.
Enough said.