The house lights dimmed. Sergio Rodriguez threw open his arms and broke out in song.
“They say the neon lights are bright on Broadway,” belted the Westville alderman, who was once the lead singer for a Beatles/Rolling Stones cover band.
Rodriguez (pictured below) was standing in the footsteps of stars like Marlon Brando on the stage of New Haven’s Shubert Theater. The stage lights blazed. But the seats were empty, and the curtain had parted for a different reason: Budget season.
The legendary College Street theater is owned by the city. The city has a contract with a non-profit group, Connecticut Association for the Performing Arts, to manage the landmark space. The theater gets $410,000 in taxpayer money per year to stay afloat.
The city is bound by contract to pay that amount. But as aldermen comb through the city budget to look for places to cut, that chunk of change is one of several items whose fate gets debated.
So Tuesday, before aldermen headed to a hearing before the Finance Committee, the Shubert invited them to a dinner and on-stage info session. Alderwoman Frances “Bistie” Clark, who as former head of the Arts Council is the board’s most fervent arts booster, helped arrange the meeting as a way to give colleagues a full appreciation of what the theater does.
Between bites of crab cakes and sips of wine, eight alders heard from John Fisher (pictured), the theater’s executive director, about how the Shubert has turned around. The theater was shuttered for nearly a decade. After it reopened in 1985, it had trouble staying in the black. CAPA took over in 2001 and has managed the theater during that time with no deficit, Fisher announced.
He held up the theater as a revitalizing force to a once-run-down College Street, as well as a good community partner: It brings dance masters to public school classrooms and through corporate sponsorship, it runs a program to give free tickets to community-based groups.
To give aldermen the full star treatment, Fisher flicked on the stage lights. Rodriguez burst into song.
Getting back to the matter at hand, Fisher said the $410,000 annual city payment to the theater receives supplements a roughly $6 million operating budget. CAPA considers the city money a “management fee” instead of a “subsidy” because it is part of the five-year management contract.
The city supplement has not been increased since 1985, even to keep up with inflation, Fisher said. And CAPA is hard at work fundraising on the side to make ends meet: Only 80 percent of its operating budget is raised through ticket sales. The other 20 percent comes from fundraising.
In an info booklet, the Shubert boasts of how a recent sold-out show by the rock band Wilco helped drive business to nearby night spots; how urban kids got to meet the cast of Annie, including her dog; and how deaf students enjoyed a special performance of The Secret Garden in American Sign Language.
Fisher’s talk ended with a special backstage tour through hidden passageways of the 1914 building. Below the stage, murals, signed by legendary casts, told the story of nearly a century of shows. The theater has been home to 300 world premiers including A Streetcar Named Desire, The Sound of Music, and Oklahoma, Fisher told the crowd, which included city staff.
“This is crazy,” exclaimed Dixwell Alderman Greg Morehead (at right in photo) as the tour passed a bright yellow mural of Bring in ‘Da Noise, Bring in ‘Da Funk, with the cast’s signatures inked on the wall. “That’s my cousin’s name.”
Yale Alderwoman Rachel Plattus, who danced in the Nutcracker at the Shubert during high school, eagerly opened a drawer in a dressing room to look for the spot where she had etched her name.
Standing below the stage, Fisher told how the stage’s timber, with original trusses from 1914, would be transformed into thunderous vibration under the toes of ballerinas.
“This was so much fun!” declared Alderwoman Clark as the group headed back to City Hall.
Rodriguez gave a parting performance. (Click on the play arrow to watch.)
West River Alderman Yusuf Shah, who chairs the aldermanic Finance Committee, said he had a “wonderful” time. Did he think the theater deserves the $410,000 line item in the budget?
“I think it’s worth it; it’s a New Haven landmark; it’s been here a very long time,” Shah said. “Where the money is going to come from, it’s going to be a debate, but at the end of the day, it’s something we want to keep.”
I think a few other useful sets of numbers are helpful when considering this subsidy - which we as a community may still want to support. There are a total of 93,000 people who go there each year (according to their 2005 Form 990) - 67,000 patrons at 85 performances and another 26,000 people who were there when the facility gets rented out. The $410,000 subsidy can be entirely eliminated if Shubert ticket going patrons added about $6 to the average $43 ticket price or only $4.40 per person. When you look at it this way, is this the best use of $410,000? Would ticket goers stop going for another $6.00? If you spread it to everyone, would people stop going for $4.40? During tough economic times, we need to look at places to cut with the least impact to avoid cutting in areas with a greater impact. From this vantage point, the Shubert will be fine with out their extra $4.00 per person -- its not like we are suggesting they close their doors.