Chiara Klein

she/her • dir of producing & artistic planning @publictheaterny • prof @baruchcollege • alum: @centerstagemd @dartmouth @yalesom @yale drama • send puns

[Chiara Klein @thechiaraklein]

Theater Twitter, I give you: The #GameStop short squeeze explained in terms of @MelBrooks's The Producers (*a very oversimplified* thread)

[Chiara Klein @thechiaraklein]

@rachelzegler @kirstynhippe @rachelzegler i can prob get you in at 9:30 if you DM

[Chiara Klein @thechiaraklein]

@MisterJaredGray touché

[Chiara Klein @thechiaraklein]

idk why I thought producing theater would be more about plays and less about monitoring various public health emergencies

[Alicia Keys @aliciakeys]

I’ve been working on Hell’s Kitchen for 13 years!! Now, it’s finally making its world premiere on October 24th at the ICONIC @PublicTheaterNY in the heart of NYC this fall is a DREAM COME TRUE!!!!!!! 🌟 🌟 🌟

Don’t let ANYBODY tell you your dreams can’t be real!! It may take TIME and WORK but it is 1,000,000,000,000,000,000 percent possible!!

HELL’S KITCHEN tells the story of a 17-year-old girl chasing her New York dream, struggling to find herself, her voice, her identity! Inspired by my own personal experiences growing up in this city. This show is NY’s Finest!! It’s everything to me and it’s going to touch your SOUL!! I can't wait for you to experience it! Mark your calendars for October 24✨✨✨ go to https://t.co/wC56F2uRoZ for more!

[Chiara Klein @thechiaraklein]

@saybarra @Uncle_Jeff A shenan-again

[Chiara Klein @thechiaraklein]

@jkcohen626 @mglenbarker Royalty guarantees, plus marketing for a non-star-driven show contribute but agree, still high. This is the avg weekly including shutdown months, which even with SVOG may contribute outsized expense. I tried to counter that with a higher cap cost than reported, but 🤷🏻‍♀️

[Chiara Klein @thechiaraklein]

TL;DR: the weekly running costs of SIX are astronomical even with a “simple” show.

I cannot stress enough how ridiculously f***ed the economics of producing theater are right now, but I can math it! CW: theater nerdery and $$ ahead.

Let's get into it:

[Find me on BlueSky as @itsdlevy.me @itsdlevy]

It's great that SIX recouped on Broadway, but why does it take a show with six actors (plus understudies), a four person band, and a unit set 600 performances to recoup?!

(If the answer is "COVID shutdown made everything wacky," that's understandable.)

[Chiara Klein @thechiaraklein]

@NathanMeredith It really does and I might be off but, whatever the case, the ecosystem is really off-kilter. $800K per week is still a seriously high weekly which was what WICKED was pre-pandemic (though with a huge seating capacity of 1.9K that’s a little more palatable)…

[Chiara Klein @thechiaraklein]

@dflame57 Artist salaries, marketing, staffing the tech departments/crew, overhead, rentals, admin, management, front of house, royalty guarantees, etc. People are always the most expensive, but I’m sure rents and rentals are quite high too…

[Chiara Klein @thechiaraklein]

@ItsRainingBen @playbill ah! thank you for the correction! i didn't catch the 82 weeks. i also didn't take into account the $10M of SVOG funding which was at least a big chunk of keeping the theater and reopening the show... either way, this is a wild time.

[Chiara Klein @thechiaraklein]

@DerekKMiller It seems really high to me, but I know nothing to suggest poor management. My guess is that weekly expenses - rent, new people and more expensive people (more understudies, covid compliance, etc.) - just really has increased that much without a proportional increase in revenue.

[Chiara Klein @thechiaraklein]

This is the reality of the economics of theater and why all of the "BROADWAY HAS RECORD-BREAKING WEEK" headlines are...misleading. I'm thrilled for SIX. Truly. But whew.

*this is all napkin math based on publicly available data. i have no insider knowledge, just a fan.*

[Chiara Klein @thechiaraklein]

If FUN HOME ran today, even in the impossible scenario where it sold out every night at $200 per ticket (in reality it had an avg ticket price of $98 and avg capacity of 92%), with 3x the weekly expenses it would have lost an untenable >$200K a week.

[Chiara Klein @thechiaraklein]

@saybarra Have you been hacked? The real @saybarra would never check email

[Chiara Klein @thechiaraklein]

Had a dream last night that they franchised @badcinderella and I was in line to see BAD OKLAHOMA. Yes, the tagline was: We’re not OK.

[Chiara Klein @thechiaraklein]

No one:
Me:

[The Public Theater @PublicTheaterNY]

Check out this absolutely AMAZING and beautiful "Ginger-ler Sensation" by our fabulous and talented Director of Producing & Artistic Planning, Chiara Klein!