Over its storied history, New Haven”™s Shubert Theater laid the rails for 600 Broadway shows, including productions of “Oklahoma” and “A Streetcar Named Desire.”
Now the Stamford Center for the Arts and other theaters want the state to enact tax credits for productions similar to those for the film industry, saying it will induce Broadway producers to book theaters for summer rehearsals and even off-Broadway trial runs.
Stamford Rep. Jim Shapiro said he wants to ensure the tax credits only be allowed for work at nonprofit theaters.
“We don”™t want it to be for Van Halen at Mohegan Sun, glad as I am that the band is back together,” Shapiro testified last month to a Connecticut General Assembly committee. “It”™s not like film tax credits where any producer can come and do it anywhere.”
After axing 1,300 jobs between December and January ”“ possibly a function of a screenwriter”™s strike that interrupted movie productions under way ”“ Connecticut”™s arts and entertainment sector staged a mini-revival in February, gaining 300 jobs according to estimates by the Connecticut Department of Labor.
With economic news souring, however, economists say the entertainment sector could suffer from consumers tightening their belts.
That could in turn impact Stamford Center for the Arts (SCA), which runs Rich Forum and the Palace Theater in Stamford.
SCA”™s season is in full swing, featuring an Eddie Money concert on the marquee on Saturday, welcoming the Smothers Brothers comedy team this week, and running a full schedule through June. After a three-day performance of “Rent” in late June, however, the theater will not resume shows until the fall.
The theater turned its downtime to its advantage last year. As a result of the film tax credit, Walt Disney Co. paid $23,000 to book the Stamford Center for the Arts for a week last summer, according to Ken Wesler, executive director of the theater, who testified in support of the bill. Stagehands received over 1,000 hours of work, resulting in over $40,000 in wages.
“This ”¦ creates a significant incentive for commercial theater producers to mount productions in Connecticut, from the building of physical production, which is sets, props, costumes, etcetera, to the rehearsal process prior to a Broadway or off-Broadway run or national tour,” Wesler said.
Based on what the theater charged Disney, Wesler estimates the SCA could glean nearly $1 million in summer months when the theater is otherwise idle.
“We spoke to the (Broadway League) and said, ”˜What would it take for you folks to ”˜tech”™ your shows at the Stamford Center for the Arts?”™” Wesler said. “They said, ”˜There are only two places that we can create shows outside of New York where we can sleep in our own beds at night: the New Jersey Performing Arts Center and the Stamford Center for the Arts, because they”™re so close.”™”
It is cash the theater sorely needs ”“ SCA has seen its state funding cut from $2.5 million in 2001, when the theater was the beneficiary of a hotel tax cut the following year, to $500,000 this year. That in turn has impacted the theater”™s efforts to obtain a line of credit, Wesler added.
John Fisher, executive director of both the Shubert and the Connecticut Association for the Performing Arts, said the bill could provide a needed boost.
“Over the years the economics of our business has changed and we must find new ways to adapt,” Fisher said
