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CLEVELAND PLAIN DEALER: CLEVELAND-AREA THEATERS TAKING MEASURES TO STAY IN BUSINESS

Submitted by giarts-ts-admin on January 20, 2009

“Theater, the most popular performing art form in the country, is big business. The Broadway League estimates its producers’ shows grossed nearly $2 billion in New York and on the road last season. Nonprofit regional theaters, meanwhile, generated almost as much in fiscal 2007, according to a study by the Theatre Communications Group.

In Cleveland, theater is one of the biggest contributors to the cultural sector’s estimated $1 billion impact on Northeast Ohio, led by PlayhouseSquare, which draws 1 million visitors a year, and its Broadway Series, the most popular performing arts program in the region.

Cleveland’s theaters have two big advantages. They’ve been through this for most of this decade and many have already downsized and reorganized. And they get a chunk of the cash generated by Cuyahoga County’s 30-cents-a-pack cigarette tax for arts. In 2007, the first year of the tax, it generated $18.6 million.

“This community can be really, really thankful for that cigarette tax money,” said Gina Vernaci of downtown Cleveland’s PlayhouseSquare. “The timing for that could not have been more exquisite. If anything is going to give us a cushion to get through this, it’s that.”