Theatre Design & Technology - Winter 2025 - 13

I
The Lion King at
Cadillac Palace Theatre
in Chicago. | Image
courtesy of Clark
Transfer.
n 1949, a small family business based in
Philadelphia first put a Broadway theatrical
production onto a truck . In doing so the company,
which soon came to be known as Clark
Transfer, brought world-class theatre to cities
and towns beyond the reach of the railroads for the
first time. This work quickly expanded to encompass
all manner of live entertainment transportation,
including everything from The Metropolitan
Opera to The Rolling Stones.
Each year for the past two decades (excluding
the COVID period), around 15 million
people in the US and Canada attended
performances of touring Broadway shows. In
fact, more people go to see Broadway shows
on the road than on Broadway itself.
And this represents just part of the live
entertainment touring story, covering only
theatrical tours featuring Actor's Equity
Association-represented performers and
stage managers. It doesn't even begin to
track the ever-expanding universe of smaller
shows, touring dance companies, operas,
symphony orchestras, circuses, sports, wrestling,
and popular music acts. Each of these
genres has its own distinct culture, language,
and ways of operating.
Although it hasn't always been the case,
touring theatrical shows now approach the
scale, complexity, and production values of
original Broadway productions. Audiences
are willing to pay accordingly for a premium
theatrical experience in their own backyard.
And these audiences are growing; according
to the Broadway League, grosses and ticket
numbers for touring Broadway roughly
match those of Broadway itself. The economics
of commercial theatre production
are such that the ability of producers to get
a show onto the Broadway stage depends in
large part on the expectation that the show
will tour and generate ongoing revenue, often
equal to or more than what it makes in
New York. Similarly, in the popular music
industry, touring was once used as a tool to
sell records. Today, it is the tours themselves
that generate the bulk of revenue for artists
and related enterprises.
In other words, " the road " is big business,
both for the live entertainment industry
and for the nearly 200 towns and cities that
host the shows. Each year audiences spend
more than $1.2 billion on ticket purchases,
and The Broadway League estimates that in
the years leading up to the COVID pandemic,
touring Broadway shows annually contributed
an additional $3.8 billion or so to the
economies of those metropolitan areas.
The development of the modern touring
theatre industry emerged hand-in-hand with
the development of performing arts venues
in towns and cities around the country. Since
1949 when shows went off the rails and onto
the roads, more than 200 theatres, performing
arts centers, and arenas have come online
as hosts of national tours, generating everincreasing
demand for the " product " that theatrical
producers supply.
ISSUE 4, 2024 | THEATRE DESIGN & TECHNOLOGY | 13
Theatre Design & Technology - Winter 2025

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