Internet Seen as Key to L.A. Theaters’ Visibility

There were more theatrical productions in L.A. last year than in New York, said L.A. Mayor Richard Riordan in proclaiming “Theatre Week” earlier this month.

The average ticket price is lower here than in New York. Because so many L.A. theaters have fewer than 100 seats, theatergoers are likely to be closer to the action here.

However, tourists usually try to see a show while they’re in New York, but not here. The occasional big musical, such as next year’s “The Lion King,” serves as a theatrical destination for out-of-towners, but few other shows do.

The turn of the millennium is an opportunity to change this state of affairs, said Lars Hansen, president of the service and advocacy group Theatre LA, in a recent interview.

Hansen is the chairman of the marketing committee within Arts for L.A., a cross-disciplinary group of local arts leaders who are hatching various plans tied loosely to the new millennium.

Specifically, Hansen hopes to make more information about the L.A. arts scene easily accessible on the Internet, so that tourists can plan their visits here to include a show as well as the beach and theme parks. His own organization’s Web site should be “a theatrical portal that can be broadcast around the world with complete, accurate information about what’s playing and what kind of deals are available here,” Hansen said.

Web marketing efforts can include actual ticket sales, too. Center Theatre Group has seen such sales climb from 3% to 12% of total sales during the past year, according to Jim Royce, the group’s marketing director, and he expects that figure to rise to at least 50% within two years. CTG is starting “a major strategic effort” to spread the word about CTG and the Music Center among worldwide travel agents and tour operators, and the Web is a big part of that effort.

Theatre LA’s Hansen also wants to develop “a print companion” to his group’s Web site--”something like [New York-based] In Theater [magazine] but more skewed to the consumer.” He’d like to make the magazine a benefit of membership in Theatre LA, which he hopes to expand beyond the current ranks of producers to include individual artists and members of the public.

These efforts would target not only tourists, of course, but also those locals who go to only one theater “and consider it their full diet,” without venturing elsewhere, and others who never see any theater, Hansen said.

In terms of sustaining a local theater scene, local audiences are generally considered far more important than any tourists who drop in. However, tourists often generate more ancillary dollars per capita--if they stay an extra night in the area to see a show, for example.

Many artists have long maintained that L.A. theater won’t attract more attention and respect until the artists are paid more--which might then require raising ticket prices. That’s an issue that isn’t generally considered part of Theatre LA’s domain, but it might also bear consideration as L.A. theater enters a new millennium.