Billy Elliot the Forum

This on the Victoria Theater's (Dayton, OH) Twitter:

"Sorry to say the national tour of BILLY ELLIOT has been cancelled for the 2014-2015 season. That means it won't be here in November."

https://twitter.com/VictoriaTheatre

porschesrule wrote:This on the Victoria Theater's (Dayton, OH) Twitter:

"Sorry to say the national tour of BILLY ELLIOT has been cancelled for the 2014-2015 season. That means it won't be here in November."

https://twitter.com/VictoriaTheatre

The mystery deepens.................

I just phoned the season ticket office in Wichita. I did not mention anything about Dayton - I simply asked about season tickets and when Billy Elliot is coming to Wichita. I got back very little information about it - the ticket agent seemed to have no specific information about Billy Elliot the Musical, but was quite happy to try to sell me a season ticket anyway.

Here's more on the Tour cancellation in Dayton from the Dayton Daily News:

http://www.daytondailynews.com/news/ent ... ent/ndTRD/

So what we know now is that we were correct in considering Dayton to be part of a new tour, and not a regional or local production. Now we will wait and see what happens with Wichita and Raleigh.

joninfinity wrote:Boy, not sure about anyone else, but now I'm more confused than ever. I never did see or hear anything that ever connected the three shows in Raleigh,Wichita, and Dayton. It seemed like they were all standalone productions. (???) And I never read, or saw anything that 'officially' announced or proclaimed that there was a national tour afoot.

I, for one, never doubted for an instance that those announcements indicated a tour -- and not regional, stand-alone productions. With the exception of Raleigh, NC, the other two announced productions were Dayton and Wichita -- both for three days only. No local theater could financially or artistically pull off a show on the scale of BETM for just three days. It wouldn't be feasible. These were definitely shows being brought in from the outside. On the other hand, the Raleigh location could very well be a regional production. We'll have to wait and see.

It could be that they had lined up a stop with the Networks tour, but due to some miscommunication, didn't realize that the company had decided to close the tour last summer, so the information was mistakenly added to their publicity for the 2014-15 season.

According to this from the ABC outlet in Miamisburg, OH (a suburb of Dayton), the planned BETM tour has been cancelled nationwide.

http://www.abc22now.com/shared/news/top ... 8732.shtml

It is puzzling, because producing organizations don't normally announce a show until they have a contract in hand. Reading all of this indicates that there actually were plans being made for a new tour, but then for some reason things fell apart.

Oh well, hopefully the lack of a new tour means that there will be opportunities for some more regional productions.

I wonder who/what production team was behind it? I expect there will be contractual penalties, since venues have sold season tickets based on BETM's coming to their venues. It is an embarrassment, to say the least.

I wonder if the licensees of the musical's performance rights denied them performance rights to what appears to be a 'work in progress' Tour, since only a couple - or trio - of viable dates are possibly attributable to it? Perhaps there was an 'option' to form a tour, and that option was rejected by the rights' holders because only a few dates were lined up (and was funding in place)? Three venues weeks apart do not comprise a viable tour by any means; or a practical one, worthy of the musical's high standards. Indeed, it appears to be a complete nightmare.

Normally a national tour is announced 'NetWorks (or insert any name) is pleased to announce a 2014-2015 National Tour of the hit Musical.......da da da'. A tour is not announced by a local venue, with no mention who is organizing the tour. We shall soon hear from Wichita and Raleigh; the latter might be a regional.

I was not really sure where to post this question, so feel free to move it.
Can anyone give a general idea of what it costs for a theater to bring in a average to large national touring show for about a 16 show run? I know that there a many variables involved, but I'm just looking for a rough estimate. Thanks.