The number of new and returning family shows in the soft-seat theater world is on the rise, with a major new hit predicted in Shopkins Live!
On the arena front, the loss of Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, which closes its last touring unit May 21 at Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum, Uniondale, N.Y, leaves a major gap in bookings. The circus was a franchise in and of itself.
But the cavalry is coming. Feld Entertainment will be announcing a major new arena brand within weeks, but while rumors are strong for Jurassic Park Live (or possibly Star Wars Live), Jeff Meyer, Feld Entertainment, could not confirm anything yet. They are focused now on closing RBBB, a major cultural shift and emotional moment for the entire organization.
Another new arena show, Cosmos Live!, based on Carl Sagan’s book and TV series, is also percolating. Arena Network has holds for the show in the November 2018 to April 2019 date range, but firm facts are not yet available. Greg Young, Las Vegas producer, is producing it in association with Sagan’s widow.
But with the family show producers and presenters surveyed by Venues Today, optimism reigns. Everyone is adapting to cultural changes, like overscheduled families, shorter attention spans and the friend and foe called technology. And some of it is same old, same old because it works. Memories are made.
“The quality of shows is increasing in terms of soft seaters,” said Gilles Paquin, Koba Entertainment. “There are less tours but longer tours.”
NEW AND EXPANDED BRANDS
Paquin is building Shopkins Live! for a September debut at UB Center for the Arts, Buffalo, N.Y. Shopkins are one of the top toys globally, Paquin said of the Moose Toys product. There will be merchandise specific to the tour.
“It’s at 79 dates now, but it looks like we’ll add quite a few more — 10 for sure,” Paquin said. “We’re on the road for four months, but it could be for a year in North America.”
It’s a two semis, two buses tour with 23 people in the cast and crew. Set up will take about five hours. Tickets will be in the $30-$40 range.
Currently, Paquin has the North American rights and is in discussion about the rest of the world. He is optimistic Shopkins has legs — at least five years.
After 184 shows in 156 cities in North America with Peppa Pig’s Big Splash, Red Light Management is about to launch a new production, Peppa Pig’s Surprise! This show, which originated in the U.K, is already playing Europe.
“What’s thrilling to watch is there is now a new grouping of kids who are into Peppa Pig. We first started touring Peppa in 2015; those kids have moved on. This shows the longevity of the property,” said Red Light’s Jonathan Shank, senior executive producer. The demographic is ages 2-7. Nickelodeon is constantly debuting new episodes and there are a lot more in the pipeline for the next couple of years.
Peppa Pig’s Surprise will play 80 shows this fall, opening Sept. 16 at Broward Center for the Performing Arts’ Au Rene Theater, Ft. Lauderdale, Fla. Shanks is predicting another 40 shows in the spring.
“It’s survival of the fittest in family shows, driven by content or on-air activity or consumer products,” Shank said. Admitting it’s cyclical, he sees a renewed sense of purpose in having good, wholesome family entertainment out there, citing the proliferation of family networks from Nick Jr. and Disney Jr. to Amazon and Netflix. “The more content, the more opportunity to turn that content into a live experience. We’re sharpshooters; we’re only aiming for the top IPs (intellectual properties) out there,” Shank said.
Red Light is also planning a TeleTubbie’s Big Hug 20th anniversary tour in 2018, opening in the spring and playing 50 dates, and is exploring a Canadian tour for Octonauts next year as well.
Alison Spiriti, Right Angle Entertainment, has worked with rightsholder, Michael Cohl’s Iconic Entertainment Studios, to tour the holiday production of Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer for the last three years.
Rudolph has expanded to play longer stands and bigger stages since its debut in 2014. The show played Madison Square Garden, New York, for three weeks, becoming an equity show in that union town. To accommodate the bigger stage and the equity cards, they invested about $250,000. Spiriti said the holiday family show moved into profit after the two-year mark.
This is a two-truck tour with two units on the road. It is definitely more robust than the first year, which is good because it is now repeating more markets.
Spiriti, who has worked with skip-and-wave, Nickelodeon and Broadway tours, finds nothing normal about Rudolph. Sometimes it’s a one-off, sometimes it’s on a subscription series, sometimes it stays three weeks.
While it is definitely a theater show, playing 700-2,500 seats, even that is open to negotiation. They would love to take Rudolph to arenas, but they haven’t cracked that market yet. Rudolph starts 2017 the week of Nov. 20 at Fox Theatre, St. Louis, with one tour and at Bass Hall, Fort Worth, Texas, with the other. During the 2017-18 holiday season, they will do 40-plus shows.
STAR-DRIVEN SHOWS
Byron Allen, IMG Stars on Ice, is looking forward to the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, Korea, Feb. 9-25.
“In the Olympic years we expand the number of cities we play — 20 in the U.S., compared to 10 in non-Olympic years, and even that could expand depending on how Americans do in the Olympics,” Allen said.
In Canada, they are pretty much set with 12 shows; there are only so many markets in the country. “We expect tremendous crowds next year,” Allen said.
Stars on Ice continues to see great success in Asia, with 15-18 shows planned for Japan. “Japan is the strongest figure skating market in the world; it’s been that way for about 10 years,” Allen said.
While he has tried various production adds, like music and specialty events, the bottom line is that Stars on Ice is an ice show. The Harlem Globetrotters are also driven by star-power … and comedy and tradition. Bought in 2013 by the Herschend Family of theme park fame, the Trotters are experiencing a rebranding.
Howard Smith, president, cannot emphasize enough that the Harlem Globetrotters are wholesome, family-centric entertainment. “We are here to bring families closer together — with theme parks, aquariums and, on a global scale, with the Globetrotters.” All are cross promoted.
The first phase of the 2017 domestic tour was the biggest in the history of the Globetrotters, Smith said, declining to give attendance numbers but saying they set 50 box office records so far this year. “With over 370 games here domestically, we’re on target to sell more tickets than ever in the recent history of the Globetrotters,” he said.
Smith credits the complete brand refresh for some of the success. The logo hadn’t been updated in 25 years, he said. They have a new web site and even remixed the theme song, “Sweet Georgia Brown.”
The Trotters are also investing heavily in social media strategy. “We’re allowing our consumers to go deeper in their relationship with our brand. Many of our stars are social media stars as well. Fans and followers are up 65 percent,” Smith said.
The brand is especially suited to social media, particularly the stunts and trick shots, but also the heartfelt moments like teaching a kid—or a National Basketball Association star— to spin a ball his finger.
“We are focused on the guest experience,” Smith said. “It’s all about what happens in the arena.” Their secret sauce is threefold: Amazing feats of athleticism and a lot of comedy; female stars, introduced in 1985 and now numbering five; and shortening the show. “We shortened the show by almost 20 minutes, from almost two hours to an hour forty. Venues appreciate that; it eases staffing,” Smith said.
They have also added value by expanding the Magic Pass Experience, a 30-minute VIP meet and greet with a chance to shoot a shot on the same court as NBA players. Smith cited a 14 percent growth in that experience this year. The average up sell is $25. Now they are rolling Magic Pass to international tours.
Growth also hinges on other forms of content, like reimagining animation (which was last done in the 70s) and consumer products. The Trotters are in the early stages of licensing product for retail sale. Currently, most of their merchandise is sold in-arena.
POWER PLAYERS
Motorsports continues to be a juggernaut in the family show business.
Kurt Nicoll, VP Global Touring, Nitro Circus, is thrilled with the first annual Nitro World Games, which drew 25,000 fans. Nitro World Games II will repeat at Rice Eccles Stadium, Salt Lake City, June 24. He sees the potential for global games. Sponsorships have tripled, from $1.5 million in 2016 to $3.5 million in 2017.
Changes to the Nitro Circus brand have included streamlined production, which makes touring more efficient. “In the beginning we were fairly clumsy and labor intensive,” Nicoll admitted. “In 2010, we were doing 7-8 shows a year and not worrying about speed in and out.”
Today, they have prefabricated ramps and jumps and have reduced what was one load-in day and one half-day load out to a 6 a.m. to 2 a.m. call start to finish. And they have decreased the number in the crew because they spent money on infrastructure and design. “That makes a massive difference to a touring property. Now we can have back-to-back shows Friday-Sunday,” Nicoll said.
They also have a new consumer products line and are working on a video game.
Social media is extremely strong. Facebook fans number over 15 million. A big focus is on using social platforms to promote the tour, so they have expanded their media department from three to eight people.
For Feld Entertainment, they are sticking with the plan, one last circus performance May 21 at Nassau Colisuem. Ticket sales for the final circus tour have been staggering. “We’re going clean in a lot of places. We saw 100,000 fans in Baltimore [Royal Farms Arena] — 16 performances,” said Meyer.
“It is the end of an era, but it was the right business decision,” Meyer said.
He cited attention span and technology as the issues facing family shows.
“It’s very different today than it was 10 years ago,” Meyer said. “Years ago, Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey was a three and a half hour show and was one of the only forms of great live entertainment.”
Feld’s plan is to invest all that institutional knowledge and creative juice on other products. They will be launching Sesame Street Live this fall, a brand they have inherited from VStar (formerly VEE Corp.).
Feld has also added more events to Monster Jam, extending the season into the fourth quarter. “We took the efficiencies of the touring model for Disney on Ice and applied it to Monster Jam,” Meyer said. Monster Jam also continues to grow internationally.
“We’re going to expand. We’ll shoot for the moon,” Meyer said.
He echoed the general sentiment: Stay tuned.