If you’ve ever seen a Broadway touring show at Playhouse Square, you may have assumed the show packed up its Broadway digs and simply hit the road. In reality, Broadway tours are actually born – sets assembled and technical rehearsals staged– at the first touring stop, and often that city is Cleveland.
Craig Hassall, president and CEO of Playhouse Square, lobbies producers to have them choose Cleveland as that first stop on the Broadway tour schedule.
“In the Broadway market, we're quite important, because we're probably the largest market outside Broadway for Broadway touring shows,” Hassall said.
People often think of Broadway as only being the street in New York with many theaters, but a large part of the Broadway ecosystem is the tour. Hassall likened it to a Paris fashion line with a large fashion show. The real money comes later.
“That brand rolls out things all across the world in department stores. In a way, we're like the department stores,” Hassall said.
Economic powerhouse
Cleveland is a popular tour spot, because Playhouse Square has nearly 40,000 season ticket holders.
Shows that start the tour in Cleveland bring along a host of economic benefits, as they stay in town for weeks before the show opens renting apartments and hotel rooms, eating at local restaurants and infusing the local economy with outside money.
Cleveland has an advantage in luring shows to open here, Hassall said, due to a generous state tax credit offering the production a 30% rebate for money spent locally.
Two new births
The current Broadway show at Playhouse Square, “The Notebook,” kicked off its tour here. Co-directed by Michael Greif and Dayton native Schele Williams, the show is an adaptation of the hit 2004 movie of the same name, starring Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams as lovers across a lifetime.
“It's been really great to come back to this show and to reimagine it with Michael. We have a wonderful opportunity to revisit the story that we love and to think about it coming to all these theaters across America,” Williams said.
The co-directors come with a fleet of assistant directors, carpenters, set designers, technical directors, stagehands, musicians, actors, costumers and other support staff to launch the show. Cases fill the lobbies of the theaters as they unpack equipment and start setting up to build new sets. Once the show is up and running, the directors largely step back and leave it in the hands of the touring crew.
“When you come to Cleveland, you have a three-week run. So, a show gets to really settle here,” said Williams.
She added that they all get to experience the local fare and get to know the city too.
“The Notebook” is a show with incredibly technical and complicated moving sets. They were created by Jeffrey Finn of the Kennedy Center, who designed them to fold up and travel light, making the items that arrive here easier to build and adapt to the stages.
Greif said the facilities, which are much larger than normal Broadway stages, offer an advantage to touring directors. The KeyBank State Theatre holds 3,200 and the Connor Palace seats 2,700, while many Broadway stages don’t seat more than 1,000.
“It's also pretty wonderful to come here to these beautiful theaters to work every day. I feel like everyone's spirit is elevated knowing that these are such beautiful buildings and knowing that there's such an incredibly supportive community here,” Greif said.
Broadway tours like “The Notebook” hold a special place in Williams’ heart. As a child growing up in Dayton with its own rich theater culture, she was able to see Broadway musicals out on the road.
“National tours were my introduction to Broadway. So, it means a lot. It's a great privilege to have a show do well enough in New York that it then launches a tour,” said Williams.
Williams previously directed the Broadway tour of “The Wiz” that stopped at Playhouse Square in 2023. During that time, she got to know some of the regulars who attend theater here and was impressed by Cleveland’s engagement with the stage.
“The subscribers here see a lot of theater. So, what's really beautiful is they know theater, they love theater, they come with an open heart,” Williams said.
Greif is also the director of “Hell's Kitchen,” opening October 10, a coming-of-age story that's set in New York in the '90s about a 17-year-old girl bristling against her mother’s authority and finding love. Like "The Notebook,” it’s starting its tour at Playhouse Square, with trucks arriving to load in this week.
“It features all kinds of remarkable music by Alicia Keys, some of the greatest, greatest hits that we all know, and some really great songs that she wrote specifically for this story,” said Greif.
The KeyBank Broadway season brings seven touring shows per year to Playhouse Square. Usually, one or two of those shows start a national run here.
Two other upcoming Broadway tours that will start in Cleveland include “Spamalot” and “Death Becomes Her.”
“This is the most extraordinary place,” Hassall said. “We should be shouting from the rooftops how amazing these theaters are and what an incredible district we have.”
