B8| Saturday/Sunday, February 22 - 23, 2020 **** THE WALL STREET JOURNAL.
EXCHANGE
FROM TOP: TOM BARNES; J. COUNTESS/GETTY IMAGES; JULIETA CERVANTESvestment subsidiary—invaluable
when shows can easily cost more
than $10 million to produce—to se-
curing out-of-town venues through
its Broadway Across America divi-
sion at a time when touring reve-
nue nearly rivals ticket sales on
Broadway itself.
Meanwhile, some theatergoers
have blasted Broadway.com for fees
that add as much as 38% to the
stated ticket price.
The Gore Organization’s rise
comes as ticket sales soar—sales
by Broadway’s 41 theaters surged
10% to a record $1.83 billion for the
2018-19 season.
Jeffrey Seller, the lead producer
behind “Hamilton,” says Mr. Gore’s
company is positioned at the cen-
ter of the boom. “They’re feeding it
and they’re riding it,” he said.
Mr. Gore declined to comment
for this article, deferring to Chief
Operating Officer Lauren Reid and
Vice Chairman Miles Wilkin.
Ms. Reid largely attributed
Broadway’s hot streak to the qual-
ity of the productions, though she
said, “the combination of our infra-
structure and experience enabled
us to add to the overall success of
the shows.”
The Gore Organization, which is
wholly owned by Mr. Gore, has
around 400 full-time employees, is
profitable and had revenue of more
than $700 million in 2018, a
spokesman said. On its website, it
lists more than 15 Broadway shows
it has produced or invested in,
from “Ain’t Too Proud” to the
Aaron Sorkin adaptation of “To Kill
a Mockingbird.”
The company declined to detail
profitability of specific divisions.
For many, a trip to Broadway
starts with Broadway.com. The site
features details about every show
and is typically among the first
sites listed in a Google search for
tickets to a Broadway show.
Broadway.com’s ticket inventory
includes comparable seats found
through Ticketmaster and
Telecharge, according to a Wall
Street Journal review of ticket
sales to about 10 shows. Its prices
are generally the same—at least
before service charges.
But Ticketmaster and Telecharge
are primary sales agents, with di-
rect access to a show’s inventory.
Under New York state law they can
only charge “reasonable” service
fees. For the tickets the Journal re-
viewed, service fees topped out at
28%, but were typically between
10% and 20%.
Telecharge’s fees are set based
on three different ticket-price lev-
els, according to Shubert Organiza-
tion, which owns the service. Tick-
etmaster declined to provide
specific fee information. Ticket-
master also offers ticket for resale,
for which the seller sets the price.
Broadway.com is a ticket re-
seller, meaning it must purchase its
inventory before selling the seats
but isn’t subject to state restric-
tions on service fees.
Some theatergoers say they pur-
chased seats through Broad-
way.com not realizing it was a bro-
ker and that similar seats could be
found cheaper elsewhere.
“You’d think Broadway.com was
the place to go,” said Dominick Pe-
trellese, of Milltown, N.J., who
purchased a pair of tickets for
“Ain’t Too Proud” last year
through the site. Later, he discov-
ered that he could have saved as
much as $90 if he had bought the
seats through a seller with lower
service charges. “I’ve learned a
lesson,” said Mr. Petrellese.
New York City resident Chad
Rayner spent $320 last year
through Broadway.com for a pair of
tickets to the long-running hit
show “Wicked.” He found that go-
ing through a primary seller could
have saved about $60. “The extra I
paid could have gone to dinner be-
forehand,” he said.
Broadway.com specifies any fees
before a consumer completes a
purchase. It also links to its ticket-
resale license at the bottom of the
Continued from page B1
Center Stage
But Out of
The Spotlight
venues throughout the U.S., had
languished under Live Nation,
which focused on the concert busi-
ness, theater professionals say. Live
Nation, now called Live Nation En-
tertainment, declined to comment.
It was a risky acquisition in
2008, before the boom on Broad-
way, theater professionals say. But
a number of blockbuster shows
have helped ignite growth on the
touring circuit over the past de-
cade. Broadway Across America’s
audience base across its 40-plus
venues has more than doubledsure the nontraditional show de-
served such a major stage. But he
said Mr. Gore “has a good eye.” The
show became a hit, returning to the
West End on several occasions.
Mr. Gore continued to produce
shows in England based on TV
properties including “Star Trek”
and “Wallace and Gromit.” In 2004,
he established Key Brand Enter-
tainment, which four years later
acquired Broadway Across America
for $90.4 million from Live Nation.
Broadway Across America,
which presents shows in dozens ofsince 2008 to at least 475,000 sub-
scribers, according to a Gore Or-
ganization spokesman.
The network includes prime ven-
ues in such major cities as Atlanta,
Miami and Seattle and also pres-
ents work in five venues it owns or
operates in Boston, Minneapolis
and Baltimore.
Broadway Across America gener-
ally works in partnership with the
venue in selecting and marketing
shows. The Gore Organization ana-
lyzes ticket-buying trends so it can
change a show’s marketing strat-
egy, even in the middle of a tour. In
a screen-lined room at the com-
pany’s New York headquarters,
staffers regularly look over data.
There are plenty of regional the-
aters that aren’t part of Broadway
Across America, but theater profes-
sionals say it’s difficult for a show
to mount a major tour without be-
ing affiliated with the network. The
Gore Organization says it repre-
sents less than half of theaters
used for touring shows.
After finding a foot-
hold in the touring mar-
ket, Key Brand Entertain-
ment set its sights on
other pieces of the
Broadway supply chain.
In 2010, it acquired The-
atre Direct NY Inc., the
company that operates
as Broadway.com, then a
much lower-profile site.
By 2015, it had added
three more companies to
its roster: Group Sales
Box Office, which spe-
cializes in bulk-ticket
purchases; video pro-
vider Broadway Channel;
and BroadwayBox.com, a
marketer of discount
show tickets.
As it grew, Mr. Gore’s
company, which started
calling itself theJohn
Gore Organizationin
2016, started pumping money into
shows. Although Broadway produc-
tions generally have a poor track
record of rewarding those who in-
vest in them, the investments help
Gore line up shows for its touring
network, theater professionals say.
Mr. Gore has kept his public
profile fairly low, though all the in-
dustry’s New York movers and
shakers know him. Cementing the
Gore Organization’s status in
Broadway’s upper echelon is the
fact that Ms. Reid was recently
elected the next chair of the
Broadway League trade group.
Mr. Gore, who is often described
as genial and easygoing, has
reached beyond the New York cir-
cle, meeting occasionally with exec-
utives in the Broadway Across
America network. Josh LaBelle, ex-
ecutive director of the Seattle The-
atre Group, describes him as “es-
sentially a theater fan.”
Industry professionals expect
Mr. Gore will ultimately aim to
claim a piece of Broadway real es-
tate. “I would be shocked if he
didn’t want to own theaters in New
York or at least operate them,” said
Charlotte St. Martin, president of
the Broadway League.
Ms. Reid says the Gore Organiza-
tion has no plans to purchase New
York theaters.
—Jim Oberman
contributed to this article.John Gore in London last year,
above. His reach includes regional
theaters, like the Hippodrome in
Baltimore, at left, and investment
in shows like ‘Hello, Dolly!’ below.Primaryseller*
Broadway.com
StubHub
‘Chicago’
April 25 (matinee)
Front side orchestra, row C‘Hamilton’
June 4 (evening)
Rear side mezzanine, row N‘Ain’tTooProud’
March 21 (evening)
Rear side orchestra, row SNote: StubHub is a marketplace with resale tickets from different sellers; for this survey, the lowest-priced pair of seats in the row were selected. The Journal found that Ticketmaster or Telecharge generally do not both offer seats to the same
show; tickets are typically sold directly through one or the other.
Source: prices seen on seller sites Feb. 20207.50245.64336.30429.70497.50$1,255.00387.50494.04506.60ThepriceoftwoBroadwaytickets,byshowandseller Ticket price Additional fees*Primary seller was Ticketmaster for ’Hamilton’ and Telecharge for ‘Ain’t Too Proud’ and ‘Chicago’
Playbill
Select Broadway tickets in a Wall Street Journal survey generally cost more on Broadway.com than on primary sellers
Ticketmaster or Telecharge but less than on resale site StubHub.TotalBroadwayBoom
Ticket sales for Broadway shows are
reaching new heightsafter a wave of
hit shows.BroadwaygrossNote: Years shown are the end of the season. Touring
figures are estimates for North American tours and
don't include non-equity tours or sit-down productions
in Las Vegas.
Source: The Broadway League$2.000.51.01.5billion2010 ’12 ’14 ’16 ’18In New York City On toursite’s home page.
The Gore Organization says its
fees reflect the service it offers.
Broadway.com “serves a premium
ticket buyer who wants a friction-
less experience when purchasing,”
Ms. Reid said.
The Gore Organization also
notes that Broadway.com’s total
prices are often lower than those
of other resale platforms. On sites
such as StubHub, brokers and indi-
viduals resell tickets at prices they
set themselves, often at high
markups. StubHub said pricing re-
flects demand.
The Gore Organization says
Broadway.com helps fulfill the in-
dustry’s goal of putting people in
theaters. “A lot of producers are
very grateful for the support we
provide,” Mr. Wilkin said.
Mr. Seller, the producer, sees a
positive to Broadway.com, at least
for his business. “If that’s two
more tickets that I sold this week
instead of not selling them, I’m a
happy guy,” he said, while acknowl-
edging other sites might have bet-
ter prices.
Born in the English seaside town
of Southport, Mr. Gore studied
drama and film at the University of
London’s Royal Holloway. During
and after his time in school, he
worked in theatrical productions in
various roles.
In 1989, while still in his 20s, he
made it to London’s West End by
producing “Thunderbirds F.A.B.,” a
two-man show that was a theatri-
cal riff on a once-popular British
puppet program on TV.
Andrew Dawson, one of the cre-
ators and performers in “Thunder-
birds F.A.B.,” said even he wasn’t