An innovative group of theater producers is reinventing the Broadway investor mold.
With the current staging of The Kite Runner, which runs through October 30th at the Hayes Theater, Broadway & Beyond Theatricals is blazing a new path to bring the show to Broadway.
Co-founded by Ryan Bogner, Victoria Lang and Tracey Strock McFarland, Broadway & Beyond is a production company and booking agency for all types of entertainment.
For context, shows that are scheduled to tour typically utilize Broadway productions. Then, when it comes time to go on tour, a new entity is created to rearrange the production budget for the tour. In many cases, it is the same or similar group of investors that reinvest in road production.
With “The Kite Runner,” Bogner, Lang and McFarland put together funding for Broadway and an eventual tour.
“So the investors who invested in this show can think of this tour as an extension of Broadway,” Bogner said.
Eventually, when “Kite Runner” finishes touring and moves on to “the next life,” Bogner continues, Broadway mounting investors will be on board with it.
However, this was not necessarily the plan for the “Kite Runner”.
Before the pandemic, producers intended to bring the play from London’s West End and tour it in regional theaters across the United States.
“Cue COVID, I had that idea,” Lang said.
They later learned that the Hays Theater, owned by the nonprofit Second Stage, was available for commercial rental during the summer months, opening the door for limited Broadway engagements.
“Seventeen weeks on paper is short. It’s a much riskier proposition, although it could be revived on Broadway,” said McFarland. Having the added perspective of being bundled makes it a little more experimental, but it gives us the opportunity to bring such productions to Broadway.”
On Broadway, production costs about $300,000 a week, Bogner said. Production has generally hovered around that number, not always meeting a few weeks, but exceeding it in other weeks.
“The good news for investors is that the tour is still on,” said Bogner. “So the week in which the loss was made doesn’t matter as much as if it was just running 17 weeks and closing the books.”
‘The Kite Runner’ also has an additional financial layer as a portion of the proceeds from ticket sales benefit various charities and organizations.
The work began in collaboration with The Khaled Hosseini Foundation, founded in 2008 by Hosseini, the award-winning author of The Kite Runner, the book upon which the play is based.
“His foundation has been very helpful in identifying other organizations that work within the fabric of what we do on the show,” Lang said.
These other organizations include the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Welcome.US and Women for Women International.
Once the Broadway run ends, each of these four organizations will benefit from a portion of the show’s proceeds.
As far as their working relationship goes, the three co-founders seem to have a laid-back dynamic, recognizing their individual strengths as well as the gaps they need to fill within their businesses.
“Ryan and I are producers first,” Lang said. “Fortunately we had so much going on at once that we knew we couldn’t executive produce or book. And booking is our skill secondary to his set.” was.”
That’s how McFarland, who was considered a “rock star” by her two colleagues, got involved.
“It was really spontaneous,” McFarland said. “It was a really natural fit. It made a lot of sense.”
Bogner often refers to Broadway & Beyond as a “theater distribution solutions company.”
“Between the producing and booking skill sets of this group and staff, we operate in many different areas,” he said. Sometimes they’re in the driver’s seat, sometimes they act like consultants, but above all, “there’s a natural big line of work between the three of us.” says Bogner.
Lang emphasized the great dynamics between the three, saying that the relationships and individual expertise of the three have contributed significantly to their ability to create new business models, including regional touring models.
“We take the ‘and beyond’ part very seriously,” McFarland said with a laugh.
The trio hopes to use this model in several other shows in development in the future, but that will depend on the specific production. It says.
“We’re not necessarily rolling all the dice on the fact that it has to be a hit on Broadway and make all the money there,” Lang said.
“We plan to use this model as much as possible.”
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