The arts groups’ Christmas money trees

All in all, not a bad Christmas haul for Milwaukee's bigger performing arts groups.

Big opening-night crowds at all the holiday shows and high artistic standards across the board led me to think the season might be bright for Milwaukee’s performing arts groups. Weather was decent in December, with no box-office-killer storms. And I kept hearing happy reports throughout the runs.

But anecdotes aren’t accounting. I asked the Milwaukee Repertory Theater, the Milwaukee Symphony, the Milwaukee Ballet and the Skylight Opera Theatre for some numbers, which I’m passing along to you. The results are mixed with a tilt toward the positive.

The Skylight’s Plaid Tidings sold at about 64 percent of capacity and hit 85 percent of the revenue goal, according to interim marketing director Diane Bacha.

“We’re pretty happy with that, given the ground that was lost between June and September (when the company was in paralyzing disarray over the firing of Bill Theisen and other matters),” Bacha said, via e-mail. She noted a silver lining to the tepid Plaid Tidings results: “Our box office booked about 400 new accounts during the run of the show.”

The Skylight’s Cabot Theatre seats 358, and the company gave 30 Plaid performances from Nov. 29 to Jan. 3 plus one student matinee, for a seat inventory of 11,160 and a total attendance of 7,148. Not great, but respectable.

The Milwaukee Ballet’s The Nutcracker, my personal favorite holiday show, was also so-so.

Chris Allen, MBC marketing manager, said that overall attendance declined 10 percent and revenue was down five percent. Those numbers, comparisons with 2008 and based on single-ticket sales only, are a little deceiving. The company put on a few more performances last year. And this year, MBC changed its subscription packages to allow buyers to include Nutcracker, which was a non-subscription add-on. So, some of that single-ticket loss was to subscriptions, which jumped 20 percent this year.

“In a roundabout way because of the subscription and group sales popularity, we came in about where we expected,” Allen said. “Because of the overwhelming success of Cinderella in the fall and with Peter Pan coming up, we are still on track to meet our overall budget.”

Average attendance was about 1,500, and overall attendance for the Dec. 11-27 run topped 25,000, for 86 percent of capacity at Marcus Center Uihlein Hall. Matinees did well; the ballet sold out the Dec. 20 matinee and nearly sold out the one on Dec. 27. The popularity of midday shows is a new development and will likely have an impact on scheduling next December.

Jonathan Smoots, James Pickering and cast in the Milwaukee Rep's production of A Christmas Carol. All photos by Jay Westhauser.

Public relations director Cindy Moran reports that the Milwaukee Rep’s A Christmas Carol, at the Pabst Theater, and Holmes & Watson, at the Stackner Cabaret, both did well.

“We met this year’s sales goal,” Moran wrote.

Thirty-nine performances of the 2009 Carol attracted 31,284 (compared with 29,282 in 2008). Total sales were $1, 026,336, which beat 2008 by $2,000. Paid capacity through the run was 61.6 percent. Holmes & Watson brought in $70,978, to beat its $66,000 goal, on the sale of 2,096 single tickets.

The Milwaukee Symphony had the best Christmas ever.

Susan Loris, the MSO’s VP for marketing, said that the Marvin Hamlisch Holiday Pops (all three sold out Dec. 4-6, Uihlein Hall), an itinerant Messiah (Dec. 16-19 at area churches, three of five sold out) and the New Year’s weekend Cirque de la Symphonie Pops concerts (Jan. 1-3, two of three sold out, Uihlein Hall) all did extraordinary business. Loris said that the December numbers are part of a larger trend for the MSO, which has had a very strong 2009-10 season, thus far.

Guest conductor Christian Knapp made an impressive MSO debut in Handel's Messiah.

Paid attendance: Hamlisch, 6,641, 100 percent of capacity; Messiah, 3,591, 97.4 percent of capacity; Cirque, 5,959, 91 percent of capacity.

“We exceeded our single-ticket revenue targets in the month of December by 38 percent,” Loris said. “I wish we’d had more inventory, especially with Messiah. I would have sold it all.”

Maximizing revenues on Messiah — now there’s the true spirit of Christmas.