The Bloomington Center for the Performing Arts’ new season was booked under a mandate from City Manager David Hales to generate more money as the center faces a half-million dollar deficit.
The season includes family-friendly comic Brian Regan, Best Musical Tony-Winner Kinky Boots, and Baby Boomer and Gen X favorite George Thorogood and the Destroyers. Assistant BCPA Director Ann-Marie Dittman tried to book acts that former Director Tina Salamone would have wanted even as Dittman faced a new directive. "We are doing fewer shows that have a smaller niche audience and more shows that will have a broader appeal which is not to say that there isn't something for everyone but we were very much looking at the bottom line," she said.
Dittman had the challenge of filling 20 dates using, at times, scrawled notes jotted on former Director Salamone's calendar or from passing conversations before Salmone's sudden death from a heart attack in March. The season announcement for the general public came three weeks later than usual but Dittman feels good about what she was able to accomplish.
"I think it is very true to the vision she was formulating for this season. I think the season is very indicative of her tastes and there's really something for everyone; there's comedy, there's drama, there's music, there's dance ... really something for every taste and every age is in this season."
One show Salamone would have loved to bring to Bloomington was rejected because it was considered too costly. Dittman says Squonk, an opera that requires a large outdoor installation, would have required increasing the ticket price from $15-$20 for an outdoor show.
"I would love to be able to bring it another time but we really were looking at the bottom line of a lot of shows this year and trying to be responsible, fiscally responsible in what we were booking," Dittman said while also noting she does not feel she sacrificed artistic integrity.
See It Before It Goes To Broadway
George Thorogood and the Destroyers is among the bigger shows. Another potential sell-out is Best Musical Tony-Award Winner Kinky Boots plus a show from the Reduced Shakespeare theater troupe performing William Shakespeare's Long Lost First Play (abridged)which Dittman says is scheduled to run on Broadway.
"In this region, it doesn't happen that often. I think it's really exciting for Central Illinois to see a show like that before it goes to Broadway," Dittman said smiling about her "good get" as they say in the entertainment business. She also believes a show like Kinky Boots fits the directive to increase revenue. And there are others she's really excited about including Gobsmacked, an acapella and beatboxing show and Pink Martini, a group of musicians and vocalists who cross genres of classical, jazz and old-fashioned pop. NPR's All Things Considered Ari Shapirois an occasional guest artist.
A country music act is noticeably missing from the schedle but Dittman is confident she will find an appealing artist or group sometime during the 2017-2018 season. "None of the routing for any of the shows I wanted was really working out yet for this season but music shows in particular tend to book really close to when they appear and we will definitely be having additional shows added this season." She added, "I would definitely say we'll have at least one fairly major country show coming."
The BCPA websitehas a full schedule for the new season. Tickets for the general public will go on sale June 22.
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