reprinted from 

November 7, 2001

NOISES' OFF TO A FAB START

By MICHAEL RIEDEL, NEW YORK POST

November 7, 2001 -- TALK about a sleeper hit. Propelled by rave reviews (3 1/2 stars from The Post, a gigantic color picture in last Friday's Times), the revival of "Noises Off" took in $300,000 at the box office Friday, which many on the Great White Way say is the largest single-day take for a straight play on Broadway history.

Michael Frayn's backstage farce rang up another $250,000 by the end of the weekend and, production sources say, continues to sell nearly $100,000 worth of tickets a day.

At that rate, the revival should be able to recoup its $2.5 million investment in just over 10 weeks.

Nobody expected the show to do that kind of business. But it seems that, in these uneasy times, a show with as many belly laughs as "Noises Off" is just what the doctor ordered. *

Tony-winning Broadway director Hal Prince thinks theater owners have gotten too greedy for their own good. In a blistering letter that was read last week at a meeting of the Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers (SSD&C), Prince blasted the Shubert Organization and Jujamcyn Theaters for tacking so-called "restoration fees" on to the price of theater tickets.

Jujamcyn adds $1 to the price of tickets at its theaters; the Shuberts, $1.25 for shows at some but not all of their theaters. The theater owners say the fees are necessary to restore and maintain landmarked Broadway theaters. But Prince and other theater people think it's just a sneaky way of raising ticket prices.

Prince, whose production of "The Phantom of the Opera" has made him one of the richest directors on Broadway, declined to release his letter to The Post. But a source familiar with its contents called it "really tough and angry. He really took them to task for their greed."

The issue of restoration fees is threatening to scuttle delicate contract negotiations that are going on between the SSD&C and the League of American Theaters and Producers, a trade organization that represents Broadway producers and theater owners.

The SSD&C maintains that the restoration fees are part of the total ticket price and should therefore be factored into a show's weekly box-office gross. Directors and choreographers collect royalty payments based on the weekly gross. Add the extra money generated by the restoration fees to the gross, and their royalties increase.

The theater owners, of course, want to keep the restoration fees for themselves. They put a proposal on the table last week that would allow them to raise the fee as much as $4 a ticket before they would have to pay royalties on the extra money.

The SSD&C declined to comment on the negotiations, but theater sources say the union was stunned by the proposal and is vowing to resist it.

Last year, an arbiter ruled that Jujamcyn had to pay royalties on restoration fees to directors and choreographers. With that victory in hand, sources say, the SSD&C sees no reason why it should cave in on the issue now.

Paul Libin, producing director of Jujamcyn Theaters, said the proposal for a $4 royalty-free restoration fee "is simply in line with what other venues around the country and in the city charge, and what the SSD&C has accepted. It does not mean we intend to raise our current rate to $4. We simply feel it is appropriate to have a common standard."

The Shubert Organization has no plans to raise its restoration fee to $4 either, said its chairman, Gerald Schoenfeld. Schoenfeld declined to comment on negotiations with the SSD&C. He did, though, say restoration fees were needed to cover the millions of dollars the Shuberts have spent on restoring their theaters.

The cost of refurbishing the Winter Garden alone, he noted, was $11 million.

"There is no reimbursement for that," he said. Restoration fees, he added, "provide some means of doing these marvelous renovations, which are very expensive matters."

Prince isn't the only prominent theater person objecting to the theater owners' push for restoration fees.

Emanuel Ezenberg, producer of many Neil Simon plays, including "45 Seconds From Broadway," says if the SSD&C agrees to the $4 proposal, "the sky is the limit" on how high the fees will eventually go.

And, he adds: "If the major stumbling block is restoration fees, then the overall interest of our industry is not being represented in these negotiations. This is something the theater owners want, not the producers."