US/CA TOUR SCHEDULE

[ERinVA]

Much of the schedule on here is based on links from various websites for venues that have the show listed as part of their season. Unfortunately, the official website seems a bit behind in updating the schedule.

[porschesrule]

Yay! The official website itinerary was updated today and, though still not complete, at least all the stops through early March are now there:

http://www.billyelliottour.com/us-tour-tickets

[rob_hanson1979]

Why do they only have a 2 day stop in Clearwater? They have to go from Kansas City to Clearwater to Richmond VA, so its not like its on the way to their next stop. That seems really short and out of the way!

[accessmenj]

The SETA rules cause silly schedules. There needs to be some middle ground between SETA and non union shows.
BETM can prosper if the tour can sit down longer in larger metropolitan areas, and not have the average stop of one week. New rules need to be negotiated between Actors Equity and the tours.

[cws8998]

According to this up dated scheduled, Is there the assumption that the Las Vegas stop formally scheduled for May has been eliminated?

I phoned the box office of the venue within the last week, formally a listed stop, regarding a weekend of tickets, at which time they told me individual tickets were due to go on sale March 22.

Therein lies a great deal of confusion!!!

Colin

[porschesrule]

According to this up dated scheduled, Is there the assumption that the Las Vegas stop formally scheduled for May has been eliminated?

I phoned the box office of the venue within the last week, formally a listed stop, regarding a weekend of tickets, at which time they told me individual tickets were due to go on sale March 22.

Therein lies a great deal of confusion!!!

Colin

As I've said often in the past, you can't totally rely on the BETMUS website for the itinerary. When I posted earlier that progress had been made with regard to updating the website, I noted that the itinerary was still not complete there as there were other tour stops previously announced and listed on theatre websites that still hadn't made it to the tour website.

Las Vegas is still on:

http://www.thesmithcenter.com/events/bi ... e-musical/

[rob_hanson1979]

I really don't know what these union rules are, but they seem to interfere in a lot.
A city like Las Vegas should be able to host Billy Elliot for longer than a week, possibly for months. Even here in Ottawa, ticket sales have been great, and the theatre holds about 3000 people. So staying only a week is a bit silly. Shows like Lion King, Wicked, Phantom, etc usually spend about a month here.

[ERinVA]

Reality check: The BETM tour had a regular Equity touring contract. For whatever reason (mostly to do with high overhead, and possibly management issues), it was unable to sustain the schedule that had been set up as part of that contract. After closing down, the show, which was bought by Networks Tours, was retooled to make it less expensive, which included reducing the size of the set, losing the automation, and establishing a new contract with cast members under SETA rules in order to save on salaries. Under SETA rules, the show can do only a few stays longer than five days, and those longer ones have to be balanced out with shorter ones.

Despite what you say about Las Vegas being able to sustain a longer run, the tour as it now exists can not go against the SETA terms. And, apparently, even now, with its reduced format, I am reasonably sure the tour is not flush with money. Ticket prices have to be calculated at a level that will draw an audience. Behinds in seats at reduced rates may fill the auditorium, but they may not pay the expenses of the tour. In fact, in some places, it may well not be breaking even. If it were doing really well financially, I'm sure it would be extending beyond Hartford, which it isn't. It is a very, very expensive show to keep going, and at some point it has to end in order not to go broke. So arguing that ticket sales in Ottawa are evidence that the show should be staying longer in Las Vegas, or wherever, may sound reasonable, but I expect that the reality is very different.

[rob_hanson1979]

Thats quite interesting. To me it seems like the issues may lie more in management than anything else. While I'm sure it is an expensive show, I can't see it being as expensive as, say, Phantom or Wicked. Plus to me, being able to set up the show in a theatre and stay for 3 to 4 weeks is going to be cheaper than moving the whole show every week... provided of course that they fill the seats. And if the contract doesn't allow that.. maybe it wasn't the best contract to sign.
I'm not an analyst, so I can't really say for sure where the problem lies. I just am hoping that somehow the tour continues.

[ERinVA]

Neither Phantom nor Wicked has a cast the size of BETM, nor does either of them have to carry people to oversee the care of a large child cast, not to mention all the training BETM has to keep up, which is far more extensive than what those other two shows have to do . When people think about Wicked and Phantom, they think about all the fancy sets and technical stuff, but they don't think about comparing the expenses of sustaining the cast itself. Staying three or four weeks would reduce travel expenses somewhat, but it would not reduce the other factors.