Read what DON SHIRLEY, Times Staff Writer, said in Calendarlive on latimes.com.

"'It changed everything,' said James Blackman, executive director and founder of the CLO. 'It elevated the significance of the work that we had done at the CLO. It was like some magical machine that lifted our 20-ton train off the track we were on and set us on another track. It altered the history of the company.'"

Backstage West on Backstage.com
November 20, 2002
FEATURES WEST
A Statue's Significance
By Laura Weinert

It's just not fair to compare the Ovations to the Tony Awards, says Lee Wochner, president and CEO of Theatre LA, the theatre advocacy organization that produces the yearly Ovations. In some ways, however, the temptation is hard to resist. The Tony Awards are seen as the theatre award on the East Coast, perhaps in the country, and carry an enormous financial return. Broadway shows jockey for an opening just before the Tonys, and those that don't win sometimes close. By comparison--perhaps unfairly--the West Coast's most visible theatre award is, shall we say, a bit more low-key. Most of the shows nominated have long been packed away, so winning the Ovation can't translate into a direct increase at the box office. So what exactly do Ovations mean to a theatre company?

Wochner admits that the significance of the Ovations is different from that of the Tonys: "The big impact of the Tonys is to drive people to go see those productions. Every year shows that don't win Tony awards close, and shows that win Tony awards extend and keep running. In L.A. many of the shows that get nominations and win awards have already closed, and so the purpose isn't to drive attendance to those productions, it's to drive awareness to the artistic quality of the work in L.A., and to drive people to more productions overall."

So if winning an Ovation won't typically affect your box office, what economic impact does the award have? "It had a big impact on our theatre," said Deaf West's producing director Bill O'Brien, "specifically year 2000 when we won best musical and best play. It helped grow our audience in general terms, and it was a tremendous benefit for us in helping us accomplish our other goal, which is grant writing."

In the case of the Civic Light Opera of South Bay Cities, winning back-to-back Ovations for West Side Story and Dreamgirls also had an enormous financial impact. It helped convince the City of Redondo Beach to fund an $11 million renovation of the theatre, which has taken place over the past two years.

"It changed everything," said James Blackman, executive director and founder of the CLO. "It elevated the significance of the work that we had done at the CLO. It was like some magical machine that lifted our 20-ton train off the track we were on and set us on another track. It altered the history of the company."

There are rare cases in which a show's run happens to coincide with the Ovations. This year, for example, an auspicious situation has popped up for the Mark Taper Forum: Deaf West's production of Big River will be up for Ovations--for its "intimate theatre" run at the North Hollywood space--at the same time the production plays in its Taper reincarnation.

"We're expecting that we can make some hay out of that and grab a little bit of Ovation award attention," said Jim Royce, marketing director for the Mark Taper Forum and the Ahmanson. Royce said that usually, however, the Ovations have little impact on box office as shows are usually closed. He sees the award's significance as more of a chance to come together and collectively acknowledge one another's work.

Of course there are some who claim that the award has little meaning outside the theatre community. And part of the reason for this might be not enough marketing by Theatre LA.

"They don't do enough PR for themselves," said one source, who wished to remain anonymous. "I've had to explain to people what Ovation means. A mom and dad with two kids--they don't know an Ovation from a Big Mac."

"Who is Theatre LA and who cares?" said another anonymous source, once a voting member. "It's important to people in the theatre business, but outside of that, I don't think anyone cares or knows who they are."

According to Blackman, what the Ovations need is television coverage leading up to and during the event. "What's lacking is, we don't have a live hookup where we have people being talked about before [the show]. There hasn't been an effort to televise the show and at least make the award do its job. So for right now it's an insider thing, and until it's televised as an entertainment piece to watch, I don't see how it's going to translate to box office."

Blackman said he's mentioned the idea to "anyone who will stand still and listen" at Theatre LA but hasn't received much of a response.

But as Wochner's pointed out, perhaps it's just not right for Ovations nominees to leer enviously at the Tonys. "I want to cut the Gordian knot of that argument. I understand how people say, 'Here's a car and this is the kind of car I know.' But you wind up comparing two radically different cars, or comparing a motorcycle and a helicopter because they are both vehicles. We have no relation to the Tonys really. We have far more shows that are registered for the Ovation awards than are ever registered for the Tonys."

Indeed the sheer number of qualifying productions in Los Angeles has led Theatre LA to modify the award this year to allow for up to three winners in categories in which 50 or more shows are entered.

"Unlike the Tony Awards," explained Playwrights Arena's Jon Rivera, who chaired Theatre LA's Ovations review committee, "we are honoring over 300 productions in a season. The Tony Awards sometimes are only considering like 10 to 12 shows. For them to honor one winner is justifiable, but we met for about two years and really tried to look at how we best try to recognize the theatre of L.A., and that's why we came up with more than one winner in categories where there are 50 or more entrants."

"The Tony Awards represents Broadway," pointed out Wochner. "We represent the equivalent of Broadway, Off-Broadway, off-Off-Broadway, never heard of Broadway, nowhere near Broadway." Acknowledging this, all theatre producers who spoke with Back Stage West were delighted that the change had been made to allow multiple Ovation winners. Now if only they could be sure the public would understand just what that Ovation win means.

The Ovation Awards
November 24, 2002
Orpheum Theatre
842 S. Broadway
Los Angeles, California