Doesn't the League Defend Its Big Trademark: Broadway?

By some Internet accident, I came across the news release for the Theatre League's new season. This is not the Broadway League although it calls itself the "Broadway Theatre League" on the press release. According to its website, theatreleague.com, it is "a not-for-profit, tax-exempt, community-based performing arts organization dedicated to the development of professional legitimate theater, both as a cultural and an educational resource," whose "presentations include the top national touring companies of all of the major Broadway musicals of the last twenty-five years. In addition, the League's own in-house producing division mounts annual revivals of classic Broadway fare featuring stars of stage, screen and television." It serves seven communities: Mesa, AZ; Phoenix, AZ; Santa Barbara, CA; South Bend, IN; Thousand Oaks, CA; Toledo, OH; and Wichita, KS.

The four productions of its "Broadway season" include The Wedding Singer, The Drowsy Chaperone, Avenue Q--so good so far--and Rain: A Tribute to the Beatles. This last has not played a Broadway theatre, according to the Internet Broadway Database (www.ibdb.com). Based on the Rain website and the website of its producer The Road Company, the show is a staged version of two Beatles concerts followed by some staging of music from the era when the Beatles did not tour. (The last live Beatles performances were in 1966, except for a one-off performance on the roof of Apple Studios in 1969 made to be part of the movie Let It Be.)

I'm not proposing that the audiences of Mesa, Phoenix, et al, will not be satisfied by Rain, only that it is not a Broadway show. There are 40 Broadway theatres; see the Live Broadway website for a listing.

Otherwise, the Theatre League's press release is scrupulously honest, noting that Avenue Q and The Drowsy Chaperone received Tony awards but that The Wedding Singer was nominated without actually receiving an award. I hope The Wedding Singer works for them. The first tour of the movie-based musical was called "financially disastrous" by Variety, writing in June 2008.