Print

Email story

Comment

Email editor

What sort of shows ahead for renovated Mahaffey?

Should a renewed Mahaffey offer different fare for a more sophisticated audience? Some culture folks say so.

By LEONORA LaPETER and MARY JANE PARK
Published August 28, 2005

ST. PETERSBURG - Will it showcase Broadway hits like Mamma Mia! and Phantom of the Opera or popular music acts such as Gwen Stefani and Three Doors Down?

Mahaffey Theater, the city's pre-eminent performing arts venue, is in the midst of an $18-million renovation.

When it reopens next spring, the city-owned, 1,998-seat theater will likely be managed by Philadelphia-based SMG.

Whether it goes the way of Ruth Eckerd Hall with its bent toward youthful, popular entertainment or features more of the Broadway productions of the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center has yet to be determined.

While city officials say the answer may be somewhere in the middle, a sampling of local residents interested in the arts suggests the Mahaffey needs to get more exciting and edgy, more national, more cosmopolitan.

"St. Petersburg is getting a little younger and wealthier and more sophisticated than ever before, and as a result we probably have a growing audience and more receptive audience for high-value productions," said Steve Raymund, chief executive officer of Tech Data, the St. Petersburg wholesale computer distribution company.

"St. Petersburg was formerly a retirement community, and now its character is changing," he said. "There are more professionals, more younger people and so, hopefully, these demographics support a more dynamic set of programming."

As the Mahaffey takes its place in an arts park alongside the Salvador Dali Museum, expectations are high now that one of the nation's largest venue booking and management firms is negotiating to operate it.

Once the contract has been negotiated, SMG will likely study the market and figure out what mix of entertainment should go there. That's what Ruth Eckerd Hall did 10 years ago.

"We found that the marketplace, especially Pinellas in particular, had as great a number of people 35 to 55 years old as it did 55 plus, and the market was catering to the 55 plus audience," said Lex Poppens, director of marketing for Ruth Eckerd Hall in Clearwater.

The Mahaffey will compete with Ruth Eckerd, the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center in Tampa and other venues.

But all of the entertainment companies that sought to operate the Mahaffey told city officials that there was an untapped audience in the St. Petersburg area that could be served by the Mahaffey, said Ann Wykell, the city's manager of cultural affairs.

"As the audience develops, I think we have to leave the door open and let SMG show us the best combination of programming that will be attractive to the largest number of people," Wykell said.

The city had to subsidize the Mahaffey to the tune of $1.4-million last year.

In 2003, it hosted 234 performances that drew 169,000 paid visitors.

In addition to the Florida Orchestra's performances, its top-grossing productions were Riverdance, which appeared for five days, drew an audience of 5,931 and produced a net revenue of $18,884, and the three-day Miss Florida Pageant, which brought in 2,661 people and netted $11,043. Elvis' Birthday Bash came in fifth with 1,280 in the audience and $5,183 in revenues.

A look at the events scheduled at some of the 34 other arenas that SMG manages shows they go for variety, everything from the U.S. Hot Rod Thundernationals at the Pensacola Civic Center to Hilary Duff at the Osceola Heritage Park in Kissimmee.

Simone Bennett, development assistant with the Museum of Fine Arts, said she'd like to see "something kind of in between the big indoor venue and the small outdoor venue. . . . It (the Mahaffey) seems to be pretty quiet after the classical music series ends. It would be nice to have other entertainment there."

The Mahaffey could schedule Broadway touring productions, country-western music and headliners, said Mark Spano, executive director of the Palladium Theater. "That's what turns a profit."

Country acts would bring people to the Mahaffey who have never been to the theater before, Spano said. "If they don't get a whole new audience, they're not going to succeed. We know the usual suspects. We're programming for them right now."

Paulette Johnson, co-founder and artistic director of the Soulful Arts Dance Academy in St. Petersburg, said the Mahaffey should offer "gospel concerts and black theater," as well as "good musical theater, not just black musical theater, but that needs to happen, too. Maybe bring in some companies, some dance."

For all of those, she said, she must now go to the Lakeland Civic Center, Ruth Eckerd or the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center.

"What I miss in St. Petersburg is full-scale ballet and dance, as well as opera," said Evelyn Craft, executive director of the Arts Center.

"It's hard sometimes. Real full-production ballets would just be divine here. To have big operas would be divine."

Craig Sher, president and chief executive officer of the Sembler Co., which owns and operates BayWalk, said he thinks the Mahaffey needs to find a niche that separates it from the pack.

"I don't know that we can compete head-on with everything around," Sher said. "We need to find some unique entertainment. . . . We need to upgrade severely the type of entertainment. We've gone after B and C kinds of acts that don't draw so well, and that's why the Mahaffey is not doing so well.

"I think we should try (fewer) acts but better acts to try to fill the place."

"St. Petersburg is getting a little younger and wealthier and more sophisticated than ever before, and as a result we probably have a growing audience."

- STEVE RAYMUND, CEO of Tech Data

"If they don't get a whole new audience, they're not going to succeed."

- MARK SPANO, executive director of the Palladium Theater

"What I miss in St. Petersburg is full-scale ballet and dance, as well as opera."

- EVELYN CRAFT, executive director of the Arts Center

Offer "good musical theater, not just black musical theater, but that needs to happen, too. Maybe bring in some companies, some dance."

- PAULETTE JOHNSON, co-founder and artistic director of the Soulful Arts Dance Academy in St. Petersburg

"We've gone after B and C kinds of acts that don't draw so well, and that's why the Mahaffey is not doing so well."

- CRAIG SHER, president and CEO of the Sembler Co.

[Last modified August 28, 2005, 01:13:44]