Black marketing firms hired to push black attendance for August Wilson’s last play

By Philip Boroff
Bloomberg News
(May 7, 2007) When August Wilson's “Radio Golf'' opens tomorrow night on Broadway in a $2 million production, investors won't be relying solely on rave reviews to fill the Cort Theater's 1,000 seats. In an unusually aggressive move, the producers hired five marketing firms to promote the show about an African-American businessman who wants to run for mayor of Pittsburgh.

At the time of his death in October 2005, Wilson had won two Pulitzer Prizes and was one of America's most celebrated dramatists. Commercially, however, his plays have had mixed success on Broadway, whose nickname, “the Great White Way,'' can sometimes be taken all too literally.

To reach beyond the typical Broadway theatergoer – who is a 49-year-old white woman, according to a recent Broadway trade association study – the producers engaged an array of marketing specialists. Three of them are African-American run. Their targets are African-American-related church groups, professional organizations and book clubs, among others.

In addition to placing ads in traditionally black-oriented media venues such as the Amsterdam News, a Harlem-based newspaper and Web site, the marketing specialists are working their Rolodexes and e-mail lists.

“It feels like selling tickets one by one,'' said Donna Walker-Kuhne, president of Walker International Communications Group, a Ditmas Park, Brooklyn, firm. “We're trying to change the complexion of the Broadway audience.''

Broad Challenges

“Audience development'' and “grass-roots marketing'' are already mantras on Broadway. But the lengths to which “Radio Golf'' is taking them speak to the challenges of mounting any play on Broadway without music or stars, let alone one with an all-black cast. In the week ending April 29, “Radio Golf'' took in $134,000 through seven performances, one of the smallest grosses among the 37 shows on Broadway, according to the League of American Theaters and Producers trade group.

Complicating matters is the fact that when “Radio Golf'' opened at the Yale Repertory Theater in April 2005, the New York Times called it the weakest of Wilson's plays. “It was a very frail play,'' said Jack Viertel, the 58-year-old creative director of the lead Broadway producer, Jujamcyn Theaters, adding that Wilson had later transformed it in rewrites.

This has been an atypically active time for dramas on Broadway. “We're opening in a very busy season for straight plays,'' said Viertel. “I knew we wouldn't have a cakewalk.''

”Color Purple”

Viertel said he and his colleagues have been encouraged by the strong audience response to “The Color Purple,'' which has sustained a long run and attracted African-American theatergoers despite mixed reviews. Nevertheless, “Radio Golf'' will need both favorable notices and effective marketing, Viertel acknowledged, if the producers have any hope of seeing a return on their investment.

Making a mint wasn't the motive in mounting “Radio Golf,'' about a black real-estate developer whose ambition and idealism conflict. Viertel first read Wilson when he was judging a play- writing contest some 25 years ago. They met at the 1989 opening of “The Piano Lesson'' at Yale Rep. In 1990 it became the first of five that Jujamcyn produced in Wilson's 10-play cycle about the African-American experience in the 20th century.

Walker-Kuhne has arranged “Radio Golf'' ticket sales for such groups as the National Association for Multi-Ethnicity in Communications, a trade association that promotes diversity in telecommunications. She has also targeted the Bronx chapter of the “Go On Girl! Book Club,'' which “supports authors of the Black African Diaspora'' by choosing a book a month for members, according to its Web site.

Inspiration

Irene Gandy, a Broadway press agent and another “Radio Golf'' marketer, last week escorted actress Tonya Pinkins to a New York awards lunch. There, Pinkins met Michelle Obama, wife of the Democratic presidential candidate, creating a photo opportunity that Gandy hopes will inspire interest in the show.

The play concerns a second-generation real-estate developer named Harmond Wilks (Harry Lennix), who plans to run for mayor of Pittsburgh after he and a partner complete a 180-unit apartment complex anchored by a Starbucks and a Whole Foods Market. His wife (Pinkins) is already trying out campaign slogans.

A historic home slated for demolition in the middle of the project tests Wilks. Does he cut ethical corners like his partner, who jumps at the chance to serve as a front for an unscrupulous white mogul? Or does he honor his past by protecting the house?

A recent preview audience was racially mixed. Most seemed appreciative of the humor, the nimble ensemble (three of the five actors had played their parts in regional productions) and Wilson's meaty themes.

With discounted seats selling for $31.25 in the balcony and $41.25 in the orchestra, Walker-Kuhne maintains price isn't a deterrent for black audiences. Rather, many don't have a Broadway play-going tradition. That's why she and others are making the rounds in the metropolitan area to entice African- American potential theatergoers to buy tickets.

“It's only recently we were invited to Broadway,'' she said. “We want people to feel at home.''

“Radio Golf'' opens tomorrow night at New York’s Cort Theater, 138 W. 48th St. Information: 212-239-6200.


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