Audience Interview: Leslie Broecker - Broadway in Louisville

by G. Douglas Dreisbach

For decades, PNC Broadway in Louisville has brought the biggest hits on stage to Louisville. Most recently, Hamilton entertained sold-out shows for a three-week stint in 2019 and is scheduled for an encore visit as part of the 2020-21season.

We caught up with Broadway's President, Leslie Broecker, to talk about everything from the exciting new season, to the importance of the arts in our community and what goes into scheduling, and rescheduling a season for Broadway.

This is an excerpt of the full interview. To read it in its entirety, visit Audience502.com.

Leslie Broecker - Broadway in Louisville - President

Douglas Dreisbach: Tell us about your role with Broadway in Louisville and Broadway Across America, and what your top priorities are.

Leslie Broecker: Our top priority is to find the very best shows from Broadway, with a lot of diversity, and get them into the cities that we work in. In addition to Louisville, I am also responsible for Kansas City, Cincinnati, Columbus and Indianapolis, so it has been an interesting picture to watch unfold.

DD: With Broadway shows traveling around the country and intertwining with other shows, I can only imagine the task of rescheduling and the decisions to cancel. What goes into scheduling, and rescheduling, shows? Is it like a big puzzle to make sure all the pieces fit?

LB: It’s not a 1,000-piece, it’s a 5,000- piece puzzle. It is the most complicated puzzle you’ll ever see. Trying to figure out which shows are stuck in theaters and can’t leave due to quarantines and other reasons, and what shows might be available and when, is challenging.

From juggling the avails in theaters, the shows that won’t be able to make it and some shows that are at the end of their tour and not continuing in the fall, I would say our programming team, along with all the folks like me who are representing cities, have been doing at least 18-hour days ever since this started, trying to navigate what’s available and when.

The other thing is so much of this is open-ended. As optimists, we are moving forward as well as we can. We rebooked Anastasia for the first week of August because we know that, when the time is right and it’s safe to go back, people are going to want to be at the theater. That’s what our business is about, bringing people together for this shared experience. And if August is too early and we have to move it, so be it.

Mean Girls is scheduled for November 10-15

DD: How is your team seeking creative inspiration or using this time in a positive way?

LB: It is exciting to see the Broadway folks coming out and doing inspiring videos they can share. Andrew Lloyd Weber has made his catalogue available, and you’ll be able to download and watch his musicals. Patti LuPone has made a video in her game room or basement or whatever, and it’s a hoot to see where everybody lives and where they’re performing. Rosie O’Donnell hosted her show for like three and a half hours from home, and had around 60 different Broadway performers doing performances to raise money for Broadway Cares. That is certainly inspiring.

DD: What is the best way for the arts enthusiasts of Louisville to support Broadway in Louisville and your team during these times?

LB: I think the best support is buying tickets and coming back and supporting not only the theater, but the Broadway series as well. That’s really what we ask. Order season tickets. Look towards the future. Support us. I think speaking for the arts community as a whole, if people had tickets to cancelled shows, donate those tickets back to the arts organization. Some folks have sent tickets back to us for the local theatrical association, and we put that right into our fund to purchase tickets for kids.

There are a million ways to come back and support the arts, but most importantly, I think for all of us, is to buy tickets and come back to the theater when you feel safe and when we’re open.

Cats returns to Louisville March 16 - 21, 20201

DD: The new season looks amazing! In addition to bringing back Hamilton, there’s a buzz about Cats, To Kill a Mockingbird and Waitress, which was cancelled due to the fire two seasons ago. And then yo u fold in Mean Girls, Tootsie and Ain’t Too Proud to Beg. This might be one of the best seasons in a long time, maybe ever, for Broadway in Louisville. Tell us about what goes into determining what shows come to Louisville and what went into determining this amazing season.

LB: I get to know the shows early on. I am a Tony voter, so I go to New York and see most, if not all, of the productions that open on Broadway. We survey our audiences to find out where their tastes are running and what is their familiarity with various shows. Everybody has favorites that are the chestnuts of Broadway, the revivals that we love, so I want to put something in that whets that appetite. You want something that’s maybe a date-night show. You want something that’s a family show. Then you look at the expense. You don’t want to book shows that price themselves out of everybody’s price range, so a nice balance of programming, well-priced so that it’s affordable. The other side of the coin, particularly in Louisville, would be with the Kentucky Center for the Arts. It is a great building that we share with the Orchestra, the Ballet, and the center’s programming, so we all navigate each other’s calendars and weave the complications of the shows on the road and their tours along with the dates that are available in the arts center.

So, it’s a jigsaw puzzle, but normally not the 30,000-piece jigsaw puzzle it is right now, where everything is moving at one time because of the circumstances.

DD: Why do you think the arts are so important to the community and our overall state of mind?

LB: When you see a production or you hear a musical, there is a sense of escapism. You are transported completely out of your space and time into a different place, and if it’s really great, you’re completely and totally engaged.

I also think it lends itself to introspection and makes you see some of yourself in the characters, and perhaps there’s affirmation in that or understanding. I just think it opens so many doors and avenues for your creative mind to process through things. And when we share and do that with people in a theater for a unique, live experience, it just — I don’t know — pulls emotion. I get goosebumps when I watch a show. I’ve been doing this for 34 years, and I still sit there and all of a sudden, that crescendo or those two people singing and hitting those notes together or that emotional moment — then my eyes get filled, and I have goosebumps.