A Broadway veteran
worries: ‘This looks like
gigantic trouble.’

By PATRICIA COHEN

Like most longtime Broadway producers, James Freydberg is used to getting loans. But recently he found that despite what he said was his perfect credit rating, his bank was not so accommodating.“Banks are unwilling or unable to loan money,’’ he said.

“We’ve seen economic setbacks before, but what we’re seeing now is very unusual,” said Mr. Freydberg, who has been involved with more than a dozen productions in the past 25 years.“For the first time ever, I’ve looked at our business and said this looks like gigantic trouble.”As for the nonprofit theaters, a severe drop in donations and audience means “some nonprofits may go under.”

While everyone suspects that there might be a few empty Broadway theaters in the spring, at the moment the big theaters are still largely booked, and most nonprofits have finished their fund-raising for this fiscal year.

More significant, though, is what happens when the next fall season comes round. Those in the industry wonder not only about empty theaters, but also about the effect on the stream of creative work.

The theater industry is squeezed on two sides, by producers and ticket buyers. Banks are sitting on their capital, fearful to lend. Many wealthy people have seen their portfolios lose millions, even billions, of dollars.

Emanuel Azenberg, who is reviving two of Neil Simon’s autobiographical plays for next fall, said, “People who normally put a lot of money in the theater - because they have a lot of money - are pulling back either completely or very considerably.”

Putting money into the theater is “a luxury, not an investment,” Mr. Freydberg said. After all, Broadway’s economics have never made much sense. About 80 percent of its shows never earn back their initial investment. The lure is the glamour and the thrill.

As for ticket sales, the producer Margo Lion said that family shows would probably suffer first because it is more expensive to take an entire family. Evidence has surfaced just east of Broadway, at Radio City Music Hall. In October the theater scaled back the number of “Christmas Spectacular” shows to 216 from 225.

Carole Shorenstein Hays, a longtime Broadway producer and theater owner, said the industry needed to look at the work, and invest in artists in whom producers believe.“I’m not certain money is the be all and end all of art,” she said.

Mr. Azenberg shares Ms. Hays’s view.“The single biggest problem is that Broadway used to be an equilibrium between money and art, and now it’s leaning much more toward money,” he said. Mr. Azenberg’s solution would be a national actors troupe. He wants theatrical stars - Meryl Streep, Kevin Kline, Al Pacino - to commit to appearing in limited-run plays at least once every three years.

“They only have to run three or four months, and you charge a normal price, no premium,” Mr. Azenberg said. “We’ve proven that in three months those shows can be eminently profitable. ”

Still, many agree that such radical steps would happen only in desperate times.

“Twenty years ago, when I arrived in this business, people were asking the same question, and things haven’t changed,” said Nick Scandalios, executive vice president of the Nederlander Organization, which owns nine Broadway theaters. Since the 1920s people have warned that theater is dying. “I’m actually a little bit more on the optimistic side,” he added, “but I know people out there are scared, just like they are everywhere.”