New funds or curtains for North Shore Music Theatre
North Shore Music Theatre, one of the region's oldest and most popular theater companies, said yesterday that unless it raises $4 million by the spring, it will close its doors after 53 years.
The nonprofit Beverly theater said that amid the current sharp economic downturn, lower-than-expected donations and reduced ticket sales this season had left it unable to cover its operating costs.
Contributing to the budget woes was a 2005 fire that ruined the company's stage, orchestra pit, lighting, and seats, forcing the theater to invest millions in its facilities and leaving it roughly $5 million in debt last year.
Yesterday, the company notified 57 employees of layoffs that will be effective Jan. 11, at the end of its performance season, leaving a skeleton crew to search for solutions.
"We are doing everything we can," said Barry Ivan, North Shore Music Theatre's artistic director and executive producer, who remains optimistic.
Anita Walker, executive director of the Massachusetts Cultural Council, called the company's financial situation "terrible," but noted that North Shore Music Theatre is not alone in facing serious economic challenges. In fact, said Walker, whose agency funds about 400 nonprofit arts and cultural organizations across the state, there is reason to worry about other midsize arts institutions going out of business.
"The small, live-on-love type of organizations can make things happen with their creativity, and large organizations have endowments and strong donor bases," Walker said. "But it's the midsize ones, quite frankly, that are fragile."
Operating since 1955, North Shore Music Theatre has evolved from a summer stock house into the largest nonprofit theater in New England, with 350,000 patrons annually. The theater has been recognized by the Boston Business Journal as the second-largest performing arts organization in the state based on audience size (after the Boston Symphony Orchestra and Boston Pops combined). It has received multiple Elliot Norton Awards and this season presented seven musicals, five children's shows, and several celebrity musical and comedy concerts, in addition to hosting a large educational program. This year, the company's annual budget was $13 million.
In a last-ditch attempt to raise funds, North Shore Music Theatre is urging the public to purchase tickets to its 13 remaining performances of "Disney High School Musical 2" or make donations via the theater's website, www.nsmt.org. If every seat is sold, the theater would have an additional $400,000 in revenue, enough to continue operations in the short term.
"We entered the year with a balanced budget and we had no intention of borrowing any money," David Fellows, North Shore's chairman of the board, said yesterday. "The total aid we need is $4 million, and by the end of January we need to raise something like $400,000. If we get there we'd still lay off the production staff, but we'd keep the artistic staff planning and securing rights for next season."
The theater's board called an emergency meeting last week after realizing that its ticket sales were critically short. Last year's production of "Disney High School Musical" was tremendously successful, with 52,000 tickets sold, but sales for the sequel are about 13,000 - far lower than expected.
In recent months, the theater's leadership has explored various strategies to stay afloat, including the development of a new business model for the performance season, a possible sale of land, and philanthropic outreach, all without success.
Still, Walker held out hope yesterday that a creative solution could be found.
"North Shore Music Theatre has a steep hill to climb, but there's a lot of different ways to slice and dice a situation like this," Walker said. "Maybe they'll decide not to do the same scope of season or just scale back."
John Beck, director of operations at ArtsBoston, said he was stunned to hear of the theater's possible demise. "This is the first we've heard about the problems, and it's a shock to us."
Jeff Poulus, executive director of StageSource, the Greater Boston Theater Alliance, said he hoped residents and businesses in the community would show their support because the company has been an important institution providing jobs and art.
"I think about all the stories of big for-profit companies asking for bailouts this year from the federal government, while nonprofits traditionally keep their doors open the old-fashioned way," he said. "We can't very well only support banks and car companies. Who wants to live in a city or town with no culture?"
Mark Shanahan of the Globe staff contributed to this report. 