Exit Citi Center
Boston Ballet leaving venue for Opera House after contract dispute over 'Nutcracker,' ending a 30-year relationship
After more than 30 years performing at the city's biggest and most opulent theater, on Tremont Street, Boston Ballet has signed a long-term deal to move its season into the recently restored Opera House, beginning in 2009.
The move ends a sometimes contentious relationship between the ballet and the Citi Performing Arts Center, which oversees the 3,600-seat Wang Theatre, where the ballet has appeared for decades.
More than a year of negotiations between the Citi Center and the ballet, both nonprofits, broke down over the company's insistence that any new contract involve "The Nutcracker." In 2004, the center replaced the popular holiday production with the "Radio City Christmas Spectacular," a touring show starring the Rockettes. Boston Ballet scrambled to present "The Nutcracker" at the much smaller Colonial Theatre, and lost about $4 million.
After that, "The Nutcracker" moved into the 2,600-seat Opera House, and the ballet's remaining 9- to 11-week season continued at the Wang.
"Wow, that's a shock," said Bruce Marks, Boston Ballet's artistic director from 1985 to 1997, when told of the Opera House deal. "But it sounds like a good arrangement. It is important that the ballet has the security of knowing each year where its home will be."
Boston Ballet artistic director Mikko Nissinen said yesterday the 30-year deal with the Opera House will give the ballet the financial stability it lacked at the Citi Center. In addition, the smaller Opera House is better suited for ballet than the Wang, he said.
Nissinen would not provide details of the contract, other than to say it will save the ballet money. The Opera House, which is owned and operated by Live Nation, reopened in 2004 after a $52 million renovation.
Nissinen said it was important that the ballet's entire season be in one place.
"The people are so confused after all these years with 'The Nutcracker,' " he said. "It makes one destination. This is now the home."
Josiah Spaulding Jr., president and chief executive of the Citi Center, said yesterday he was disappointed the ballet opted for the Opera House, but that he had tried to negotiate a new deal.
He said he offered to present "The Nutcracker" every other year, allowing him to also hold other holiday shows. In recent years, the Citi Center has produced a version of "Irving Berlin's White Christmas," alternating it with the Radio City show.
Spaulding said the ballet's decision to leave after next season will allow him to bring in potentially more profitable performances.
"There have been many shows that the Citi Center has turned down to support its resident companies," he said.
Boston Ballet has a long history with the Wang Theatre. Founded in 1963, the ballet spent a decade performing in different spaces around Boston. It moved into the Wang (then called the Music Hall) in 1974, according to the ballet. The troupe remained central to the center's identity. In 1990, Boston Ballet prima ballerina Jennifer Gelfand performed at a glitzy fund-raising ball for the restoration of the theater.
But both organizations have struggled in recent years, the Citi Center with annual budget deficits and Boston Ballet with a series of staff and performance cutbacks. This month, the ballet confirmed it would reduce its stable of dancers from 50 to 41.
Local historian Douglass Shand-Tucci said the ballet's move is the latest blow to those who hoped to see the Wang as a thriving local presenter of high culture.
"A lot of people gave a lot of money to turn the [theater] into an opera house that would be suitable for opera and ballet, and it hasn't worked out that way clearly, and that's really kind of sad," said Shand-Tucci.
"But I'm more interested in the ballet surviving and doing well than the Wang, because it has turned out, for me, to become more of a disappointment."
Geoff Edgers can be reached at gedgers@globe.com.
