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Tara Economics
by Liz Gunnison
April 2008 Issue
April 2008 Issue
When Trevor Nunn started planning a musical adaptation of Gone With the Wind for the West End, he wasn't thinking about interest rates and foreign currencies. He should have been.
Why a partner of a private equity fund spent 14 years and millions of dollars on an all-black production of Tennessee Williams' Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. Read More
Blame it on a lousy exchange rate.
When Trevor Nunn signed on to direct a musical version of Gone With the Wind in 2003, the director's hometown of London seemed a logical venue. It would be easier for him to mount the Civil War tale there, since local audiences would be less attached than Americans to the movie version, and it would cost between $4 million and $7 million—about half the Broadway rate.
Working with American producer Aldo Scrofani, Nunn projected that he'd need £4.75 million, about two-thirds of which Scrofani planned to raise in U.S. dollars, for a total of $5 million. But as the production entered the planning stages, the pound's value against the dollar began to climb. The exchange rate, which had been hovering since the early 1990s at $1.60 to the pound, rose to $2.11 in November, then settled at around $1.97. With G.W.T.W. set to open on April 22, Scrofani was still scrambling in February to hit his revised funding goal of $6.2 million. "It's like a silly game," says the producer. "If the exchange rate went to $1.94, I would be completely capitalized. At $2, I'm still short."
Other developments have also plagued Gone With the Wind. An invasion of expensive American musicals in the past few years has raised audience expectations when it comes to production values. And exchange rate aside, the cost of staging a show in London has skyrocketed since 2003. Today, a production in the West End is just 5 to 10 percent cheaper than on Broadway. "The budget is a work of art," says Scrofani. "It's probably on its 20th draft."
His latest revenue-boosting move was to recruit Darius Danesh, the British equivalent of American Idol runner-up Clay Aiken, for the role of Rhett Butler. While casting Aiken in Spamalot on Broadway last fall hasn't helped that show's weekly grosses, Scrofani hopes that pop singer Danesh will generate media interest and spark ticket sales. "Guess what it will have cost us," Scrofani says. "Nothing."
When Trevor Nunn signed on to direct a musical version of Gone With the Wind in 2003, the director's hometown of London seemed a logical venue. It would be easier for him to mount the Civil War tale there, since local audiences would be less attached than Americans to the movie version, and it would cost between $4 million and $7 million—about half the Broadway rate.
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Other developments have also plagued Gone With the Wind. An invasion of expensive American musicals in the past few years has raised audience expectations when it comes to production values. And exchange rate aside, the cost of staging a show in London has skyrocketed since 2003. Today, a production in the West End is just 5 to 10 percent cheaper than on Broadway. "The budget is a work of art," says Scrofani. "It's probably on its 20th draft."
His latest revenue-boosting move was to recruit Darius Danesh, the British equivalent of American Idol runner-up Clay Aiken, for the role of Rhett Butler. While casting Aiken in Spamalot on Broadway last fall hasn't helped that show's weekly grosses, Scrofani hopes that pop singer Danesh will generate media interest and spark ticket sales. "Guess what it will have cost us," Scrofani says. "Nothing."
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