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Patronage of the Arts Alive and Well in Cleveland

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    PlayhouseSquare CEO Art J Falco weighs in on the theater business in Cleveland.

  • Duration 5:22
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Thank you are able -- 41 of the actors Halley -- Hal Holbrook committee Drew Carey and the composer Henry Mancini all have in common.

I bet they're all from Cleveland to -- training.

-- alleged -- is standing by with the head of Cleveland Playhouse square hey let.

-- -- an -- Paul Newman from Cleveland Burgess Meredith.

-- I'm rocky I mean come on the greatest of the great come from this great city of Cleveland Ohio and we are joined now by art Falco who's the CEO.

-- house where sort of a grouping of five different venues that have been around since early nineteen hundreds thank you for joining us our thanks to be with you well -- -- In New York it's all about Broadway but when you talk to people who are in the know about theater they all say that the greatest plays have come through Cleveland.

Either first or right after Broadway what do you think that is.

Because -- a very very sophisticated theater town.

We have the first repertory theatre company in the country in the Cleveland play house.

And also clearly it was a sight for a lot of the pre Broadway shows in the forties and fifties who is terrific audiences it was a it was a testing ground -- -- -- that was.

You know today honestly we have.

Because we have such a great town we have a number of shows that -- -- open their national -- -- In fact right now we have anything goes anything goes was huge on Broadway -- -- a lot of Tonys and what else is coming are you are you can announce something -- war horse.

We do have -- horse on the series we also have book of Mormon so all of northeast Ohio was waiting for those tickets go on sale.

I think that that's a crucial point there you don't see these very expensive shows.

Coming to every city because the cost in this day and age when patronage of the arts.

Is I just a little bit more difficult to come by tell you about the patronage here in Cleveland you know.

The demographic aging -- get the younger people understand how important the arts are here.

What we are getting a lot of younger people and in fact we have one million guests that come to play house where annually.

And almost a 100000 of those people from outside of the area.

And we really trying to -- -- ticket prices lower -- our average ticket prices are about 20% below the national average and much less than New York.

I remember seeing the death of a salesman I remember seeing -- -- -- spare us some really wonderful.

Theater but at a time when everybody's coming back particularly the school system.

How do you insert yourself in a way to get people on a higher level whether it be political or business wise to understand that you know what.

This is important this that you -- Governor Huckabee often says Mike Huckabee of Arkansas who works for Fox News says.

This is the last thing that should be cut arts and music.

Absolutely because it's not just quality of life and we use Playhouse square as a vehicle for economic development and we have.

In excess of sixty million dollars of economic activity because of play elsewhere being where it is.

Could've gone anywhere highly educated you've been at some of the best universities in the world why did you pick Cleveland and Playhouse square.

Because we don't think there's a better city than Cleveland Ohio.

That's the main reason we have so much to offer and it's not just.

What we have been theater we have well we have the finest performing arts but we also have the natural resources -- its -- -- -- it's the people that are here it's gonna work.

Is it hard to convince.

Certain actors to come perform in Cleveland like could you give me anecdotal evidence of a time when somebody famous was able to -- -- say this is worth it.

Oh my gosh well right now we have Rachel York and anything else.

And we have Tom Hanks who who just -- Cleveland who was here in this internship in his early days thinking back a year ago.

When Great Lakes theater festival had their twentieth anniversary it is just spectacular.

In terms of have actors warning to come here because they feel.

What won the audiences are terrific and they just love being here you know right over your right shoulder we have the Cleveland-Cliffs ship them and of course like -- It's always thought of this sort of a greedy in just real let's bring in the big barges and now you know the joke about the Cuyahoga River having caught fire but there is an eloquence to Cleveland that a lot of people don't understand -- know about absolutely we we have the Cleveland Orchestra which is one of the finest orchestras in the country.

We have the Cleveland art museum which again as one of the finest art museums in the country.

I mean we have a great sophistication.

And it's it's not just -- the nitty gritty.

Of which we we also have some of that but but we also have our medical facilities we have university hospitals we have the Cleveland clinic.

I mean we really are -- an up and coming city.

-- Falco the CEO of Playhouse square book of Mormon coming the biggest companies are coming.

Not to mention war horse which won the Tony for best play thank you very very much but it's great to see you good luck but -- -- -- tagged.

The sports teams the browns and the Indian -- like the bad news bears but the team and the town of -- -- all of the fans in the fans have said keep these teams -- well guess what.

The browns getting a new lease on life with a billionaire businessman -- and coddled Jimmy have slumped from.

Not still Travis C said I want MF.

There's the stadium at stake Tim coming up Jimmy have -- in his first live interview since he officially becomes the owner.

The Cleveland Browns let's see if she can make -- the winning franchise back.

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