Still, I am not sure that August illustrates exactly what Kaiser thinks it does. The play is entirely conventional in form, and well within the American Realist mainstream in style and content. It is unusually well-written, with a certain audacity of tone that gives it some edge but is not remotely avant-garde or abstract, and was superbly acted by a resident ensemble whose members had worked together for years, and to whose talents and shared aesthetic the author (himself an actor, and a member of the ensemble) had tailored his characters. For Steppenwolf, mounting it for its home audience was as close to risk-free as a theatrical production can get, save only for the fact that it required that larger-than-normal cast.
This last was surely the primary risk in bringing the play to Broadway for a commercial run, particularly since the cast included none of the actors (there are a half-dozen or so) who were launched from Steppenwolf’s early days into bigtime, ticket-selling TV/movie stardom. This was simply the core Chicago company of theatre actors, doing what they do. The producers’ risk was heavily hedged by two factors: “boffo” rave reviews in the New York press (notably two by Charles Isherwood in the New York Times, first in Chicago, then in New York), and the absence of star salaries.
What would be an operatic equivalent of August, Osage County, or of the performer-centered company that gave it birth? Something, perhaps, rather on the order of the New York City Opera of a half-century ago, and the new works it introduced into its predominantly standard-repertory seasons? And what might its chances of survival be? Kaiser’s fine book at least helps us grasp the realities of that.
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A Few More Books On Topics Raised Above:
On the NYCO and the City Center:
Martin L. Sokol: The New York City Opera/An American Adventure (Macmillan, 1981) and Jean Dalrymple: From the Last Row (James T. White & Co., 1975). Between them, these volumes give a fairly comprehensive view of the founding and early struggles of the New York City Opera and its original parent organization, The New York City Center, and of their transfer to Lincoln Center, troubled from the outset. The battle lines haven’t moved much, but you may be surprised by the level of civic involvement in those early years, as distinct from the response in later ones. (The Kirstein quotation in the main text is from Sokol’s book.) Also valuable for annals with complete cast lists–for the NYCO in Sokol (though only up through the book’s publication date), and for the New York City Ballet and the City Center’s drama, light opera, and musical companies in Dalrymple. More recently, there is also: Julius Rudel and Rebecca Paller: First and Lasting Impressions (U. of Rochester Press, 2013). This is Rudel’s autobiographical memoir, naturally centered around his long career with the NYCO. Interesting for its General Director and Principal Conductor’s POV, it does not add much with respect to the present subject, Money.
On the Met at Lincoln Center:
Joseph Volpe, with Charles Michener: The Toughest Show on Earth (Knopf, 2006). Volpe’s recounting of his “reign” at the Metropolitan Opera, including the Lincoln Center development wars as seen from the POV of Levy’s most powerful constituent and irritant-in-chief. Chap. 17, “No Light in the Tunnel,” is the directly relevant section, and it includes such goodies as the Tale of the Movado Clock and that of the incidental item of $1.3 million in architectural fees wasted on the notion of a glass dome over (and under) the whole complex.
On the Earned Income Gap and related economic matters:
William J. Baumol and William G. Bowen: Performing Arts: The Economic Dilemma (The Twentieth Century Fund, 1966); James Heilbrun and Charles M. Gray: The Economics of Art and Culture (2nd Edition, Cambridge Univ. Press, 2001); and William J. Baumol (with other contributors): The Cost Disease–Why Computers Get Cheaper and Health Care Doesn’t (Yale Univ. Press, 2012).
The Baumol-and-Bowen collaboration is the Urtext on the subject. Even its dated aspects are useful for an understanding of how much has changed, and the whole is still worth reading for its clarity and insight.
Heilbrun and Gray do much more than update B&B–they explore several aspects in greater detail, take account of counterarguments, and thoughtfully consider the pros and cons of increased government support. Don’t be put off by demand curve charts, participation tables, etc. All is explained in decent English prose.