Time was when Tampa was to the arts what Las Vegas was to family values. Guggenheim was “Crazy” – not Solomon or Peggy. Live entertainment meant spring training, wrestling, boxing, greyhound racing, jai alai playing and flamenco dancing at the Columbia Restaurant. And some never tired of reliving that vintage performance of Elvis at the Armory.
While other, often smaller, cities were turning to the arts for downtown revivals in the 1960s, Tampa was still clinging to its industrial roots – and ambience. Sarasota would have its Van Wezel Hall and St. Petersburg its Mahaffey Theater. Tampa had its Curtis Hixon Hall. USF played basketball there.
But by the 1980s, Tampa had fast-forwarded to the point that it was prominently mentioned in John Naisbitt’s best-seller, “Megatrends,” as one of “America’s Next Great Cities.” The futurist included Tampa on a short list of cities uniquely positioned to take advantage of the twin-dawning information and globalization ages. The Greater Tampa Chamber of commerce couldn’t order enough of those “great city” bumper stickers. It was decidedly heady stuff for a city that had been incrementally gaining recognition for its prototype airport; major seaport; growing, diverse economy; a large state university and even an NFL franchise.
And yet. Tampa remained this embarrassingly late cultural bloomer. Even Clearwater had its Ruth Eckerd Hall by then.
And, candidly, how do you revel about being a “Next Great City” when the Nick Nuccio-era Curtis Hixon Hall is your concert venue? Sure, Janis Joplin played it and was even arrested there in the ‘60s. And, yes, CHH was quite suitable for Slim Whitman and the Miami Sound Machine. That, of course, was the problem.
Then came the game-changer.
Arts Awakening
Tampa knew it needed a first-class performing arts center because, well, cities worth their civic salt all seemed to have one. Arts emporiums were beginning to be touted as economic-development tools. They could help attract business. They could have a ripple effect in the economy. The result: the $57-million, 335,000-square-foot Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center. It debuted in 1987. It was a product of municipal bonds, nine city-owned, dirt-lot acres and a pragmatic cadre of visionaries, including H.L. Culbreath, Hinks Shimberg, Frank Morsani and Mayor Bob Martinez.
But while civic leaders and local luminaries basked in a waterfront, acoustics-touted venue worthy of great performance, TBPAC lost money. Every year.
Enter Judy Lisi as TBPAC president in 1992.
The Fairfield, Conn. native had been executive director of the prestigious Shubert Performing Arts Center in New Haven. She had the know-how and the know-who and had been a performer herself. She was Juilliard School of Music-trained in opera. She was also a playwright and a director.
In Tampa, she met “incredibly nice” people, she recalls. She also saw an impressive facility that was state-of-the-art and presciently multi-venued. It featured the 2,600-seat Carol Morsani Theatre, the 1,042-seat Louise Lykes Ferguson Theatre plus three more intimate theaters seating between 300 and 130 patrons.
Then she looked at the books and saw a $4-million deficit. She looked at the programming and saw why.
“I saw where changes could be made,” says Lisi. “They were heavy in the classics. They were paying top dollar for less than first-rate Broadway.
“You have to have a product that people want to see and that you can market,” she underscores. “You have to manage risk. We may be a not-for-profit, but we have to run it like a business. And things can change quickly in this business.”
Indeed. TBPAC, recently renamed the David A. Straz Jr. Center for the Performing Arts, has been in the black since shortly after Lisi took over. It is known for much more than being the largest performing arts center in the Southeast. Annual attendance averages between 600,000 and 700,000. Billboard magazine just named it the third most successful performing arts venue (5,000 seats or less) in the country for the decade. Its economic impact on the region is now estimated at $100 million by Americans for the Arts.
“From the day Judy arrived, she has thrown herself into that position,” says Tampa Mayor Pam Iorio. “She’s energetic, positive and innovative. They do everything right over there.”
Thanks to Lisi, a nationally recognized impresario, the Straz has become a pre-eminent presenter of Broadway tours, the home of Opera Tampa and host of popular cabaret shows. She was also the driving force behind the Patel Conservatory, which recently celebrated its fifth anniversary. Last year Lisi, 63, added to her myriad honors by winning the “Patrick Hayes Award” for lifetime achievement from the International Society for the Performing Arts.
“Judy is really an icon in this community,” says Stu Rogel, chairman of the Tampa Bay Partnership. “Having the arts prosper is such a critical factor in the growth and prosperity of a community. She took a great facility and just added so much. She took that center and shaped and molded and grew it. And Judy can certainly take it to the next level.”
“Wonderland” Hopes
That next level can be summarized in three words: Broadway Genesis Project. It’s the most ambitious undertaking in the 22-year history of the center. The goal is nothing less than to literally grow its own Broadway-caliber productions. From scratch. And then hope the launch carries all the way to “The Great White Way.” And succeeds. And then tours.
That’s how you recoup your investment and enhance your reputation a hundred fold.
“What you’re doing is creating a work,” explains Lisi. “That’s really how an arts center builds its reputation. And if we get that reputation for doing something especially creative and ambitious, then Tampa does too.”
The reason the Broadway Genesis Project was viable, points out Lisi, is the unique Straz/Tampa wherewithal. “First was our state-of-the-art facilities,” says Lisi. That includes, she notes, a “perfect Broadway-type theater” in Ferguson, as well as technical and production capabilities, a costume shop and rehearsal studios. Plus a proven professional staff, a large subscription base, a track record of group and individual sales, responsive audiences and major-market media.
For several years the center had been setting aside Broadway Genesis Project money — about $3.5 million culled from the endowment — to properly fund a made-in-Tampa production worthy of a world premier. It would be the largest single Tampa Bay stage production ever. And, yes, the dour economy did create some in-house soul searching.
“With the economy, we – the Board and staff – did reconsider,” acknowledges Lisi. “However, institutionally we had already committed time and effort that the conclusion was to stay with the plan. Also, it was felt that this kind of ‘big idea’ would propel the institution forward as well as stimulate jobs and growth in a time that it was needed most.”
To that end, according to Lisi, the production of the first BGP show, “Wonderland: Alice’s New Musical Adventure,” will have pumped some $8 million into the local economy by the time it ends on Jan. 3. The cast and crew have been here since early October and all sets, props and costumes were produced locally.
Assuaging much of the Straz stress is the fact that “Wonderland” has been very well received and applauded as a boffo production. And, yes, I’ve seen it. I highly recommend it. It’s uplifting; it’s a visual feast; and it’s funny. Janet Dacal (Alice) is a gifted, charismatic talent. And, no, I wasn’t the only one to perceive a bit of a Sarah Palin send-up in the Queen of Hearts.
By next week, “Wonderland” will be in Houston for a month’s run at the Alley Theatre. There will be additional tweaking of the book as well as some high-tech cue changes. And more than a few crossed fingers back here at the Straz.
“We feel the show has potential to be developed in various ways, and that these revenue streams should not only return the original investment, but hopefully, over time, would return more which could be used for future projects,” assesses Lisi. “About $1.5 million will be returned right here in Tampa and more in Houston.”
And for the record, the Straz will certainly be considering another made-in-Tampa, Broadway Genesis Project, but probably not for another two years. The development process, says Lisi, takes that long. No decisions yet on what it might be.
But even if “Wonderland” makes a splash in New York and the tour circuit, the advent of “Broadway South” won’t be the Straz’s or Lisi’s only — or even most impacting — legacy.
“The success of the Center was a crucial part of growing Tampa,” says Tampa City Councilwoman Linda Saul-Sena. “It gave us exposure to the wider world, and it gave the wider world exposure to us. It’s a marvelous showcase for Tampa.”
Imagine Tampa without its arts catalyst.
“I can say we would not have the Patel Conservatory, the three museums, downtown residential, maybe even the new Riverwalk, maybe even the Aquarium and Channelside,” posits Lisi. “Since the Center was the first major cultural project, if it had not happened or had not succeeded, one could question whether these subsequent projects would have happened at all.”
But memories of Elvis at the Armory would still linger.