Myron Martin: ‘We have been so fortunate to have gotten the biggest shows from Broadway’
It’s an embarrassment of musical riches and difficult to know where to start in this extraordinary preview of the 2017-2018 Broadway Season at The Smith Center for the Performing Arts being unveiled tonight to patrons, sponsors and season ticketholders.
Do we begin with the best? Or save the best, “Hamilton the Musical,” for last? Do we start with the 20th anniversary of “Rent”? Or the ultimate love story of “Love Never Dies” with the return of The Phantom? 
Do we kick off with reimagined versions of “The Color Purple” or “The King and I”? Or thrill with the award-winning “The Bodyguard” based on the hit motion picture with the megahit soundtrack?
The Smith Center President Myron Martin guided me correctly, saying: “Who would’ve thought that we’d be sitting here five years after our debut talking about a season that would feature ‘Hamilton’?”
We’ll start there. Why did it become so unique, such a big winner of Tonys, when everything that you saw and heard about it beforehand indicated that this ain’t going to work? It will flop with hip hop and black historical figures. How did it break through?
It’s all about the creativity of Lin-Manuel Miranda and extraordinary writing. You’re right. When people heard that this is a story about American history told in hip hop, they thought that it was kind of weird. 
But nobody who has seen it, who I have talked to, hasn’t left the theater saying it was remarkable, it was nothing short of fantastic. I guess the concept was a little out there, and maybe that’s what makes it such an extreme hit.
You saw it and obviously fell in love with it. Everybody else did. Las Vegas, of course, is not Broadway, and Broadway certainly isn’t Las Vegas. What do you think the reaction here is going to be? Are you already being inundated with ticket requests?
We won’t have tickets for sale for months and months, and I am already getting phone calls and emails. Yes, it will be the hottest ticket, for sure. 
The hottest ticket in the five-year history of The Smith Center?
Oh, yes. I’ve never seen anything like the reaction to “Hamilton.” It has changed Broadway. Broadway is different because of “Hamilton.” Expectations for weekly grosses of a show are higher now because of the expectations of “Hamilton.”
Yes, we’ve had other great shows still do extraordinary numbers on Broadway, but “Hamilton’s” just a different breed. It’s such a different show. It has such a buzz that everyone has to see it, and everyone is talking about it, and people go back to see it time and time again. I’ve seen it five times.
Four times more than the vice president! Is this the start of the North American tour of “Hamilton”? Did you land it as its first outing on the road?
We were outside of the sit-down productions in Chicago, L.A. and San Francisco, but we were the first tour stop to announce that it would be coming to our city. It doesn’t start the tour, and you can see by the schedule that it ends our season. It’s not even the longest-running show we’ve had in the five years. Both runs of “Wicked” were this long or longer. This is on par with our “The Book of Mormon” runs. 
Ticket sales will be monstrous. Any chance it can extend past June 24 next year?
There’s no way that it can extend as much as we would love it and as hard as we tried to get it for even longer. This is the run. I apologize in advance to all of my friends who will want to buy tickets, and it will be sold out. It’s such a phenomenon. It’s just part of what’s going to come with the territory.
If that’s the anchor show of the new season, what is the rebirth of “Phantom” in terms of “Love Never Dies,” which I’m affectionately dubbing “Phantom 2”?
This is a tour we really wanted. This is the first North American tour. It’s never played in Las Vegas, and that was important to us. It’s new and fresh, and it’s Andrew Lloyd Webber — and we wanted it. 
We’re talking in advance of “Phantom 1” playing at The Smith Center from May 31-June 11, and now you’ve got “Phantom 2” arriving next year. The love for “Phantom” still reigns supreme. Did you see “Phantom 2”?
I have not seen it, but I’ve spoken to so many people who have wonderful things to say about it.
It went first to Australia, then London and now the North America tour. “Phantom of the Opera” fans have been longing for this production for years. I don’t know how to compare the two shows, but I know that that there’s a fan base really wanting to see it.
I’m going to link two things here: Sequels are never supposed to be as great as the original, so after “Phantom 2” comes “The Bodyguard,” an incredible movie that’s now a musical. Is it as powerful as the movie?
I can’t wait to find out. Here’s why I can’t answer your question. It implies comparing one legendary singer with somebody else. She was extraordinary, the film was extraordinary — people are loving the musical.
I think the people who saw the film would really enjoy seeing the story live. Deborah Cox has gotten great reviews. It played London’s West End very successfully. People really loved it, and it was nominated for four awards.
I’m also interested in “Rent’s” 20th anniversary. You’re bringing that back, and it played The Hilton Las Vegas many years ago. And “The King and I,” which also fits in the category “It can never do any wrong.”
“Rent” is based on the classic and now in a new form 20 years after it opened on Broadway. It’s become a classic on its own, with some of the music, “525,600 Minutes,” for example, has become part of the popular vocabulary. I’m really thrilled that we’re able to bring it as a fresh title to The Smith Center.
“The King and I” is also a new production staged at Lincoln Center with Kelly O’Hara in the starring role. It was a beautiful, beautiful production, and everyone who saw it really loved it, and it won awards for Best Revival. 
When the tour came around, we knew that we wanted to try to get it, and, frankly, in the beginning we didn’t think we were going to be able to fit it into the schedule. It was only thanks to the touring and scheduling gods that it all worked out and we can include it.
I’m thrilled that we can, and, yes, it’s a revival. Yes, it started in 1951, so it’s not a new show. But it’s new to The Smith Center, and I think that giving our patrons a blend of classics and new is just perfect.
Let’s take an overall look at this new season compared with past years. How do you feel that this new season stacks up?
We have been so fortunate to have gotten the biggest shows from Broadway, and I couldn’t be happier with our relationship with our Broadway partners. I’ve been saying this phrase a lot, that Broadway’s the longest street in America, and now it runs right through Las Vegas because of The Smith Center.
I couldn’t be happier than to be able to say that The Smith Center’s been home to shows like “Wicked” and “The Book of Mormon” and now “Hamilton.” I think each year we’ve given people some pretty spectacular shows. This is now our sixth season, and it truly has really something for everyone. 
The play “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime” is compelling drama, something entirely new for our audiences. It’s not the standard musical that somebody might expect in a Broadway Season, plus “Something Rotten!” and “Disney’s The Little Mermaid,” which is going to be a family favorite. We’ve talked about “The King and I,” “The Bodyguard,” “Rent,” “Love Never Dies” and “The Color Purple” giving our audiences a new look at a new production.
Remember our first season we had the original Broadway production of “The Color Purple.” Last season they launched a brand new production, completely reimagined, and, to be honest, I went to it kind of arms folded, thinking, “Do you really need to see another version of ‘The Color Purple’ ”? 
Only to be completely amused by the show. It’s so much more that I went back and saw it a couple of days later because I loved it so much. We knew that we wanted our audiences to be able to see this new production because it was that good, and, of course, “Hamilton.”
This is a season that will no doubt have our highest number of season ticketholders and our greatest demand, so I couldn’t be happier.
