In a Broadway First, 'On the Town' Producers Seek Investors Online

In a first for a Broadway show, the producers of the 70th anniversary revival of On the Town, set to begin previews in just over a month, are soliciting investors via a website.

Howard and Janet Kagan, lead producers of the $8.5 million musical, are offering equity stakes in the production to investors who meet certain financial requirements. The minimum investment is $10,000, and the New York Times reports that would-be investors must have a net worth over $1 million or an annual income over $200,000 individually or $300,000 jointly.

While those numbers may seem steep, it's worth noting that an income of $200,000 doesn't even get you anywhere near "the one percent." And according to real estate website Trulia, $1 million won't even get you an average-priced condo in New York City.

This is the first attempt to sell equity stakes in an imminent Broadway production through a custom-made website, though London producers have experimented with the method. With fewer financial requirements and therefore a larger pool of potential investors, a crowdfunding website generated about 15 percent of the capitalization of the current production of The Pajama Game at the Shaftesbury Theatre.

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Tags
Broadway, Broadway Musical, Musical, Musical theater, Crowdfunding, Leonard Bernstein
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