The Broadway in Springfield series is moving out of the Prairie Capital Convention Center — and then calling it quits.
“It’s been a little bit tougher than anyone would have liked as far as overall sales,” said Todd Rossi, an executive with the series. “After analyzing it, Springfield really cannot support two competing Broadway series.”
The last two shows of the Broadway in Springfield season — “Monty Python’s Spamalot” (May 17) and “Fiddler on the Roof” (June 20) — will be presented at Sangamon Auditorium on the campus of the University of Illinois Springfield.
Next season, Springfield will again have just one Broadway series, at Sangamon Auditorium.
Chicago-based Theatre Council Productions originally was hired in 2005 to program the Broadway series at Sangamon Auditorium.
By the end of last season, however, auditorium management decided it wanted more of the profits from the Broadway shows and took the booking and production duties in-house.
Not wanting to give up the years it had spent promoting shows in Springfield, Theatre Council decided to continue its series under the name “Broadway in Springfield,” renting space at the convention center.
The move was featured in a March 9, 2011, article in The State Journal-Register.
