Rising insurance premiums have left the Hawaii Theatre in a tough spot on top of rising maintenance costs, smaller audiences since the pandemic, and diminishing grants for the arts.
One bright spot is that celebrities are doing what they can to help close the gap on the $6 million a year that Gregory Dunn, president and CEO of the Hawaii Theatre Center, said is needed to “keep the lights on.”
Dunn said insurance premiums went up last year by 4,500%, and that property insurance for the coming year is in the $430,000 range. The rise meant that the theater’s operating costs, excluding major capital repairs, rose from around $10,000 a day to some $15,000 a day.
Dunn said Hawaii Theatre has not been able to pass along the costs to users who “were already contracted to use the theater at the (previously) agreed upon rates. Instead, he said Hawaii Theatre has had to absorb the significant increase in its operating costs and that its year-end financials reflect the challenge.
“If it hadn’t been for some incredibly generous donors that we worked with last year to help close the gap, we would have been in incredibly serious trouble,” he said, adding that celebrities are coming to the rescue this year too.
Joe Moore and Pat Sajak donated the proceeds from their recent production of “Prescription: Murder” to the Hawaii Theatre Center. Moore also covered the show’s production costs. In September, comedian Ronny Chieng will headline a two-night fundraiser, “Ronny Chieng &Friends – Century of Inspiration,” that will include performances by surprise guests.
Dunn says the support provided by celebrity entertainers has never been more important than it is today.
“(Moore and Sajak) have brought in over $1.5 million in support to the theater over the years of their relationship to the theater,” Dunn said. “This year their show is on track to bring in almost $250,000 in ticketing sales for us, so it’s really helpful, and it helps close the gap.”
Dunn added that Chieng’s two nights in September also will help cut the deficit.
“One of the interesting things about arts and entertainment is how patrons respond to certain shows,” he said. “Ronny is going to be earning us, in ticket sales and sponsorships, close to $250,000 for the two nights because of the community’s aloha for Ronny and loving his comedy.”
Dunn said when Chieng filmed his Netflix special last year at the Hawaii Theatre, five shows sold out.
“Having him willing to come back and give back to the community and help support us is nothing short of amazing,” Dunn said. “To have someone like Ronny willing to donate his time and talent, and then also invite his friends, some of which are superstars who do arena shows, to come and join him on our stage to help raise money for us really is life saving.”
Dunn said the cuts in federal funding, and reduction in grants from private foundations also have forced difficult decisions regarding programs that were tied directly to the amount of funding that was lost.
The Hawaii Theatre’s youth theater program, produced in partnership with the Pacific Academy of Performing Arts, had planned on staging big-scale children’s musicals this fall, next spring and next summer. All three are now on hold until Dunn can replace $350,000 in funding. The Partners in the Arts program that allows Dunn to provide discounted rental fees to nonprofit organizations has suffered an 85% loss in funding.
“It’s really heartbreaking that we have to make these kinds of decisions, but we simply can’t continue to spend money that we’re no longer receiving,” Dunn said. “We’ve seen this huge rollback in what we’re able to do to support other nonprofits, and we’re asking everyone to have to pay a little bit more at a time when their direct funding is also being cut.”
One example Dunn mentions is Miss Chinatown Hawaii, a celebration of Chinese culture in the islands for almost 50 years. Last year he was able to give the nonprofit cultural organization a grant that reduced their net-use fee to $2,500. This year he said that he will have to charge twice that.
And that’s loose change compared to the cost of the work that will need to be done sooner or later on the 103-year-old landmark.
“We have nearly $25 million in capital projects that we could complete within this year — if we had $25 million,” Dunn said. “The last major retrofit and restoration was in the early 1990s and the theater reopened in 1996. Since then we’ve maintained the roof, we’ve maintained and raised money to keep the marquee on and bright. We were in the middle of a campaign to raise $2 million to paint and restore the outside of the building when the Lahaina fires happened, and we made the decision to start the project and paint the portions that needed it most without it being fully funded. We’re in the middle of that project now. The list goes on and on and on.”
The financial outlook is also clouded by lagging ticket sales that have yet to reach pre-COVID levels. Classical music, Hawaiian music, oldies acts like Jefferson Starship are all seeing sales declines of between 20% and 30%.
“The reality is that the Hawaii Theatre doesn’t receive any ongoing operating support from the city or from the state,” Dunn said. “We have to raise all of the money ourselves in order to balance our $6 million-plus-a-year budget. We are grateful for all of the generous donors who step up year after year to support the theater and help keep it going, but we have to ask everyone in the community, whether it’s someone that rents the theater or someone who comes to the show, to (also) help us balance the budget, remain sustainable, and keep the theater going.”
“RONNY CHIENG & FRIENDS – CENTURY OF INSPIRATION”
Where: Hawaii Theatre Center, 1130 Bethel St.
When: 8 p.m. Sept. 3-4
Tickets: $57.50-$97.50
Info: 808-528-0506 or visit hawaiitheatre.com/tickets
Source: The Garden Island