All stories by Joe Patti on BroadwayStars

Thursday, August 16, 2012

Oh What A Tangled Web… by Joe Patti

Today at lunch a musician friend was picking our brains about a fund raiser he wants to do for a cause he really believes in. He outlined his vision and then asked for ideas of places he cou…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 03:47AM[SHARE]
Wednesday, August 15, 2012

Do The Arts And Millennials Share The Same Core Values? by Joe Patti

Last month there was an article on Fast Company, Why Millennials Don’t Want To Buy Stuff, that claims the focus is moving away from acquisition of things toward access to ideas and rel…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 01:01AM[SHARE]
Tuesday, August 14, 2012

Put Your Board On A Diet by Joe Patti

The Chronicle of Higher Education had a piece about the problems inherent to large board size on their website today (subscription required). While the article is about large boards in highe…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 12:18AM[SHARE]
Thursday, August 9, 2012

It Is All In How You Play The Game by Joe Patti

Today faculty and staff on my campus met to discuss what to expect when the accreditation team visits our campus for a week in October. If you aren’t familiar with higher education acc…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 01:06AM[SHARE]
Wednesday, August 8, 2012

Would You Know If Your Candy Machine Was Broken? by Joe Patti

As you might imagine, there are a few vending machines scattered around our campus. The one behind our building get cleaned out regularly when we have rental groups with large numbers of kid…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 02:03AM[SHARE]
Tuesday, August 7, 2012

Misunderstanding Your Competition by Joe Patti

To pick up from my last post about the Set In Stone report, the one aspect of the research I was intrigued by was their survey of people’s perceptions of the impacts (or lack thereof) …

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 01:34AM[SHARE]
Thursday, August 2, 2012

Stuff To Ponder: Process and Pitfalls Of Cultural Facility Construction by Joe Patti

If you are planning new building construction or a significant renovation, you would do well to check out the Set in Stone research project performed by the University of Chicago. When I fir…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 12:11AM[SHARE]
Wednesday, August 1, 2012

Info You Can Use: Outside Audits And You by Joe Patti

During the summer many non profit boards of directors suspend their meetings due to the difficulty of scheduling meetings around members’ vacations. When meetings start up again in the…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 12:26AM[SHARE]
Monday, July 30, 2012

When Guilt Is Good by Joe Patti

Research by the Stanford Graduate School of Business had some surprising results suggesting that even more than extroversion, a sense of guilt may be a strong indicator of leadership potenti…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 10:29PM[SHARE]
Wednesday, July 25, 2012

No Simple Solutions by Joe Patti

While I was out in the middle of the Mongolian steppes gazing out from my yurt, I happened upon a copy of the Oxford Business Group’s report on Mongolia in the dining hall. I put aside…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 10:43PM[SHARE]
Tuesday, July 24, 2012

Summer Vacation, Asia Edition, Part II by Joe Patti

Okay, as promised a little bit on my view on the Mongolian stage of my vacation. Mongolia’s biggest asset is its wide open spaces of natural beauty. Only reason I can figure Genghis Kh…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 11:21PM[SHARE]
Monday, July 23, 2012

Summer Vacation 2012, Asia Edition by Joe Patti

So I am back from my vacation (my thanks to Drew McManus who kept an eye on the blog).  This trip took me to China and Mongolia, both of which will provide content for a few days of discu…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 10:52PM[SHARE]
Wednesday, July 18, 2012

Is Art Still Good For Us? by Joe Patti

A few years back, I wrote some reflections on Joli Jensen’s, Is Art Good For Us? I had taken the book out of the library but have since bought a copy of that book as well as John Dewey…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 04:01PM[SHARE]
Tuesday, July 17, 2012

Stuff To Ponder: Snobby Opera Lovers Aren't The Problem by Joe Patti

A few years back I reported on an article by Bill Ivey and Steven Tepper in which they reported that surveys show classical music lovers are more likely to have omnivorous tastes and consume…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 04:25PM[SHARE]
Monday, July 16, 2012

Be Perfect by Joe Patti

One of the ideas I have occasionally touched upon here is the idea that perfection is expected in the arts. That line of thought really started for me with an entry I did in 2006. Audiences …

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 04:37PM[SHARE]
Wednesday, July 11, 2012

Last Of The Great Pretenders by Joe Patti

Last month when I heard that Herb Reed of the Platters had died and was reminded that he had waged a fairly protracted legal battle over the use of the Platters name, I thought back to an en…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 09:00AM[SHARE]
Tuesday, July 10, 2012

Do U2 Fans Like Ballet? by Joe Patti

Back in 2006 U2 was supposed to play here in town but had to postpone because of an illness in the Edge’s family. We had a dance performance schedule for that day and I got it into my …

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 02:26PM[SHARE]
Monday, July 9, 2012

Still Cool As Hell After All These Years by Joe Patti

Today I am going to point you back to an interview Michael Rice of Cool As Hell Theatre Podcast did with playwright Paula Vogel. Michael stopped doing his podcast a few years back but keeps …

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 08:10AM[SHARE]
Wednesday, July 4, 2012

Thomas Jefferson, Artist by Joe Patti

On this lovely 4th of July, I point you to the Founding Father’s Musical, 1776. While there are some songs I like a little better, this one appeals to me because: 1- As John Adams and …

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 04:55PM[SHARE]

Still Asking Why The Show Was Not Advertised by Joe Patti

Back in 2006 I was pondering the situation where people came up to me at a performance and asked, “Why Didn’t You Advertise This?” Now given I get this comment most from pe…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 03:35AM[SHARE]
Monday, July 2, 2012

Brisket Will Keep Us Together by Joe Patti

So I am off on vacation for a couple weeks. But not to worry, I have plumbed the depths of my archives in order to provide you something to think about while I am gone. While I am taking a v…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 04:19PM[SHARE]
Thursday, June 28, 2012

Who Owns The Meaning Of Art, Revisited by Joe Patti

Ray Bradbury’s recent death has had me revisiting some thoughts about the issue of who owns the meaning of art. In all the retrospectives on his life, you may have heard he intended hi…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 01:12AM[SHARE]
Wednesday, June 27, 2012

I Don't Remember The Nest Being So Nice by Joe Patti

There is potential that cities across the country can ultimately benefit from this economic downturn if they play their cards right and tap into those returning home to help contribute to ra…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 01:45AM[SHARE]
Tuesday, June 26, 2012

Info You Can Use: Be Careful of Social Couponing by Joe Patti

If you have been considering using social coupons to increase attendance at your events and attract new customers, you may want to read a study covered last month in MIT Sloan Management Rev…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 01:10AM[SHARE]
Thursday, June 21, 2012

Shorter Board Meetings? You Have My Consent! by Joe Patti

Last week a very interesting article came down my Twitter feed, (I apologize for not noting the source), written by Les Wallace about the best board meeting he ever attended. What made it th…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 12:04AM[SHARE]
Wednesday, June 20, 2012

Embracing The (Cost) Disease by Joe Patti

Hat tip to Thomas Cott for bringing Jon Silpayamanant’s intriguing refutation of the idea of Baumol’s Cost Disease being the doom of arts organizations. Silpayamanant correctly n…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 04:11AM[SHARE]
Tuesday, June 19, 2012

Info You Can Use: Job Descriptions, Not Everything Is A Critical Duty by Joe Patti

Not long ago I came across a job posting for a non-profit organization that listed over 25 duties and marked each one of them as a core responsibility. Now, my first thought was, if every jo…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 03:22AM[SHARE]
Thursday, June 14, 2012

Thus Rises The Individual Curator and Commissioner by Joe Patti

There was an intriguing piece on Wired last week (h/t Thomas Cott) about an alternative approach to funding events via Kickstarter. Andy Baio talks about funding record projects, conferences…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 04:13AM[SHARE]
Wednesday, June 13, 2012

Info You Can Use: Doing Business With Board Members by Joe Patti

Since I am on the topic of board decisions this week, Non Profit Law blog recently listed a link about non profits doing business with their own board members. While it is natural for non pr…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 01:29AM[SHARE]
Monday, June 11, 2012

To Close Or Not To Close, How Much Debt Is Too Much? by Joe Patti

A little over a week ago I received the news that one of our partner theatres decided to close its doors. That sent the rest of us scrambling to contact artists to see if we could salvage th…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 06:00PM[SHARE]
Thursday, June 7, 2012

Right People, Not Right Product Make A Great Company by Joe Patti

So as something of a follow up to my post earlier this week asking if foundation boards embrace non-profit values, I wanted to point to an article about what private enterprises can learn fr…

SOURCE: Butts In The Seats at 03:26AM[SHARE]

All that Chat

2025-2026 BROADWAY SEASON
Jun 12, 2025: Call Me Izzy - Studio 54
Sep 16, 2025: Art - Music Box Theatre
Oct 08, 2025: Beetlejuice - Palace Theatre
Nov 13, 2025: Oedipus - Studio 54
Nov 16, 2025: Chess - Imperial Theatre
Mar 23, 2026: Giant - Music Box Theatre
Apr 06, 2026: Becky Shaw - Hayes Theater
Apr 16, 2026: Proof - Booth Theatre
Apr 26, 2026: Drama Desk Cut-Off