 | |
| Founded | 2004 |
|---|---|
| Type | Theatre company |
| Location | |
| Owner | John Gore |
President | Lauren Reid |
| Website | johngore |
The John Gore Organization (JGO), formerly known as Key Brand Entertainment (KBE), is a producer and distributor of live theater in North America, as well as an e-commerce company, focused on theater. KBE was founded in the UK in 2004 by 14-time Tony Award-winning Producer [1] John Gore who is the company's Chairman, CEO and Owner.
The company is a successor to a number of theatrical production and distribution companies acquired through acquisition or merger. These include: Livent, [2] Clear Channel Entertainment, PACE Theatrical Group, [3] Magicworks, and others. [4] As such it retains interests in numerous Broadway productions and various related rights. The company was amalgamated into Broadway Across America under Clear Channel Communication's ownership. [5] [6] [7] [8]
Broadway Across America became a business unit of Live Nation, Inc. following the spin-off of Live Nation from Clear Channel Communications on December 25, 2005. [9] Clear Channel had acquired the assets of SFX Entertainment, which was owned primarily by Robert F.X. Sillerman, and principally consisted of live concert venues and amphitheaters devoted primarily to rock music in February 2000. [10]
SFX Entertainment, in turn, was founded by Sillerman in order to "roll up" businesses associated with live entertainment, principally rock music. He began by acquiring Delsner/Slater Concerts in 1996 and a number of acquisitions followed rapidly thereafter. Sillerman's entry into theater began with the acquisition of PACE Theatrical Group in October 1997. [11] In September 1998, SFX acquired Magicworks Entertainment, Inc. [4] [12] This Miami-based company promoted concerts and managed touring events such as magician David Copperfield and musicals Jekyll & Hyde and Evita . It had been a partner of PACE unit PACE Theatricals for some time. PACE, in turn, was controlled by Texas-based theater veteran Allen Becker. [13] Also acquired was production company American Artists, which controlled several theaters in the Boston area including the historic Colonial Theater. [14] Magicworks had been controlled by Lee D. Marshall and Joe Marsh (Lee and Marsh later reunited in the company Magic Arts & Entertainment). The summer of 1999 saw court approval granted for a purchase of the bankrupt Livent (then controlled by Canadian entrepreneur Garth Drabinsky and CAA founder Mike Ovitz), a deal that had been initiated a year earlier. Livent, once one of the premier theatrical production companies, owned such touring shows as Ragtime and Fosse, as well as a number of venues in Canada and the United States. Its bankruptcy had been attributed to widespread accounting fraud. [15] In early 2000 SFX acquired Jujamcyn Productions of Minneapolis, a touring theatrical production company. SFX already owned half of Jujamcyn, acquired through PACE Entertainment. [16]
On December 16, 2010, Key Brand completed the acquisition of Theater Direct International from Hollywood Media Corp. for an announced price of $43.1 million in cash and other consideration, [17] Theater Direct owned and operated the content-driven e-commerce websites Broadway.com, Theater.com, Theatre.com, and Theatre.co.uk. In May 2012, Key Brand completed the acquisition of BroadwayBox.com, a website for discount theater tickets in New York. That December, Key Brand completed the acquisition of Group Sales Box Office (GSBO), the a group-sales ticket agency.
In December 2020, individuals who purchased their tickets from a John Gore Organization platform, including Broadway.com and Broadway Across America were given the option to donate the value of their unused tickets to Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS and the COVID-19 Emergency Assistance Fund, [18] as an effort to offer relief for shows and theater fans affected by the cancellation of events forced by the COVID-19 pandemic, raising more than $2.6 million. [19]
In 2020, the Gore family introduced a social and web programming to raise awareness of the anti-racism movement, reaching upwards of 3 million Broadway fans. [20]
The company's assets include:
Philanthropically, JGO has supported The Arthur Miller Foundation with a grant to provide theater educators in NYC Public Schools. [28] In 2017, JGO raised $500,000 for Hurricane Maria relief in Puerto Rico by producing a benefit performance of Thornton Wilder’s Our Town starring Scarlett Johansson, Robert Downey Jr. and Chris Evans. [29] It was announced in September 2018 that JGO pledged $100,000 to the T. Fellowship at Columbia University, a program that fosters new creative producers. [30] In April 2021, the John Gore Organization became a founding partner in The Theatre Leadership Project to train and mentor a new generation of Black theater industry leaders. [31] In January 2022, JGO launched the Black Theatre Coalition/Broadway Across America Fellowship program, the first national Broadway fellowship program designed to provide an introduction to the Broadway industry for aspiring BIPOC theater professionals. [32]
As the John Gore Organization, the company was awarded several awards including Tony Awards, Drama Desk Awards, : [33] [34] [1] [35] [36] [37] [38]
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