 | |
| 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]
Harvey Forbes Fierstein is an American actor, playwright, and screenwriter, known for his distinctive gravelly voice. He is best known for his theater work in Torch Song Trilogy and Hairspray and film roles in Mrs. Doubtfire, Independence Day, and as the voice of Yao in Mulan and Mulan II. Fierstein won two Tony Awards, Best Actor in a Play and Best Play, for Torch Song Trilogy. He received his third Tony Award, Best Book of a Musical, for the musical La Cage aux Folles and his fourth, the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical, for playing Edna Turnblad in Hairspray, a role he revived in its live television event, Hairspray Live! Fierstein also wrote the books for the Tony Award-winning musicals Kinky Boots, Newsies, and Tony Award-nominated, Drama League Award-winner A Catered Affair. He was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame in 2007.
John Weidman is an American librettist and television writer for Sesame Street. He has worked on stage musicals with Stephen Sondheim and Susan Stroman.
John Cullum is an American actor and singer. He has appeared in many stage musicals and dramas, including Shenandoah (1975) and On the Twentieth Century (1978), winning the Tony Award for Best Leading Actor in a Musical for each. In 1966 he gained his first Tony nomination as the lead in On a Clear Day You Can See Forever, in which he introduced the title song, and more recently received Tony nominations for Urinetown The Musical (2002) and as Best Featured Actor in the revival of 110 in the Shade (2007).
Thomas Berard McGrath is an American media executive. He is the chairman of Crossroads Media, a company which invests in live and location-based entertainment on a global scale. He was formerly the Chairman of Crossroads Live, a global distributor of theatrical entertainment. Previously, the president and COO of STX Entertainment; executive chairman of Key Brand Entertainment, a producer and distributor of live theatre in the United States and parent company of Broadway.com; president and COO of Act III Communications; and executive vice president and COO of Viacom Entertainment Group. He is a nine-time Tony Award-winning producer, member of the National Recording Academy, and board member of the International Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. He also serves as trustee of New England Conservatory of Music and American Repertory Theater at Harvard.
Ken Davenport is a two-time Tony Award-winning theatre producer, blogger, and writer. He is best known for his production work on Broadway.
Jack O'Brien is an American director, producer, writer and lyricist. He served as the Artistic Director of the Old Globe Theatre in San Diego, California from 1981 through the end of 2007.
Alexander H. Cohen was an American theatrical producer who mounted more than one hundred productions on both sides of the Atlantic. He was the only American producer to maintain offices in the West End as well as on Broadway.
Kevin McCollum is an American theatrical booking executive and producer of musical theater and plays, many on Broadway. During a producing career spanning over twenty-five years, McCollum has received three Tony Awards for Best Musical for In the Heights, Avenue Q, and Rent.
Broadway Across Canada is a Toronto, Ontario-based theatrical presenter which presents touring Broadway shows, family productions and other live theatrical events across Canada.
Alex Timbers is an American writer and director best known for his work on stage and television. After graduating from Yale University he focused his career directing musicals for Off-Broadway and Broadway. He has received numerous accolades including two Tony Awards, a Golden Globe Award and a Drama Desk Award as well as nominations for a Primetime Emmy Award and a Grammy Award.
John Gore is British entertainment producer, known for his live theatre company the John Gore Organization.
Harriet Newman Leve is an American theater and movie producer. She is best known for her work with Broadway shows, including Beautiful: The Carole King Musical (2014), Hedwig and the Angry Inch (2014), An American in Paris (2019), and Life of Pi (2023). She was also the executive producer of the films A Call to Spy (2019) and Radium Girls (2018). Plays that she co-produces on Broadway have received Drama Desk Awards, Drama League Awards, Olivier Awards, Outer Critics Circle Awards, and four Tony Awards.
Broadway Across America (BAA) is a presenter and producer of live theatrical events in the United States and Canada since 1982. It is currently owned by the John Gore Organization, which purchased it from Live Nation in 2008.
Sergio Trujillo is a theater director, choreographer, dancer and actor. Born in Colombia and raised in Toronto, Canada, he is now an American citizen and resides in New York City. Trujillo was the recipient of the 2019 Tony Award for Best Choreography for Ain't Too Proud and the 2015 Laurence Olivier Award for Best Theatre Choreographer for Memphis. He is the first ever Hispanic recipient of the Tony Award for Best Choreography.
Jill Furman is an American theatrical producer. Furman's Broadway credits include: Hamilton,,In the Heights, Rodgers + Hammerstein’s Cinderella, The Heiress, Seminar, West Side Story,The Drowsy Chaperone, Sly Fox and Fortune’s Fool. Off Broadway: Freestyle Love Supreme, On The Line and Adult Entertainment. Furman's father is the producer Roy Furman.
Andy Sandberg is an American director, writer, actor, and producer. A 2005 graduate of Yale College, his Off-Broadway directing credits include Straight, Application Pending, Shida, Craving for Travel, Operation Epsilon, and The Last Smoker in America. He is also known as a producer of the Broadway (2009) and West End (2010) revivals of the musical Hair.
Zev Buffman was a Broadway producer who served as president and CEO of Ruth Eckerd Hall in Clearwater, Florida. He produced more than 40 Broadway shows. He partnered with Elizabeth Taylor to present her in her Broadway debut, The Little Foxes. Buffman was also the co-founding general partner of the NBA champion basketball team the Miami Heat.
Barry & Fran Weissler are Tony Award-winning, American theatrical producers.
Alex Wyse is an American stage and screen actor, writer, director, and producer. He is best known for playing Kyle in Marvel's Iron Fist, Saul Feinberg in The Bold and the Beautiful, Max Weinbaum in the Broadway production of Good Night, Oscar, Georg Zirschnitz in the 2015 Deaf West Broadway revival of Spring Awakening, and co-writing/directing the feature film Summoning Sylvia
Michael J. Moritz Jr. is a Grammy Award nominee, Tony Award winner, an Emmy Award winner, American theatrical producer, record producer, music supervisor, music director, arranger, Broadway music supervisor, performer and pianist. Michael's work as a pianist, music director and arranger is featured on many recordings in the pop and musical theatre genres. Michael is on the Board of Directors for The Angel Band Project.