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Broadway Dallas and Live Nation join forces to program the Music Hall at Fair Park

The Music Hall at Fair Park
liveatthemusichall.com
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Music Hall
The entrance to the Music Hall at Fair Park

Broadway Dallas and Live Nation sign multi-year contract to present events at the Music Hall at Fair Park

A new partnership between musical presenter Broadway Dallas and performance presenter Live Nation will give the Music Hall at Fair Park years of "wide-ranging, diverse programming" — and, almost as important, more programming "year-round."

Live Nation has already announced shows at the venue, including Il Divo (August 27), The O’Jays + The Commodores (September 4) and K-pop group LOONA (August 25). It also has hosted recent sell-out appearances of comedian Hasan Minhaj.

And Live Nation already partners with quite a few North Texas houses, such as Dos Equis Pavilion, the Toyota Music Factory and the House of Blues in Dallas. The Fair Park Music Hall with its 3,400 seats is much smaller than the Dos Equis in Fair Park (20,000 seats) but provides an alternative to the flexible Toyota Music Factory (which can seat up to 8,000 outdoors and down to 2,500 indoors).

The difficulty for Fair Park has long been how to bring people in regularly — when the State Fair or the Broadway shows aren't there? Back in 1989, when the Dallas Symphony left its longtime home at the Music Hall for the Meyerson Symphony Center, the Fair Park venue had a huge portion of the year to fill up. As its name implied, the Dallas Summer Musicals (now Broadway Dallas) had the lion's share of summer bookings plus the State Fair Musical in the fall. What about the rest of the year, especially after the Dallas Opera departed as well — for the Winspear Opera House?

Then, when the AT&T Performing Arts Center went head-to-head against the Dallas Summer Musicals with touring Broadway shows at the Winspear, there was much talk about the seats at the Music Hall going empty as it supposedly lost its audience.

But with North Texas' long-term population growth, the issue was never so much about whether there were enough people hereabouts to get in the doors: It's always been about finding enough touring product, the right kind of touring product, to fill the hall. And fill it year-round.

That's why when AT&T and the Dallas Summer Musicals eventually joined forces in 2018, it made a great deal of financial and season-planning sense. And having Live Nation now book the Fair Park venue with music acts and other live attractions also makes sense. As Broadway Dallas CEO Ken Novice notes in the the press release (below):

“The additional activity in the Music Hall results in more employment days for part-time event staff including ushers, ticket takers, security, concessions staff, parking personnel and our backstage productions crew,” added Novice. “And I know that the restaurants in the growing Exposition Park area directly across the street from us, and in Deep Ellum will benefit as well.”

It also may contribute to the ongoing efforts to make Fair Park a viable, year-round, cultural center that overcomes its racial history and its walled-off design — to become a functioning part of the surrounding neighborhood.

The full release:

Dallas, TX (July 25, 2022) – Broadway Dallas and Live Nation today announced a multi-year partnership to bring a wide-ranging, diverse programming line-up to the 3,400 seat Music Hall at Fair Park.

Since opening in 1925, the Music Hall has hosted thousands of events ranging from Broadway to concerts to comedy and speakers. Notable events include HAMILTON, THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA, Dr. Martin Luther King, Liza Minnelli, Jerry Seinfeld, Dolly Parton, Dionne Warwick, Liberace and hundreds more.

“We are privileged to have the nearly 100-year-old Music Hall in our care,” said Ken Novice, president and CEO of Broadway Dallas. “While Broadway performances take up a significant portion of our calendar, there are dozens of weeks each year where the venue sits empty. This new partnership with Live Nation will help ensure that the Music Hall is occupied as much as possible with diverse, world-class artists and that the legacy of this marvelous venue continues to grow.”

Already announced Live Nation shows at the Music Hall include K-POP sensations LOONA (August 25), Il Divo (August 27), The Australian Pink Floyd Show (August 28), The O’Jays + The Commodores (September 4), A Magical Cirque Christmas (November 19), zoe (December 9), Alton Brown (December 10) with many more to be announced soon. Tickets available for purchase at www.ticketmaster.com or via www.BroadwayDallas.org.

“Our experience with shows at the Music Hall has been great,” said Anthony Nicolaidis, Live Nation’s Dallas Market President. “We love the historic atmosphere of the venue and being part of the resurgence of the entire Fair Park district. And the capacity offers a great option for artists to play. We look forward to formalizing our relationship.”

Recent successful Live Nation shows at the Music Hall include two sell-outs of comedian Hasan Minhaj, and German techno-pop icons Kraftwerk.

This new partnership has far-reaching economic impact for the community.

“The additional activity in the Music Hall results in more employment days for part-time event staff including ushers, ticket takers, security, concessions staff, parking personnel and our backstage productions crew,” added Novice. “And I know that the restaurants in the growing Exposition Park area directly across the street from us, and in Deep Ellum will benefit as well.”

The Music Hall joins a robust roster of venues with which Live Nation partners including: The Pavilion at Toyota Music Factory, Dos Equis Pavilion, House of Blues Dallas and The Echo Lounge & Music Hall.

For Booking Information, Contact:
Brian Lowe
brianlowe@livenation.com

Matthew Leishman
atthewleishman@livenation.com

Got a tip? Email Jerome Weeks at jweeks@kera.org. You can follow him on Twitter @dazeandweex.

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Jerome Weeks is the Art&Seek producer-reporter for KERA. A professional critic for more than two decades, he was the book columnist for The Dallas Morning News for ten years and the paper’s theater critic for ten years before that. His writing has appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle, Los Angeles Times, Newsday, American Theatre and Men’s Vogue magazines.