Imperial Theatre hopes to attract bigger names to Port City
CBC
The Imperial Theatre in Saint John is looking to expand its audience by bringing in bigger names.
"Through my 19 years in the industry, I see a lot of artists who are sort of choosing Moncton and Halifax as their big destination spots," said Angela Campbell, the theatre's executive director. She'd like to change that.
Along with continuing to feature local and regional artists, Campbell also wants to bring in names as big as possible for the size of the uptown venue, which has 872 seats.
She said the theatre "tested the waters" in 2017 by bringing in filmmakers Kevin Smith and Jason Mewes, for example, and that show "was a tremendous success."
Campbell said the organization wants to stay relevant as the audience base starts to skew younger, in the 35 to 60 range, as opposed to pre-pandemic when the demographic was closer to 50 to 70.
It took some time for the Imperial to book its first drag queen event to show it could be a viable market and that effort paid off. The show sold out, Campbell said, and now the theatre has no trouble booking those acts, including performers from the hugely popular reality show, Rupaul's Drag Race.
This year, she said the theatre was able to book Jann Arden and Randy Bachman, and she's interested in attracting more artists of that calibre.
Peter Rowan, a Saint John-based manager and promoter with more than 20 years in the music industry, said it's important to get a younger audience through the doors of local venues.
"You need younger people in there to become patrons and to see the value of that space," he said.
"And one of the ways to do that is … maybe someone hasn't been to the Imperial before, but they're sure as hell gonna see Brandi Carlile … or whatever sort of amazing [act] is out there."
Campbell said there is a risk that comes with trying to recruit larger acts — namely a financial one.
The bigger the artist, the bigger the fee, she said.
"We want to make sure that we're staying in tune with what our community is interested in seeing," she said.
"This is our 30th season.… And I think, you know, that the organization has the strength to be able to bear this kind of risk at this point now, you know, to invest in these larger artists."
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