Venue Profile: Star Plaza Theatre

Charlie Blum, President of the Star Plaza Theatre, discusses the intimate setting of the Star Plaza Theatre, the camaraderie amongst the venue and it's performers, and a very special night with the Temptations.  The Star Plaza Theatre is a 3400 seat theatre located at I-65 and U.S. 30 in Merrilleville, IN.  For more information visit www.starplazatheatre.com.
Provide a brief history and/or profile of the Star Plaza Theatre.
We opened in December of 1979 and during our 30 years of existence, we’ve featured almost every big name performer in the business.  We do everything from pop, rock, country, middle of the road family shows, and comedy, every genre of music and then some.  In the beginning when we first opened, we did in excess of 300 shows a year but those were the days when an act like Liza Manelli had a block of eight shows.  Things have changed since then and of course today that is no longer the case.  Today we’re doing about 100 shows a year.  While other theaters have closed in the Chicago Metropolitan area, Star Plaza has continued to succeed and excel.

List notable artists who have performed at your venue.
Bette Midler, Liberace, Whitney Houston, George Carlin, Jay Leno, Christina Aguilera, Velvet Revolver, Genesis, Wayne Newton, Johnny Mathis, David Copperfield, Jackie Brown, James Brown, Richard Pryor, Jamie Foxx, B.B. King, Aerosmith, Tony Bennett, REO Speedwagon, Styx, and Willie Nelson just to name a few.  Many of these acts have played over and over and The Oak Ridge Boys hold the record; they’ve been here every single year since the theater has opened. 

What makes your venue unique?
We have a hotel/restaurant next door to the theater so in some ways we’re considered a Midwest destination.  An old I often use is “for some, it takes 40 minutes to get home from the Star Plaza Theatre, for others it takes all weekend!”  You can take a room next door and never have to put your coat on.  We sell overnight packages and it makes it more like an event that just a concert.  Another unique feature is that since we’ve been around for 30 years and since these acts keep returning to the Star Plaza, we develop a relationship and we become a kind of family.  It’s important to have that rapport with our performers because then it makes the experience more fun for everyone and all parties appreciate the relationship we build up over the years.  Our customers consist of two groups of people: the people coming in through the front door, and people coming in through the stage door and we need to serve both.

What genre/act fills the most seats?
Every year it changes.  I often don’t look at who fills the most seats, but what’s the bottom line from a profit standpoint.  For example, a rock show may come in and sell 3,400, but if an artist walks out with the lion’s share of the money, I’m not so concerned about 3,400 seats as much as I’d rather sell 1,000 seats and have the pay day go to the venue.  As far as just the number of seats sold it’s hard to say because we’ll do a family show that sells a lot of tickets but then we’ll bring in B.B. King or David Copperfield, who will also pack the house.  Country can sell out the theater and so can comedy.  I prefer the comedy because it’s less of an expense for everyone.

How have fluctuations in ticket prices affected your business?
That’s one of my biggest concerns as we move forward in this industry.  It’s a concern because people will pick and choose which concerts they go to.  They’ll pick one show and pay $100 for the concert, but a week later, they can’t afford to go to another show.  We’re here year round and we do our own promotion so we’re very conscious of ticket prices and we want to give the public multiple opportunities to come back during the year. 

Tell us a personal highlight of the venue that you've experienced.
Our intimate setting and the small capacity is an overall highlight.  We want the artists to feel like they are playing in their living room and we’ve heard that comment before and Kenny Loggins even mentioned it in his book.  One highlight was having Faith Hill coming on stage to sing with Tim McGraw.  We’ve also had countless movies and TV specials filmed here including Howie Mandel’s Howie on Ice, and Eddie Griffin’s Dysfunctional Family.  Another great highlight was when we had the Temptations on stage one night and unbeknownst to them, we had it set up so that David Ruffin came in through the back door to get up and sing “My Girl”. 

What marking vehicles have you used recently to market to your target demographics per show?
We try to keep up with things and stay on the cutting edge, but what we’ve done is gone back to the basics.   That’s basically the grassroots campaign: posters and flyers.  We still do a tremendous campaign in the paid medium through newspaper and radio, but to support that we’ve gone back to the basics and really hammered in on “where do they eat, where do they drink, where do they shop?”  People have to eat so we think “let’s go there”. 

What do you see as the biggest issue/problem in live entertainment today?
I think the biggest issue I see is probably the pricing.  People say that there are no new artists, but I don’t see that as a problem for this particular venue because if an artist has had success here and gives a good performance, people will come back and artists will come back.  Pricing is a problem for us because we need people to come back over and over.  If you’re here for The O’Jays, we need you back for The Temptations.  If you’re here for the Oak Ridge Boys, we need you back for Travis Tritt.  If people are going to pick and choose, we can’t survive.

How have you adapted (if at all) to the "Green" movement?
We’re very conscious about the supplies we order for the venue and restaurant and we also have computer controlled lighting systems that we put on timers.  That ensures that when no one is in the venue, we don’t have lights on wasting energy.

Where do you see the live events aspect of the industry in 10-20 years?
I see venues making adaptations to the rising ticket prices by adding value, whether it be something like valet parking or special seating.  Live music will always be here.  You can always buy a CD but unless you’re at the event, you’re missing out.