Most Americans who see a Broadway musical never set foot on 44th Street. They see it at a performing arts center in their own city, on a Broadway national tour. Touring is one of the biggest parts of the Broadway business, and one of the least understood.
Here's how a Broadway tour works, from the first rehearsal to the last load-out.
A national tour is a full production of a Broadway show that travels from city to city, usually with its own cast, crew, sets, costumes, and orchestra leadership. Some tours launch while the original production is still running in New York. Others start after the Broadway run closes.
You'll sometimes see tours labeled as first national, second national, or non-Equity. The labels describe when the tour launched and which union contracts it uses, not the quality of the show.
Tours are a partnership between producers and local presenters. The producer owns the production. Presenters are the organizations in each city, often nonprofit performing arts centers, that book the show into their theatre and sell it to local audiences, frequently as part of a subscription season.
Many of those presenters are members of The Broadway League, the industry's trade association, which tracks touring grosses alongside Broadway's.
A large musical can travel with many trucks of scenery, lighting, sound equipment, and costumes. Local stagehands load the show into each theatre, often in a single day, and load it out again after the final performance. Shows are designed with this in mind, so the set can fit into theatres of different sizes.
Touring companies live out of hotels and short-term rentals for months at a time. They rehearse understudies, keep up with physical therapy, and find a new grocery store, gym, and laundromat every week or two. Many say the camaraderie is the best part, and the distance from home is the hardest.
It also makes ordinary tasks harder. Managing mail, appointments, and paperwork from the road takes planning. So does voting.
A single tour can reach audiences in dozens of communities in one season. Each of those communities has its own local elections and voting rules. That reach is why Broadway for Democracy works with touring casts, and why we built a voting guide for theatre workers who are away from home on Election Day. You can learn how the rest of the field fits together in our guide to Broadway nonprofits.
It's the same show, usually with the same direction, design, and choreography, adapted to travel. The cast is typically different.
Many tours use contracts with Actors' Equity and other theatre unions. Some tours use non-union contracts.
Most vote by mail from their home address. Requesting an absentee ballot early, and tracking it, is key.
Producers and booking agents work with local presenters, who choose shows for their seasons.
Want to help Broadway's touring companies show up for democracy? Donate to Broadway for Democracy.
