Jamie Grant counts Alice Cooper’s gig at the Ordway in late summer 2018 among his memorable achievements as CEO of the venerable St. Paul performing arts center.
When the shock rocker was added to the Ordway concert schedule, Grant got a call from an incredulous board member. Alice Cooper? At the Ordway?
Turns out Cooper brought in a three-generation audience, “most of whom had never been in the Ordway doors before,” Grant said. By the numbers, of the 700 tickets sold, 550 attendees had never been there before. And from that audience, the Ordway sold 1,200 tickets to the holiday show that following winter.
Grant got notes from Cooper concertgoers who were impressed by the Ordway’s top-hatted formal doorman. They hadn’t seen that at a concert.
Bringing new concert acts — from Cooper to Los Lobos to Air Supply, Gladys Knight, Ringo Starr and EmmyLou Harris — to the home of the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, the Schubert Club and Minnesota Opera has been a signature move for Grant, who announced recently that he is leaving the Ordway to run the McCallum Theatre in Palm Desert, Calif.
Grant came to the Ordway in 2016 from the Long Center for the Performing Arts in Austin, Texas. Born in Canada, Grant said in an interview last week that he worked in a variety of theaters in Canada. So, it wasn’t the Minnesota winters that sent him to toasty California, he said.
Known for his easy, approachable manner and the cowboy boots that followed him from Texas, Grant called the California job a “great opportunity and wonderful challenge.”
“You don’t get to pick when these opportunities happen,” Grant said, adding that he wasn’t looking to leave Austin when he was approached about the Ordway job.
Grant, 59, and his wife, Chris Bird, have vacationed in Desert Springs for the past couple of winters, he said. “It’s paradise. I have an opportunity to work in paradise.”
The McCallum is smaller than the Ordway, but has a larger budget. It’s seasonally focused, with programming running November through April. (The Ordway’s stage season usually runs from the fall through the summer. It has two theaters, with 1,910 seats in the Music Theater and 1,085 seats in the Concert Hall.)
But unlike the Ordway, which stages original productions as well as touring shows, Grant’s new theater is strictly a presenting house. Because of its proximity to San Diego, Phoenix and L.A., though, it gets touring shows (such as an upcoming run of the Broadway smash “Come From Away”) that usually wouldn’t do a weeklong run in a 1,200-seat theater.Grant made his mark at the Ordway by increasing original productions, as well as expanding concert programming.
Here’s what Grant had to say about:
The Arts Partnership
Made up of organizations that perform at the Ordway, the Partnership is the Minnesota Opera, the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, the Schubert Club and the Ordway. “The Arts Partnership is second to none,” Grant said. “It’s like nothing I’ve seen in my career.” The groups work together to take care of the Ordway and were instrumental in replacing the old McKnight Theater with the Concert Hall in 2015. “It’s one of the biggest strengths of the Ordway and makes it all the more special.”
The Ordway’s response to COVID-19 and the aftermath of the George Floyd killing in Minneapolis.
“The Ordway’s strategic management team was as on top of COVID issues as any performing arts organization in the country,” Grant said. Before the governor’s orders to shut down at the end of March, the Ordway had a plan set for communicating with its audiences and postponing shows, he added. “Very few of us had a pandemic plan in place.”
As a result of the shutdown, the Ordway laid off more than 400 employees at the end of March, which Grant said at the time was “the worst day at work I’ve ever had in my life.”
“The Ordway and every institution will be forever changed by COVID and from the death of George Floyd,” Grant said. “There’s a lot of soul-searching for ways to respond.”
Diversity Equity Inclusion has been “part of the Ordway fabric for 15 years,” Grant said. A commitment to performers from around the world has been a programming key since the building opened 35 years ago, he added.
“Without some of the work in DEI in the past, we would be starting from nowhere. I don’t feel that way.”
Arts organization cooperation in the Twin Cities
Just before his interview last week, Grant said he’d been on a conference call with 27 arts CEOs in the Twin Cities. They’ve been communicating regularly since the COVID shutdown. “There are some of the smartest arts executives in the country in the Twin Cities.”
In 2017, when a scheduling conflict meant the Ordway couldn’t present an annual performance of “Hip-Hop Nutcracker,” Grant did the previously unheard of: He worked with competitor Hennepin Theatre Trust to put it on one of their Minneapolis stages.
“That’s my style,” Grant said. “No one does one of these jobs alone effectively.”
The Ordway Originals
The Ordway is unique in the United States because it presents touring shows and produces originals. Grant credited the two artistic producing directors he’s worked with during his time at the Ordway, James Rocco (who left in 2017) and Rod Kaats (the current AD). Producing and presenting “is the way we survive.”
Grant said he’d put the Ordway’s 2019 production of “42nd Street” “up against any in the world. I’m so proud of that work.” The musical debuted in 1980, but was reimagined for the Ordway production, with outdated — and often offensive — themes reworked.
(A bit of trivia about the Ordway’s 2019 production of “42nd Street”: The coins that rained down in the dazzling tap dance with “We’re In the Money” were dimes. Audiences in the front row were offered protective goggles (but declined them) to wear when the coins splashed off the stage. The Ordway stayed in the money, according to Christine Dennis, vice president of marketing and audience development: 14,481 dimes survived out of 15,000. The spectacle only used up $51.90 in dimes — only 519 were lost or damaged.)
The future of the Ordway
When the Ordway learned of the COVID shutdown, “we immediately went out looking for cash,” Grant said. The organization received federal funds through the Paycheck Protection Program and reached out to foundations, and worked with the Ordway board and advisory council.
“I now know we have the cash to survive this crisis,” Grant said. “We have to pay it back, of course.
“It will be a challenge, but I’m confident the Ordway will emerge different and changed, but it will be stronger and more community-focused.
“And I’ll be on the sidelines cheering the team on.”
And about those Texas cowboy boots …
Grant, whose tenure at the Ordway ends in August, said it’s unlikely he’ll opt for California footwear. “I’m not really a sandals kind of guy.”
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