Broadway tours are often born at Playhouse Square

If you’ve ever seen a Broadway touring show at Playhouse Square, you may have assumed the show packed up its Broadway digs and simply hit the road. In reality, Broadway tours are actually born – sets assembled and technical rehearsals staged– at the first touring stop, and often that city is Cleveland.

Craig Hassall, president and CEO of Playhouse Square, lobbies producers to have them choose Cleveland as that first stop on the Broadway tour schedule.

“ In the Broadway market, we're quite important, because we're probably the largest market outside Broadway for Broadway touring shows,” Hassall said.

People often think of Broadway as only being the street in New York with many theaters, but a large part of the Broadway ecosystem is the tour. Hassall likened it to a Paris fashion line wi