When “Disney’s The Lion King“ opens a three-week run in Des Moines next Tuesday, Jeff Chelesvig faces the task of selling 61,752 tickets, which is about 3,000 more than the number of people who live in Ames.

And because “Lion King” is the most popular stage play ever, it may very well sell a record number of tickets, which is something that has happened a lot since Chelesvig took control of the Des Moines Civic Center 20 years ago.

As CEO of Des Moines Performing Arts, Chelesvig is a chess master when it comes to aligning the pieces needed to entertain local audiences at the Civic Center, Stoner Theater, Temple for the Performing Arts and the outdoor venue formerly known as Nollen Plaza and now called Cowles Commons.

He and his staff have scheduled an annual average of 370 performances at the four locations, including roughly 70 from the eight to ten Broadway shows that appear here each year. The other 300 performances are from a wide array of entertainments that target many audiences, including 55,000 school children last year from 40 Iowa counties.

Put it all together and you have an $18 million a year business that employs 36 full-time and 453 part-time workers, and generates about $50 million a year in economic activity throughout Greater Des Moines.

Chelesvig makes it look easy when the Des Moines Civic Center consistently ranks among Pollstar magazine’s top 25 live-theater venues based on annual ticket sales. 

But the fact is that he has made a science out of deciding which shows to book and when to book them so that each receives maximum support from local theatergoers. His one mistake, he said, was booking the musical Jekyll and Hyde in 1999. 

“For some reason, I booked it over Thanksgiving week,” Chelesvig said. “It wasn’t part of the season ticket package, and we lost $150,000, which is probably like $300,000 today.”

The problem?

“It wasn’t the show. It was the timing,” he said.

If he had booked it some time other than Thanksgiving week, or if he’d included it as part of the season ticket package, it might have worked, Chelesvig said.

Instead, he learned vital lessons that year about timing and audience appetites, which have served him well. 

Part of that lesson was the importance of season ticket holders and how to use them to introduce new concepts and unusual performances, like “August Osage County,” which he did in 2010. The Pulitzer Prize winning, three-hour play is a dark but revealing look at a dysfunctional family. 

“People came up to me afterwards and said they would never have seen it on their own, but they liked it,” Chelesvig said. 

Ten years ago Chelesvig created a partnership with Willis Auto Campus, which has helped grow the subscription base for the Civic Center’s annual Broadway Series of five shows to more than 11,000 season ticket holders. That’s a larger base than exists in many larger cities, like Minneapolis, Chelesvig said.

“Having a season ticket base makes it much easier for us to do shows because we are not starting from ticket number one,” he said. 

It allowed him to build a meatier menu.

“I don’t believe in dumbing it down,” he explained. “You can’t build a series by playing it safe.”

This coming season, the five shows in the season ticket package are “The Bridges of Madison County,” “Dirty Dancing,” “Newsies,” “A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder,” and “Cabaret.” 

Those five will be augmented with six other shows, including “Wizard of Oz,” “Annie,” and “The Book of Mormon” that are not a part of the season ticket package.

Chelesvig’s risk show for the coming season is “The Bridges of Madison County,” the musical version of Iowan Robert Waller’s hit book and movie. It was turned into a Broadway show in 2014 but closed last May after only 17 weeks of what was hoped would be at least a 30- to 40-week run.

The Civic Center was an investor in the production and now Des Moines will be the opening venue for an 8-month national tour for “Bridges.” 

Despite the Broadway closing, Chelesvig is confident of success.

Mistakes were made, he said, in the way the New York production was marketed during what turned out to be a crowded Broadway season last year.

“It would be one thing, if the show was one that people went to and said, ‘I really didn’t like it.’ But the people I hang out with in New York all loved the show,” he said.

“It won two Tony Awards, for best score and for best orchestration. Best score is pretty important. That’s right under best musical.” 

Plus, Chelesvig said, “the fact that the original bridges of Madison County happens to be not too far away from here has been lost on nobody.”

From Des Moines, “Bridges” will go to Los Angles for six weeks before playing in more than a dozen other cities.

The Des Moines run of “Bridges” begins Nov. 28 and runs through Dec. 5.

“The vast majority of the Broadway shows we do are one week,” Chelesvig said.

“Only a handful of shows – ‘Wicked,’ ‘Lion King’ and ‘Phantom of the Opera’ – are multi-week runs, because of their popularity. 

But more important is that their complex stage sets require more effort to move, and they need to amortize the moving cost over two to three weeks.” 

Shows like that are booked several years in advance and have become the centerpiece of most of the seasons Chelesvig has created during the last decade.

“The Lion King” is, and has been for several years, the most popular stage production ever. There are something like 13 production companies running simultaneously around the world,” Chelesvig said. 

The first time it was performed in Des Moines was in 2006, when it was at the Civic Center for a record six weeks (46 performances). 

“The Lion King” returned in 2010 for a three-week run (23 performances). 

Combined ticket sales for those 69 performances totaled 168,664, or an average of 2,444 per show. 

“In the five years since we last had the show here, a lot of children have aged into it,” Chelesvig said. 

“Children who were only one or two years old in 2010 are now 6 and 7, old enough to really enjoy the Lion King’s amazing puppetry.”

He predicts ticket sales will be even stronger this time than before.

From what I’ve seen, I wouldn’t bet against him.

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Jeff Chelesvig on…

The dark drama “August Osage County”: 
“People came up to me afterwards and said they would never have seen it on their own, but they liked it.”

Booking shows: 
“I don’t believe in dumbing it down.”

The failure of “Bridges of Madison County” on Broadway: 
“It would be one thing, if the show was one that people went to and said, ‘I really don’t like it.’ But the people I hang out with in New York loved the show.”

The popularity of “Lion King”: 
“There are something like 13 production companies running simultaneously around the world.” 

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National tours Launched in D.M.

During the 20 years that Jeff Chelesvig has been chief executive officer of Des Moines Performing Arts, six national tours have been launched in Des Moines:

• State Fair – 1995
• The Music Man – 2001
• Frost/Nixon – 2008
• La Cage Aux Folles – 2011
• Matthew Bourne’s Sleeping Beauty – 2013*
• The Bridges of Madison County – November 2015

* Sleeping Beauty was a North American Tour.

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Broadway Leaders

Des Moines’ three favorite Broadway shows are The Phantom of  The Opera, Wicked and Disney’s The Lion King.

Show (years in Des Moines)	Total Shows	Total Weeks in D.M.	Attendance in D.M.	Average Attendance per show
Phantom (1997, 2002, 2007, 2013)	112	14	235,225	2,100
Wicked (2009, 2011, 2013)	80	10	183,077	2,288
Lion King (2006, 2010, 2015*)	93	12	169,664*	2,444*

*Figures for Lion King do not include attendance for the three-week run (24 performances) that begins next week. Source: Des Moines Performing Arts

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By the numbers

Des Moines Performing Arts oversees four venues – the Des Moines Civic Center, Stoner Theater, Temple Theater and Cowles Commons (formerly Nollen Plaza) where 367 performances were staged last year.

$18 million – Budget for 2014-15

$15.5 million – Ticket sales revenue 2014-15

68 weeks – The longest a performance ran; Triple Espresso (2002-04)

6 weeks – The longest run of a Broadway show; Lion King (2006)

489 – The total number of employees; 36 full-time, 453 part-time

Source: Des Moines Performing Arts