Milwaukee's Pabst Theater Group joins Theater Alliance, overseen by Irving Azoff company
The Ryman Auditorium, Radio City Music Hall and Irving Azoff are among the players in a new partnership that includes Milwaukee’s Pabst Theater Group.
The Theater Alliance, revealed Friday morning, consists of 39 theaters and performing arts centers around the country overseen by Oak View Group, an entertainment company co-founded by powerful music industry veteran Azoff that oversees such venues as Seattle’s new Climate Pledge Arena and concert trade publication Pollstar.
Alliance members will share resources and work together on bookings, sponsorship opportunities and other ventures, according to a press release announcing the partnership. Along with the famed Ryman in Nashville and Radio City in New York, alliance members include the Chicago Theatre, the Fox Theatre in Detroit, the Beacon Theater in New York and the Kimmel Center in Philadelphia.
“We are thrilled to be amongst the first members of The Oak View Group’s Theater Alliance,” Matt Beringer, chief operating officer of the Pabst Theater Group, said in a statement Friday. “OVG has proven to be an innovator in our industry. With the formation of the Theater Alliance, we look forward to combining their expanded national reach and expertise with our 20 years of experience booking and operating world-class independent concert venues.”
The alliance is the latest example of Milwaukee venue operators finding outside partnerships in the wake of the pandemic — which essentially shut down the live music industry from March 2020 to the summer of 2021 — and increased competition from Madison-based promoter FPC Live, which is backed by Live Nation, the biggest player in the concert industry, and is planning to open a two-venue complex in the Deer District in 2024.
Pabst Theater Group CEO Gary Witt was a co-founder of the National Independent Venue Association, which successfully lobbied Washington for a $16.25 billion relief program.
Pabst Theater Group — which operates the Pabst Theater, Riverside Theater, Miller High Life Theatre, Turner Hall Ballroom and Back Room at Colectivo Coffee — is also partnering with the concert industry's second-largest player, AEG, on a 3,500-person-capacity, ballroom-style venue as part of the proposed Iron District MKE. Currently scheduled to open in 2025, the sports and entertainment district, running from Sixth to 10th streets along Michigan Street, would be anchored by an 8,000-seat soccer stadium that would be the home to a new USL Championship team and Marquette soccer and lacrosse games.
Meanwhile, the Rave last year sold a stake to SaveLive, a network of venues and promoters that includes longtime Chicago-based player Jam Productions. SaveLive was established by Marc Geiger, head of the William Morris Endeavor global music division from 2003 to 2020 and co-founder of Lollapalooza.
Contact Piet at (414) 223-5162 or plevy@journalsentinel.com. Follow him on Twitter at @pietlevy or Facebook at facebook.com/PietLevyMJS.
Our subscribers make this reporting possible. Please consider supporting local journalism by subscribing to the Journal Sentinel at jsonline.com/deal.
DOWNLOAD THE APP: Get the latest news, sports and more
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Pabst Theater Group joins Irving Azoff company's new Theater Alliance
