Every season at the Coral Springs Center for the Arts we try to find one marquee, high profile show to anchor the rest of our lineup. One show to market all of our other shows around, a performance that is instantly recognizable, one event we can put front and center on our brochure to dazzle and whet our customer's appetite for the upcoming season. This year, that show was David Copperfield.

TV networks and movie studios do the same thing. Fox has American Idol, ABC has Lost and Grey's Anatomy, CBS has CSI, NBC has...well that's another story.

Movie studios are always looking for one big film to carry the summer, they call them "tentpoles" in the business. Spiderman, Shrek, James Bond are all "tentpoles" and can make or break a studio's year.

In the Broadway world, each season in New York City is marked with this same anticipation. Monster shows like Wicked, The Producers, Jersey Boys and others can help prop up box office grosses for the whole theater district as people come into to town to see those popular musicals and stick around for a few days to see some others.

Check out this recent article in Variety to learn more about this phenomenon and the 2007-2008 season.

http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117972242.html?categoryid=2699&cs=1