Webster Hall Vet Heath Miller Talks New Booking Venture United Palace
NEW YORK (CelebrityAccess) Heath Miller, formerly the buyer for the cityâs Webster Hall and founder of concert promotion company Excess dB Entertainment, was recently named director of booking for the historic United Palace in Manhattan.
The performance facility, the fourth-largest in Manhattan, is church-owned and known as a non-profit cultural and performing arts center. Its neighborhood of Washington Heights has risen in prominence with the help of the red-hot Lin-Manuel Miranda, whose musical âIn The Heightsâ is being adapted to film.
The venue has hosted acts like Lenny Kravitz, Bad Bunny, Mumford & Sons, Sam Smith, Lorde and John Legend.
âWe are absolutely thrilled to have Heath Miller join the team at the United Palace. We believe Heathâs vast experience in the industry will positively impact the already very popular events we offer at the Palace.â said Reverend Heather Shea, the Spiritual Director and Chief Executive Officer of the United Palace.
CelebrityAccess talked to Miller about his new role.
What are your expectations for the next year?
The obvious goal is to book more shows. I want to do that by retaining what theyâve already been booking in house and with outside promoters that they work with as well as expanding to new things and growing the thing things theyâve been doing just a little of. I think now is a good time for this, with growth in the neighborhood up here and I think, even with Hudson Yards opening up, which is planting more people right off the A-train makes it a beneficial time.
I donât think the things that would go here would go to the Hudson Yards, normally.
We definitely want to expand into doing more country. Weâve done some country up here but minimally. They did a Lady Antebellum show up here a long time ago through PBSâs Artists Den.
What would be some of the things that would set this venue apart from competitors?
Weâre much more cost-effective being that weâre non-union versus similar options in the market. Weâre right by the George Washington Bridge. Weâre uptown. The George Washington Bridge gets more car traffic each day than the other two main entrances from New Jersey to the city combined by two. Weâre getting double the traffic up here than the other two entrances combined.
We have two nights of Nicky Jam coming up, one of the recent Latin crossover acts. There are some exciting things in the works; letâs leave it at that. They will hopefully be announced shortly after this article hits.
Anything, in particular, you would want to mention about the facility?
The venueâs been here for just under 90 years. Itâs one of the five Loewâs Wonder Theatres. Unlike some of the others, this one was very well preserved so when theyâve done renovations itâs more about restoring the original details and touching up paint than recreating. A lot of the other theatres like this were so badly maintained that they had to be a re-creation, not a restoration.
Given that, this one has better preservation of the rich history of the Loewâs Wonder Theatres. Itâs shockingly well-maintained.
Where do you see yourself in the next year, as far as programming?
Hopefully, Iâll have an industry award by then, or for the âvenue of the yearâ in the next year or two.
The reception Iâve gotten from the industry has been very positive. People seem very pleased to have someone here, in house, who comes from the world of booking concerts because the venue is owned by a church. People here know what theyâre doing but itâs also about just speaking the language better and understanding the reasons why sometimes shows havenât gone here or why some of the shows that have come here, knowing what was in that decision-making process.
Sometimes you want that marquee play, being at a certain venue because of its name-value or location or some other tie-in specific to that venue as opposed to here.
I like the statement, right now, that the Beacon is a great room and this is a great room as well, but this one is doing something different than the room you sold out four times. We are a little larger than the Beacon and the artists can walk out with more money here. Sometimes itâs obviously not about the money because itâs only one date on your tour, or itâs about the setup to play MSG, but this is about a great room, in Manhattan still. Itâs farther uptown, yes, but native New Yorkers would rather not get out of the train at Times Square and keep going. Itâs only a few more minutes to get up here and itâs something different.
One thing Iâve encountered is people going, âOh! Youâre in the Bronx!â or âOh, youâre in Harlem!â
No, weâre in Washington Heights, which is in a very historic area and Lin-Manuel has had heavy involvement in helping fundraise and raise awareness for the venue through âIn The Heightsâ in recent years. âIn The Heightsâ is becoming a movement now, which is very much about the immediate area.
Ten years ago, if you told me that all my friends would be going to Bushwick multiple times a month to see a concert or go to an event, you would have thought they were crazy. I think the immediate neighborhood around here isnât where Bushwick was 10 years ago but maybe six or seven. Theyâre realizing itâs easier to get to and itâs a more cost-effective neighborhood to live in.
For people who are working on the west side, itâs an easy commute.
And obviously, not everybody who goes to a show in New York City lives here. Getting here from the âburbs is very easy on the Jersey side. On the Island side, itâs a very easy drive. Or take your mode of mass transit: take the A-train up or the 1-train, itâs very accessible.
On the surface people think, âOh, itâs up thereâ but itâs a lot easier to get to than people would think.
Iâm curious to see how this stacks in the market long-term. Instead of doing 6,000- or 7,000-seat rooms in the city, which are few and far between, doing a play here or at Kingâs Theatre â which is also a Loewâs Wonder Theatre â and for an artist who might have difficulty selling 6,000 on one day, they might be able to do it across two plays in slightly spaced-out markets, but I donât think weâre getting that many people from Brooklyn when they have a Brooklyn option or, really, in general, because Brooklyn is farther and a lot of people from there donât like to cross the river more than they have to.
On the flipside, there are people up in Westchester, or uptown in general, that fined hiking out to Bushwick or Flatbush for a show, is a challenge, particularly if youâre rushing to a show after work. If you work in Manhattan and youâre by the A, youâll make it here faster than any option you have in Brooklyn. Even getting up here from my apartment by Union Square is a seven-minute difference between that versus going to the Beacon.
I donât want to compare us to the Beacon but we are kind of the two similar-sized venues in a similar place in the city. Weâre not that much farther north than they are.
I want to try some new things. I want to increase our childrenâs series because there is a large family near here that doesnât have the entertainment inventory theyâre seeking. And when you look at our market versus the Times Square market and the Broadway market, our costs are significantly lower based on what real estate costs over here versus Times Square. The key thing is I continue providing entertainment value to the immediate local community as well as anyone else who is outside of it that still be looking for entertainment, that we can use this as an opportunity to bring more people into the neighborhood who realize there are good restaurants up here they can eat at before the show and is in an easy-to-get-to, safe neighborhood.
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