Ken Davenport

Early life and career

Davenport was born in Phoenix, Arizona to Dr. Kenny Hasija and Pamela Soper (née Davenport). He grew up in Sturbridge, Massachusetts and attending Bancroft High School. He attended Johns Hopkins University for one year with the intention of practicing law, before transferring to New York University's Tisch School of the Arts. He graduated in 1994 with a Bachelor's of Fine Arts in Acting.

Davenport began his professional theater career by working as a production assistant on the 1993 Broadway revival of My Fair Lady starring Richard Chamberlain. Before beginning his producing career, he established himself as a company and general manager, working on shows such as Grease, Show Boat, Ragtime, Thoroughly Modern Millie, and Gypsy.

Davenport Theatrical Enterprises

Davenport founded Davenport Theatrical Enterprises (DTE) in 2004, and creates, produces, and manages shows under that business. His first ventures as a producer were the three Off-Broadway shows The Awesome 80s Prom, Altar Boyz, and My First Time, which he also wrote. Davenport's first Broadway credit as a producer was 13, and since then he has produced over a dozen other Broadway shows, including the first Broadway revival of Godspell, the Tony Award-winning Best Musical Kinky Boots, and Deaf West Theatre's Spring Awakening.

Since its founding, DTE has expanded to other areas of the theater business. It now houses Broadway Genius Group Sales, a group sales agency for Broadway and Off-Broadway shows; DTE Agency, a theatrical marketing agency; and DTE Management, a general management division.

DTE also runs several websites, including Your Broadway Genius, Best of Off-Broadway, and both the website and smartphone app Did He Like It?, a review aggregator for New York theater based on New York Times chief theatre critic Ben Brantley. Additionally, Davenport is the creator of Be a Broadway Star, the only Broadway-themed board game.

Davenport's television and film credits include the documentary These Magnificent Miles: On the Road with Red Wanting Blue, and The Bunny Hole, an award-winning television pilot that has appeared in the LA Indie Film Festival, the Orlando Film Festival, the LA Comedy Festival and more.

He is the owner of the Davenport Theatre, an Off-Broadway theater in Manhattan's Theater District. The Davenport Theatre has two performance spaces, a 149-seat main stage on the ground level, and a 60-seat blackbox theater on the upper level. Davenport named the theater after his great-grandfather, Delbert Essex Davenport, who was a theater producer, publicist, author and lyricist in the early 1900s.

Innovations in Marketing and Producing

Davenport is well known among the Broadway community as an innovative producer and marketer. He started The Producer's Perspective in 2008, a blog on which he shares his thoughts, experiences and opinions that is dedicated to making Broadway accessible and understandable.

Davenport's unique marketing initiatives have helped to bring attention to his Broadway and Off-Broadway productions. In 2007, his Off-Broadway show My First Time had a "Virgins get in free" promotion, during which audiences members who were determined to be "virgins" by a psychic received a free ticket to the show. In 2012, Davenport instated the first ever "Tweet Seats" for a Broadway show during his production of Godspell. During a specially designated performance, 15 of the show's biggest fans received free tickets specifically so they could share their experience during the show on Twitter and promote it on social media.

In 2006 on his Off-Broadway production of Altar Boyz, Davenport became the first producer to send audience members a follow-up email after they attended a show, a method now widely used across the industry.

In 2010, Davenport announced that he would be crowd-funding his Broadway revival of Godspell. Godspell was the first Broadway production to use the crowd-funding model. Previously, Broadway investing was open to only accredited investors, who would ordinarily invest tens of thousands of dollars. In comparison, Godspell was largely funded by 700 investors (called "People of Godspell") who were able to invest amounts as small as $1,000. Davenport was lauded for making Broadway investing accessible to "average people," and for helping to bring a new crowd of investors into the Broadway community.

In 2012, Davenport held auditions to find the "Godspell Cast of 2032," a group of children ages 6 to 16 who were given the chance to perform with the Broadway cast. Over 500 children auditioned, and 10 were chosen to join the company of Godspell for the curtain call for one night only.

During the Portland Center Stage run of his musical Somewhere in Time, Davenport used dial-testing to partially gauge audience reaction. Although dial-testing is common in film and television, Davenport was the first producer to use it for the stage. While dial-testing is a controversial issue in the Broadway community, with some believing it will create formulaic theater, others see it as a useful tool, as detailed in the New York Times story covering the testing of Somewhere in Time.

On November 30, 2015, Davenport announced that he would be livestreaming a performance of his Off-Broadway musical, Daddy Long Legs. The performance will be broadcast online for free on December 10, 2015. Although the Metropolitan Opera and National Theatre Live, an initiative of the Royal National Theatre, have broadcast theatrical productions in the past, this will be the first time a Broadway or Off-Broadway production has been livestreamed.

Other activities

Davenport was named one of Crain's "40 Under 40", and received the 2010 Leonidas A. Nickole Award of Distinction from the Musical Theatre Society of Emerson College. He won the 2008 Spirit of Theatre Award from Theatre Resources Unlimited, and his television pilot The Bunny Hole has been honored at the Orlando Film Festival, the IndieFEST Film Awards, and more.

In 2008, he appeared in one of the first Apple iPhone television commercials.

Davenport has been a guest lecturer at universities in the New York City metropolitan area. He has taught “Acting As A Business” for America Online and was profiled in the premiere issue of Experience magazine as a Broadway “up-and-comer.” His marketing techniques have been profiled in the New York Times and in marketing guru’s Andy Sernovitz’s book Word of Mouth Marketing. Davenport was a member of the BMI Librettist Workshop and is a founding member of the Independent Theater Bloggers Association.

Davenport is a member of The Broadway League and the League of Off-Broadway Theaters and Producers.

Productions

Awards and nominations