The reason New World Stages seems to have more arrival times than Grand Central Terminal is that it has become the epicenter of Off Broadway%26#8217;s latest survival strategy. It%26#8217;s called piggybacking, and it involves two shows saving production costs by sharing a stage, often lighting and sound equipment and even a crew member of two. Not everyone can claim all the prime slots of course, so showtimes are divided up and staggered.At least three pairs of Off Broadway shows are perched on each other%26#8217;s shoulders. At the 47th Street Theater, %26#8220;Forbidden Broadway: Rude Awakening%26#8221; and %26#8220;Dai%26#8221; are roomies. %26#8220;Altar Boyz%26#8221; and %26#8220;Naked Boys Singing%26#8221; split Stage 4 at New World Stages, while %26#8220;My First Time%26#8221; and %26#8220;Pinkalicious%26#8221; both call Stage 5 home. When the Australian cabaret artist Tim Minchin moves in on March 3, Stage 5 will become the scene of a piggybacking triple-header.Carl White, a producer of %26#8220;Naked Boys Singing%26#8221; and a general manager whose company, Martian Entertainment, runs %26#8220;Altar Boyz,%26#8221; claims to have devised the model, though he doesn%26#8217;t take credit for the name. %26#8220;Kevin McCollum called it that,%26#8221; he said, referring to the Broadway producer best known for %26#8220;Rent%26#8221; and %26#8220;The Drowsy Chaperone.%26#8221; %26#8220;We were in a meeting and Kevin turned to me and said, %26#8216;Tell me about the Martian Piggybacking Model.%26#8217; And it stuck.%26#8221; Necessity forced Mr. White to rethink the playing schedule of the long-running comedy %26#8220;Naked Boys Singing.%26#8221; %26#8220;It was post-9/11, and the show was at the Actors%26#8217; Playhouse still,%26#8221; he said. %26#8220;We were in our fourth year. The dew was off the lily, as it were. The show was a mainstay. It was breaking even, but it wasn%26#8217;t doing what it had done. We wanted to do everything to keep it going.%26#8221; When the producers of %26#8220;My Big Gay Italian Wedding,%26#8221; a show for which Mr. White was general manager, approached him in search of a theater, the producer spied salvation. %26#8220;They wanted to be downtown, to be in Greenwich Village in a gay community. Me and my business partner Tom Smedes came up with the idea of doing the shows in rep, which is not a new concept, but it%26#8217;s not really applied to commercial theater.%26#8221;The owner of the Actors%26#8217; Playhouse agreed to the arrangement. The necessary union agreements were forged, with salaries and benefits prorated. %26#8220;Naked Boys%26#8221; took six time slots and %26#8220;Wedding%26#8221; got two. %26#8220;It worked very well,%26#8221; Mr. White said.When %26#8220;Wedding%26#8221; closed, %26#8220;Naked Boys%26#8221; hit hard times once more, and the landlord exercised the stop clause, the contractual point at which a theater owner can eject a production for low attendance. The show was homeless. Instead of giving up, Mr. White installed the production in the Julia Miles Theater on West 55th Street, the home of the Women%26#8217;s Project company, eventually piggybacking on one of that company%26#8217;s plays. %26#8220;Naked Boys%26#8221; then began hopscotching around Midtown. It joined forces with a show called %26#8220;Who Is Floyd Stern?%26#8221; at the 47th Street Theater, then bounced back to the Women%26#8217;s Project. Finally %26#8220;Naked Boys%26#8221; moved to New World Stages, bunking with %26#8220;Musical of Musicals%26#8221; and, when that attraction folded, %26#8220;Altar Boyz.%26#8221;%26#8220;I don%26#8217;t think we would have gotten into its ninth year in New York City if we had not been able to do this,%26#8221; Mr. White said. 1 2 Next Page %26#x00bb;
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