Yet some in the arts field think that the absence of a resident theater company gives the Kennedy Center the feel of a commercial booking house. But the numbers show that even when the attractions are criticized, the audiences are there. In the last 10 years, as the productions have increased, attendance has doubled. Last year the center put on 3,200 performances. The figure includes some free performances on the Millennium Stage in the Grand Foyer, but all in all, that's 2 million people buying tickets in one year.
Musicals are golden, the numbers prove each year.
Financial success aside, enough questions were raised about the center's direction that last year the trustees asked an outside firm to analyze its workings. Its conclusion that the center needed an artistic director and Wilker's sudden announcement last spring that he was leaving sparked discussion that a shake-up was underway. Wilker denied that the report influenced his departure, saying he had been thinking about a change as he reached the 10-year mark and he wanted the chance at another adventure. Washington attorney and Kennedy Center trustee Robert Barnett says Wilker's decision and the report were two very separate things. It was not an attack on Larry in any sense.