Ken Davenport

Davenport named the theater after his great-grandfather, Delbert Essex Davenport, who was a theater producer, publicist, author and lyricist in the early 1900s.

Davenport is well known among the Broadway community as an innovative producer and marketer.

Ken Davenport (born Kenneth Anjum Hasija, August 23, 1972) is a two-time Tony Award-winning theatre producer, blogger, and writer.

He is best known for his production work on Broadway.

Davenport was born in Phoenix, Arizona to Dr. Kenny Hasija and Pamela Soper (née Davenport).

He grew up in Sturbridge, Massachusetts and attended the Bancroft School in Worcester, Massachusetts.

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.

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 he began 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.

He graduated in 1994 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Acting.

Davenport founded Davenport Theatrical Enterprises (DTE) in 2004, and has created, produced, and managed shows under that business for the last 15 years.

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, Davenport Theatrical Enterprises has expanded to other areas of the theater business.

It founded 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.

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 2007, his Off-Broadway show My First Time had a "Virgins get in free" promotion, during which audience members who were determined to be "virgins" by a psychic received a free ticket to the show.

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 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 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 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.

In Macbeth on Broadway, Alan Cummings played all the roles.

Organically, the show's mission took a step further.

Davenport asked Cummings to step into another role to get up close and personal with the audience.

He went to the theater on a rainy, Sunday morning to sell rush tickets at the Box Office, this allowed the audience to interact with him on and off the stage.

In 2019, DTE Management relaunched as Architect Theatrical.

Davenport Theatrical Enterprises has founded 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.

In 2019, Inc. 5000 named Davenport Theatrical Enterprises one of America's fastest-growing private companies.

He is the founder of TheaterMakersStudio.com, a one-of-a-kind "masterclass" community with the goal of educating and inspiring writers, directors, producers and more to get their shows off the ground.

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 managed and owned the Davenport Theatre, an Off-Broadway theater in Manhattan's Theater District until January 2019.

The Davenport Theatre had two performance spaces, a 149-seat main stage on the ground level, and a 60-seat blackbox theater on the upper level.