Broadway is booming with new musicals, and Seattle is doing its part to keep the supply flowing. First, Seattle hosted the world premiere of "Hairspray." Then "The Light in the Piazza." Now enter "Princesses."

"Princesses," set in a contemporary girls' boarding school and partly inspired by the classic children's novel "A Little Princess," is in previews at 5th Avenue Theatre, and its world premiere is set for next Wednesday. If all goes well, the show then moves on to the Big Apple.

The city stands to gain from all the stage action, especially when it results in a huge hit: spikes in local theater attendance, extra civic prestige and some financial bonuses, too.

And for Broadway hopefuls, there are good reasons for test-driving a musical vehicle here. One is that we're thousands of miles from Times Square, says Kathy Evans, head of the National Alliance of Musical Theatres, which staged New York workshops of "Hairspray" and "Princesses" in their early stages.

"It's important to be away from the eye of the [New York] critics when a show is still being worked on. Also, the Seattle audience is very sophisticated, and their reactions are a good representation of how the show might do on Broadway."

For Stewart F. Lane and Bonnie Comley, the married producers of this heavily bankrolled show, a Seattle tryout of "Princesses" was a no-brainer. After all, "Hairspray" started here in 2002 at the 5th Avenue, and "Light in the Piazza" in 2003 at Intiman Theatre. Both are now going strong on Broadway. And together they've earned 14 coveted Tony Awards.

"Seattle has stepped up to the plate big time," Lane says.

Though the Seattle Repertory Theatre exported numerous plays to Broadway during the 1980s and '90s, Seattle is only now establishing itself as a serious tryout town for major musicals.

"Along with Chicago, San Diego and several other cities, this is one of the few places in the country with the climate to develop these shows," says 5th Avenue Theatre artistic director David Armstrong, who got the ball rolling here by presenting "Hairspray."

Armstrong says he fields several calls a month from producers interested in unveiling musicals at the 5th Avenue. A fortuitous one came from the creators of "Princesses," just when another show with Broadway aspirations ("We Will Rock You") dropped out of the theater's 2004-05 schedule.

Bartlett Sher, artistic head of Intiman Theatre and Tony-nominated director of "Light in the Piazza," says Broadway folk just like hanging out here. "They love the chance just to be in Seattle for a while. You don't have to persuade them. Every person who came from out of town for 'Piazza' had an extraordinary experience here. It's beautiful, and a great place to get a lot done."

"Like a lunar landing"

But opening here is also a financial move, given New York theater economics. "Princesses" will cost about $3 million to mount in Seattle, and at least $5 million more when it gets to Broadway. (The producers have not yet secured a vacant Broadway theater for the show, but still plan a fall opening.) And any big-deal musical premiering within a two-hour plane ride from Manhattan can be halted in its tracks, and lose much of its investment, if key East Coast critics pan it before it even reaches Times Square.

Those critics have taken more of a wait-and-see-from-afar approach to major Seattle premieres, which allows more time to fine-tune a musical.

"Nothing is really very far away in the age of the Internet," says Broadway veteran David Zippel, the director and lyricist of "Princesses."

"But you feel less under the microscope here. And being able to work quietly in a large metropolitan area is really attractive to a creative team."

Other Seattle perks: a pool of seasoned stage musicians and technicians, and such ambitious, welcoming local producers as Armstrong, Sher and Robb Hunt, head of Issaquah's Village Theatre, a frequent tryout spot for smaller-scaled musicals.

"A Broadway show is sort of like a lunar landing," Zippel says. "You need to have a lot of really skilled and committed people to bring it off."

A crapshoot

As for the local audience, Armstrong says 5th Avenue patrons (including 24,000 season subscribers) will be "true collaborators" on "Princesses," as they were on "Hairspray."

Every night of the monthlong run, Zippel and the show's composer, Matthew Wilder, and authors Cheri and Bill Steinkellner are listening closely to and making changes based partly on audience reactions.

On paper, at least, "Princesses" has a decent shot at success. It could appeal to two hot Broadway demographics: families and adolescent girls.

The culture-clash plot focuses on jaded, modern-day teens coping with family issues, and rehearsing a school musical inspired by the beloved Victorian novel "A Little Princess," by Frances Hodgson Burnett. The song score blends pop, standard show-tune and classical influences.

The creative team is composed of show-biz pros. Zippel's credits as a lyricist include Broadway's "City of Angels" and Andrew Lloyd Webber's "The Woman in White" (also due on Broadway soon). Wilder has been a writer-producer for such pop stars as Kelly Clarkson. And together, the two men penned the songs for the Disney film "Mulan."

But as Sher notes, every Broadway show is like a "crapshoot in Vegas." And if the bet pays off, what does Seattle get out of the wager?

Plenty, in economic terms, at little risk. "Princesses" has brought about 80 out-of-towners (actors, producers, designers, etc.) into local hotels and restaurants for up to 10 weeks.

Seattle stagehands and pit musicians are clocking twice the hours they usually work on a non-premiere run.

And Lane and Comley are footing much of the bill, adding $2 million in "enhancement" money to the 5th Avenue's usual $1-million-per-production budget. If the show's a winner, the theater also gets a sliver of the future profit. And it can add up: Armstrong says "Hairspray" is generating roughly $300,000 for his theater per year.

Impact on 5th Avenue

What if "Princesses" dies on the road or bombs on Broadway? Unless the next half-dozen tryouts are all duds, the 5th Avenue won't likely be tainted.

But there are other legitimate concerns when nonprofit regional theaters cozy up to Times Square.

By developing potentially commercial vehicles, are they in danger of becoming mere funnels for Broadway "product"? Will they be chasing blockbusters, at the price of artistic quality and diversity?

Similar worries came up in San Diego, when the Old Globe Theatre and the La Jolla Playhouse were grooming such Broadway hits as "The Who's Tommy" in the '90s.

"There were strong doubts about whether this was an appropriate thing for regional companies to be doing," says Anne Marie Welsh, theater critic for the San Diego Union-Tribune. "Were they selling their souls for the price of enhancement money?"

Welsh says her own skepticism has been laid to rest. "I found the kind of buzz and excitement the best of these shows generate has created a special kind of excitement about theater here. And it hasn't eroded the companies' mission to keep doing less commercial projects, too."

At the Intiman, which produces mainly classic and new dramas, Sher isn't worried about "selling out" to the Great White Way. "The Broadway thing benefits us, our audiences and subscribers, incredibly," he says.

"It keeps us from being too insulated. It keeps a lot of theater people here working. And it's a very fertile time on Broadway, with lots of opportunities to do offbeat as well as conventional musicals."

Perhaps, as Armstrong suggests, being a tryout stop gives Seattle more of a voice in what Broadway offers the world.

And Seattle audiences will not only have their say on "Princesses" soon, but on another big 5th Avenue musical premiere: "The Wedding Singer." Based on the hit movie of the same title, the Broadway-destined show is slated to debut at the 5th Avenue in January.

Misha Berson: mberson@seattletimes.com