It's been a year since the Durham Performing Arts Center opened, with the $45 million or so big-stage theater competing against longtime Raleigh institutions for Broadway touring productions.

At the time, there was understandable skepticism as to how much-smaller Durham would fare relative to the million-population Wake County's downtown arts centers.

As the Indy fretted:

Beyond the issue of the viability of DPAC's programming, however, are philosophical and economic issues. First, there's the issue of competition with the Progress Energy Center, the existing four-stage facility in Raleigh...

The Raleigh venue's general manager, Jim Lavery, says the competition is real, but he seems to take it in stride. "We're going to lose shows, but we're not backing down," he says. Indeed, he points to a major coup: a four-week run next summer of Jersey Boys (averaging 2,606 tickets sold, and raking in $176,505).

And the N&O:

But Broadway Series South's current mainstage season is also mainly fresh productions; four of its six shows hit the road in the last six months. The remaining two launched in 2006.

The Durham Performing Arts Center will have to offer those kinds of shows consistently if the 2,800-seat downtown venue is to be successful, said William Jones, executive director of North Carolina Theatre. (Raleigh's Memorial Auditorium is somewhat smaller, at 2,300 seats.)

"If they have a big, big show we can't get in Raleigh, I think they'll do OK," said Jones, whose company produces its own shows, as opposed to tours. "If they're doing revivals of shows we've done before, I think they're going to have a tough time."

So, how are things going one year in?

As a brief story on WRAL notes, it's curtains for Broadway Series South's namesake productions, with the theater series abandoning the musical productions that gave the series its eponymous title.