Profile for binau

I know why some people might be tired of RENT, it was on Broadway for so long. We had a dreadful movie with much of the original cast who were too old. We had the final performance filmed. We then had an off broadway revival that felt surprisingly stale. However, if you try and forget the legacy and the overexposure and just listen to the OBC recording again carefully I do think it’s hard not to recognise the show was groundbreaking, has some amazing performances and iconic songs. It al

When people compare Jamie Lloyd Sunset and Evita they tend to do it on superficial ways. Eg yes Rachel holds a note in Rainbow High a little longer and there are attractive men in underwear. However, the productions couldn’t be more different in terms of tone. Evita felt like a high energy stadium pop concert in tone. Sunset was more like a a strange abstract emotional dream world. I would be truly surprised if people walked out of both productions feeling the same kind of emotions

Kad said: "“Competitive” doesn’t really describe the category this season- it’s more like a number of performances are all at about the same level and nobody really has yet broken through. In this and a number of major categories, it’s a “well, somebody has to win” year."

Exactly, I would suggest it is actually the opposite of competitive. I don't believe C Levy would win for Ragtime in many other seasons. I

"Then again, she was having trouble following the lyrics. "

This is why I always found it so fascinating how successful Hamilton became. In my opinion it's an extremely dense, complicated piece of art not a kind of mass-audience common dominator type event. Drafts of the show were reviewed and feedback provided by Sondheim. I was completely shocked that it made it so big and I remember even writing on this very board that while it's all very well they can sel

Tell me if I'm wrong but I get a sense that Chess is a convoluted mess of music, lyrics and book that it doesn't matter what re-incarnation if you examine closely enough you will find contradictions, challenges and inconsistencies but if you zoom out and consider 'the vibes' as a whole, the emotion associated with the music, some of the lyrics and the broad story telling etc.. it kind of works. Maybe I'm stupid, but I've seen the show multiple times (not the current pr

If it doesn’t I think we can well and truly point to this example to show how Broadway is suffering from the economics. However, I still pray and hope that this is an example of a show that people would pour money into just because, for the art etc. 

It is a bit devastating that they couldn’t make the street Argentina work but I hope Jamie Lloyd has another trick or two up his sleeve to mitigate this. I still get chills thinking how the camera would show Rachel pe

We now have Cameron Mackintosh and Sonia Friedman and Andrew Lloyd Webber saying explicitly the costs are unsustainable. In the NYtimes article with Sonia Friedman if I recall it explicitly says investors are less willing to part with money now. We have shows closing early, less shows recouping and less quality shows being mounted. I grant you we might need to wait a few more years to be sure but the evidence is not looking good. 
 

Also, it’s been a long time

witchoftheeast2 said: "Theater is not dying or dead. You can't expect every season to full of smash hits. How exactly do you expect to change the business model?"

You can’t unless the costs reduce. There are only two main variables, the revenue and the costs. I would suggest the revenue is pretty fixed right now and uncontrollable - audiences aren’t willing to pay more, theatres can’t get bigger. And it’s too difficult to understand ho