Profile for WOSQ

And yet, to go back to when dinosaurs walked the earth, Raquel Welch replaced Bacall in Woman of the Year and the grosses remained strong for her run in the show. They were not at Bacall's level but the show made an operating profit each week Raquel was in it. (Rumor had it that Miss Bacall was not pleased that Raquel sold so well.) Then in about 1970 Zsa Zsa Gabor took over 40 Carats, a comedy, after Julie Harris played it for a year and June Allyson played it maybe 2 months and it almost di...

The last few pages of "All That Glittered" by Ethan Mordden has a detailed description of a piece of staging that Fontanne did on her own at the end of what was then Act One (of three) of The Visit. The book is worth owning if only for this tale.

The Morosco had the best acoustics and (except for the boxes) the best sightlines of any straight play house. Agreed it was a bit shabby toward the end, but they figured it was coming down so why maintain it.

I saw the first tryout engagement which was a 4 perf stand in Wilmington before it headed out to DC, Philly, Boston and one or two more cities totaling about 12 weeks before it came in in mid-May. I think the small cast, single set show paid off prior to the New York opening or very shortly thereafter. To my unsophisticated 14 year old eye, the show was great even though the symbolism was rife and obvious even to me (Noel Coward famously said, "I hate stooping to symbolism."). The score was t...

Costumes - Play: Jane Greenwood - Oh, come on. 19 or 20 nominations; no wins to date.

Write the press office at the Public and ask if there are any. Explain why you want them and what kind of project you are doing. See what happens. Include address, phone and email.

The little theatre/community theatre rights are quite lucrative in this case (6 actors, one set and I don't think anything flies). This will be published all in good time by Samuel French or DPS.

Price range this year is 300 - 1250; Thank you very much, but I think not. I have to buy new glasses. Then again maybe Harvey Weinstein would give you some of his tickets as he won't be needing them.... Meow.

Announcing a planned tour during Tony season is not one way to get the road presenters' votes. It is the only way to directly try for their votes. Sometimes it even works. Others that may possibly/probably tour: Something Rotten maybe Honeymoon in Vegas - if they can get the right stars An American in Paris

The whole Seesaw scenario is in the book "Second Act Trouble" which contains a reprint of a long article that originally appeared in the Times. It is one of the legendary in-trouble-on-the-road tales. Twenty-to-thirty people were fired or left during the Detroit run or the month of previews in town. Not only was the leading lady canned, but so was the director and the bookwriter, Michael Stewart packed up and left too. That is why Bennett has (or took) book credit. Look at the credits careful...

Sinatra liked good songs and since much of the Great American Songbook was originally written for shows, there are a lot of recordings of show songs by him. I think his favorite songwriters were the team of Cahn and Van Heusen. All that said, listen to "Golden Moment" from Hot September which was recorded before the show went into rehearsal. Since the show closed out of town, there was no cast recording. It was the play Picnic as a musical.

It is the same production that played Chicago and DC, but with different singers. There were over 100 people on stage and the Joe could really hit those low notes in Ol' Man River. Try to catch this one.

The only star who played Joanne, Phyllis and Desiree. Okay, maybe not on Broadway, but she played them.

NJ Transit train from Penn Station to Millburn, and its about 40 minutes. There are directions posted at the station for the short walk there. But it is best to go to matinee since the trains late at night are not numerous. At least in daylight, you can read while you wait.

Will there be a show curtain?

Hold off reading the original play until afterwards. However you might want to start reading when you get home from the theatre.

There's an old show biz story: The producer had a big flop on his hands. One night there was a wrap of four dollars for the performance. He ran into another producer who expressed sympathy for this public failure. "Can you believe it?", the producer replied, "Last night we only did eight dollars!" Lesson: everybody in show business exaggerates.

Light Up The Sky by Moss Hart takes place in a Boston hotel suite during the out of town opening of a new play. Someone once pointed out to me that the play itself is Chekovian in that the action takes place off stage and the characters come on stage to talk about this action. Whether this is dictionary-true or not is worthy of a panel discussion.

In about 1975-77 a play by Bernard (Same Time, Next Year) Slade paid its investors off on opening night. The producer had a second play by a star writer and a huge movie star, Jacvk Lemmon, appearing on stage for the first time in maybe 15 years. This producer was also pretty tight with a nickel and also over capitalized his shows. Tribute did not need a big reserve fund for instance. They tried out in Toronto and sold out to the rafters, moved to New York with a hefty advance and opening nig...

Recoupment cannot really begin until they start playing uptown. An advance sale cannot be 'spent' until the ticket bought in advance is used. All these numbers are for example. I have no idea what the real numbers are. Let's say Hamilton costs 10 mil to move and open uptown. Breakeven each week is 600k against a potential of 1.2 mil per week. That first 600k goes to pay the operating costs to keep the show running each week. Any amount taken over that is profit and is eventually distributed t...