Profile for BrianS

"Bad timing, IMHO. If they had faced reality and closed already they could have cut their own losses... and something else could have booked the St. James for spring/summer, instead of (probably) leaving it empty all year." What are you talking about? All those people would have been out of jobs and there is no show waiting to replace it. Why don't you give the producers a little credit for keeping things going through lean times. And you do understand that producers and theater owners have d...

OP, one could argue that normal length preview periods are a sacred tradition on Broadway and that it is the producers of this show who could be opening a can of worms by their actions. I really don't have a dog in this fight and I DO hope the show does well because that would be good for the industry (and hopefully create a new, young generation of theater fans), but I had no problem with the critics acting when they did. What's to stop future producers who can see in rehearsals that their s...

Only through the lens of musical theater would Next to Normal be considered rock. Pop, maybe at best. Listen to Hedwig for a baseline of what a real rock musical sounds like. For me, even Rent (great as that score is) barely feels like a "rock" show. Queen used extensive orchestrations and instruments and was one of the greatest rock bands of all time. Real rock music has obvious influences in R&B, Jazz, Blues, and Folk.

But I don't think anyone is saying they are injury free. What they are saying is that there are much lower incidence rates and the performers are much better trained to the task. There are many cirque shows each with multiple productions sometimes. So the injuries you list, while awful, are spread among thousands of performances. Even if there were 50 serious injuries, it would still be a small percentage of the performances that experienced a problem. With Spider-Man, this is 4 serious injur...

It's so weird to me that the people claiming that the risk in Spider-Man is at a normal level for a theatrical production by pointing out serious accidents in other shows. I feel like they miss the point completely. Little Mermaid had a major accident after a full out of town run, 50 previews, and around 300 performances. Wicked has had more than a handful of serious accidents, but out of how many performances and how many companies? I've talked to people who were in Starlight. Yes to constan...

PRFRMR20, a) thank you for showing me that video. After watching it, I agree it looks like the cable snapped. b) my conclusion was based on believing that the "human error" statement made by the production team was correct as opposed to mechanical malfunction. I guess it's still possible that it wasn't fastened correctly (human error) allowing him to fall far enough to stress the cable into breaking. "nonsensical crap" makes it sound like my opinion came out of nowhere. c) I judge posters on ...

Eris, I believe the cable wasn't connected to the actor. From the video, you can see the cable is at least 15 feet long. Had the cable been attached to the actor and not attached to the anchor upstage, when the actor fell, he would have fallen down, but for 15 feet+ of cable to follow him, it would gain phenomenal momentum toward the audience as it went around the lip of the ledge he fell off of. If you look at how close the front row is to this effect, that cable would have flung out like a ...

exactly. What really bothered me in this Post article: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/manhattan/fourth_spider_man_actor_injured_oG3gj9Es3u7om0UXZAAyzL/2 Was this quote from the guy who builds the equipment: “The stage crew would have been responsible for making the connection for hooking him up,” Fisher said. “The actor is responsible for making the final check that he’s good to go. It’s sort of like packing your own parachute." That clip obviously hooks onto the actor's(stuntman?) back. ...

Had the cable snapped, it would have been mechanical error. The official word is that it is human error meaning that whomever was supposed to confirm that the cable was secured to both the actor and the anchor failed to do so. Based on the video, it looks like the cable wasn't properly fastened to the actor as the cable does not look like it travels with him as he falls.

They need to get that video into their advertising cycle asap because watching that was the first time that I've felt that this could actually really work.

" I am a proud Hispanic happy to see a show on Broadway repping my people, and I feel like people are tearing it down because they have a problem with seeing middle class Hispanics portrayed on stage." I have no opinion on the show having not seen it, but claiming that negative opinions are due to racism is kind of a new low for this board. Racism is a very serious real world issue. This is a silly chat board. The theatrical community is incredibly inclusive and you have no basis to infer tha...

"Joe, I may be hardly the test audience you're seeking, but, at this point in my life, you can go online and say anything about me and it truly would not matter. Say I'm a racist, a pedophile, a liar, a cheat - you can even say I'm Belgian. I'm hardly important enough that anyone would care enough to change their views of me because of casual gossip." Newintown, if you really feel this way, why not put your money where your mouth is? Reveal your real name to a reliable source on this board (m...

"People have sued online social networks to release anonymous identities before, and they've lost." Actually, that's been changing as you can read in the link. http://tinyurl.com/mugaab Disneymagic, you may not know the law, but it's pretty clearly defined what is protected and what is not. Parody is cool, slander is not. And your slippery slope argument has been proven false for a long time now as the courts have consistently upheld the balance between freedom of speech and protecting someon...

I can't wait to see how they pulled this off legally. The whole point of the SEC requiring only accredited investor have the ability to invest in Broadway shows is to protect naive people because of how incredibly risky these investments are. It seems like it would take only one person who claims a producer played on their love of a show and wasn't clear about the risk involved, didn't know what they were doing, to sue and this whole thing would fall like a house of cards. Obviously, his lawy...

Pretty funny. I laughed when she said "I don't have to lick it."

So, some kid named Spencer who is an "actor, choreographer, musical director, music critic, and voice teacher" (and btw, with all those talents, how is this kid not on Broadway right now?!) tweets that it's closing and this rumor gets traction? Geez. I mean, there are lemmings and then there are bww lemmings. The show is grossing solid numbers and the nut is low (I believe Sundaymorning's number since there is no moving set and the band is small) so the only fact we know is that the show is p...

Now that the economy isn't in a free-fall, there are a lot more workshops in the pipe which means upcoming seasons that are a lot more vibrant than the last few years (and good shows are THE biggest factor in TONY viewership). That said, until they let critics vote again, the process is just too skewed to the most "tourable" show. I don't know how they can say with a straight face that the Tony currently represents excellence in the theater. Add to that a new podunk location and there is a ch...

"I followed with mounting anger the appalling saga of how nearly 50 million dollars was squandered to indulge the whims and caprices of a minimally-talented, monumentally-egocentric, outrageously-spoiled juvenile posing as an adult and a director. The whole thing struck me as immoral - if not downright criminal. It was to cry!" gvendo, it's a bigger picture than you're making it out to be. I'm not defending Spiderman's budget, but broadway shows not only employ a lot of New Yorkers directly t...

Not offended at all and I knew you wrote that somewhat tongue-in-cheek. Just questioning the logic that got you to a negative opinion of the majority. Again, my experience is that most of these people are incredibly funny and, when bad things happen to a member of the community, very quick to rally in support. And actually, one of my favorite things is not just that this community always seems to be participating in something charitable, but that the way they usually raise money is through so...

"BWW - and the net - have taught me as a general rule that Broadway performers are humorless, dim, reactionary and unbelievably ignorant. Okay, not ALL performers, but I swear the list is in double digits by this point." Seeing as how 99% of the Broadway performers currently knocking it out 8 shows a week haven't said a thing publicly on this matter, why would you say "as a general rule"? I mean you're talking 4 or 5 people out of at least 500+ actors? In my experience, the vast majority of B...