IN TRANSIT Previews — Page 5

not surprised. mixed reviews, terrible advertising, no names, this had flop written all over it.

I had no idea Telly, James and Justin were in this. None.

This show belongs at New World Stages not on Broadway!

After slogging thru Ride The Cyclone, Great Comet, and Sweet Charity I was not looking forward to In Transit based on what I read here. I found it bright and refreshing compared to these other three and did not find the acapella warying as many seem to have. The audience gave this show the best reception of all the shows I've recently seen. Too bad it can't find an audience because this one is truly an audience pleaser.

I saw the show this afternoon and loved it. The stories were engaging, the staging fluid and inventive and the performances were excellent (and a slew of understudies went on). I hope they find their audience because this deserves a decent run.

"Btw: the show was SRO. I' we never seen SRO in that theater."

I'm not saying you're making things up again, Arnold, but seeing how last week's total attendance was only 74%, and the total $ brought in was only 36.5% of the total potential, even if the house were full (and it may have been), it was a one performance fluke. And I imagine a good number of those attendees paid nothing or very, very little. (Not surprising that this idiotic and loud string of braindead clichés was full only at a matinee...)

I was at a holiday party and ran into a cast member from In Transit, it turns out we have mutual friends. Naturally we talked about the show. They said that the cast and crew are shocked that they are still running and haven't posted a closing notice yet. Apparently one of the cast members is leaving and they've hired a replacement, which means they think it's going to keep going. They also said that while no one is sure what the weekly nut is, they know they have never come close to it.

Well, we get at least one of these every year. These meaning = producers with more money than brains

The lead producer, one Janet B. Rosen (also on the board of Primary Stages, and major Roundabout donor), is married to Marvin Rosen, a former partner at and major shareholder of the law firm of Greenberg Traurig LLP; it wouldn't be unrealistic to imagine that Marvin is the primary funder of this project. They own homes in NYC (an $11M CPW place) and Miami (and probably more). Marvin was Finance Chairman for the Democratic National Committee in the 90s, raising the money to re-elect Bill Clinton. Oddly enough, Rosen's firm represented George Bush in the law suit over election fraud in the Gore/Bush election. Janet may become the next Daryl Roth (another [formerly] bored housewife, funded by a wealthy husband), but she may need to find much better projects if she hopes to reach that goal.

A co-producer (read "investor" is Robert F. Smith, CEO and founder of private equity firm Vista Equity Partners. He has bushels of money; according to Forbes, he is the world's second-richest African-American.

Next on the investor list is Jeffrey Hecktman, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Hilco Global, a financial services company; he was an investor in those other wonderful musicals Spider-Man, Turn Off the Dark and Ghost, the Musical. (As they say, money and taste rarely travel together today.)

Following Hecktman, we have former PA Governor Ed Rendell and his lead fundraiser, Kenneth Jarin. Is any of this sounding just weird to anyone yet? Rendell, as a former gov, makes very good money "consulting" for various firms.

Our next "producer" is Manny Medina, Founder and Managing Partner of Medina Capital.

In the salad bowl, you'll also pick out Michael S. Falk, Chairman, Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Comvest Partners; Karen Mehiel, wife of Dennis Mehiel (who recently gave her majority holdings in his corrugated paper industry, reportedly in order to use the female and Latino status of his wife to gain lucrative contracts with large companies and states); attorney Steven Goldman and wife Arlene; and Edgar Jr and son Benjie Bronfman, heirs to the Seagrams fortune (Junior, by the way, was responsible for the family losing all control in Seagrams; Benjie is a musician who was briefly engaged to M.I.A., with whom he has a son).

There's a lot of idle dollars among this crew to keep this flop running for years, if they like.

Updated On: 12/29/16 at 01:30 PM