Why Do People Buy Tickets To Some Shows and Not Others, ;-)

20 th was always a limited run as it was a Roundabout production. OTT simply picked a gargantuan theater they could not fill.

Updated On: 8/8/15 at 08:59 AM

Shows only run when people buy tickets.

So you should rephrase your question: Why do people buy tickets to some shows and not to others?

Updated On: 8/8/15 at 09:18 AM

There IS no answer. That's why investing is a gamble. You THINK a show will catch the audience's eye (pocketbook) but you have no way of knowing.

Yes, sometimes excellent shows fail at the box office. Sometimes mediocre shows play for decades.

Critics no longer hold the power to make or break a show. In some ways, that's a good thing: the public seems to make up their own mind.

Because using facts would muddy up the the idea that The King and I is only selling well because it's been "decades" since it was last on Broadway.

Yup, I misremembered re when those two shows were last on the board. Thanks for ASSUMING that I deliberately lied - it tells me a lot about some of the people who post here, incapable of making a mistake.

And I didn't say that not having been on Broadway recently was the ONLY reason it is selling. The whole point of my comments was that no single factor determines the hit or failure status of a show.

"There IS no answer"

Dramamama for the win. Most of the reasons offered have not been inherently wrong, but they are only right when they are not wrong. Hork, as an example, may not be wrong about OTT, but that does not explain AAIP.

The missing element is producing. Good shows sometimes fail because of bad producing. Bad shows sometimes succeed because of good producing.

And OTT is the poster child of a good if not great show with phenomenally bad producing. While some blithely applaud these producers for dumping roughly $5 million over and above this show's capitalization into the money pit to keep it open, their producing has been lousy.

Why? Budgeting. Supply and demand management. Staffing and Casting. Marketing.

And running at the same time we have the poster child for the opposite, Finding Neverland, a bad show that has been engineered to succeed.

I think the reason we some shows get mixed and/or negative reviews, but end up running a long time is because they often have some commercial appeal (Beauty & the Beast, Aida, Mamma Mia!, Wicked, The Color Purple, Mary Poppins, Rock of Ages, Motown: The Musical, Beautiful: The Carole King Musical, Finding Neverland, etc.).

Shows that get positive and/or rave reviews end up closing prematurely can sometimes be due to their subject matter (Passion, Side Show, Caroline, or Change, Grey Gardens, Passing Strange, The Scottsboro Boys, The Visit, etc.).

Of course, we sometimes do see critically acclaimed shows get a major boost from the Tony Awards (Avenue Q, Spring Awakening, Next to Normal, Gentleman's Guide, Fun Home, etc.).

Though I still wonder why a show like Honeymoon in Vegas, a musical comedy featuring Tony Danza get glowing reviews, but just fail to find an audience...

Updated On: 8/8/15 at 02:18 PM

@Jeffrey-

The most important lesson I learned when i first got involved in the theatre is that there are no rules.

Why is that so important? Because from a producer's perspective, once you make assumptions, you are limiting yourself, and what you want to do is expand, and never limit. Because you simply can't know. Think your show has commercial appeal? Make a list of the shows with commercial appeal that fell as flat as a pancake. Think your show has an appealing subject matter? Make a list of all the appealing shows that flop. Think you've got a star people will pay to see read a phone book? Make a list of the stars who came in to do shows and quickly were out of work. Think you can ride your way to the Tony awards? Guess again. The solution is to do everything, promote everything and fight for sales, while keeping your expenses in check. Look at Mormon. They have made an ad buy week in and week out for 232 straight weeks. Could they have rested on their laurels for a while? You'd think so, but no. And you will see Hamilton do the same thing. Some here complain about overkill; they don't agree: the push has to be unrelenting, expansive and smart.

The other thing to remember is that a 'cognoscenti' audience on boards like this are often a poor guide to total audience opinion.