Well "August: Osage County" moved theaters. I'd like to see it stay on Broadway for the sake of the TONY noms I'm sure it'll get. Not like it even has to be said, but: I wish the Helen Hayes were available...
I love America. Just because I think gay dudes should be allowed to adopt kids and we should all have hybrid cars doesn't mean I don't love America.
[turns and winks directly into the camera]
- Liz Lemon (Tina Fey) on 30 Rock
I like this show a lot (saw it twice), but I really don't see it getting Tony love. Book, maybe. Musical, possibly. Music? Nah. Acting? Unlikely. Design categories? Obviously not.
The fact that it opened 11 months before the Tonys (a la Xanadu) won't help either.
Apparently there is no limit. But there are like a million threads here. A lot of them have TOS instead of Title of Show in the subject line. Zzzzzzzzzzzz.
Considering the dismal grosses again for last week, and the fact that it was the last week of summer vacation and the city was inundated with tourists and [tos] did under 50% once again, I don't think it will be too much longer before [tos] is no more, which will stop the threads. If it only did 49% last week, the coming weeks are going to be even lower.
I saw [tos] and really liked it, but I do understand what everyone is saying about belonging off-broadway. The production as a whole was very minimal, even though obviously I do understand that was intentional- it still gave it an off-bway vibe.
I root for this show the way I root for an underdog. The four main characters are all super likable and the banter on stage is clever and witty. I'd recommend this it to any theater person, but not to the family from Idaho visiting NYC looking for a musical.
Did "A Year of Magical Thinking" have no place on Broadway? 1 person in a chair on a stage.
How about "Deuce?" 2 main characters with a supporting cast of 3 sitting in 2 chairs.
Elaine Stritch at Liberty?
Anybody? Anybody?
I love America. Just because I think gay dudes should be allowed to adopt kids and we should all have hybrid cars doesn't mean I don't love America.
[turns and winks directly into the camera]
- Liz Lemon (Tina Fey) on 30 Rock
What about I AM MY OWN WIFE, that played in the same house that [title of show] is playing in?
"Winning a Tony this year is like winning Best Attendance in third grade: no one will care but the winner and their mom."
-Kad
"I have also met him in person, and I find him to be quite funny actually. Arrogant and often misinformed, but still funny."
-bjh2114 (on Michael Riedel)
Did "A Year of Magical Thinking" have no place on Broadway? 1 person in a chair on a stage.
How about "Deuce?" 2 main characters with a supporting cast of 3 sitting in 2 chairs.
Elaine Stritch at Liberty? "
Uh ... Vanessa Redgave, Angela Lansbury, Marion Seldes and Elaine Stritch. Broadway legends all of them. I don't think Hunter, Jeff, Susan and Heidi have achieved that yet.
He wasn't a name, and his show played the whole season long.
The houses weren't even close to capacity, but it was a cheap show to run, so it kept running.
"Winning a Tony this year is like winning Best Attendance in third grade: no one will care but the winner and their mom."
-Kad
"I have also met him in person, and I find him to be quite funny actually. Arrogant and often misinformed, but still funny."
-bjh2114 (on Michael Riedel)
I Am My Own Wife arrived on Broadway already showered with numerous Off-Broadway awards, and went on to win many Tony Awards. There was a huge buzz for Wife when it was off-bway, and the hype transferred with it on its move to Bway. [tos], on the other hand, lost its off-bway buzz momentum, which was dwindling anyway, and came to Broadway unknown to most people except theatre geeks. On top of that, Wife felt like a full-blown Broadway play and Mays performance was remarkable; [tos] just doesn't "feel" like a Broadway musical; and there's absolutely nothing "remarkable" about it; there's something very very small and cheap about its presentation that makes a lot of us think it belongs off-bway, not on.
That doesn't have anything to do with the fact that it's mad cheap to keep running, just like WIFE was, and that they can clearly easily still meet their nut every week by only filling the house to 40%, and keep running just like WIFE ran.
"Winning a Tony this year is like winning Best Attendance in third grade: no one will care but the winner and their mom."
-Kad
"I have also met him in person, and I find him to be quite funny actually. Arrogant and often misinformed, but still funny."
-bjh2114 (on Michael Riedel)
How do you know they're meeting their nut? It has been reported by one of the producers that their nut is just under $200K ... and they haven't hit that yet.
Kevin McCollum and Jeffrey Seller are smart producers. I have no doubt that they factored a slow start into their finances, just like the producers of XANADU did, which also opened last summer, struggled, yet made it through to the Tony Awards and is still running now in September of the following year. Everyone on this board predicted XANADU would be toast week after week after week, for the whole season long, yet it held on due to smart financial planning on the producers' part. [tos] will do the same.
"Winning a Tony this year is like winning Best Attendance in third grade: no one will care but the winner and their mom."
-Kad
"I have also met him in person, and I find him to be quite funny actually. Arrogant and often misinformed, but still funny."
-bjh2114 (on Michael Riedel)
Here's the bottom line (at least for me). The producers went into tos no doubt thinking it would capture the imagination of hard core theater-goers to the degree that it would generate very high buzz, which would in turn, make it a 'must-see' for tourists as well. This didn't happen. The theater community itself is split almost down the middle on whether or not tos is a good show. Had the producers been right, and tos playing to even 80% houses, they'd have the right to thumb their noses at all the naysayers who said from day one that this was an Off Broadway show. As it is, the naysayers turned out to be right. Good for the producers for trying, we need more gutsy calls like that in this industry. Unfortunately, in this case, it didn't turn out to be the right call and running it at New World, or the Snapple, or even Westside Arts might have turned it into a classic.
Well the bottom line for you isn't the real bottom line.
The real bottom line is where the show stands financially.
If the producers can afford to keep the show running on Broadway, they will keep the show running on Broadway.
"Winning a Tony this year is like winning Best Attendance in third grade: no one will care but the winner and their mom."
-Kad
"I have also met him in person, and I find him to be quite funny actually. Arrogant and often misinformed, but still funny."
-bjh2114 (on Michael Riedel)
As long as they meet the nut, and can make the payments to the investors..it will stay open.
It's dicey...but scraping by.
And Snapple is out of the question, cause the Snapple corp made an agreement with the producer of Perfect Crime in order to keep that show running, must have the Fantasticks there...
Of course that could all change too.
Tell 9 people...
"It's not so much do what you like, as it is that you like what you do." SS
"Time flies like an arrow, fruit flies like a banana." GMarx
Both Tom and WannaBe have said that [tos] is meeting its nut ... but no one is admitting to how they know that information as fact ... do one of you work for the producers? Or is it just wishful thinking that is making you say that?
If one of the producers has already said in print that the nut is just below $200K, I wouldn't think that $150K or $165 is making the nut. Maybe $185K, but not the numbers it has been bringing in.
I'm sorry but the one thing this show has done for me is that it has taught me to believe.
Believe and it will happen!
For all you [tossers] out there don't say, "if the show gets better sales" or "hopefully the show will get more people coming to see it." Just believe and know, the show will make it! It will happen! Updated On: 9/3/08 at 12:56 AM