Jersey Boys Toronto will close Aug. 22

[toguy]

Posted: 7/2/10 at 3:01pm

Surprised no one has posted this yet:

http://www.playbill.com/news/article/140864-Toronto-Jersey-Boys-to-Close-in-August

[frontrowcentre2]

Posted: 7/2/10 at 3:11pm

Not really a surprise - they have been offering 2-for-1 tickets for the last several months.

It is an excellent production and the current cast is terrific - especially BOTH Frankies: Jeff Madden and Adrian Marchuk.

By letting people know now, they can get pretty good sales generated for the rest of the summer.

And then - hopefully soon - something new and exciting for TCA.

[toguy]

Posted: 7/2/10 at 3:52pm

I would be surprised if Rock Of Ages is not too far behind in leaving town- a quick search on Ticketking shows loads of empty seats and the upper balcony is closed for most shows...
Updated On: 7/2/10 at 03:52 PM

[tourboi]

Posted: 7/2/10 at 5:40pm

Did JERSEY BOYS recoup in Toronto?

[LizzieCurry]

Posted: 7/2/10 at 5:59pm

Their marketing seemed a bit weak. I knew something was up when they added the box on their site to submit your testimonials.

(This is the only company I never saw, which is why I'm asking -- but isn't the theatre also a bit out of the way?)

[tourboi]

Posted: 7/2/10 at 11:47pm

A lot of people say that but it's really not THAT bad. A few years ago when it opened, I could see that argument. Not all that much was going on in North York (the part of Toronto where it is).

But now North York is full of fabulous restaurants, cinemas, and the like. It's about a 15-20 minute subway ride (with no transfers) from downtown. I used to live near there, and still trek up that way whenever I visit Toronto to visit friends. I actually really like North York... it's cute. (at least along the Yonge corridor).

[frontrowcentre2]

Posted: 7/3/10 at 12:06am

The fact that JERSEY BOYS ran for 2 solid years and set a new long run record for the TCA, it should do away with the myth that downtown audiences won't travel there to see a show. It is also just off the 401 and in fact easier for drivers to get to and park at than it is for some of the shows downtown.

It does seem that 2 years is about the maximum for a show these days. We will likely not see another 10-year run like PHANTOM for along long time.

So congrats to Aubrey and his team. Looking forward to seeing what they bring in next.

[AEA AGMA SM]

Posted: 7/3/10 at 12:11am

The Toronto run of Phantom also relied much more heavily on US tourism. We used to have the "Buy Phantom by phone" ads running in Cleveland all the time when I was growing up. I don't think any other show in Toronto marketed nearly as heavily in the US as Phantom did, and you certainly don't see any of that these days with the current shows.

[toguy]

Posted: 7/3/10 at 12:33am

- I doubt they recouped in Toronto. They were spending a crap load on constant TV adverts, which by all accounts only seemed to piss off people - or so ppl's tweets tell me. The show limped along for its entire run and only ran at near capacity last summer from what I hear.
-I think the Sound of Music in Toronto had a testimonial section on their site.
-The TCA is a beautiful theatre in a horrible location. Yes, it is convenient for the majority of the GTA population but it is way out of the way for the nearly 20,000 hotel rooms downtown. Those hotel guest do a great job toping up a local audience and are great to partner with. Jersey Boys partnered with the one small hotel near the theatre. There is also a sort of magic that your get from going to a show downtown that is completely lost in North York.
-Not securing a radius for the show was a big mistake with stops last year in both Buffalo and Rochester, less than 3 hours away.

Updated On: 8/20/10 at 12:33 AM

[Tag]

Posted: 7/3/10 at 12:50am

The physical production (with the exception of wardrobe) was not built specifically for Toronto (I believe it was used in San Francisco first). I think this significantly minimized initial costs.

[tourboi]

Posted: 7/3/10 at 1:00am

I will agree that not blocking off nearby major cities (Buffalo, Rochester) from the tour hurt it.

I also agree that US marketing, or lack-thereof, was an issue.

PHANTOM did in fact succeed as it did largely by out of town marketing. People came from Ohio, IL, upstate NY, New England and beyond to see the TORONTO Phantom. Additionally, they really pushed the CANADIAN angle and advertised heavily in nearby cities and provinces (as far away as Montreal and Winnipeg I believe).

But then, say what you will, Garth Drabinsky was a master of marketing and knew how to SELL a show.

[Tag]

Posted: 7/3/10 at 1:04am

I wonder how he had the budget for a marketing campaign that large

[toguy]

Posted: 7/3/10 at 1:42am

Agreed tourboi- Garth always said "nothing attacks a crowd like a crowd". Aubrey never had a crowd, he had a group.

Garth also knew the importance of Americans and would send buses down to pick them up. But Americans haven't been coming to shows in Toronto like they did during Phantom and Lion King days since SARS and border tightening- so I'll let him slide on that.

But the show was always marketed without a purpose. The same 30 second commercial on radio and TV with different words. No creativity whatsoever. And no break. Just a constant every week without conveying a message.

I remember to this day the "A new block of tickets is now on sale, call Phantom By Phone" ads. Now that's effective! And were those everyday? Every week? No, it was when a new block was added. It promoted the new block and the show. Dancap's method is Blah Blah Blah Jersey Boys EVERY DAY, EVERY WEEK. And even BACK to BACK in the same commercial break! Transit ads are a nice effective way to quietly market the show, but they've been gone since the tour left.

As for the capitalization, they had to build a new set for the tour and Toronto kept the majority of the tour set. The new set I am sure was paid for by Dancap. I'll stand by my statement that it didn't recoup. It's probably far from it. It's probably been making about $400,000 a week on avg.- probably costs $200,000 a week to run, $100,000 on marketing and you've got $100,000 to put towards recouping. That's 5.6 million a year... 4 of the months in year one belongs to the tour...show probably costs 10-12 million....

[Tag]

Posted: 7/3/10 at 1:55am

Like I mentioned before the physical production (set, props) came from the San Francisco run. When the tour played in Toronto, they used the San Fran set (but tour props). The tour set sat in storage while they were performing in Toronto.

[hubee]

Posted: 7/3/10 at 2:27am

Actually, there have been a few studies say that when people want to see a show, they'd rather go downtown to see it, as it is part of the whole experience.

Plus, have you BEEN to Yonge and 401 at Rush Hour? It takes 20 min. just to get off the freeway or into that North York Centre area.
I come from Richmond Hill and takes me the same time to get there, as it does downtown via DVParking Lot. Yes, Yonge is THAT BAD.

Also, I don't find parking any easier or cheaper in North York (granted, I know all the good spots downtown). And unless it's good Korean you want, there's really nothing around that area that I think is good (and no, Milestones is not good)

So I think that whole "Oh, North York Centre is a place to go" isn't actually a thing that happens for real.

And yah, I saw the show 3 times and it was always half empty (granted, half empty is still almost the same size as the NYC theatre so in fact, it didn't need to be full to be making the nut.)

[toguy]

Posted: 7/3/10 at 10:39am

Tag- good to know about the set

Hubee- 1/2 empty at $45 or $50 avg. ticket price in Toronto is a lot different than sold out on broadway at $111 avg. Yes it's both 900 seats, but under $500,000 in Toronto and over $1 million on Broadway.

I heard at one point the show needed 400 people to cover the nut, but that shouldn't be your goal...

Very important quote too:
"Plus, have you BEEN to Yonge and 401 at Rush Hour? It takes 20 min. just to get off the freeway or into that North York Centre area.
I come from Richmond Hill and takes me the same time to get there, as it does downtown via DVParking Lot. Yes, Yonge is THAT BAD."

[tourboi]

Posted: 7/3/10 at 7:01pm

I haven't been back to Toronto since 2006 but I remember there being several good (non Korean) restaurants in the area. And besides that, I rather enjoy Milestones, though you're welcome to your opinion.

The BROADWAY production cost 10-12 Million. There's NO WAY a sebsequent, scaled down production in a market with lower union costs had the same price tag. I'd guess that the Toronto production cost 7-8 Million CDN.

[AEA AGMA SM]

Posted: 7/3/10 at 8:14pm

I haven't seen the show on Broadway, so I can't say how scaled back it might have been physically, but the Toronto production did make some changes, for the better, to the way the automation system was engineered and programmed.

[Tag]

Posted: 7/3/10 at 8:52pm

In Toronto, the gold Brill Building doors fly in instead of coming out from the deck and the centre stage drum unit stays onstage and does not lower into a trap. Otherwise I think everything else is pretty much the same as in New York.

[Link Larkin Wanabe]

Posted: 7/3/10 at 10:01pm

I am particularly saddened by this news because I had some friends in final callbacks to take over for some lead roles if the run was extended till January. Sadly I won't get to see them in those roles now.

Best of luck to the talented cast...can't wait to see them all in other shows.

Akiva

[fashionguru_23]

Posted: 7/3/10 at 11:25pm

I know people think Dancap doesn't know how to play the game. But think about it, who knows if Mirvish would of brought the shows that Dancap has and is bringing to Toronto. So be quiet, and be happy that Dancap is around to bring some great shows to Toronto. I'll support Dancap as long as he is in business. I don't care if I have to go to North York or the Moon.

[tourboi]

Posted: 7/3/10 at 11:43pm

Akiva, if they got that far in calls for the TO run, there's still a chance the producers will see them again as needed for possible slots in the tour, Vegas, or even NY productions. Canadians get hired to do shows in the US from time to time. Plus, there's the rumors of a CDN tour.

[LizzieCurry]

Posted: 7/4/10 at 1:03am

Didn't two of the producers recently say there'd be a second U.S. national tour? (I'm trying to find that interview right now, with little luck.) In this interview they mentioned they were also planning to tour Australia after Sydney closes, whenever that is, and that hasn't officially been announced.

[toguy]

Posted: 7/4/10 at 1:24am

I have read about the second national tour too. one of those two companies will do the Canadian stops.

And I'm sure Mirvish would have not brought Happy Days the Musical, an obscure Off-Broadway show, a "regional" production and a non-equity production to Toronto, so yes, you are right fashionguru_23.

As I mentioned on the Toronto board- there is one thing you have to do every day in business and that is sell something, so technically, by the end of August he'll be out of business because there is nothing for him to sell. Guess you won't have to go to the moon after all.

Tag- how very observant of you!

[LizzieCurry]

Posted: 7/4/10 at 1:25am

In Toronto, the gold Brill Building doors fly in instead of coming out from the deck and the centre stage drum unit stays onstage and does not lower into a trap. Otherwise I think everything else is pretty much the same as in New York.

Ah, that's the same as on tour. So does Bob Gaudio go upstairs or down with his "party girl"?