How Did 'Something Rotten' Become a Hit?

[RippedMan]

Posted: 8/11/15 at 12:29pm

There's no shade to this. I saw it and really enjoyed it. But it seemed to be successful right out of the gate. Why is that? There's no name recognition. No stars attached. Basically, everything you expect them not to do. The compares aren't well known, etc. Yet somehow it's managing to become a hit. It's not like it really struggled to find an audience. I look back on other things like Bullets Over Broadway, which I would have thought would have been a major hit, or at least ran a year, and had a successful tour, but now it crashed and burned and is going out non-union. Are producers finally realizing that people want to see fresh, new ideas and not old movies made into musicals? 

[haterobics]

Posted: 8/11/15 at 12:30pm

Pretty basic. People see it, enjoy it, tell other people to see it...

Updated On: 8/11/15 at 12:30 PM

[WiCkEDrOcKS]

Posted: 8/11/15 at 12:32pm

Yeah, it's got strong word of mouth. We will see how it fares after the summer, though. That theater is huge. 

[madbrian]

Posted: 8/11/15 at 12:33pm

And weren't the reviews fairly positive?

[carnzee]

Posted: 8/11/15 at 12:39pm

That is an interesting question. You would think it would have needed to time to build word of mouth, like GG. It seems like Gent's guide and Something Rotten are comparable, in terms of no stars, yet it took Gent's Guide so much longer to become a hit.

[haterobics]

Posted: 8/11/15 at 12:42pm

"That is an interesting question. You would think it would have needed to time to build word of mouth, like GG. It seems like Gent's guide and Something Rotten are comparable, in terms of no stars, yet it took Gent's Guide so much longer to become a hit."

 

Having Broadway fans see your first three previews for $15.95 doesn't hurt...

[mattporter17]

Posted: 8/11/15 at 12:44pm

It's because it's easy. It basically took all the things that work for a successful musical did it themselves. I don't see the show pulling the numbers it's currently making in a few months because I think the show is overrated. The score is crap and it thinks referencing other musicals is original. This show basically says: "here's a musical reference, you've heard of this show, isn't it funny? It may be a well directed, pretty show but the concept and material are just crap. It'll probably last a few years, and then will be completely forgotten.

[Sauja]

Posted: 8/11/15 at 12:45pm

I think the move they made to sell most of the first three previews at $18 (or somewhere around there) was instrumental to their word of mouth success. Those performances were all sold out and filled with people who were excited to see something and who didn't feel like they had invested a ton of money into it, so minds were, I'd guess, particularly open. So within hours of its first performance, you had a lot of people buzzing very loudly about it. I was one of those people--I was at the second performance and loved it, so I was immediately telling people they had to go. Interestingly, perhaps, the folks who did buy tickets on my recommendation had more mixed reactions.

[ErinDillyFan]

Posted: 8/11/15 at 12:49pm

If we knew producers would pay us a fortune.

Originality isn't the key here.  Amazing Grace and It Shoulda Been You and aren't/weren't hits.

Aladdin and Kinky Boots and Hedwig are retreads and hits...

btw: it is doing well but not a hit yet...

Updated On: 8/11/15 at 12:49 PM

[givesmevoice]

Posted: 8/11/15 at 12:51pm

""That is an interesting question. You would think it would have needed to time to build word of mouth, like GG. It seems like Gent's guide and Something Rotten are comparable, in terms of no stars, yet it took Gent's Guide so much longer to become a hit."

 

Having Broadway fans see your first three previews for $15.95 doesn't hurt..."

 

Gentleman's Guide also had to go an entire season before getting its shot at a great Tony performance. While I found Something Rotten to be a disappointment, I think they had one of the better performances at this year's Tonys, and I imagine that sparked some interest in viewers at home. Something Rotten also has the ability to sell more tickets per performance than GGLAM does, which should mean they can move towards recoupment faster.

 

Updated On: 8/11/15 at 12:51 PM

[Jeffrey Karasarides]

Posted: 8/11/15 at 12:54pm

If you ask me, there's just no such thing as a 'sure thing'. There some shows that people question as to whether or not they would find an audience that most of the time succeed. And there are other shows that people feel so confident about that most of the time end up flopping.

[ZellMorrowsPledge]

Posted: 8/11/15 at 12:58pm

Rotten has an amazing marketing team. Their official twitter account holds more followers than this year's best musical Fun Home has had before and after the Tonys

[haterobics]

Posted: 8/11/15 at 12:59pm

"Aladdin and Kinky Boots and Hedwig are retreads and hits..."

 

Not sure I would put Kinky here. I mean, the story was real and turned into a movie, but making it into a musical is a pretty big change to label it a retread.

Updated On: 8/11/15 at 12:59 PM

[gypsy101]

Posted: 8/11/15 at 1:01pm

"If we knew producers would pay us a fortune. Originality isn't the key here.  Amazing Grace and It Shoulda Been You aren't/weren't hits. Aladdin and Kinky Boots and Hedwig are retreads and hits... btw: it is doing well but not a hit yet..."

 

Aladdin may be a stage musical based on a film musical, but Kinky Boots is based on a fairly obscure film from England (that I only knew about because someone had gotten me a DVD for my birthday in 2009) and Hedwig is a revival that had played off-Broadway 15 years ago; not exactly a retread of proven commercial material in either case.

Updated On: 8/11/15 at 01:01 PM

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 8/11/15 at 1:02pm

No stars?

 

Christian Borle & Brian D'arcy James ain't chopped liver. Neither is Brad Oscar

 

The score, despite its naysayers, is a lot of fun. The marketing team is the best & the story is fresh & original. Better ask this question re BOM. 

Updated On: 8/11/15 at 01:02 PM

[neonlightsxo]

Posted: 8/11/15 at 1:03pm

Something Rotten is a word of mouth hit.

[RippedMan]

Posted: 8/11/15 at 1:07pm

Mr. Roxy, in no universe are those 3 "stars" in the sense of Bradley Cooper in Elephant Man. They might be well known to us theatre folk, but no one cares that they're on the stage. 

It seems like the idea to sell the previews at a discount was key. 

[lotiloti]

Posted: 8/11/15 at 1:08pm

"That is an interesting question. You would think it would have needed to time to build word of mouth, like GG. It seems like Gent's guide and Something Rotten are comparable, in terms of no stars, yet it took Gent's Guide so much longer to become a hit."

 

 

For me, it hopefully helps to dispel this obsession on here. That all shows needs 'stars'. If a show is good enough,it will generally find an audience. If a show needs a 'star' , it ain't worth wasting your money on.

 

"

 

Updated On: 8/11/15 at 01:08 PM

[ErinDillyFan]

Posted: 8/11/15 at 1:16pm

Aladdin may be a stage musical based on a film musical, but Kinky Boots is based on a fairly obscure film from England (that I only knew about because someone had gotten me a DVD for my birthday in 2009) and Hedwig is a revival that had played off-Broadway 15 years ago; not exactly a retread of proven commercial material in either case.

The OP premise was originality was the key.  No amount of obscurity negates that those aren't.  Hedwig had enough fanfare to get it made into a highly decorated movie in 2001, which is how I first became aware of it.

[RippedMan]

Posted: 8/11/15 at 1:17pm

Well, I don't think that's true at all. One of my favorite shows of recent seasons, Bridges, failed to find any success. And it even had "stars" - theatre Stars, Roxy, but stars to us - and it still failed miserably.

I mean I don't think Something Rotten is going to run for years and years, but I think it will have a healthy run.

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 8/11/15 at 1:22pm

Bridges should have succeeded. The problem was the story. People remembered the movie and it downer of an ending. They opted for happy go lucky fare instead.

Updated On: 8/11/15 at 01:22 PM

[tazber]

Posted: 8/11/15 at 1:25pm

Bridges should have been one act and two people.

 

All the extraneous characters diffused focus and felt like padding.

 

Rotten is a fun night of theater. Silly, lots of laughs.

 

And the marketing is perfect.

 

[MegInManhattan]

Posted: 8/11/15 at 1:29pm

The themes and jokes in SR also pander to their target audience. Theatre-goers eat up jokes about the theatre, and that along with great musical numbers that keep you entertained and laughing about one of your favorite subjects makes for a fun night at the theatre that you're going to tell your friends about.

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 8/11/15 at 1:32pm

Name a music touting itself as a Tony award loser.

The artwork for the show was done , I believe, by old Mad Magazine stalwart Jack Davis

 

 

[ErinDillyFan]

Posted: 8/11/15 at 1:45pm

Maybe broadway loves shows that references broadway.  The Producers, Urinetown, Spamalot, Book of Mormon, and The Drowsy Chaperone all reference broadway or other shows.  Maybe Something Rotten is keying in on the narcissism of the broadway audience or the smugness to get the "in" jokes.

Although, [title of show] and The Last Five Years didn't become hits based on that premise...

Updated On: 8/11/15 at 01:45 PM