AMERICAN PSYCHO CLOSING- Page 4

[AnnieBlack]

Posted: 5/26/16 at 10:07pm

More and more it seems that the rush to open a show before the end of the season is a really a crap shoot- I know opening a show to begin with is a crap shoot, but I have to believe if this opened in November, when critics aren't as grump with the glut of shows, and time to build and audience, things may have been different. Glad that Evan Hansen isn't waiting until the spring.

[mailhandler777]

Posted: 5/26/16 at 10:12pm

So devastated by this news. By far my favorite show this season and probably of all time. Saw it 3 times already and got my tickets for closing.

[sing_dance_love]

Posted: 5/26/16 at 10:13pm

Have to see this a second time before closing. This was bold, and while always risky, was such a fascinating and enthralling experience for me. Really sad for this absolutely killer cast. Hope we get another Shiek show in the future.

[jjohnson5]

Posted: 5/26/16 at 10:22pm

Glad I picked this to see on Saturday instead of anything else on my shortlist. Shame.

[songanddanceman2]

Posted: 5/26/16 at 10:26pm

I'm shocked the producers are throwing in the towel already. They needed a new more trashy marketing campaign and waited till the summer was over. This show made close to 600k this week, to close on that this soon is nuts. Bad producing on this show.

[Mike66]

Posted: 5/26/16 at 10:36pm

Mr Roxy said: "You could say that about many shows. The fact that people still listen to them is amazing. You are giving up your decision making to total strangers. Never understood this and still don't.

"

Whoa -- how else do I make the decision on which shows to see?  I don't live in NY.  I fly to NY 4 times a year and see 2 shows.  I cant see them all.  How should I decide?  Throw a dart at a wall?  Stop people on the street.  (Oh, yeah, those are total strangers, too.)  Follow the recommendations on the chat boards (Yikes, more total strangers).  The truth is that over the years, I've gotten a "feel" for what various critics like, and based on trial and error, whether my tastes match theirs.  In my case, I am much more "Brantley" that "Isherwood".  But he loved "Fool for Love" and I thought it a waste of my time.  But he steered me right on "Purple" and "She Loves Me" and "King Charles."

Many of the people on this Board may "live Broadway" and have lots of contacts in the industry who can help with the decisions.  Many of you may also be able to attend lots of shows because you can (a) get there and (b) afford it.

I am neither -- like most of the world, I rely on the kindness of strangers.....

[undercoverusher]

Posted: 5/26/16 at 10:45pm

JBroadway said: ""Millennials don't appreciate the 80's, would rather spend $5000 for hip hop American history"

I KNOW you're trolling if you think the College debt-ridden millennial are the ones paying $5000 on Hamilton. 

 

jbird5 said: "What do you mean, Evan Hansen got the Fisher Account?"

Hilarious. Thank you. 

 

"

I'm camping it up... Seriously, I loved this production ! 

[haterobics]

Posted: 5/26/16 at 10:54pm

Currently hanging out on a beach down south, so when I had to fly up for a job interview in NJ on Tuesday, I made this my Monday night, and was totally blown away by it. Have always been a BEE fan, and thought the material was transformed especially well for the stage. Walker and everyone in the cast were pretty flawless. I was also surprised by how young the audience seemed to skew, and how everyone was onboard with the dark subject matter from the get-go. I'd've totally visited this one again, but I guess I'll have to be glad I was able to catch this (unlike Disaster and Tuck) at least once.

[SuddenlySeymour3]

Posted: 5/26/16 at 10:57pm

This will be missed. Such a stylish show - best projection design on Broadway. Some riveting stage pictures throughout the piece. And such a unique tone and score. That said, I agree with the poster who opined that it was more suited to Off-Broadway. Black comedy and satire are hard to pull off— the genres can easily divide and confuse audiences. 

Still — the show wasn't doing that badly and the summer was just beginning. They beat several other shows last week.    

I would have loved to have been a fly-on-the-wall when the producers discussed whether to close or not. What math was involved?  What was the writing on the wall?  Had they promised their investors a tighter limit on losses than is usual?  

 

 

[haterobics]

Posted: 5/26/16 at 11:04pm

undercoverusher said: "I bet Hamilton will continue to force the rest of the musicals on Broadway to fold one by one..... Lemmings, I tell you "

How can a show with no available tickets affect the current grosses of other shows?!

[VintageSnarker]

Posted: 5/26/16 at 11:21pm

Skip23 said: "Just goes to show:  Middle aged women from New Jersey just didn't want to see a edgy musical about some snake of a guy killing people (or not).  They aren't going to get laid after that night at the theatre."

Complete tangent, but as someone who uses dates to help fuel my theatregoing, Broadway hasn't not been making it easy to see "date" shows lately.

Mike66 said: " I think the problem is much (but not entirely) related to the fact that Broadway (especially in the summer) relies on out of towners coming in and seeing a show or two.  These occasional visitors want to see (a) something they've heard about; (b) something that's familiar in style or topic; (c) something their friends back home will have heard about.

Psycho is none of those things. "

See, I have to disagree. To me, American Psycho does have a lot of name recognition. Less than Disney. Maybe somewhat on par with The Color Purple. More than Finding Neverland and Waitress and (apparently) Tuck Everlasting.

[nolanativeny]

Posted: 5/26/16 at 11:29pm

So glad I got to see this one twice...what a show. I'll never forget that opening, I knew from the moment that first deafening scream made me jump out of my seat I was not seeing a typical musical. I was hoping to see it again but I won't make it back to the area before it closes... sad face...

[quizking101]

Posted: 5/26/16 at 11:43pm

Damn.

I thought this one had enough juice until at least Labor Day

[VotePeron]

Posted: 5/26/16 at 11:57pm

Really? The theatre Gods aren't content with Tuck?

 

Saw AP 4 times, will be back at least once more. What a shame. 

[Crazy NooNooHead]

Posted: 5/27/16 at 12:04am

"No-no, no-no, no-no."

I'm bummed about this. The more I thought about the show, the more I liked it. I was hoping to catch it a second time, but it doesn't look like I'll be able to. Hoping for a cast recording.

[CindersGolightly]

Posted: 5/27/16 at 12:07am

I really hope closing earlier than needed (their grosses weren't too bad?) will grant them the money needed to do a cast album. This cast really deserves to be recorded.

[uncageg]

Posted: 5/27/16 at 12:35am

haterobics said: "undercoverusher said: "I bet Hamilton will continue to force the rest of the musicals on Broadway to fold one by one..... Lemmings, I tell you "

How can a show with no available tickets affect the current grosses of other shows?!"

 

I would say one show might not but there are people who have their mind set on seeing the hit show or shows when they come into town and if they can't see it, they see nothing. A few weeks ago I was chatting onlime with someone who thought they were going to come in and see HAMILTON. They had no clue how sold out it was and what they would have to do to possibly get a ticket. They decided that they would skip seeing a show. I have talked to and know a lot of people who do this. Two of my best friends who have had 2 chances to see the Lion King tour for much cheaper waited until they could see it in NYC and that is all they wanted to see. They ordered tickets months in advance and saw it while here.

 

Again, these people probably don't put a big dent in other shows' grosses but there are a lot of people who won't see anything other than what they had their minds set to see.

 

[Taryn]

Posted: 5/27/16 at 12:48am

Pretty sad to hear this.  It really is an original show.  I don't know if I'd say I loved it as much as I was fascinated by it; it definitely stayed in my thoughts.  I went and grabbed a TDF ticket to see it a second time before it closes.

I definitely wouldn't blame the marketing for this.  (Marketing always gets blamed when shows flop and never gets credit when they're successful.)  I think it had some of the slickest advertising of the season.

[Fosse76]

Posted: 5/27/16 at 12:51am

I have to say that I'm surprised how many people think this show was doing well. It was earning half its potential and the theater was rarely more than 60% of capacity. Of that 60%, there was a significant number of comp tickets and tdf tickets.  A look at telecharge would show that advance sales were too low that the week-to-week survival strategy would star failing next week.

[ClumsyDude15]

Posted: 5/27/16 at 12:51am

"They still had a two month notice though..."

While that's entirely true, they weren't told by the producers, they found via social media and a press release. Hence my comment still stands correct, because I'm sure the cast of American Psycho found out from their producers not a press release like Mary Poppins. Time left standing between closing aside, the cast of Mary Poppins got the very short end of the stick on finding out about their closing notice. 

[playbill-love]

Posted: 5/27/16 at 1:06am

Bummed for the cast and other folks working on the show. I saw this last weekend and while I had a fun time seeing it, I didn't really think it was very good at all. I could not imagine it having a very widespread appeal, so this notice doesn't shock me, but I'm glad I saw it when I did.

[ChiTheaterFan]

Posted: 5/27/16 at 1:08am

Is there any hope this could go off Broadway?  I don't know how these things work. I'm just holding out hope I can see it again someday...

[mamaleh]

Posted: 5/27/16 at 1:37am

Really a shame.  Too bad they couldn't hold out to see whether the summer tourist influx could be lured to the Schoenfeld. The show was just dark and funny enough and often hypnotic.  Better than WAITRESS in my humble opinion.

[¿Macavity?]

Posted: 5/27/16 at 1:53am

What are our chances of getting a national tour? I couldn't catch this in NYC but I'd really like to see it.

[John Adams]

Posted: 5/27/16 at 2:29am

I wish that in general, BWW articles were better written (more comprehensive). The article about American Psycho gave no additional information about the show's closing, in particular why the show is closing, beyond what was stated as the headline. What's the point of that? That's so d@mned frustrating!

From what I can glean from reading articles from other sources, and using the charts of Weekly Grosses that are available at BBW, I don't think American Psycho is closing early. It looks like it's been doing poorly financially from the beginning of its run. I'm hoping others will chime in regarding interpreting the graph and charts.

The show completely lost its initial investment, and compared to other shows, it's never fared particularly well in that 'Gross % Potential' column of the weekly grosses chart. It's been stuck at ~50% of its earning potential since its second week. Other shows are hovering around that 50% mark, too but they may or may not have recouped at least a portion of their initial investment, and that makes a difference.  Some shows at that 50% mark are shows that have been running for over a year now (i.e., King and I and Fun Home) so you might expect their financial potential to have already peaked.

If you look at last weeks grosses, Hamilton performed at 132.2% of its potential, Aladdin was at 90.5%, Beautiful was at 85.5%, Paramour 92.9%, Shuffle Along 84.4%, Waitress 96.4%, She Loves Me 76.4%, School of Rock 61.3%... Poor, poor Tuck Everlasting was least successful at 29.3%, which makes me very sad because I really wanted Andrew Keenan-Bolger to have great success in a starring role. Bright Star was also hovering around the 50% mark, which may not bode well. 

Coupled with consistently underachieving in its financial potential, the show was honored with only two Tony nominations: best sets and best lighting. Although I'm glad the show is being honored with those possible wins, neither is the kind of award that would generally attract punters to see a musical. Score, choreography, actors awards - any of those might have offered some hope, but still don't compensate for the show's financial shortfall.

Does anyone interpret the numbers differently, or need to steer my thinking into a better understanding of those charts, and that graph from the article?