It's official: Brooklyn to have a 60-city tour in 2006!

[Tiny-Toon]

Posted: 5/16/05 at 10:37am

The Denver Post Reports:

"The Denver-born Broadway tuner "Brooklyn the Musical' was shut out of last week's Tony nominations, but director-producer Jeff Calhoun is undaunted. He plans a 60-city tour next year, 45 of which already are booked.

For now, Denver is not on the itinerary. Randy Weeks, president of the Denver Center for the Performing Arts, said it's unlikely it will be. "But they broke through the reviews and found an audience, so who knows?" he said."

Updated On: 5/16/05 at 10:37 AM

Posted: 5/16/05 at 10:41am

You know what they say: It's harder to hit a moving target.

[broadway betty]

Posted: 5/16/05 at 10:45am

haha! oh, it's not a joke? sorry, i'm still bitter b/c i foolishly paid full price and service charges to see an early preview. i'll never make that mistake again!

[midtowngym]

Posted: 5/16/05 at 10:53am

i think of a travelling Brooklyn as my blue state revenge on all the red states.

[OrdinaryJukebox1]

Posted: 5/16/05 at 11:00am

Well, good for "Brooklyn." I think it's great. Everyone who said, "This show won't last a month," it's still on Broadway several months later. So, people continue to insult. Then it was, "They'll never have a tour, never." News of a tour, people continue to insult and what not. Just leave it alone already. If you hate a show so much, what's the point of reading every post about it, just to make the same lame remarks? Just seems to be a waste of time, at least to me.

-Vincent

[QueenS]

Posted: 5/16/05 at 11:10am

And yet, wasting the time to type this doesn't nearly come close to the hours I wasted watching the show.

[MagicToDo82]

Posted: 5/16/05 at 11:11am

Saw it.
Liked it.
REALLY surprised it's getting a tour.

[Michael Bennett]

Posted: 5/16/05 at 11:13am

You know, Frank Wildhorn has written some of the worst musicals ever. They have time and again received critical drummings, but that hasn't kept them from touring and having long runs on Broadway, so I'm not sure what the hostility is towards this show.

I haven't seen BROOKLYN, so I won't comment on its quality, but I applaud any producing team that has shown the clever marketing skills that BROOKLYN has over the last few weeks. Tie ins with two major corporations and an announced 60 city tour. What other new musical this season can make that boast?

Updated On: 5/16/05 at 11:13 AM

[mikewood]

Posted: 5/16/05 at 11:24am

Wait, do the math here... is there two or three different touring groups?

[QueenS]

Posted: 5/16/05 at 11:36am

Mikewood- There's no minimum stay per town. Probably doing a week stay here and there, but mostly only a few nights per city.

[Michael Bennett]

Posted: 5/16/05 at 11:38am

It will probably be a non Equity tour that does mostly one - two night gigs.

[Fosse76]

Posted: 5/16/05 at 11:48am

"It will probably be a non Equity tour that does mostly one - two night gigs."

Doubtful. The new Equity contract put limitations on that. The cast would be too small for the producers of the show to justify a non-equity cast. That being said, I'm glad it's going on tour...maybe they'll take the New York production instead of mounting a new one (we can hope, can't we?) Afterall, why should New Yorkers be the only ones to suffer? It's telling that even the city that spawned this garbage (figuratively and literally) won't even book it!

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 5/16/05 at 12:30pm

As far as Wildhorn is concerned, the fact that his shows are still produced is one of the oddest phenomena in the history of Broadway. Beyond critics not liking them, given that every single one of them has flopped, audiences clearly (at least in New York) aren't too crazy about them either. It's been estimated (I believe by Variety) that Jekyll & Hyde, Scarlet Pimpernel and The Civil War lost $20-25 million combined on Broadway alone and last year's Dracula also lost its entire $7 million investment.

His work had been subsidied by the Dutch billionaire Joop van den Ende, but even he has grown tired of the losses, pulled the plug and won't be financing anymore shows. We'll see what the fate of Wildhorn's future work will be.

As for Brooklyn, it hasn't returned so much as a dime of it's original investment so far -- perhaps they'll recoup some of the losses on the road.

[QueenS]

Posted: 5/16/05 at 12:35pm

Ah, Margo, the voice of reason...

And I'm not sure that "Brooklyn" playing to less than 50% capacity with tickets averaging less than 50% of full price will be likely to recoup. If the creative staff weren't all producers on the project, I doubt if it would have stayed open this long.

[Plum]

Posted: 5/16/05 at 1:13pm

I guess they're hoping that the show's reception will be better outside New York. Make it non-Equity and they might even make a little money.

[SueleenGay]

Posted: 5/16/05 at 1:19pm

Is it true that it is the opening act for the American Idol Tour?

[WOSQ]

Posted: 5/16/05 at 1:24pm

If a producing entity is going to do a "non-union" tour, then make it truly "non" and use non-union crews and musicans also. I reckon the AFM and the IA would have a few very choice words to say about that.

Why only pay the actors less than scale?

[AJ--Law]

Posted: 5/16/05 at 1:39pm

Saw Brooklyn this past Saturday for the first time. I thought it was ok, wasn't the best, but wasn't the worst either. I would say the theatre was at least 80-90% full and the crowd was very into it. Screaming and yelling after songs and clapping like crazy. But I wouldn't be too happy about paying full price to see it--got rush tix and sat in the 2nd row, for me that was a steal. I think all 5 of the actors were great, but its just not the greatest story.

[umgeoboy]

Posted: 5/16/05 at 1:44pm

As for Wildhorn, his shows have always been extremely popular in Europe. Dracula opened to very positive reviews in Switzerland and has a great advanced ticket sales. VanJoop is still producing the show over there. Wildhorn's newest show Cyrano is being produced in London with an opening of next spring. So yes, while Wildhorn shows do not do well in N.Y. outside of NY he is extremely well liked and respected.

[CurtainPullDowner]

Posted: 5/16/05 at 4:21pm

sueellen, what is the question Ethel is answering IDINA to?
That was the best laugh i had all day
Touring BKLYN might ne difficult, it may get an AMERICAN IDOL audience or it may have the trouble it has in NYC.
Great cast, not so great show.

[eslgr8]

Posted: 5/16/05 at 4:27pm

Too many shows on Broadway for me to see this one, as I can only go back East once a year. But as it'll surely be coming somewhere around L.A., I'll give it a chance. Enough people like it to justify my seeing it. Wonder when the tour schedule will be released?

[Tiny-Toon]

Posted: 5/16/05 at 4:43pm

The tour schedule is coming soon. They are waiting to book the other 15 stops (60 cities-45 already booked). I am so exited!
More then 300 performances on Broadway .. an upcoming tour.. !!

[dancingthrulife04]

Posted: 5/16/05 at 4:59pm

That's great! (Yes, I saw Brooklyn and yes I enjoyed it)

[kim1061]

Posted: 5/16/05 at 5:01pm

Where do they get all the money to do this?
Is it gonna be the same cast?

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 5/16/05 at 5:01pm

If Brooklyn gets picked up in the Broadway Series seasons, it could recoup since they have a high rate of annual season ticket renewals.