Brooklyn Failure?

[PalaceRent06]

Posted: 1/18/06 at 9:05pm

why did brooklyn fail?

[Yankeefan007]

Posted: 1/18/06 at 9:08pm

It just wasn't a good show.

[emo_geek]

Posted: 1/18/06 at 9:31pm

It's a show that you either LOVE or HATE. It has a sort of cult following like (well not anymore) Nightmare Before Christmas or ummmmm Edward Siscorhands or Hedwig....just had die hard fans.

[BSoBW2]

Posted: 1/18/06 at 9:38pm

Except Nightmare Before Christmas, et al were good.

[Horton]

Posted: 1/18/06 at 9:43pm

I think that the book was really the weakest point of the show, but I really think that you can not deny how much talent that cast had, I mean they really were reason enough to see the show.

[C is for Company]

Posted: 1/18/06 at 9:46pm

Because they didn't have Manoel F. onstage where he belonged front and center lol. The talent was great, no denying Eden and Ramona(who stole the show for me) were phenomenal singers but the material, IMO was just crap. I cant listen to the cd at all and I find it just that there was this electricity watching them onstage but other than that all the cd does is preserve how great they sounded.

[emo_geek]

Posted: 1/18/06 at 10:02pm

I also think the costumes were amazing....like those pictures where you look then look again and see how everything is made out of other things...those kept me entertained for hours.

[C is for Company]

Posted: 1/18/06 at 10:10pm

Yeah the sets and costumes should have gotten noms! I dont even like the show and yet it still bothered me greatly

[moulin724rouge]

Posted: 1/18/06 at 11:20pm

I thought BKLYN was an amazing show! I think the main reason it failed was because of the price. It was still $100 even tho the shoe was pratically an hour without intermission.... some people didnt find that reasonable

[Attendthetale331]

Posted: 1/18/06 at 11:26pm

The show lacked a solid, strong book and story, the show fell apart and ended so quickly. Some songs stood out but other than that the show lacked any kind of emotion.

[RentBoy86]

Posted: 1/19/06 at 3:07am

It was a failure, yes, but not a huge flop. I mean it had a moderate run and will probably gain back money on tour. I think the show had tons of talent, but the lyrics and story were weak. But it does have some melodies in it. I hope to see the tour. I think itll be a good show live.

[overthemoon419]

Posted: 1/19/06 at 3:38am

The costumes, while cute, were certainly NOT original. A friend of mine won a Papermill Playhouse Rising Star Award in 2002 for her costume design for the show "Oz", which featured a Tin Man constructed of sheet metal and telephone wire, and more of the same. Plus, in 2001, she worked on costume design for the Rising Star-Nominated production of Little Shop Of Horrors, which featured skirts made of garbage bags, etc. So while the Bklyn costumes were cute and a novelty for some, they were far from original.

Bklyn was one of only two shows I have ever wanted to walk out of during intermission--only it didn't HAVE an intermission. I firmly believe there was none partly because producers, etc, knew that half the audience wouldn't return.
(For the record, the other show was The Boy From Oz.)

[Fosse76]

Posted: 1/19/06 at 9:44am

In My Life didn't have an intermission either, and I'm sure it was to keep people from leaving and not returning. Brooklyn was an awful show that deserved to close. It had a talented cast, for sure. Broadway actors are lucky that the theatre isn't like hollywood. If a movie is bad enough, an actor may never work again. If a musical/play is bad enough, by the time the actors' next show is ready, people will have already forgotten it. I shudder to think about Lestat opening.

[twogaab2]

Posted: 1/19/06 at 9:47am

I saw Brooklyn BEFORE the reviews came out so I made the mistake of genuinly enjoying it, for no reason at all other than the fact that I was completely charmed by it. Oh well, hidesight IS 50/50.

Just my opinion, I may be wrong.

[dancingthrulife04]

Posted: 1/19/06 at 10:13am

I saw Brooklyn BEFORE the reviews came out so I made the mistake of genuinly enjoying it

how was enjoying it a mistake? I mean, it wasn't a great show, but it wasn't as bad as all that. The main problem was the book. The book was weak and sketchy, and it kind of ruined the rest of the show. The cast was very talented, though.

[popcultureboy]

Posted: 1/19/06 at 10:17am

Barely an hour? Brooklyn had a running time of 100 minutes.

[smartpenguin78]

Posted: 1/19/06 at 10:24am

People can genuinely dislike a show without having been somehow "convinced" by the critics.

[Borstalboy]

Posted: 1/19/06 at 10:28am

Considering the reviews were some of the harshest in recent memory, the run was much longer than expected.

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 1/19/06 at 10:40am

I saw it in previews and thought it was truly one of the worst excuses for a show I had ever seen. Just terrible.

[popcultureboy]

Posted: 1/19/06 at 11:03am

Not even a fun turkey like In My Life.

[KJisgroovy]

Posted: 1/19/06 at 11:22am

overthemoon-People have been making clothes out of garbage forever. It has not been original for a long, long time. Just because you make a dress out of a garbage bag does not earn applause. That said the costumes in Brooklyn were clever in the way they used garbage... I thought they were cute. Second. How logically is it that a producer would take out an intermission ONLY because they wanted to prevent people from walking? That might be the single most ridiculous thing I've ever heard-or at least since I got up this morning. First of all... why would a producer produce a show they thought was so bad people would storm out at intermission? "Oh I have all this money. Ho-hum. I know! I'll put it into this awful awful show that people are going to HATE! And I'll make sure there is no intermission so people will HAVE to watch! HAHAHAHA!" It doesn't make sense. Second. A producer loses no money on a walkout. Once a person takes their seat and the show starts, the ticket has already been bought. So. Um. There is no reason a producer would want to keep a patron in their seat after intermission. Brooklyn didn't have an intermission because it was short. And where would you put it?

Brooklyn failed 'cause the book was pretty lame and kind of seemed like a four year old wrote it in crayon. The score was not good enough to compensate for this fatal failing. Period. It ran for a long time. It had a diehard fan base. It had a really energetic and talented cast. It had low running costs. It had everything in it's favor except a good show. A couple of good belty songs. Not a whole lot else. All that said, I didn't not mind paying what I did for my discounted ticket.

kmc

Posted: 1/19/06 at 12:18pm

100 minutes seemed like 100 days...the show had an absurd premise, fair to mediocre songs, a lousy book, the costumes were barely clever at best, a corny trite ending, etc. etc. etc.

Sure the cast was talented, but the rest was dreck.

[mallardo]

Posted: 1/19/06 at 12:39pm

I went with low expectations having absorbed the drumbeat of negativity from this Board and, what can I say... I loved it! And so did the audience I saw it with. To this day I do not get the rancor this unpretentious little show managed to arouse.

[overthemoon419]

Posted: 1/19/06 at 6:11pm

KJ, I think you misunderstood what I said.

I did not mean to imply that my friend had invented the concept of garbage-turned-costumes, I merely meant to point out that Bklyn's costume design was nothing exceptional or original. It was cute, it was a nice idea, but it was far from unique and certainly didn't deserve any sort of award nomination-- nominations are given to works that are exceptional and unique, and Bklyn's costumes were neither.

Furthermore, you must not have noticed how firmly my tongue was planted in my cheek when I made the intermission comment. I am full well aware no producer (save Max Bialystock) would purposely choose a flop. Furthermore, no producer would say "Let's not have an intermission, this sucks and people might leave." I was making a joke, trying to imply that the producers could sense their show's fate and were merely trying to avoid it. And besides, even if the producers (or any producers) considered that factor, and used possible audience response to gauge whether or not to hold intermission during their show, it would not be the only factor in that decision, which is why I used the word "partly".

All I know is that if I were foolish enough to invest money in Bklyn (and I say foolish because I fail to see any potential within it), I would not have planned for an intermission, either.

[ljay889]

Posted: 1/19/06 at 6:18pm

But it does have some melodies in it.

--- Well I would hope a Broadway musical with a pop soore has melodies.

It was a flop, no way around it. The length of the run doesn't matter, look at the attendance for the show - absolutely terrible.