Great off-Broadway plays & musicals that never made the transfer to Broadway...

[CapnHook]

Posted: 1/15/07 at 1:06am

Something that hasn't been discussed in a long while.

I've very much enjoyed the cast recordings of BAT BOY and THE GREAT AMERICAL TRAILER PARK MUSICAL however I hadn't the chance to get to see them in New York before they closed.

Had either planned on transferring to Broadway but it just didn't work out? Or were they "flops?"

I understand some shows are too "small" for Broadway houses, such as THE LAST 5 YEARS (both in scale and length). Do you think it's possible for L5Y to have a successful run in a Broadway house, despite it's being "small?"

Discuss!

[Wanna Be A Foster]

Posted: 1/15/07 at 1:09am

[title of show] - still waiting on the Helen Hayes!

[OOTI2004]

Posted: 1/15/07 at 1:13am

I wish Bat Boy would have been more sucessful, I love the recording.

I was wondering about the play Wit, I recently watched the movie with Emma Thompson and thought it was very moving and read that it won the Pulitzer Prize in Drama, and just wondered how was it recieved.

[timote316]

Posted: 1/15/07 at 1:13am

L5Y could definitely work, but I think it'd only work in an extremely small house (something like Circle in the Square).

I don't know about BAT BOY, but I know Trailer Park pretty much flopped.

[OOTI2004]

Posted: 1/15/07 at 1:13am

I wish Bat Boy would have been more sucessful, I love the recording.

I was wondering about the play Wit, I recently watched the movie with Emma Thompson and thought it was very moving and read that it won the Pulitzer Prize in Drama, and just wondered how was it recieved.

*sorry double post, but isn't it strange that a message was posted between my first and second. Updated On: 1/15/07 at 01:13 AM

[Wanna Be A Foster]

Posted: 1/15/07 at 1:16am

BAT BOY ran for 4 years and was an Off-Broadway hit! It was quite successful.

[benjamin_barker]

Posted: 1/15/07 at 1:19am

"Do you think it's possible for L5Y to have a successful run in a Broadway house, despite it's being "small?"

I think that L5Y is one of the bet musicals to come out this decade, and I do think some of these should have a chance to have a greater run.

But you're right: not only is it relatively short, but also has a small scope in an era that appreciate the big nature of Wicked, Phantom and Les Miz. (Although admittedly shows like Grey Gardens and DRS focus more on a core group, I think they still are more conventional).

I think Trailer Park was a flop, but even for something that wasn't - as a bigtime Broadway theatre, whose goal is money not art, would you rather take a risk with an off-Broadway show, or take one of the 10,000 "adapted from the film" musicals that are an almost-sure thing?

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 1/15/07 at 1:25am

BAT BOY was one of several victims of the post 9/11 economic downturn in NYC. It was just starting to catch on and attract consistent audiences when 9/11 happened -- New Yorkers stopped going out as much for a long time and tourists stopped coming to the city altogether and it took nearly a year for the city to start to really turn around. BAT BOY limped along for a couple of months and then closed right after Thanksgiving.

TRAILER PARK just never caught on and flopped after just a few months despite some decent reviews.

WIT did great off-Broadway at the Union Square Theatre. It wanted to transfer to the Helen Hayes, but the owner of the theatre thought that a play about cancer wasn't commercial enough and refused to book it, so it stayed where it was.

THE LAST 5 YEARS is simply too small of a show with too limited an appeal to ever go to Broadway (unless of course a pair of MAJOR stars agreed to do it). It couldn't even fill the tiny Minetta Lane Theatre Off-Broadway for its short little two month run, despite some good reviews.

[title of show] also has too limited an appeal for Broadway (it didn't sell out the tiny Vineyard Theatre in its last run and stayed on tdf and discounts the whole time). At any rate, XANADU will be the next tenant at the Helen Hayes (though I'm not sure how successful that could be).

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 1/15/07 at 1:28am

Wanna Be A Foster,

Not sure where you get your info, but BAT BOY ran less than 9 months and lost its entire investment.

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 1/15/07 at 1:28am

Updated On: 1/15/07 at 01:28 AM

[CurtainPullDowner]

Posted: 1/15/07 at 1:31am

I thought BARE was certainly as good if not better than SPRING AWAKENING (which I liked)
But the Dodgers somehow screwed up any kind of transfer.

I keep hearing (title of show) is still trying to come back somewhere.
TRAILER PARK was just not very good (my opinion).

[shesamarshmallow]

Posted: 1/15/07 at 1:35am

I can't believe we're getting Xanadu in the Helen Hayes instead of [title of show]. TRAGEDY!!! Couldn't it play just a limited engagement there so that they can say the show got to broadway? It's not like the weekly nut would be high...

"Great" is always a relative term, but I Love You Because is one of my favorite musicals of the past few years. Also too small for a Broadway transfer.

And much as I love the score for The Last 5 Years, it just doesn't really work as a show.

[CapnHook]

Posted: 1/15/07 at 2:34am

"And much as I love the score for The Last 5 Years, it just doesn't really work as a show."

Please explain further what you mean. Just based on that statement you made, I know SEVERAL people who would strongly disagree. Well, I take that back, ALL theatre people I know would disagree because I haven't met someone who doesn't like the show.

[being.jeremiah]

Posted: 1/15/07 at 2:36am

Maybe it's just me, but I don't see [title of show] working on Broadway.

[Holbee]

Posted: 1/15/07 at 3:10am

The best show I've seen off B'way that did not get the reviews it needed to transfer was a show at the Public about Keith Harring called "Radiant Baby". George Wolf directed it and it was pretty damned good. Didn't even get a cast CD.

Posted: 1/15/07 at 7:23am

Bare springs to mind though I'm pretty mixed on the show (or at least what I've seen and heard)

Was an attempt ever made for Shop of Horrors to move to Broadway (the original production?) or the earlier (and criminally forgotten) WPA/Ashman/Menken/Vonnegaut musical God Bless You Mr Rosewater?

I'd throw in a few LaChiusa shows here--Little Fish, Hello Again and Bernarda spring to mind most but there are good arguments for them maybe not working on Broadway (ditto the Ahrens/Flahherty Man of No Importance which I know I seem to like much more than most)

The original production of Assassins?

[AC126748]

Posted: 1/15/07 at 8:55am

I would've loved to have seen the recent revivals of THE TRIP TO BOUNTIFUL and LANDSCAPE OF THE BODY by the Signature Theatre Company come to Broadway. The former show weighed the idea of an off-Broadway transfer to the Little Shubert, but the cost was too high.

[steveshack]

Posted: 1/15/07 at 9:35am

This is slightly off-topic, but one also has to take into account whether a show actually would WANT to transfer to Broadway. For instance, we are running THE BIG VOICE now off-Broadway and I'm constantly asked, "When are you gonna transfer to Broadway?" or "I bet you'd love to transfer to Broadway!" or "Maybe you guys'll get to transfer..." etc. (because of our amazing reviews including the Times) and I keep responding, "Not really. We like our venue and have never thought of our show as a Broadway transfer."

In other words, people seem to assume that if you're in New York and you have a successful show, then you AUTOMATICALLY want a Broadway transfer. And I know they mean well, that they're paying us a lovely compliment, but we have always thought of Big Voice as an off-Broadway show. We like the Off-Broadway aesthetic, the smaller venue, the more intimate type of performance, the lower ticket price, etc.

Steve Schalchlin
The Big Voice website

[shesamarshmallow]

Posted: 1/15/07 at 10:38am

Don't get me wrong, CapnHook, I LOVE The Last Five Years. But it's a score and show in general that I think requires a lot of work and multiple viewings/listenings to fully understand and appreciate. It's also impossible to stage in a dynamic way since it's very hard to make two people singing at the audience interesting. For those unfamiliar with the score, I think the general reaction would be disappointment.

[ggersten]

Posted: 1/15/07 at 10:41am

I think there's this little show called The Fantastiks, that seems to be kind of popular. But I don't know if it could make the transfer.

[purpleprince101]

Posted: 1/15/07 at 10:43am

bat boy
i would have loved for the original little shop to transfer

[alliez92092]

Posted: 1/15/07 at 11:06am

Bare: A Pop Opera. I'm still sad it couldn't extend. I find it be a fantastic, very important show. Much better than a lot of the shows on Broadway currently.

And The Wild Party (Lippa). I absolutely love that show!

[Lavieboheme3090]

Posted: 1/15/07 at 11:13am

The Off-Broadway production of The Mystery of Irma Vep was wonderful.

[i*heart*fame]

Posted: 1/15/07 at 11:29am

Took the words out of my mouth ggersten. The Fantastiks would completely fail on Broadway. It is too tiny. Sadly, when I saw the revival many kids in the audience were asking their mommy's where all the cool effects were.

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 1/15/07 at 12:07pm

You have to remember (to quote the lyric) that the MAIN reason that THE FANTASTICKS was able to run for 40+ years is that it cost virtually nothing to run. The small cast was paid pennies practically (and its producer Lore Noto even played one of the roles during tough times), they were in the tiny 150 seat Sullivan Street Playhouse which charged cheap rent back in the days when the Village was still downscale (the theatre has since been torn down and replaced with million dollar condos), and for decades they were able to survive with audiences numbering just a few dozen people per performance. It was never a big sold out hit (and in fact it nearly closed about a dozen times over the years due to lack of sales) and it's doubtful the show would have lasted more than a couple of weeks at most on Broadway (people forget that the show's original reviews were mixed at best).