How Long Do You Think [title of show] will Last- Page 4

[Pocketsquared Fanadu]

Posted: 7/30/08 at 3:35pm

There is quite a difference between having an indifferent attitude or not having a taste for something and spewing vitriol and venom and loudly braying that a show about a dream needs to die. The latter activity is the vampire behavior I referred to in my earlier post. I most assuredly have paid full price for 2 of the 3 times that I have seen it and likely will again (maybe even tomorrow night, Rob!). And, like so many other tossers, I have talked it up big time, steered people toward the [title of show] show, and have even gotten a block of tickets sold as a programming activity for the incoming freshmen when they return here at NYU.

Speaking of the students, back to the original topic: I think that once the kids get back to school, they are going to flock to [tos]. The show really resonates with young people who are pursuing their dreams (or trying to figure them out), and who can still remember having the untarnished hope to which it speaks.

[Brian07663NJ]

Posted: 7/30/08 at 3:37pm

PalJoey...yes, I do have a job. The quote was meant in the spirit of encouragement to stop festering and move on to the next thing.

[fvalle24]

Posted: 7/30/08 at 3:37pm

[tossers] - 1

Vampires - 0


jk :P

[Borstalboy]

Posted: 7/30/08 at 3:46pm

Off topic (or is it?)and maybe kinda stupid, but....do you think shows that play either the Lyceum or the Belasco have a tougher time bringing in the tourist audience because of their left-of-center location? It just seems to me that the Times Square energy runs all into the Broadway/8th Ave section and those theaters don't get the foot traffic that the other theaters do. Just a thought.

[broadwayjim42]

Posted: 7/30/08 at 3:58pm

Pocketsqauared Fanadu=eloquence

[folkyboy]

Posted: 7/30/08 at 3:59pm

that's actually true, Borstal. those theatres don't do as well due to their location. but i do hope for [title of show] to come in for us! i LOVE LOVE LOVE this show and want it to last on Broadway until at least the year!

Die Vampires! Die!

[jordangirl]

Posted: 7/30/08 at 4:36pm

Have the powers that be done anything like what used to go on with "Altar Boyz?" Each time I did the "Drowsy Chaperone" lottery, there would be a couple of guys in the vicinity of the Marquis talking the show up, offering discounted tickets. Having seen the show multiple times by myself and with my kid(s), I never took them up on it, but it did serve the purpose of getting the word out. Same thing with the people who used to go up and down the TKTS lines with flyers.

Oh they've been doing some of that. They were accosting the ticket HOLDERS for In The Heights the day my dad and I saw it. Literally coming down the line to push [tos] as an alternative. A ticket buyer's line would be bad enough since conceivably the people in that line want to see the show whose theatre they are at though the possibility of swaying them exists (I personally think it's cheap and cheesy to try and steal the audience from another show, but that's my opinion), but a ticket HOLDERS line? That's taking guerrilla marketing to a whole new level.

I'm not saying this in vitriol or anything else. I'm just saying what happened.

[jrb_actor]

Posted: 7/30/08 at 4:50pm

So, it's bad to pass out flyers to people who buy tickets to Broadway shows?

Have you ever done promo work, jordan?

[ghostlight2]

Posted: 7/30/08 at 4:55pm

You are aware that In The Heights and [tos] have the same producer, right? It's less about stealing audiences than it is about finding a like-minded one.

[jordangirl]

Posted: 7/30/08 at 5:13pm

Flyers alone are one thing. Flyers AND saying "Come see this show instead" which I actually heard? That's a new low.

They may have the same producers, but I'd hardly say they are similar enough to say that the audiences would be like-minded. For example, I LOVE ITH, but couldn't care less about going back to [tos]. They're not even close to in the same category IMHO.

[jrb_actor]

Posted: 7/30/08 at 5:19pm

Oh dear--the people in charge of the promotion were certainly not telling the workers to say that. And the workers were most likely joking around. Who would really expect people to throw away their ticket to the most recent Best Musical winner? C'mon. Think about it.

[jordangirl]

Posted: 7/30/08 at 5:21pm

I don't know. The guy seemed pretty serious.

Anyway... I really don't wish the show ill. I just have seen it once which was enough and didn't care for that particular tactic. If they weren't being told to say that, I'll just hold it against that person then. :)

[defyingravity07]

Posted: 7/30/08 at 5:38pm

This is why The Circle would have been perfect. Small Theatre for a small show. Also they have the Wicked Lotto losers, that could get at least 50 people that would go to [tos] as an alternitive. It's in Time Square perfect location.

[SporkGoddess]

Posted: 7/30/08 at 5:38pm

I love how whenever a show isn't doing well, it's always entirely because of dumb, theatre-ignorant tourists who aren't deep enough to look underneath to the show's universal themes and only want flashy shows that don't make them think.

There are many tourists who are Broadway buffs and would understand the references. But just because you understand a show doesn't mean that you have to like it. Some people think that the show is too self-indulgent and lacks substance.

[fvalle24]

Posted: 7/30/08 at 5:52pm

I disagree. The majority of tourist see 1 Broadway show, MAYBE 2. Looking at the charts it's obvious they go for flashy instead of substance. If you have only 1 show to see, better make those 100 bucks worth while.

It's evident with ACL. What was once regarded as the Best American Musical, and once the longest running broadway show, ACL doesn't cut it anymore. Tourist don't want to pay 100 dollars for dancers telling their stories with mirrors! They resulted in stunt casting just to make it survive!

[SporkGoddess]

Posted: 7/30/08 at 6:04pm

You still shouldn't generalize about all tourists, though.

[fvalle24]

Posted: 7/30/08 at 6:07pm

I mean no disrespect towards them, as I am one of them. I don't live ANYWHERE near NYC. But go figure, my first show on Broadway was Wicked. lol I wanted more though.

[broadwayjim42]

Posted: 7/30/08 at 8:35pm

I must be genetically inclined toward shows like TOS, because I've either been disappointed by or just plain didn't like a lot of the more "spectacular" long-running shows...and that includes Phantom, Les Miz, The Lion King and Wicked.

When you get right down to it, it is a matter of taste. You can't make people love or see a show just because you have a very special and individual reaction to it.

I loved this show...many others also did and probably a fair amount, as evidenced here, didn't. And I can wish it all the success it the world and do my level best to spread the word about it, but that alone ain't gonna put butts in seats.

[njohn]

Posted: 7/30/08 at 8:59pm

Even if [tos] closes on Broadway, it will have its fans/cult. That's what's important; the people that saw it and enjoyed it. Passing Strange is failing at selling tickets, but it has been around long enough to show what its got. [tos] DOES NOT NEED Broadway to validate its quality. I repeat it DOES NOT NEED Broadway. Sure it's sad to see "a show that could" lose the battle, but that's business -- that's life. Years from now [tos] will be VERY accessible to regional and community theaters, and not forgetting high schools. What's important, IMO, is that is still being performed, regardless if it stays on Broadway or not.



Updated On: 7/30/08 at 08:59 PM

[PalJoey]

Posted: 7/30/08 at 10:28pm

Anyway... I really don't wish the show ill.

Yes, you do, Jordan. You DO wish it ill...over and over and over.

At least that what your endless and repetitive posts communicate. You are bitter and nasty and somehow think that by making up these untrue stories you can foster a [tos] vs. ITH enmity that will end in [tos] closing and ITH still running--and you bizarrely claiming "victory" in its demise.

It's a sick delusion, one that certainly is not shared by the writers of ITH, who are big fans of [tos], or the producers of ITH, who, as has been pointed out here, are the inventive and resourceful producers of [tos] as well as Rent and Avenue Q.

So it's just you, all alone, who has put yourself on this nasty crusade against a little show that tries to be unique.

Why? Have you asked yourself why? WHY do you come on these boards and post the same negative drivel over and over again? WHY are you so bitter? WHY so negative? Are you deeply unhappy? Is your life that empty?

I wish for you the courage to pick up that wooden stake, and drive it deep into the heart of that Bitter Vampire inside you, so that you can be free.

Updated On: 7/30/08 at 10:28 PM

[taylorPHENOMENON2]

Posted: 7/30/08 at 10:31pm

WORD.

[Yankeefan007]

Posted: 7/30/08 at 10:42pm

"Some people think that the show is too self-indulgent and lacks substance."

::Raises hand::

But I have nothing against the show - I'm not wishing it death or anything close (after all, what's gonna replace it? A musical version of VANITIES. Come on.)

The 4 TOSsers (and that's still the funniest, most clever, and most inappropriate fan-group name I've ever heard) are charming people who know what they're up against (and it's certainly not gonna be an easy fall, what with the returns of the mega-musical and celebrities). What do they give a SH*T? Their show is playing on Broadway. All the vitrol in the world can't take away that fact.

And even if the show does close over Labor Day weekend, or on New Year's Eve, or in 5 years from now when Max Crummy's playing "Hunter" and Autumn Hurlbert is playing "Susan," the 4/5 people who created [title of show] can say that they played the big stage.

A money-making run would be incredible, but, in the end, it's a matter of what's important to the people whose hearts and souls went into it. Stew didn't care that PASSING STRANGE made no money - he wasn't in it for the money. As Lin-Manuel says during the IN THE HEIGHTS commercial, "it's about living your dreams."

ETA: I have no idea where I went with this. Carry on.
Updated On: 7/30/08 at 10:42 PM

[RentBoy86]

Posted: 7/30/08 at 10:49pm

I think the producers are smart enough to know which theatre to pick. They obviously chose it for a reason, and it has - IMO - the classiest marquee of any of the Broadway theaters. Perhaps they should have gone the route of some other shows and maybe had some "musical dreams" where Hunter and the gang were in a big budget Broadway musical a la Drowsy Chaperone, or something like that.

*Spoiler*

Exactly why does the apartment fly away at the end? What purpose does that serve?

[wonderfulwizard11]

Posted: 7/30/08 at 10:55pm

flops, McCollum stated in the Bloomberg article that I referenced earlier that the show cost $2 million to move to Broadway.

[Patash]

Posted: 7/30/08 at 11:25pm

"The majority of tourist see 1 Broadway show, MAYBE 2. Looking at the charts it's obvious they go for flashy instead of substance."

Hmm, interesting theory, but not all tourists are "non theatre" people. Thousands and thousand of real theatre folk go to Broadway just to see GOOD theatre. I know half a dozen "tourists" who have gone to NYC in recent months and have seen only one show or maybe two, but all of them have seen August: Osage County. Is that what you call "flashy rather than substance"? I'm also on a travel board and there have been numerous people making "pilgrimages" to NYC for the sole purpose of seeing August: Osage County. These are tourists who KNOW theatre, and you'd better believe there are a whole lot of them out there.

Meanwhile, every day here I see dozens of posts from NYC locals who have seen Little Mermaid or Young Frankenstein or Legally Blonde or Xanadu dozens and dozens of times. I think it's unfair to look at the statistics and suppose it is only tourists who go for "flashy" rather than substance!