Please stay on...I mean, Off-Broadway!

[mandy2loveRB]

Posted: 7/22/05 at 10:12am

All the business/political & other applicable aspects aside (not to show how ignorant I am :)), can you think of any productions that you wish would have stayed/run on Off-Broadway?

Maybe it is just me, but I have this thing about Off-Broadway, not only because of the theatres' capacity...Very hard to put into words, but for me, it is the hidden main-stream under the sub-culture facade. And of course, I love the intimacy of the theatres, too (well, most of the theatres). Sometimes, Off-Broadway can be more appealing to me.

My list to start...as much as I am happy for their success on Broadway, Doubt and Q. Especially Q. Oh, Q. I love Q.

[joniray]

Posted: 7/22/05 at 12:13pm

I'm not sure why this is on the off-topic board but...

I really wish Rent stayed Off-Broadway. I feel like it lost a lot of it's power when it moved to the Nederlander.

[mandy2loveRB]

Posted: 7/22/05 at 12:17pm

Oops...I was reading OT Board and post this message...not changing the board. Oh, well...

[luvtheEmcee]

Posted: 7/22/05 at 12:21pm

I think Taboo *belonged* off-Broadway. It probably would've had a slightly better fate in a smaller house, and something lower-profile.

Updated On: 7/22/05 at 12:21 PM

[Aigoo]

Posted: 7/22/05 at 12:30pm

I wish BARE made it to Off-Broadway.

[My Fair Lady]

Posted: 7/22/05 at 4:48pm

Agree with Aigoo.

[lildogs]

Posted: 7/22/05 at 5:00pm

still not sure how "Bat Boy" closed when it was a forerunner of so many musicals on Bway today--the campy, fun, "we're in a musical and we're making fun of musicals" and "we have an odd subject/title"...The cast was great, the staging fun, and it was at Union Square, which is cheaper too!

[CurtainUp]

Posted: 7/23/05 at 2:49pm

LIke it's original predecessor, my beloved Little Shop might have succeeded more with the same cast, off-Broadway. I loved it, but I can see the need for an intimate off-Broadway setting.

[Broadway_Bound_Star]

Posted: 7/23/05 at 2:59pm

I agree Rent should have stayed off-broadway, it would have made the whole story more intence and stuff like that.

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 7/23/05 at 3:22pm

Bat Boy was one of many shows that closed in the months after 9-11. Business dropped off for theatre and the arts throughout the city as tourists avoided New York in the aftermath of the tragedy. The big shows with deep pocketed producers survived, but Bat Boy was so expensive to run that it couldn't make it with half empty houses.

Avenue Q and Doubt were at not-for-profit subscription theatres (the Vineyard and MTC) and both had to leave to make way for the next shows on those theatres' schedules.

The economics of commercial off-Broadway make it difficult for all but the smallest shows to run successfully from a financial perspective. Stomp, Blue Man Group, Hedwig, Bug et al all have/had fewer than 10 actors and musicians total and inexpensive other costs, so they were able to run at profit for an extended period. Larger shows simply cannot break even in an off-Broadway house where you have a limited number of seats and there's only so much you can charge for a ticket.

Updated On: 7/24/05 at 03:22 PM

[BwayTheatre11]

Posted: 7/23/05 at 4:50pm

Possibly Caroline, or Change...

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 7/23/05 at 5:57pm

I adored Caroline, but with a cast of 17 (plus 11 understudies and standbys) and a 12 piece orchestra it could never have been able to break even off-Broadway. Little Shop, with a 9 member cast (plus 5 understudies) and a 4 piece band is about as big a show that can run successfully in a commercial off-Broadway house.

Updated On: 7/23/05 at 05:57 PM

[BwayTheatre11]

Posted: 7/23/05 at 8:46pm

That is what I was thinking...oh well.

[CurtainUp]

Posted: 7/24/05 at 3:26am

I cannot IMAGINE Hedwig on Broadway - it's so intimate, probably the most intimate show I've experience! She's spilling her guts to us...and on Broadway? It just wouldn't work.

[mandy2loveRB]

Posted: 7/24/05 at 12:35pm

Thank you, everyone...and Margo, as always! I tend to (try to?) forget that aspects of shows... always.

And... forgot to list "Fool Moon".