Posted: 6/9/26 at 1:56am
quizking101 said: "It’s a very wobbly predicament Broadway finds itself in.
There are many shows leaving that are limited run and, reasonably, some might wait out in the hope that they can catch some audience based on the reduction of options. Also, theatres and theatre owners are likely far more hesitant to kick out a show short of it being an abject failure (see: BEACHES).
There is a lot of strategy adjustment/post-mortem taking places after last night. One example is TITANIQUE playing off the parodic premise by advertising their strike out as“We have all these awards already. There was no more room on the door!”
Of the other shows from this season, I’m most concerned that Two Strangers is probably going to get chopped next. While their initial sales were good and costs were low, advertising and adding more standbys increased the running cost. Could it coast for the summer for a little bit? Maybe. But if I were them, I would be thinking of people to come in and replace Tutty and Pitts - who I believe end their contract in August or early September.
CATS and Rocky Horror, to me, came off the best in the telecast last night because they understood the assignment to do what they do best, and not be boring. Whether that translates, we won’t know until we know. CATS has an somewhat even share of musical awards and they can definitely capitalize on the choreography and costume design (people want spectacle and this is spectacle that doesn’t require anything but some really outstanding dancers and a lot of glitter). Plus, shows have eked out a run with less awards (Of recent memory, A STRANGE LOOP and NEWSIES, each with only 2 wins)
ROCKY HORROR, I think, may have bought themselves another extension. Nothing was announced for Studio 54 by Roundabout in their season outline, so I imagine they are probably going to keep going and recast because they’ve been the most successful Roundabout revival since CABARET. Plus, that performance showed the potential audience it’s weirdness…and cheekiness (Luke Evans’ derrière).
This may be a case of the awards being so split that, somehow, everybody and nobody wins."
That Rocky Horror performance was brutal. I don’t know who that was for, but it sure wouldn’t convince anyone to spend money on a ticket. I love the show and like a lot of the people involved, which made this even more frustrating to watch. It just looked sloppy and weirdly half-baked, like nobody agreed on what they were doing.
And then the “Time Warp” at the end turns into a celebrity pile-on. Bowen Yang and Matt Rogers popping up only made it worse. They’re already everywhere, and neither of them brought anything here besides extra noise. It tipped the whole thing from messy into straight-up annoying.
CATS at least knew what it was doing. It was strange, sure, but it committed. You actually had to look at it. It didn’t feel safe or generic, which is more than I can say for most of the night. Not shocked at all that people went out and bought tickets after that.
Schmigadoon! just kind of… happened. Nothing grabbed you, nothing stuck. It could have been slotted into any random telecast from the past decade and nobody would notice. For someone as talented as Cinco Paul, that felt like a real miss.
Two Strangers, Ragtime, and The Lost Boys were the only ones that did the job. Those made you want to see the show right now. Clean, confident, no confusion about what they were selling.
I saw Titanique off-Broadway and it was one of the funniest nights I’ve had in a theater. What’s on Broadway now feels like a watered-down version of that. The sound last night was awful, just flat and muddy, and it’s been an issue for a while. Whatever worked in a smaller space didn’t survive the move.
Marla used to be great in this. Now she’s pushing way too hard, slipping out of tune, and barely landing anything that sounds like Celine. It feels strained instead of loose, which is kind of the whole joke of the show.
But hey, at least Beaches didn’t make an appearance.
