39 Steps moves to the Cort!
39 Steps moves to the Cort!
DrTheatre
Broadway Star Joined: 9/23/05
#139 Steps moves to the Cort!
Posted: 3/17/08 at 5:44pmAccording to www.playbill.com
"In the U.S.A.
You can have your say,
You can set you goals
And seize the day,
You've been given the freedom
To work your way
To the head of the line-
To the head of the line!"
---Stephen Sondheim
RyToast1
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/27/07
#2re: 39 Steps moves to the Cort!
Posted: 3/17/08 at 5:45pm
NDR
Leading Actor Joined: 11/16/06
#2re: 39 Steps moves to the Cort!
Posted: 3/17/08 at 5:46pm
Love the $39 seats to first preview idea.
I hope I get to see this.
DrTheatre
Broadway Star Joined: 9/23/05
#3re: 39 Steps moves to the Cort!
Posted: 3/17/08 at 5:48pmThanks rytoast, thought it was going to work for me, guess not...
"In the U.S.A.
You can have your say,
You can set you goals
And seize the day,
You've been given the freedom
To work your way
To the head of the line-
To the head of the line!"
---Stephen Sondheim
#4re: 39 Steps moves to the Cort!
Posted: 3/17/08 at 5:50pmWow, always neat to see non-for-profit productions transferring to commercial runs. It's sort of exciting.
"Some people can thrive and bloom living life in a living room, that's perfect for some people of one hundred and five. But I at least gotta try, when I think of all the sights that I gotta see, all the places I gotta play, all the things that I gotta be at"
pli1018
Broadway Star Joined: 4/16/07
#5re: 39 Steps moves to the Cort!
Posted: 3/17/08 at 6:07pmThat's awesome! I was interested in seeing this awhile back but never got around to it. Good to know I'll have the option in the future!
wexy
Broadway Legend Joined: 9/19/05
#6re: 39 Steps moves to the Cort!
Posted: 3/17/08 at 6:08pmIts pretty cool. The play is fun and I met the cast and they're all really nice. I'm happy for them.
'Take me out tonight where's there's music and there's people and they're young and alive.'
Mr Roxy
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/17/03
#8re: 39 Steps moves to the Cort!
Posted: 3/17/08 at 6:49pm
Whats the running on this beast?
BTW, I'm super-anxious to book seats to see this! 
#9re: 39 Steps moves to the Cort!
Posted: 3/17/08 at 7:02pm
I'm anxious to finally see this, but I have to ask...
How long will this thing last there? I feel like there has been ZERO buzz about this its entire off-Broadway run. What precipitated such a transfer? It's not going to be nominated for, or win, any Tony awards. Is there really a huge demand for this to move?
#10re: 39 Steps moves to the Cort!
Posted: 3/17/08 at 7:04pm
39 STEPS has been playing on Broadway, opened to raves, and it's doing wonderfully at the box office.
"Some people can thrive and bloom living life in a living room, that's perfect for some people of one hundred and five. But I at least gotta try, when I think of all the sights that I gotta see, all the places I gotta play, all the things that I gotta be at"
Updated On: 3/17/08 at 07:04 PM
#11re: 39 Steps moves to the Cort!
Posted: 3/17/08 at 7:07pmIt's doing "wonderfully" at the box office because it's playing in a subscription house.
#12re: 39 Steps moves to the Cort!
Posted: 3/17/08 at 7:07pm
The show has sold decently at the AA Theater, doing 96% capacity this past week. Tickets are no longer available to buy online for the rest of the run making me believe that there are limited if any seats left for the final 15 shows, so there must be some demand for this show. With a cast of four the show is bound to have a low weekly nut, so a commercial run must be making sense to someone.
EDIT- And just because it's in non-profit subscription house at the moment isn't the only source of its success. Take a look at the grosses for Cymbeline last year and tell me if having a large subscriber base is enough to make a show successful.
Updated On: 3/17/08 at 07:07 PM
#13re: 39 Steps moves to the Cort!
Posted: 3/17/08 at 7:13pmMy point is that it isn't an Off-Broadway run, the show opened on Broadway and has been doing pretty good business, so it must have some kind of buzz if it can manage to fill up 96% of the theatre.
"Some people can thrive and bloom living life in a living room, that's perfect for some people of one hundred and five. But I at least gotta try, when I think of all the sights that I gotta see, all the places I gotta play, all the things that I gotta be at"
#14re: 39 Steps moves to the Cort!
Posted: 3/17/08 at 7:19pm
It's not going to be nominated for, or win, any Tony awards.
but how do you know this without having seen it?
I'm really excited to see that it's transferring. I saw it at the Huntington and absolutely adored it. I'd love to see it again and it looks like I'll have a chance!
When I see the phrase "the ____ estate", I imagine a vast mansion in the country full of monocled men and high-collared women receiving letters about productions across the country and doing spit-takes at whatever they contain.
-Kad
#15re: 39 Steps moves to the Cort!
Posted: 3/17/08 at 9:20pm
Does anyone know how this might affect anything awards related this year? The playbill.com article says that it will be opening on May 8 at the Cort, and I believe that the cut-off for this season is May 7. I'm thinking it will be eligible this season, since it played at the American Airlines, but I'm not positive.
On another note, I'm exctied that this is transferring! My dad expressed interest in seeing it, and now I will have a better chance to take him. I'm already planning to see August:Osage County with him this summer, and I might just have to fit this in there, too.
#16re: 39 Steps moves to the Cort!
Posted: 3/17/08 at 9:28pm
The transfer doesn't really have an effect in terms of awards, the AA Theatre is a Broadway house, so given the show opened way before the Tony cut-off date, the transfer doesn't really mean anything as far as the Tonys go. It's just a Broadway-to-Broadway, not for profit-to-commercial transfer.
"Some people can thrive and bloom living life in a living room, that's perfect for some people of one hundred and five. But I at least gotta try, when I think of all the sights that I gotta see, all the places I gotta play, all the things that I gotta be at"
Updated On: 3/17/08 at 09:28 PM
#18re: 39 Steps moves to the Cort!
Posted: 3/17/08 at 10:39pm
"but how do you know this without having seen it? "
Because the major award categories are quite crowded, and 39 Steps is not going to break through. It won't be nominated for Best Play because there is too much competition- August, The Seafarer, Farnsworth, Rock 'n Roll, Is He Dead?, November, and Thurgood are all eligible, just off the top of my head. I'm sure I'm missing some others, as well.
The leading actor category has the likes of Patrick Stewart, Norbert Leo Butz, Hank Azaria, Jimmi Simpson, Morgan Freeman, Nathan Lane, Ian McShane, and Fishburne to contend with.
Leading actress has Deana Dunagan, Amy Morton, Christine Baranski, Laura Linney, Frances McDormand, and S. Epatha Merkerson to worry about.
The featured actor category has the entire cast of The Seafarer eligible, at least two of whom will get a nomination and more of the men from August. Conceivably, that category could be made up entirely of actors from two shows. Peter Gallagher and Raul Esparza are also lurking there.
Featured actress has the ladies from Boeing Boeing, Rondi Reed (my choice to win right now), Eve Best (who probably will win), and probably others I am forgetting.
I don't really see where The 39 Steps is going to fit in.
#19re: 39 Steps moves to the Cort!
Posted: 3/17/08 at 11:00pm
I guess we'll just have to wait and see. I agree that there is a lot of stiff competition though.
I am psyched about the move. I hope they don't change a thing in the production. I'm kinda gonna miss that it's Roundabout, which I've come to realize is a wonderful theatre company..Which means, no more Hiptix! Also, the AA theatre is perfect. I was 2nd to last row when I saw this, and the sight line was fantastic. The seats there are also super comfortable.
#20re: 39 Steps moves to the Cort!
Posted: 3/17/08 at 11:02pm
It's doing wonderfully because it's playing to a subscription house?
Not necessarily true. Many a MTC and Roundabout show has not done wonderfully at the box office, despite it being a subscription house.
"If you are going to do something, do it well. And leave something witchy."
-Charlie Manson
NYCblurb
Featured Actor Joined: 4/16/07
#21re: 39 Steps moves to the Cort!
Posted: 3/18/08 at 12:54am
Saw 39 last week. A fun, light night at the theater.
I had a great time! Terrific cast all around.
FUN!
A lover of theater for decades. Teacher by day. Family man by night. See more theater than most, oftentimes a hesitant plus one.
Bwayfan4
Broadway Star Joined: 10/11/06
Smaxie
Broadway Legend Joined: 9/26/05
#23re: 39 Steps moves to the Cort!
Posted: 3/18/08 at 8:24am
The Best Play categories for the Tonys hardly matter this year, due to August: Osage County, but I can imagine a scenario where The 39 Steps could get a nomination for Best Play and a few other nods.
I think the three locks for Best Play nominations are August: Osage County, Rock 'n' Roll and The Seafarer. The fourth slot, in my view, is up for grabs.
The Farnsworth Invention will probably not get nominated, since it has closed and Sorkin's work was questioned for its authenticity and reviews were mixed.
Is He Dead? was a good production of a play that was not a rediscovered classic and it could be hurt for both having closed and for questions over whether it can truly be classified a new play or not.
November is seen by some as somewhat frivolous, not top-drawer Mamet.
Mauritius was seen by some as imitation Mamet and is of course, long gone.
A Bronx Tale could get taken care of with a Best Actor nomination. Same with Thurgood if it proves to be less than compelling.
The 39 Steps will have opened anew just prior to the Tony nominations, which is a plus for it. It has a certain awards pedigree as an Olivier Award winner for Best Comedy. It is a show that many seem to like and it has proved a success for Roundabout, well beyond their subscribers, as others here have noted. It also is a celebration of tremendous theatrical imagination at work. It's vividly theatrical and the theatre loves nothing more than to celebrate itself. I could see it getting that fourth slot because of how much it is liked, and how it's a triumph of ingenuity over big budget theatre (see Ben Brantley's review).
All four cast members are terrific, but I thought Jennifer Ferrin and Cliff Saunders were exceptional. I'm not counting them out in the Featured categories. I would think that Maria Aitken has a chance at a Best Director nomination for engineering it all, and Kevin Adams' excellent lighting also stands a shot. Maybe Peter McKintosh too, for all of those crazy quick-change costumes.
The award races won't matter in the end, as the Tony love will be heaped upon August: Osage County. But because it is out for nothing more than to give its audience a great night out, I think The 39 Steps could still eke out a run with its low running costs and with its strong word of mouth.
Begin at the beginning and go on till you come to the end: then stop.
Updated On: 3/18/08 at 08:24 AM
Vespertine1228
Broadway Legend Joined: 10/30/05
#24re: 39 Steps moves to the Cort!
Posted: 3/18/08 at 11:37am
I really didn't like The 39 Steps. I felt like it just totally ran out of ideas halfway through and got less and less funnier. (Except for the shadow puppet sequence, which was brilliance.)
I'm surprised that they think it has enough commercial potential to continue running, especially in a bigger theatre. Hasn't the audience for this one kind of dried up already?
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