ASSASSINS CLOSING EARLY — Page 3

If that is true, I will be extraordinarily pissed off! Trying to plan this trip is becoming a nightmare!!

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Does anyone know if there are frequent understudies for the Sunday evening performances? If so, I will try to change my tickets at the box office for the matinee if they extend the run.

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ASSASSINS is not a show I care for, it never was. The fact that it is closing however is something to be upset about.

There should be room for shows like ASSASSINS, or the many shows that are driven to play off-Broadway, to open and survive through a full season on the Great White Way. Broadway suffers from a societal and media culture that caters to the lowest common demoninator. I can name the shows currently playing, but you can do that too, so I won't. When these types of shows, marketed and focused-grouped within an inch of existence, become hits individual creativity and art are erased and are no longer part of the equation.

Blame the corporate producing presence, blame the Hollywood group-think art-by-committee mentality, blame the near extinction of any theatre creator with the muscle to drive a show from conception to opening night (composer/lyricist/bookwriter/director/choreograper), blame the I'm-just-as-imporant-as-you mentality that pervades society as a whole and is reflected in the demand of investors to be named as producers with name-above-the-title;

Gotta run....to be continued...

Updated On: 7/1/04 at 06:18 PM

Can someone explain to me why so many Rounabout Shows close prematurely when they selling so well? Same thing happened with NINE. It won Best Musical, sold out everynight and closed a few months later.

Roundabout operates under a special LORT agreement with Equity which allows them to pay a certain number of actors in their shows a lower wage for a limited period of time. After that time expires, Roundabout would have to start paying every actor (understudies et al) the regular Broadway minimum which would drive up weekly running costs. That's not a problem when they clearly have a bonafide hit on their hands like "Cabaret" which will clearly be doing sold out business for the foreseeable future. But if the LORT deal is about to expire and the advance is very weak (usually around the time all of their 50,000 or whatever subscribers have already seen the show) they tend to close the show rather than risk continuing on with the higher running costs.

Their huge subscriber base gives the illusion that their shows are doing better with the regular, single-ticket buying general public than they actually are -- their attendance numbers will be in the high 90's, but the reality is that once all the subscribers have seen the show, those numbers would dip dramatically and being a not-for-profit, they don't want to risk the loss (as in the case of "Assassins" which apparently only has a very pitiful $90,000 advance).

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Updated On: 7/1/04 at 07:38 PM

Oh, and the understudies rarely go on at Assassins for the leads.
Most of the changes thus far have just been within the chorus.
Although, at the end of next week Barbour and Harris will be out.

I couldn't agree more bobo. A salute to Margo!

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HEIL!

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at the end of next week Barbour and Harris will be out.

Do you know which shows? And how do you know about it?

"The problem is that many tourists come from less sophisticated and urbane climes and don't want these types of shows.."

That is quite possibly the most arrogant thing I have ever read on this board. Without the tourists Broadway in the form it has taken over the past decades is dead. Think before you make insulting statements, I do.

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The celebrity portion of Broadway Barks is in between shows, 5:30 I believe. I don't think all those actors would miss their shows that day!

thanks you margochaning. that was the answer i was looking for and it makes a lot of sense. i forgot they had subcriptions. Everyone knows that a Sondheim show is not going run more than a year but if this show closes on July 18 it will have played fewer performances than TABOO which was a flop so its weird. Everyone wants to go see Disney shows or the British-imports becasue they know how make theatre for the majority theatre goers who want fun and spectacle. If Sondheim type shows were more popular that would be nice but if youre trying to work IN the business you want to get close to the "recycled-pop."

Updated On: 7/1/04 at 11:46 PM