Any grosses today?

[Tiny-Toon]

Posted: 10/4/04 at 6:22pm

Do you know if Playbill is going to post the weekly grosses today?

[magruder]

Posted: 10/4/04 at 6:54pm

Just posted . . .
Broadway grosses - Sept. 27 - Oct. 3

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 10/4/04 at 7:03pm

Brooklyn at 59.4% atendance (down 1.4% from last week) with deep discounts ($48 average ticket price) -- guess all that "I was in line for two hours and couldn't get a ticket"/they're scalping tickets for hundreds of dollars/get your tickets NOW!!! madness must have been for some other Brooklyn show .........

[tkts]

Posted: 10/4/04 at 7:09pm

It's like deja vu all over again. Brooklyn is following the path of Taboo.

Only think different is Rosie never gave away any tickets, Brooklyn can't give them away fast enough.

[tkts]

Posted: 10/4/04 at 7:09pm

Double post! Sorry!

Updated On: 10/4/04 at 07:09 PM

[midtowngym]

Posted: 10/4/04 at 7:09pm

It's depressing to think of Brooklyn already at 54%. We're too young for Broadway's golden days of the '30s, but more shows were running then and people cared more about them.
I walk through the theater district every day and it's sad to see so many dark houses. I must be a theater queen, because i wonder how long it'll take before a house goes dark again. How will Democracy, even if it's good, fill 1,000+ seats a nite in this dumbed down culture?

Updated On: 10/4/04 at 07:09 PM

[magruder]

Posted: 10/4/04 at 7:15pm

Eh. It's not so bad these days. The only theatres that don't have a show lined up right now are the Longacre and Circle in the Square. So, the fact that 37 of Broadway's 39 theatres have tenants, or shows on the way in the spring is much healthier than some seasons in the 1980s and 1990s that boasted only two or three new musicals opening during the entire season.

[midtowngym]

Posted: 10/4/04 at 7:17pm

At least four to five are limited runs--the 'MarioBillyWhoopiDame' shows...

[magruder]

Posted: 10/4/04 at 7:22pm

True, but I think the Broadhurst is getting Glass Menagerie, and the Music Box never sits empty for long.

[midtowngym]

Posted: 10/4/04 at 7:24pm

The friggin' Cort Theater drove me NUTS. It's stayed dark for almost a year since Bobbi Boland. Now i walk by an oversized Mario Cantone smirk every day. It makes me happy.

[magruder]

Posted: 10/4/04 at 7:28pm

It's a lovely theatre. It really should get used more often. It has that pesky balcony that is tough to sell, and also has no visibility from Seventh Avenue. If it had a big honkin' illuminated sign like the Walter Kerr, it wouldn't feel so off the beaten path.

Updated On: 10/4/04 at 07:28 PM

[midtowngym]

Posted: 10/4/04 at 7:29pm

Exactly. It doesn't help that it's all alone on the block. When it's dark, it looks even more abandoned.

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 10/4/04 at 7:37pm

The big prolem with Taboo was the awful marketing campaign (the ad with Leigh Bowery leering by the urinals was not a big ticket seller and Boy George going on all the talk shows with that dripping make-up scaring the bejeezus out of people didn't help; the fact that it was a NEW show -- not a Boy George revue -- with a great score and terrific performances never became clear to the average potential ticket buyer) and Rosie's novice producer mistake of not offering any discounts until long after the reviews came out and it was on the verge of closing.

At least the Brooklyn producers recognize that this is a "youth" show (like Taboo) so it's critical to offer lots of discounts to get the twenty-somethings and thirty-somethings into the theater (especially those who don't normally go to plays and musicals but love stuff like American Idol), so they can start generating good word of mouth about the show before the critics there. If they can develop a solid fan base with lots of repeat business with the under-40 set and don't get killed too badly with the reviews (which will in part determine how well it'll do with the over-40 set), it has a chance.

It's also fortunate that it doesn't have any competition from other new musicals until Little Women starts in December (and opens in January). Theatre parties and group sales are the life's blood for any musical, so Brooklyn is probably going to get some groups buying blocks of seats in the next few months who ordinarily wouldn't be interested in the show, but will buy the tickets just because they want to see something new (many of these groups come several times a year, so they've already seen everything else).

[magruder]

Posted: 10/4/04 at 7:38pm

Well, the pity is that the Cort DIDN'T used to be all alone on that block. At least three other theatres, the Vanderbilt, the 48th St. (aka the Windsor), and the Playhouse Theatres were either adjacent or across the street from the Cort. They were demolished in the 1950s and 1960s, though the Playhouse lives on as the theatre used for much of the interior and exterior work in The Producers. (In fact, when Franz Liebkind arrives for opening night, the marquee of the Cort is visible behind him).

[bythesword84]

Posted: 10/4/04 at 8:01pm

Margo, once again you are correct about Taboo and the marketing of it. I just don't know if I think marketing it as a youth show would have worked. Many of the people who were repeat viewers were far from "youths" although some of them were desperately trying to BE youths. (I can say that because although I saw it a few times, I'm only 20 so technically still fall under youth.) I think you should add to the failure of it that the cast recording wasn't even recorded until the weekend before the show closed.

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 10/4/04 at 8:19pm

That's also true -- with Boy George IN the show, why on earth not get everybody into the studio right after opening? It would have only helped sell the show.

When I said youth, as far as Taboo was concerned, I actually should have said anybody who was 20-something when Culture Club was big in the 80s (now 40+) and under. I had several friends in their 30s who are 80s music fanatics and Boy George fans who were dying to see the show when they first heard about it in previews, but couldn't (or wouldn't) afford the $100 ticket price. By the time Rosie finally came out with the discounts months later, they'd lost interest and never bothered to see the show in its last month or two. Between the lukewarm reviews, all of the negative press about Rosie and her trial, and still being a bit resentful about the initial price tag for a ticket, they were turned off about "Taboo." The show deserved a better fate than that.

Updated On: 10/4/04 at 08:19 PM

[bythesword84]

Posted: 10/5/04 at 12:37am

Absolutely Margo. I know I had wanted to see it when it first opened because I had seen Euan perform "Stranger in This World" at Broadway on Broadway. Then it got ripped apart and I still wanted to see it, I just wasn't pressing for it as much as I had previously. Once the discount came out I said, heck I may as well see it. I went in the middle of January, a little less than a week before the closing was announced. I ended up seeing it 8 times, all with the 50% discount. It was a good show, and while it may not have been the best show ever created, it was a lot better and more entertaining than people gave it credit for being. I think that's why when I listen to the cast recording it sometimes makes me sad. I think of all the people I know who have gotten the recording and who did not get to see the show and now wish that they had be able to. It's depressing to think of all the people who missed out and that it will never be shown again with that excellent ensemble.