I'm obviously no theatre expert, not a critic, and living an hour outside of NYC, I only get in on the weekends and clearly don't see as much theatre as some of the people on this board. That being said, I fully echo the statements of those wondering about the purpose of a thread like this. I was fully behind everyone here who was outraged a few weeks ago that Broadway actors were trying to get these boards shut down, but when I see things like this pop up, it makes me wonder how I'd feel, if I were giving it my all in a brand new show, to see people already predicting said show's demise.
I've mentioned numerous times how baffled I was not to have seen any advertising for Bright Star outside of the immediate location of the Cort Theatre and surrounding blocks. That being said, I think the show has been doing a good job of building a social media audience and passing word of mouth of positive reviews. Is it safe to say that some of that should have been expected since Steve Martin, himself, has such a large social media following? Perhaps. However, the twitter audience for Bright Star has nearly doubled since it started previews in NYC, and you'll notice that the show is already getting an awful lot of repeat audience members who are tweeting they're seeing the show for a 2nd or even 3rd time. Someone pointed out here that ticket prices are low and that actual attendance isn't the problem right now; perhaps that's the smartest thing a totally unknown show can do for itself to actually BUILD an audience who will then pass on word of mouth. Believe it or not, there have been some really nice comments on FB, Twitter, and Instagram from people who have seen the show and clearly enjoyed it for what it was (myself included), and who didn't pick it apart line by line or song by song the way we tend to here. Is it that far fetched for some people here to believe that this show may survive not only because it's not as bad as you think it is, but because it could absolutely still slowly build a word-of-mouth audience? I wish it well and hope it goes on a good, long run just to prove the naysayers wrong.