Posted: 7/8/17 at 12:31am
RippedMan said: "The movie is beloved, sure, but I'm not sure anyone was wanting it to be a musical."
Are there a ton of movies that everyone thinks should be a musical?!
Posted: 7/8/17 at 12:37am
Sunny11 said: "I brought up Matilda because it took an unusually long 19 months to recoup. So while it had good grosses, it must have had a very high weekly operational cost for it to have taken that long to just break even. "
My understanding was one major issue in the long payback was paying the RSC. They produced the original, and charged a good amount to the NY production.
Posted: 7/8/17 at 12:44am
No, I totally agree. I just mean the people who loved the movie probably aren't the ones paying $150 to see a musical.
But, like I've said before, I think the trend is going towards new musicals, and I love that. (Then again, we still have A Bronx Tale..so who knows)
Posted: 7/8/17 at 2:38am
jbird5 said: "
Tim Minchin is moving back to Australia at the end of the year. I suspect GHD will close around then. He says he regrets not being at Matilda's closing.
"
Thanks for that.
Posted: 7/8/17 at 12:41pm
Isn't it amazing how wrong MIchael reidel is about things? re read this NYPOST article and notice how NONE of these things have come to pass concerning GHD:
https://nypost.com/2016/08/18/broadway-producers-are-terrified-of-groundhog-day/
"The advantage to coming in this season is that the field is wide open: So far there’s no musical that’s setting New York abuzz the way “Groundhog Day” is doing in London. Dear Evan Hansen”? “Natasha and Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812”? “Come From Away”?" CFA was gettign raves all over the country and DEH was also getting huge raves in DC> What was he talking about?
"And this year’s Tony for Best Musical will likely go to . . . “Groundhog Day.” Tonys all around, in fact, for director (Warchus), score (by the brilliantly talented Tim Minchin, who wrote “Matilda the Musical&rdquo
, book (Danny Rubin, who co-wrote the movie on which the show is based) and actor (Karl)."
i mean this is hysterically incorrect.
GHD is almost certainly done by labor day. If they are barely making op cost now, imagine what those numbers will be sept/october. Why push it to Jan 1 when it will easily close...to lose money in sept, oct and nov to make money for 3 weeks in December? The math doesn't make any sense.
The show (IMO) was always DOA anyway. Way too expensive (see MATILDA) without a huge name recognition and a odd subject matter. Would have made a better off bway show.
This will be warchus' 2nd massive flop (Ghost). I wonder if producers will be as ready to give him the helm of a show again thats not based on one of the most popular children's books in the world, which lets be honest, was fool proof,
Sidenote: I wonder what other creatives would have done with Matilda. I wasn't a fan of the show but imagine pasek and paul doing it, John Rando directing?
or jason robert brown composing and tina landau directing?
I think matilda was going to be a hit no matter what (see charlie and the chocolate factory what a debacle that is and its selling). I don't think it was warchus' direction rather the source material was fool proof. When its not foolproof (ghost, gorundhog day) his musicals go down in flames and lose a ton of money.
Posted: 7/8/17 at 12:52pm
Eh, in his defense, I'm not sure anyone could have made a successful GHD or Ghost musical. I just don't think that's what the public was dying to see. However, I think what he did with both is pretty astonishing. He has a great eye for style and design, and I think he makes some really interesting choices. What he did with GHD is pretty great! And the music in Ghost is fun but mundane, and I think he added some interesting touches and magic.
Posted: 7/8/17 at 1:05pm
Someone made a successful mamma Mia the musical. Someone made a show called urinetown a hit. Someone made the drowsy chaperone run.
Anything can be a hit if all the elements are what the public wants.
Posted: 7/8/17 at 1:11pm
All those are original stories, one aided by a massive catalogue of pop hits. I don't think you can compare them. And I've always said that I think producers are wrong, and that audiences want new, original stories - DEH, Come From Away, Urinetown, Drowsy, Spelling Bee, heck even Spamalot to some degree.
Posted: 7/8/17 at 1:46pm
The one thing Riedel is right about in the above article is how successful the show was in London. Once the reviews came out (more positive than the Broadway reviews), the rest of the run was almost immediately sold out. And it went on to win the Olivier (and Karl too). Should have just transferred it to the West End and let it get more of a name for itself before tranferring to Broadway. By the time they bring it to London in 2018 (if that is their plan as rumored), it will be completely overshadowed by the London production of Hamilton.
Posted: 7/8/17 at 1:49pm
100% agreed. Why would you transfer anything to the West End while Hamilton is going on.
Posted: 7/8/17 at 3:44pm
RippedMan said: "100% agreed. Why would you transfer anything to the West End while Hamilton is going on.
"
Because its a barebones American musical drama, which rarely do well in the West End where audiences prefer mega-musical dramas or big splashy comedies. For example Rent, Spring Awakening, the recent Revival of Hair all failed to connect with West Audiences, despite success on Broadway. The last two's failure are often seen as thw main reason Next to Normal never transfered, and why In the Heights never got a proper West End run. Disney didn't even bring Newsies accross the pond because "they couldn't find enough dancers"....
Just because something is a big SRO hit on Broadway doesn't mean it will be just as successful in the West End and vice versa.
Posted: 7/8/17 at 3:55pm
I do agree with you there, and having been to London, the theater is def out of the way. But it's also on the same stop as Wicked - another huge American hit. I think the hype will likely keep it running for a few years, but I'm curious to see how it plays out. Listening to the Dreamgirls cast recording - Besides Riley, I didn't feel like any of them had powerful vocals. So I'm curious how the London cast is.
Posted: 7/8/17 at 4:36pm
a lot of post hoc reasoning in these last post. only thing that really warrants specific comment is jason robert brown composing and tina landau directing Matilda. That would have been a flop.
Posted: 7/8/17 at 4:38pm
bdn223 said: "Because its a barebones American musical drama, which rarely do well in the West End where audiences prefer mega-musical dramas or big splashy comedies. For example Rent, Spring Awakening, the recent Revival of Hair all failed to connect with West Audiences, despite success on Broadway. The last two's failure are often seen as thw main reason Next to Normal never transfered, and why In the Heights never got a proper West End run. Disney didn't even bring Newsies accross the pond because "they couldn't find enough dancers"....
Just because something is a big SRO hit on Broadway doesn't mean it will be just as successful in the West End and vice versa."
Hamilton sold out the first 9 months of its London run within two weeks. It is already hugely successful there. Mormon was seen as a huge hit there and it didn't sell out nearly as quickly.
Rent was the late 90s. The hype of the show couldn't spread around the world in the same way that Hamilton has thanks to the rise of the internet and social media. Even Spring Awakening was almost 10 years ago. A lot has changed since then in the way that shows become popular.
Next to Normal has never been to the UK because the rights are being held back and no other reason. It has been done all over the world, in Israel etc. If there could have been a production in the UK then by this point there absolutely would have been.
I agree that West End and Broadway audiences enjoy different things (I mean...Groundhog Day) but Hamilton is not one of these shows that will split the two by any means.
Posted: 7/8/17 at 4:45pm
a lot of post hoc reasoning in these last post. only thing that really warrants specific comment is jason robert brown composing and tina landau directing Matilda. That would have been a flop.
