“Broadway’s pandering to tourists has backfired big-time”- Page 2

[Rainah]

Posted: 4/22/18 at 6:37pm

I think the point is not that musicals should not be adaptions, or should not have mass appeal, or should not be about things middle america is interested in.

I think what people are really tying to rally against is pandering. The subject matter isn't important, as long as it's good. Everyone wants to see good musicals. Everyone wants to see musicals that have had thought put into them, that have good lyrics and clever stagings and an interesting book.

People tend not to like jukebox musicals because they're often strung together of popular songs, rather than integrated properly as a musical should be. That doesn't mean that jukebox musicals are bad. Just that they tend to not have the work put in to make them good.

If it's good, people will come. 

[Musicalslover]

Posted: 4/22/18 at 7:59pm

I think targeting to tourists is fine. But it needs to be actual quality. Like wtf was dinsey thinking with current version of frozen 

[HogansHero]

Posted: 4/22/18 at 8:05pm

@Wayman, I somehow missed your post earlier but yes Memphis beat the odds and was well produced, without regard to what anyone thinks of the show. I had a different favorite that year, based purely on the music, but that I acknowledge did not have a strong enough book to make it competitive. 

 

[Musicalslover]

Posted: 4/22/18 at 8:07pm

HogansHero said: "@Wayman, I somehow missed your post earlier but yes Memphis beat the odds and was well produced, without regard to what anyone thinks of the show. I had a different favorite that year, based purely on the music, but that I acknowledge did not have a strong enough book to make it competitive.

"

What was the one you loved?

[Musicalslover]

Posted: 4/22/18 at 8:08pm

The problem is that with something like Disney you need  big visuals and big production numbers. And Frozen simply does not have that.

[HogansHero]

Posted: 4/22/18 at 8:12pm

Musicalslover said: "What was the one you loved?"

American Idiot

[geoffreyC]

Posted: 4/22/18 at 8:19pm

I'm not sure if the golden era of Broadway was all that golden.  There must have been a lot of fluff around the edges just like now.

[sdrick]

Posted: 4/23/18 at 5:06pm

Wayman_Wong said: "HogansHero: I've never been shy about sticking up for ''Memphis'' because I don't think it gets all the credit it deserves. Thanks, but there's no need to applaud my tenacity; that recognition should go to the Tony-winning team of producers of ''Memphis,'' led by Randy Adams and Sue Frost, and THEIR tenacity. They believed enough in the show to hold FOUR out-of-town tryouts before bringing it to Broadway. I first saw it in 2004 at TheatreWorks in Mountain View, Calif., and even though they had just added a new song called ''Memphis Lives in Me'' and its Act II was problematic, the audience still ate it up. By the time it landed at the Shubert, they really had reworked Act II, dumping old songs and writing new ones. (How often do we hear about out-of-town tryouts of shows where the Broadway version has been barely changed?)

I agree with you that seasons are cyclical. And some are more competitive than others. But that shouldn't take away from the hard work that Joe DiPietro and David Bryan invested into ''Memphis.'' At the end of the day, a show rises or falls on its word of mouth, and ''Memphis'' was a real crowdpleaser, racking up about 1,200 performances. As I'm sure you well know, winning the Tony for Best Musical is no guarantee of a long run: ''Passion'' only made it to 280; ''Fun Home,'' 583. So whether you like ''Memphis'' or not, it beat some incredible odds, and is still quite an underdog story."

Just have to add, MEMPHIS was amazing in London as well.  Beverly Knight was outstanding.  I saw it regionally, in New York, and London.  Although New York was dismissive,  it has real audience appeal and wonderful evening in the theatre. 

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 4/23/18 at 5:20pm

Musicalslover said: "What was the one you loved?"

American Idiot

Me too.  I enjoyed Memphis for what it was, but after seeing American Idiot, I was shocked it didn't win Best Musical.  The staging, direction and choreography more than made up for what others may have considered to be lacking in the book (though I personally feel a conventional book would have destroyed its cohesion).  Artistically, it was the strongest musical of the season.

[haterobics]

Posted: 4/23/18 at 5:34pm

HogansHero said: "Musicalslover said: "What was the one you loved?"

American Idiot"

I never caught American Idiot on Broadway, but since I lived in the Bay Area at the time, I got to see it there 2-3 times, including the final performance where I sat 2-3 rows in front of Green Day. It was at that final show that, as a surprise, the whole cast and crew played Good Riddance on guitars, which later (as I understand it) became the standard encore. But that day, the band were all crying when it happened and overwhelmed by the gesture.

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 4/23/18 at 5:57pm

My favorite quote from this derivative article:

“Recently, the fear is that Broadway is on its way to becoming a theme park,” my producer source told me.

"Recently"?!?!  Did he ask where his "producer source" has been for the last 24 years?  Every season is different and there will always be strong seasons and weak seasons, just as there always have been in the past.  The "pandering" angle comes about every time we have shows on Broadway designed for entertaining the masses, which happens every season, regardless what was recently produced before them.  Some work and some don't.  Absolutely nothing new or unusual or different is happening this season, including the pessimistic subject of this article.

One longtime theater critic told me the last 10 months of shows made up “the worst Broadway season in memory.”

I guess he defines "longtime" as someone whose memory doesn't even reach back 25 years.  If we have more than 2 new musicals in a season, then it's definitely not the worst in my memory.  This article is typical NY Post schlock.

[HogansHero]

Posted: 4/23/18 at 6:35pm

The article reads like something a newbie would post here and promptly would get eviscerated for. 

Haterobics, I am jealous you got to see that last performance in Berkeley. Have you seen the documentary Broadway Idiot? The first half of it is about that pre-Broadway run, and lots more you'll probably enjoy. 

[haterobics]

Posted: 4/23/18 at 6:51pm

HogansHero said: "Haterobics, I am jealous you got to see that last performance in Berkeley. Have you seen the documentary Broadway Idiot?The first half of it is about that pre-Broadway run, and lots more you'll probably enjoy."

Yeah, that was a pretty amazing show to attend. Got to meet Billie, Michael Mayer, and others... I spoke to Gallagher a few times during the run, since the cast came out to an open area between theaters where they had a bar after every show, so they weren't hard to find. they were there drinking and mingling after every show In fact, one night, I was there waiting to talk to David Sedaris, who was doing a reading in the neighboring theater that I attended, I ended up talking to Gallagher again AND Sedaris at the same time, heh.

Yeah, I saw the doc, but never quite understood why they recast Sands in the one role. The Berkeley guy was so good. I heard they thought Sands played as more All-American?!

[yankeefan7]

Posted: 4/24/18 at 7:42am

"At the end of the day, a show rises or falls on its word of mouth, and ''Memphis'' was a real crowd pleaser, racking up about 1,200 performances. As I'm sure you well know, winning the Tony for Best Musical is no guarantee of a long run: ''Passion'' only made it to 280; ''Fun Home,'' 583. So whether you like ''Memphis'' or not, it beat some incredible odds, and is still quite an underdog story."

Count me as another fan on "Memphis", I really liked the show and I thought the performance by Montego Glover was worth the price of admission.

[yankeefan7]

Posted: 4/24/18 at 7:50am

I am one of those that is very tired of jukebox musicals, it seems like every pop/rock star will eventually get its own Broadway show - lol.  Yes, some are done well (Jersey Boys, Beautiful) but most of them are pretty lame. I get the producers of these type of musicals think they have a built in audience but it has been proven that will only last a short time in most cases. 

[OneSingularSensation2]

Posted: 4/24/18 at 10:46am

Impossible2 said: "BroadwayConcierge said: "Impossible2 said: "Bands Visit as fantastic as it is, seems to be faultering sales wise already with discounts being flung about everywhere, muchmore so than Comet did and it's been going almost the same length of time."

Uh, what universe are you in where there areBand's Visitdiscounts being "flung" around everywhere? The show is selling quite strongly, notably so for a smallnew musical that opened in the fall. It will be the toast of the Tony nominations a week from Tuesday and continue to sell out as it takes home several big awards in June.

As for this article, I couldn't agree more. We deserve better."

There were tonnes of seats available while I was over there a few weeks ago and I got a Todays Tix message the other day offering cheap tickets.

Not dissing the show at all, I thought it was amazing. Maybe I'm wrong andit's just a slow time of year so they are offering discounts."

There are frequently $20 tickets available on StubHub as well - surely that's not the norm for a show that's selling strongly? (If it is, I've definitely been missing out!) My "theater" friends have been into TBV but I'm not sure it has the sort of broad appeal needed to stay open for another year (even if it does win Best Musical...).