Chicago Musical- Plan B Entertainment?

[AEA Stage Manager]

Posted: 3/16/17 at 5:48pm

Question about an upcoming production of Chicago the Musical in Folsom CA. It advertised as the National Tour and has the links to the tours website. The tours website has no mention of Folsom CA stop.

The Harris Center in Folsom CA just posted the playbill for the show and it is from PLAN B Entertainment. It seems like a recreation of the Broadway show and is starring Max Caulfield as Billy Flynn. According to PLAN B, this is the only stop. Did they really just create a one time cast in L.A. to be brought to Folsom for 5 days only?

Any info on this?

https://www.harriscenter.net/Online/default.asp

 

[GavestonPS]

Posted: 3/16/17 at 6:23pm

AEA, beats me. What we used to call a bus-and-truck is playing here in Palm Springs-adjacent Palm Desert this weekend, then heads to a midweek engagement. It does have some open dates during the run in Folsom, but it would have to come back west and then go east again for 2 shows in Florida on March 26 (when it should still be playing in Folsom).

And the headliner is listed as John O'Hurley.

I can't find any mention of a Caulfield tour at www.chicagothemusical.com

 

[trpguyy]

Posted: 3/16/17 at 6:34pm

This is not the national tour. Perhaps just copy/pasted from someone else's website?

The actual national tour will be in Baton Rouge and Sarasota during that timeframe. 

[AEA Stage Manager]

Posted: 3/16/17 at 6:39pm

So the tours facebook page responded, that they will not be stopping in Folsom CA. Harris Center responded with they are stopping there.  

It really sounds like this is a one off, fill in production.  The Harris Center should make this known and remove the link to the offical Chicago website and not be charging 95 bucks for premium seats. 

[¿Macavity?]

Posted: 3/16/17 at 6:59pm

Yikes. Plan B Entertainment has brought a few really mediocre shows to my city. They did My Fair Lady, also with Max Caulfield, and it was good. Not spectacular, but a very nice evening. Now this year they did Grease and Billy Elliot and they were much less fun.

[Phantom4ever]

Posted: 3/16/17 at 9:10pm

A few things seem peculiar about this production.

-They're calling it "CHICAGO: The Broadway Musical (National Tour)"  With a title like that, any reasonable person would think that this means Plan B's production is the official national tour of the Broadway production of Chicago. Then again, an in-the-know theater person might think it's a bit suspicious to insist on reminding us that it's a Broadway musical and it's a national tour of a Broadway musical. As if we might think Folsom is on Broadway? Or that this show is actually the straight play that Chicago was originally based on? Or that it's the movie version of Chicago? 

-the preview video on their website looks exactly like the Broadway production.

-It looks like they had to reschedule this engagement because of a problem with the international tour of Chicago playing Japan. 

-The production links to the official Broadway website.  But I guess anyone can do that. 

-They have Ann Reinking listed as choreography of the Original New York production.  Interesting. 

-Folsom's choreographer is recreating Reinking's choreography. Walter Bobbie is listed as "Director Original New York Production" but then Folsom's production is based on original direction by Andy Ferrara. 

-This is the first time that i've seen the full Actor's Equity notice (The actors and stage managers employed in this production are members of AEA etc) for a production that only partially uses Equity actors. Only 6 of the 20 actors in the show are Equity. There is an asterisk next to their name. Typically, the asterisk would be followed by a note saying something like "denotes membership in Actor's Equity" or something like that. To have the full AEA notice below the cast list suggests that this is a full Equity production. The musicians are all union but nothing about IATSE is there. 

-There are two links on the production's website explaining the mess: https://www.harriscenter.net/online/Images/flc/documents/1617/ChicagoReschedule/QandA_CHICAGO_Rescheduling.pdf    and https://www.harriscenter.net/online/images/flc/documents/CAT%20Letter%20Re%20CHICAGO.pdf  Maybe this explains why the official website has not updated the touring schedule? 

-I thought I read on this board at one point that any production of Chicago can't use the 1996 direction, choreography, or costumes. Yes, youtube is full of amateur productions copying the 1996 version but with this one being questionably part of the national tour, I wonder if this is all ok with Sam French?  Or perhaps Sam French isn't as strict as people say they are? 

-The Playbill does not credit Samuel French, and typically only the official tours and Broadway productions don't have to credit the licensing house. That probably means this is the real tour? But with some strange choreographer/director/Equity issues? 

[trpguyy]

Posted: 3/16/17 at 10:28pm

It is physically impossible for it to be the real tour. The actual national tour will be in Baton Rouge and Sarasota during that timeframe. 

[bk]

Posted: 3/17/17 at 2:48am

This has nothing to do with the real tour - Plan-B Entertainment (obviously not Brad Pitt's company of the same name) does rip-off stagings in Alaska and everywhere else.  Obviously they are trying to fool people - Andy Ferrera runs this thing (based on original direction of Andy Ferrera - right - he steals Bobbie's direction, then takes credit for it, then recreates his staging of Bobbie's staging.  They cancelled?  Really.  What a surprise.  Perhaps the rights' holders got a load of this horse manure.

[Yero my Hero]

Posted: 3/17/17 at 9:52am

-They have Ann Reinking listed as choreography of the Original New York production.  Interesting. 

-Folsom's choreographer is recreating Reinking's choreography. Walter Bobbie is listed as "Director Original New York Production" but then Folsom's production is based on original direction by Andy Ferrara. 

 

I am not excusing or defending Plan B Entertainment, but I wanted to reply to this. When you license shows, you are often required to credit the original director and choreographer, even if your production is not using any of their ideas. 

 

My community theater is doing an amateur production of SHREK, and according to our contract from MTI, we are required to credit the original Broadway directors, even though we are not allowed to use any if their direction. 

 

So those two points alone do not indicate anything remotely shady.

[Phantom4ever]

Posted: 3/17/17 at 10:18am

Those do points don't indicate anything remotely shady. They indicate something quite shady, and thank you for backing up my claim with your Shrek example. Many shows require groups to credit the original creative team, but, as you reminded us, that does not mean that they can re-create what the original creatives did. Folsom seemed to not only re-create what they did but they were so bold as to proclaim it in their program. My original post was meant to show that things weren't adding up, and I did leave open the possibility that perhaps the show, even if it isn't actually part of the tour, is being done with the blessing of the Weisslers, etc. Maybe Folsom really did get a special dispensation to re-create the 1996 choreography but not the direction. Maybe the didn't.  All I'm saying is that it's a curious situation. 

[Yero my Hero]

Posted: 3/17/17 at 1:54pm

Those do points don't indicate anything remotely shady. They indicate something quite shady, and thank you for backing up my claim with your Shrek example. Many shows require groups to credit the original creative team, but, as you reminded us, that does not mean that they can re-create what the original creatives did. 

 

As I said, those two points ALONE don't indicate anything shady. It's along with everything else that something is clearly not right.

 

My company is required to say, in our program for SHREK, "Original direction by Rob Ashford," along with a credit for our director.

 

I wouldn't want someone to pick up my program and say, "OMG, they have the Broadway director listed! They are clearly ripping off the Broadway show illegally!!!" so I am pointing out, to you and whoever else is reading this, that the credit alone is not evidence of any wrongdoing.

[Phantom4ever]

Posted: 3/17/17 at 2:17pm

Folsom responded to my request for clarity on their Facebook page: 

This is a newly staged production, that is sanctioned by the rights holders of "Chicago" and will tour in 2017-18. As you may know, the leads for CHICAGO are rotated out regularly and for the Harris Center engagement we are getting film, TV and stage leading man Maxwell Caulfield in the main Billy Flynn role – Caulfield also played this role in the long running London West End and New York Broadway productions. His ‘partner in crime’ will be Kim Morgan Greene (playing Roxie Hart) who is also a veteran of film, TV and stage and who worked directly with the show’s creator Bob Fosse as one of his protégés early in her career where she appeared in the Tony Award winning Broadway productions of both Sweet Charity and Fosse, as well as 42nd Street. Thank you for your message.

[blaxx]

Posted: 3/17/17 at 2:27pm

They may want to tour with this production. It still is not the Chicago national tour.