"Christmas Carol" in Baltimore canceled

[MCfan2]

Posted: 11/17/09 at 3:18pm

Was my original "Garner/Abraham 'Christmas Carol' tour" thread deleted? I've searched the board and searched Google, and it seems to have vanished (though at least Google indicates it once existed). Well, anyway, for anyone who wanted to know, the Baltimore stop has now been canceled. I just got the notification by e-mail.

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 11/17/09 at 3:33pm

They will all be canceled.

[MCfan2]

Posted: 11/17/09 at 3:35pm

Looks that way.

Posted: 11/17/09 at 6:21pm

I am SHOCKED to read this! Does anyone know WHY this was canceled? It seemed like a "can't miss"!

[gregorypeccadillo]

Posted: 11/17/09 at 8:05pm

MCfan2, the thread you're referring to was growing quite contentious the last time I checked it, and the next day it had vanished. I can only guess the exchanges got progressively uglier. As for the "tour," I think it's still on for Chicago as of this writing, but what with the accumulating Spinal Tap vibes that engagement is probably in jeopardy. Maybe Von Feldt's hanging on, figuring an 80% failure rate (based in the original 5-city plan) is better than a 100% failure rate. Messrs. Garner,Abraham, Wendt and Knight must be mortified at their association with this endeavor by this point.

I know you were happy about the prospect of seeing Jim Garner live, and so was I. When I first saw the ad with his name in it it sounded too good to be true. Thanks to Von Feldt's incompetence, it was.
Updated On: 11/17/09 at 08:05 PM

[adamgreer]

Posted: 11/17/09 at 8:08pm

I didn't read the other thread...what exactly went wrong with this production? Seemed like a pretty solid idea to me.

[LizzieCurry]

Posted: 11/17/09 at 8:13pm

http://www.chicagoreader.com/chicago/ghosts-of-christmas-carols-past/Content?oid=1222852

http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/stage/chi-1023-jones-loopoct23,0,5483427.column

[gregorypeccadillo]

Posted: 11/17/09 at 8:15pm

It's a long story but the short version is: producer promising much more than he was capable of delivering.

[ivandixon]

Posted: 11/17/09 at 8:52pm

This is Kevin Von Feldt. The plain truth is the show didn't sell in Baltimore. We ran 2 x 5" ads in the Baltimore Sun and Washington Post in August when F. Murray Abraham, James Garner, Stockard Channing, Timothy Hutton, George Wendt and Wayne Knight were all attched to the production. The show was not overpriced at 67.50 down to 17.50 with half-price for kids.
We sold less than 1,000 tickets during the first two weeks and investors grew disenchanted. Mpls sold much better reaching 2,000 tickets within a week. New investors came into the picture but the Orpheum cancelled the date after a 2nd $15,000 was missed on Oct. 15th. I was in Los Angeles meeting with the investors on Oct 23rd when the Orpheum cancelled the dates. They walked. The loss of Dec 15-22 at the Mpls Orpheum made it almost impossible to do Baltimore the week before since no theatre in America other than the Mpls Orpheum is now open Dec 15-20. I've come under a lot of heat but we did play all sixteen performances at the Kodak last year with Chris Lloyd, John Goodman and Jane Leeves under impossible conditions created by an embezzlement of $200,000 (see michelshane.net).
This year's production was strictly to pay back 2008 investors who were defrauded by Michel Shane ("Catch Me If You Can"). I am under no legal obligation to give 2008 investors any money at all since there were no profits. But I wanted to see them recoup since none of them were wealthy including one gentleman from Michigan who cashed in his $100,000 IRA. Even if this year's production had sold out I wouldn't have seen a dime. I thought I put together a good cast that people would want to see. ALL were committed to the project. If the production had sold 20-30% of capacity the first month, the shows would have taken place. You go into these things thinking that Christopher Lloyd, John Goodman, Jane Leeves, Gene Wilder and Jane Seymour was a can't miss at the Kodak during Christmas. We ran our first 1/4 page ad on Nov 9, 2008 and sold only 1,000 tickets the first week.....long before any negative publicity hit.
We felt this cast was strong and likely to succeed out of Los Angeles where holiday shows like "White Christmas" and the Rockettes Christmas show have recently died. But we simply didn't sell tickets and that's why the production was cancelled....just like Brighton Beach at the Nederlander. If they don't sell....they all are cancelled.

[ivandixon]

Posted: 11/17/09 at 9:52pm

A fair review of the 2008 Kodak production can be read at www.variety.com/review/VE1117939277.html

I intentionally left out the billing for Sir John Gielgud's narration (recorded for this production in London in 1992)because we had received complaints during earlier productions that we had mislead customers because Gielgud wasn't actually narrating in person. I'm happy to report that last December Actor's Equity did make sure that we made contributions toward Sir John's health insurance and pension ten years after he passed on. The difficulty we experienced with coordinating the recorded narration and the failing quality of the recording itself was the motivation behind having James Garner read it live as Dickens during the beginning and end of the show. Audiences truly enjoyed our unusual curtain call which the reviewer hated. Every actor in the show, including John Goodman and Jane Leeves shook hands with, hugged, or kissed Christopher Lloyd and then exited into the audience, alternating left and right. Finally, only Tiny Tim and Lloyd were left for one last bow. I was there every night and the audiences were thrilled to have the supporting cast and stars exit passed them into the house during the curtain call.

[gregorypeccadillo]

Posted: 11/17/09 at 11:39pm

So one ad in two newspapers in August for a show in December didn't quite do the job, hm?

Astounding.

[ivandixon]

Posted: 11/18/09 at 7:25am

It was the response to the two ads that was critical not that we were looking to have these two ads be the entire marketing campaign. On Tuesday, August 18th, a Ticketmaster email blast went out to 1,200,000 subscribers in Baltimore & D.C. announcing the production, including the names of the six stars, and offered a discount to purchase tickets prior to public sale which began Sunday, August 23rd. There was virtually no response to this massive emailing. Less than a hundred tickets sold. The two ads in the Sun and Post ran on the 23rd. After two days, the TM audit report showed a total of only 528 tickets sold (including the previous week's email blast). This represented 2.61% of capacity. When you have this kind of response to an ad featuring F. Murray Abraham, James Garner, Stockard Channing, Timothy Hutton, Wayne Knight and George Wendt it is almost a mathematical certainty that the show is not going to do well no matter how much marketing money is spent. Theatre investors know that. Several weeks later we ran a $12,000 week-long promotion on WLIF that included numerous spots for the show that again featured the names of the cast. It generated sales for the week of only 36 tickets.
It was this poor response to initial advertising that made it impossible to fund the show.

[gregorypeccadillo]

Posted: 11/18/09 at 10:32am

Then why wasn't it canceled in September?

Posted: 11/18/09 at 10:45am

Is the entire production canceled?

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 11/18/09 at 10:52am

I hope not. I am looking forward to seeing Stockard Channing!

Posted: 11/18/09 at 2:15pm

I know you are! To me, it's not Christmas without Tiny Tim Hutton!