Posted: 7/9/17 at 6:47pm
I like you Mr. Crane, but you're a little too smug, like the colonel.
Posted: 7/9/17 at 6:58pm
I don't think Groban's fans go beyond buying his cd's at the local Target or downloading power ballad here and there. Plus that beard and that fat suit are a major turn off.
Posted: 7/9/17 at 7:01pm
Bette's Turban said: "I don't think Groban's fans go beyond buying his cd's at the local Target or downloading power ballad here and there. Plus that beard and that fat suit are a major turn off. "
This is obviously incorrect, as is evidenced by the grosses when he was absent from the show and the swarms at the stage door for him.
Posted: 7/9/17 at 7:04pm
I sell tickets for a living, and I can tell you that most of the time, when we mention Josh Groban isn't in the show anymore, they're like "okay" and buy tickets anyway. So I think they will at least try to keep the show going until at least New Year's.
Posted: 7/9/17 at 7:04pm
I wouldn't call them swarms. I was just referring to Hogans comment. Bette fans are booking airline tickets and planning trips around their show date. Groban fans are not that devoted. And the beard and the fat suit were a turn off.
Updated On: 7/9/17 at 07:04 PM
Posted: 7/9/17 at 7:05pm
House was full today for Dave Molloy. He's no Groban but Dust and Ashes was magic. I got my ticket through TDF (rear mezz).
Posted: 7/9/17 at 8:41pm
HogansHero said: "@neon if Groban had been Midler, it would have recouped so yes it is physically possible. It's just that Groban's fan base was either not deep enough or not willing to pay enough for that to become a reality."
Yeah, I guess that's true! But she is a major exception, rather than the rule.
@jbird, TDF tickets won't help a show recoup though.
Bette's Turban did you join just to troll Josh Groban and make incorrect statements?
Posted: 7/9/17 at 8:50pm
jbird5 said: "House was full today for Dave Molloy. He's no Groban but Dust and Ashes was magic. I got my ticket through TDF (rear mezz)."
Oh, goodness, yes!l While I rather LISTEN to Groban sing it, that 4 minutes in the theater was amazing to experience Malloy perform it.
Posted: 7/9/17 at 9:17pm
HogansHero said: "@neon if Groban had been Midler, it would have recouped so yes it is physically possible. It's just that Groban's fan base was either not deep enough or not willing to pay enough for that to become a reality.
"
If I may add to Hogan's arguments, Midler is starring in a beloved show with several hit songs and the best-selling title number of all time; she is also the lead in a "vehicle" show.
To really compare, we'd either have to present Groban in MAN OF LA MANCHA or cast Midler in COMET as Helene ("Charming"
. I'm not saying Groban has the star power of Midler, just that the gap would close quite a bit were they in equivalent projects.
P.S. I don't think Hogan is smug. He just presents his arguments directly, without a lot of qualification.
Posted: 7/9/17 at 9:56pm
@everythingtaboo your anecdote is all well and good but how about addressing the fact it does not comport with the numbers?
@neon yes, an exception, but the production was constructed in such a way that an exception was essential if it had a chance of recouping.
@gaveston, to my way of thinking, it makes no sense to qualify opinions (I like that show, I hate this one, and that other one is being incompetently produced, etc). Likewise, when a fact is known (such and such show had a higher gross last week than any other), there is no reason to give a qualified answer. By contrast, when there are facts that are facts but I do not know them (some show's nut which I guess to be x dollars) I always qualify my answer. In any event, I don't get the smug label. Smug means excessive pride in one's achievements. I can't think of a time I have ever posted about any of my achievements (some of which I am proud of, and many of which I am not).
Posted: 7/9/17 at 10:22pm
Hogan, I was defending you from the charge of smugness, not criticizing you for failing to qualify your arguments. Wasn't that clear?
I admit I like to read some explanation for opinions. What's the point of the following:
"I hate SHOW X."
"I liked it."
"I liked it, too, and my mother said it was her favorite show since A CHORUS LINE"?
If you or I can't give some reason or example why we disliked or (and this may be harder) liked a show, who can?
Even personal taste is based on something (age, experience, ethnicity, theological background, whatever) and I think we get better discussions if we try to be frank about our motivations. But it isn't usually something about which I feel a need to make an issue.
I, too, have been accused of being smug, but I find it's usually just a case of omitting the metalingual utterances with which we pepper vocal conversations. Without interjections such as "You know?", "Don't you agree?", "This is just my opinion but...", "Eh?", etc., our posts can take on the aura of the omniscient narrator and that's what others mistake for smugness. I think.
Updated On: 7/9/17 at 10:22 PM
Posted: 7/9/17 at 11:24pm
Oh I know Gaveston. 
It was clear; I was just having some fun on a Sunday riffing on " qualification." And I agree about just giving shows thumbs up/down. I may occasionally do that on the way to some other point but in general who cares about my unadorned opinion. (I actually intended what I said as a shorthand for a fully articulated opinion. Again, I blame Sunday night. lol) I wish we were able to have more substantive discussions sometimes; more often, it seems we have a pile-on of folks taking offense that someone has the temerity to have different taste than they do. I think your point about the "somethings" that prompt our taste is a very good one. To me theatre (actually all art) is about resonance, and how we respond is a function of many things but often our personal attributes and experiences are high on the list. Yet how often do we see threads in which one person says a show spoke to them and another person dismisses them saying "I didn't give a damn about the story, characters etc." To me that's what we need to try to elevate.
Posted: 7/9/17 at 11:37pm
I couldn't agree more, Hogan.
I admit I was confused because it seems to me you support your arguments/ opinions more than most. So you may consider that Sunday prank a success. LOL.
