Dave Malloy is suing GREAT COMET producers over unpaid royalties for int'l productions — Page 2

ErmengardeStopSniveling said: "trpguyy said: "It also didn’t help that the production was actively sabotaged by certain prominent members of the Broadway community."

Yes, that's what we call "eating your own."

But the reality is that even without the Twitter sabotaging, it would have closed soon after Patinkin's run (which was only going to be less than a month). They were running on fumes and there are a finite number of bona fide stars who would have been willing to go into that show as a replacement. It was an ugly ending, but the show wouldn't have lasted much longer."

I was hoping they'd get Weird Al to take over for Patinkin

I cannot stress enough how hard it is to replace a star. Most big actors just don't want to do it. They don't want to be compared. And each show has a finite audience regardless of who is in it. COMET is esoteric.

Rainn Wilson was supposedly coming in after Patinkin. Not a money name.

With star replacements, you are dealing with very specific schedules, unlike opening a show where the dates will be tailored to that person's avail. CHICAGO works because it's a machine and they can say "when in the next 12 months would you be available to do 6 weeks?" That Weissler-style model is very tough on creative teams, casts, and marketers: nobody involved with HEDWIG was pleased with the way the producers handled those replacements, most of which happened at the last second.

Even Scott Rudin couldn't get someone bigger than Bernadette Peters to replace Bette. Similar problems with MOCKINGBIRD. Harvey Fierstein admits that he only got the LA CAGE revival because bigger stars didn't want to follow Doug Hodge & Kelsey Grammer. So many shows lose steam after you replace the star actors with less-famous or laterally-famous people: HOW TO SUCCEED revival, COLOR PURPLE revival, DOLL'S HOUSE 2, SEMINAR, etc. Not to mention the replacement casts that almost were (the EVITA and PROMISES PROMISES revivals).

There will be much discussion about this kind of thing re: MUSIC MAN going into the fall. If they get anyone even remotely notable to replace him (if they even try), I will be astounded.