Dirty Rotten Scoundrels Tour — Page 2

Like I said, I have no clue how they were advertising the tour.

I don't know how it is everywhere, but if a show comes through here and has a Tony Award is attached to it (or an actor), that's what they zero in on. Makes a little sense - for I know a lot of casual theater-goers who don't really keep up with the Broadway scene - and they are choosy about what they decide to spend money to see. They pay a lot of attention to advertising....

Can anyone shed some light as to how audiences have embraced the show on tour since Norbert left?

I can shed a little light on the last week here in Dallas when he was gone....

A parent of one of my students was a dresser - and she did a quick change after "Chimp in A Suit" (so she was in the wings for "Great Big Stuff" waiting for the change). I asked her to let me know how "the new guy" did, and when the show closed (and she was back to picking up her daughter in the afternoons), she found me one day. She had a long look as I walked by shaking her head. She said, "not even close." She said his numbers fell flat and the audiences that week were not reacting to the comedy the way they were. She also said that "Great Big Stuff" was just goofy instead of funny - and there was a noticeable difference in the crowd reaction over all. She laughed, because when I was raving about Norbert at the beginning of the run, she thought he was great as well - but it was only after he was gone that she really appreciated just how talented he was and understood what I meant. He made it look easy, and the role just isn't.

Man, Tom Hewitt can't catch a break lately, huh? Dracula, Dr. Dolittle, now this. It's a shame, he's very talented.

It's comming to tampa this week i hope, i've called twice to be sure, cus i'm driving 3 hrs to see it

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I just returned from exchanging my ticket at the Hippodrome box office in Baltimore. I had seats for opening night on the 21st of November, but since it was cancelled I now have tickets for the last performance in Baltimore on December 3rd. I'll be sure to post a review of the performance.

The people in front of me in line were also exchanging their tickets for DRS and they had thought that the performances were cancelled because it was the week of thanksgiving and they were giving the actors time off for the holiday. The lady at the box office confirmed to the couple that they were not cancelled because of the holiday, but because of poor ticket sales.

NBC, I don't know if there are any discounts for the Baltimore run but if you want to see the show in Baltimore, I suggest you move fast because the box office receptionist said that seats are going quickly for the run. She said that since they cancelled the first week, lots of people who had tickets for that week were trying to exchange them for the remaining performances.

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So before I say this, I want to say that I did wind up seeing the show in Dallas while Norbert was still in it. I wound up enjoying not only Norbert's performance as well as the rest of the cast, but really wound up loving the show. It was a lot funnier than I was expecting and probably had me laughing much harder than any other show I've seen on stage has prior to that.

But when they first announced the season and has DRS listed as the State Fair show, I had no desire to watch it. Why pay $60-70 for a musical based on a cheesey 80's movie that I didn't enjoy all that much when I saw it on TV. Could it be that people are just not rushing to watch it on tour because of what it's based on? We have way too many shows based on movies coming to Broadway or already there and I just have to wonder if the appeal is large enough to warrant that. Look at what is happening to DRS's tour. Look at how badly Wedding Singer has done and now it's going on tour? Do we expect that show to do that much better on tour than it's done on Broadway? And High Fidelity (assuming it tours)? I just think that a couple of musicals based on movies did really well and people rushed to bring more out thinking name recognition would go in their favor. But I don't think people are clamoring to pay the amount of money it takes to watch a Broadway show for a musical based on a movie that wasn't all that great to begin with. Anyone else agree that maybe that's the problem with this tour?

Updated On: 11/13/06 at 05:52 PM

I just received an email from Fox Cities PAC, where the DRS tour is set to be in January, and had a moment of panic until I actually opened it and read it (having followed this topic with my heart in my mouth) - and it says that the Appleton leg of the tour IS going ahead, the dates are set in stone, and that the email was being sent out to ticketholders to help quash rumours of its cancellation.

I'm hoping that's true, I really want to see DRS and stopping over in Appleton on my way from New York to San Fran is my only chance.

The email I received states:

"Although there were date changes in other markets, the dates for Dirty Rotten Scoundrels in Appleton are stable and will not change. The tour will be visiting us Jan 16-21, 2007."

Can I breathe a sigh of relief, or should I wait until Jan 16th for that?

I'm pissed about the Baltimore cancellation as I had tickets for the first week. We just found out yesterday that it's being cancelled, so I hope we'll be able to get tickets for the following week. With my luck, I doubt it.

They are closing the tour and supposedly tierring down to an equity experimental contract. Which means it will still be an equity tour but chances are you may not get the same talent you were expecting as the payscale will habve changed.

I hope they don't cancel the Hartford run...

So, I guess it probably won't reach Chicago in July 2007 (and I have season tickets). I'd be very happy if we got Chita Rivera instead .

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I think it just happened that Chita was available to take the spots in places where DRS is being cancelled. I'm not sure what will happen in DRS cancels Boston; we allready have Chita coming later.

How could they downscale the set anymore?
I've heard its pretty bland as it is.