Do original cast member leads get royalties? Margo? Anybody?

[bronxboundexpress]

Posted: 12/6/04 at 11:30am

I keep wondering where Sarah Brightman gets all this money to put on these enourmous arena concerts that don't even come close to selling out and producing 5 different DVDs and all this merchandise when so many peoeple in the popular world still don't even know who she is. Is she getting royalties from PHANTOM? Is Michael Crawford? I can't see the cast members getting them but some shows that are build with leads like that it seems they are in on the investment in some way. If Phantom had failed would that have kept them from them having the careeres they have now? What about Hugh Jackman if Boy From Oz kept playing?

[JohnPopa]

Posted: 12/6/04 at 11:42am

No, she doesn't get royalties from the show. No one does.

Brightman's tours and records are supported by her record label. If they were losing money I'm sure they'd pull the plug.

[timote316]

Posted: 12/6/04 at 11:44am

You gotta wonder if big stars get at least some cut (i.e. Nathan Lane in The Producers in London)

[Plum]

Posted: 12/6/04 at 11:53am

I think the extremely high-level stars sometimes get a cut of the weekly takings- but I imagine that would only apply to the really big stars. Not Idina Menzel, but Bernadette Peters, Nathan Lane, Matthew Broderick and possibly Hugh Jackman and Sean Combs.

[Speed]

Posted: 12/6/04 at 12:46pm

Actually, many unknowns get royalties. Possibly Idina too.

If the show develops itself on a 4 week Equity Workshop Contract, all the cast members involved in that workshop split 1% of all profits the show makes in productions all over the world. All the original cast members of RENT have been making money on the show since it opened. Even though Taye and Idina have long left the cast, they get something each week. Granted, it's not much. It'f only if RENT makes a profit that week and they are splitting 1% of those profits with all of the original cast members.

As for BOY FROM OZ, there are people who did the workshop who were not used for the show. All of them would have received money using the same formula.

Not all shows do Equity workshops. Some shows just do readings that pay $100 for the week. I think WICKED did both. I believe WICKED did a full workshop... in which case, all of those people would get royalties, yes. THE PRODUCERS did not do a workshop. Just a reading. But I believe that both Nathan and Matthew had a royalty clause in their original contract. They definitely got royalties while they were in the show. I believe they are still getting them too.

[Plum]

Posted: 12/6/04 at 12:49pm

Thanks for the clarification, Speed.

[Rathnait62]

Posted: 12/6/04 at 12:59pm

Betty Buckley got a nice weekly percentage of the SUNSET box office take.

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 12/6/04 at 1:36pm

Speed is absolutely correct. The Equity Workshop contract came about as a result of "A Chorus Line" after the two dozen or so dancers who participated in the original tape sessions and subsequent workshops signed away their life stories (which made up most of the book and lyrics of the show) for $1. While some wanted to balk at signing the release, it became implicitly clear that anyone who didn't sign would be out of the show .... so they all signed away their rights for nothing.

In a moment of weakness/charity/whatever, Michael Bennett did later grant them all a share of 1% of his writer's royalty in the show. Those who participated in all the tape sessions, made it through the workshops and were part of the original cast still occasionally get a tiny royalty check in the mail (presumably a major Broadway revival -- which is rumored to be in the works to open in the next few seasons -- would mean those checks wouldn't be quite as tiny .... but still probably rather inconsequential nonetheless). Those who didn't participate in the tape sessions (and hence whose autiobiographies weren't used to create the show) and were hired later to fill out the original cast (Robert Lupone, Ronald Dennis et al) received small royalty checks only as long as they were performing in the show and as soon as they left, the checks stopped.

Once A Chorus Line became a huge hit and the behind-the-scenes story of its creation got out, Equity immediately drafted a new set of rules to govern how participants in workshops are to be compensated, which Speed laid out above.

[Gothampc]

Posted: 12/6/04 at 2:00pm

I'm sure Ms. Brightman doesn't put her own money into shows. I have no doubt that she got a nice chunk of change from her divorce from ALW.

[broadwayguy2]

Posted: 12/6/04 at 2:22pm

anyone who slept with Webber deserves to be paid LOADS of cash for pain and suffering alone.

[CATSNYrevival]

Posted: 12/6/04 at 2:31pm

ewww... yes... loads.

[broadwayguy2]

Posted: 12/6/04 at 3:13pm

no amount of size or girth could make up for the rest of that man.

[Marquise]

Posted: 12/6/04 at 3:32pm

i love the way bronxboundexpress totally rips sarah brightman "a new one" before getting to the question at hand.
is that talent or what?

[Jimmcf]

Posted: 12/6/04 at 3:53pm

In interviews, Ms. Brightman has said her divorce settlement (around 5 million pounds) is collecting interest. She said she can make her own cash.

And I have paid $ a few times to go see her, and have all her cd's.

[bronxboundexpress]

Posted: 12/6/04 at 6:38pm

"anyone who slept with Webber deserves to be paid LOADS of cash for pain and suffering alone."

LOL! I guess he's not the most attractive man but he sure is a great contributor to this industry and I don't knwo what I would do if I didn't have his music.


Wow. That's a lot of useful information. Thank you. I actually am a big fan of Sarah and I didn't mean to rip on her even though I like teasing her style sometimes. I just can't help noticing how she has big enough concerts and enough merchandise to be a Cher or Bruce Springstein but yet most poeple still havn't heard of her.

That's interesting that Sarah got that money from Lloyd Webber. Is that a lot of money for their situation? Where can I see Sarah interviews other than her DVDs? How much money does Andrew Lloyd Webber have anyway?

[broadwayguy2]

Posted: 12/6/04 at 6:42pm

great contributor??? He has written how many scores?? TWO.. and he just recylces them......

[bronxboundexpress]

Posted: 12/6/04 at 6:49pm

That's not true.

[bjivie2]

Posted: 12/6/04 at 6:52pm

Well, I don't know. I have a friend that was in a workshop of Somkey Joe's Cafe before it got to Broadway and he still gets small royalty checks every once in a while. Maybe if they have something to do with the development of the show, but not if they are just in it. For example, Nathan Lane rewrote The Frogs, so he will be getting royalties from his writing, but not from his performing in the show.

[Addicted2Seaweed]

Posted: 12/6/04 at 7:37pm

I don't know how to feel about ALW...sometimes I feel like "oh that's pretty" but then as Broadwayguy2 said he just recycles everything he's ever wrote. So there's no creativity anymore.

And Sarah Brightman....OH MY she annoys the crap out of me...her voice is seemingly not meant to sing words. When she sings high notes you can't understand her at all.
Or at least I can't

[TheatreDiva90016]

Posted: 12/6/04 at 7:43pm

Is Sarah and Enya the same person?

Also, residules from the OBC add into things

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 12/6/04 at 7:47pm

Yes, but there wasn't an Equity workshop to "create" the show The Frogs -- it already existed (albeit in a much shorter form) and had been performed at Yale in 1974. Lane and Stroman approached Sondheim a couple of years ago to expand the piece into a full length show at which point Sondheim wrote several new songs and Lane rewrote and expanded Shevelove's original book. The piece then went into rehearsals and was mounted at Lincoln Center without the benefit of the full formal workshop process, so no, the cast would not be sharing in the royalties. This is unlike your friend who participated in the Equity Workshop of Smokey Joe's -- given that the show is a bookless revue, your friend's contribution was merely as a performer (unlike, say the cast of A Chorus Line, who's actual words were used to create the book and lyrics), but nevertheless because of the Equity workshop rules, he/she will continue to receive royalties from the show long after leaving it.

As for Lloyd Webber's net worth, an article a few years back stated that it was estimated in excess of 600 million pounds (among other things he's one of the biggest landowners in the UK), which would be over a billion US dollars at the current exchange rate. It seems that Sir Andrew got out of his marriage to Ms. Brightman rather cheaply.

Updated On: 12/6/04 at 07:47 PM

[paradox_error]

Posted: 12/6/04 at 8:43pm

The most annoying this about Sarah Brightman are her eyes! They just irratitate the sh!t out of me...
ALW has written some nice stuff over the years, but he is nowhere in the league of Sondheim, Kander and Ebb, Coleman, Bock and Harnick and Jerry Herman. They are the greats of the industry, and it pains me that the runs of all of their shows combined would not even near the combination of Cats and POTO, two examples of British *move-the-set-not-the-cast* Overhyped Spectacle-Loving Poperetta.
And once again Margo comes to the rescue, although kudos to Speed who got in first. WE love you guys!

[Gothampc]

Posted: 12/6/04 at 8:49pm

"The most annoying this about Sarah Brightman are her eyes!"

How can you see her eyes? She opens her mouth so wide all you can see is her epiglottis.