"but it's not all that different from the Broadway, the Palace or the St James, all of which need big productions to fill the space appropriately."
Your wrong on that count, The Winter Garden is the widest theatre on Broadway. Hate to get all theatre geeky on you but I just checked the seating charts to make sure. The St James is 36 seats across, the Palace is 43 in the orchestra and 47 across in the mezz while the Winter Garden is 61 across in the orch and 63 across in the mezz. No one wants to sit way to the side in any theatre , the Winter Garden compounds the issue. The Palace and the Saint James are handicapped by their second balconies but the main houses of those two theaters remain much more intimate than the Winter Garden.
Up In One