Foxwoods Flops
Foxwoods Flops
Foxwoods Flops#1
Posted: 2/1/11 at 9:24am
Is it just me, or has the Foxwoods/Hilton had it's share of expensive but troubled productions?
The Pirate Queen, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, and Spiderman...
Foxwoods Flops#2
Posted: 2/1/11 at 9:40am
Let's not forget the Show the theatre was built for: Ragtime.
Has ANY show recouped in that theatre yet?
Foxwoods Flops#2
Posted: 2/1/11 at 9:41amAdd Hot Feet to that list.
Foxwoods Flops#3
Posted: 2/1/11 at 9:45am
I actually think the revival of 42nd Street recouped.
Updated On: 2/1/11 at 09:45 AM
Foxwoods Flops#5
Posted: 2/1/11 at 10:01am^it's better that way, Jordan.
Foxwoods Flops#6
Posted: 2/1/11 at 10:07amYoung Frankenstein was a waste of Sutton Foster's talents.
Joined: 12/31/69
Broadway Legend Joined: 9/26/05
Foxwoods Flops#8
Posted: 2/1/11 at 10:28am
42nd Street did not recoup, though it reportedly came close. Maybe Grinch?
Foxwoods Flops#9
Posted: 2/1/11 at 10:30amNo, Spiderman is not. It is, however an expensive but troubled production.
Broadway Legend Joined: 6/20/10
Foxwoods Flops#10
Posted: 2/1/11 at 10:31amSpiderman definitely fts the category "expensive but troubled"
Foxwoods Flops#11
Posted: 2/1/11 at 10:32am
That theatre is just absolutely terrible. It's a cavernous barn of a theatre where the balcony feels like it's on another continent. It'd have better acoustics if it was underwater. And due to its enormous size, the only shows that can really hope to fill it are high-cost, high-risk, bombastic musical spectacles like the ones that have been listed in this thread. Nobody's going to stage an understated revival of A View from the Bridge in that thing.
It's not so much cursed as it is suited solely for shows with a high chance of closing. Really, the only shows to have played the Foxwoods that weren't disasters were the 42nd Street revival, which did not recoup, and the limited-run Grinch.
Foxwoods Flops#13
Posted: 2/1/11 at 10:45am
I have heard allusions to the theater being haunted, but never any concrete details. Maybe it's just haunted by years of flops past!
And what was wrong with Ragtime?! I have a special place in my heart for Ragtime - it was my first Broadway show ever!
TD
Broadway Legend Joined: 9/26/05
Foxwoods Flops#15
Posted: 2/1/11 at 10:57am
As the theatre was only built in the late 1990s, it wasn't almost demolished in the 1990s - It opened in 1998. Two Broadway theatres were demolished to make way for it though - the Apollo and the Lyric. While the Lyric was pretty much gutted after years as a 42nd Street grind house, the Apollo was fairly intact and had even made a brief return to legit theatre in the late 1970s/1980s. (It housed On Golden Pond, Bent and The Fifth of July, but then reverted back to films quickly after a play called The Guys in the Truck closed on its opening night in 1983. It was also a concert venue called the Academy before its demolition.)
Foxwoods Flops#16
Posted: 2/1/11 at 10:57amIt couldn't make the minimum % for long enough to pay back the investment. That's why Spidey PROBABLY will flop. I wonder what the % of FULL PRICED seats is for it to recoup in 7 years. That's an AWFUL long time for a show to go in order to make back the investment.
Foxwoods Flops#18
Posted: 2/1/11 at 11:02am
I've always wondered how Wicked would have fared there.
I also sat in the balcony one of the times I saw Ragtime there, and I felt very removed from the action on stage.
Foxwoods Flops#19
Posted: 2/1/11 at 11:40amWhen I saw Spider-Man recently from the balcony, I was actually very surprised that I didn't feel too far away. Perhaps it was because the show was so in-your-face, but I liked my third row balcony seat for Spider-Man better than my sixth-row mezz/dress circle/flying circle (or whatever) seat for Young Frankenstein. It probably also helped that I had a ton of legroom in the balcony.
Broadway Legend Joined: 10/30/05
Foxwoods Flops#20
Posted: 2/1/11 at 11:46am
While I certainly won't defend Hot Feet or Young Frankenstein as having any artistic merit (I didn't sit through The Pirate Queen), I will say that the Foxwoods is actually my favorite of the giant barn theaters on Broadway.
Unlike many other theaters, the balcony is quite comfortable and well-maintained. The seats aren't at a weird angle, and although you are far away, it isn't nearly as bad as the Palace and the Gershwin, or even the balcony in smaller spaces like the Lyceum or the Walter Kerr.
Plus having the entrances on 42nd and 43rd makes it much faster to get out when the show is over. It took me a solid 15 minutes just to get out of the building when I saw Promises, Promises.
Foxwoods Flops#21
Posted: 2/1/11 at 11:50amIt's not 100% clear that Ragtime flopped, in the technical sense. Drabinski was cooking the books, moving money from Phantom (Toronto), Ragtime and Show Boat to his other shows. It's possible that without that "intervention, Ragtime would have been considered a hit.
Foxwoods Flops#22
Posted: 2/1/11 at 12:01pmIt also seemed to close early despite pulling in some pretty good numbers. I don't know what the running costs were like, though...
Foxwoods Flops#23
Posted: 2/1/11 at 12:07pmReading about the Apollo....or was it called the New Apollo...breaks my heart, since "Fifth of July" was my first Broadway show.
Joined: 12/31/69
Foxwoods Flops#24
Posted: 2/1/11 at 12:43pmThe Gershwin is cursed. It's hosted flop after flop. Of course the biggest hit on Broadway lives there now. So maybe the curse moved?
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