HAIR TO CLOSE JUNE 27TH — Page 3

Am I mistaken, but I thought that during the summer shortly after it was open, HAIR was selling out regularly and was the hottest ticket on Broadway? I was aware of it being sold out several weeks in a row. Doesn't that qualify as a hot ticket?

---

This is sad :[ I never got to see the replacement cast though I wasn't dying to see them. That being said, they're not to blame for the low grosses. I was there on 3/7 for the original tribe's last performance and the mezz was only about a third of the way filled.

south pacific was a hot ticket

My friend texted me about this and my heart sank. I really thought they'd make it through the summer. I will miss this show tremendously.

---

"I'm glad that both London and NYC will be free of HAIR."

This comes off as a mean-spirited, infantile comment. Imagine being happy that two casts of actors and crew will be put of work. As if the existence of this show were somehow a personal affront.

THANKS, ALICE RIPLEY!

I would consider South Pacific to have been a hot ticket. However unlike other shows that fit that category, you really can't judge its success due to the fact that it is a non profit show and has no grosses.

It was a show that was hard to get a ticket to when it first opened. I remember wanting to see it so badly that the only way I could get a ticket was by using graduation gift money to buy a full price single ticket and the closet date I could get from when I ordered was a month away.

Yes, There was a buzz around Hair and people were flocking to it like hot cakes (which is why I feel it recouped as fast as it did). I do not however, feel that the cast change has anything to do with it closing. I think that it is not making money because it was hot for awhile . But, everyone who has seen it has seen it and are moving on to other things.

---

I think the cast change was part of it, because a significant chunk of the fanbase seems to have disappeared and moved onto a new show. But I don't think the cast change did it entirely. A lot of shows just have a limited audience to whom they appeal, and that will eventually run out. That "limit" isn't necessarily small, but it still puts on an eventual cap.

---

I don't think it was the sole cause, at all, but it seems to have chased much of the hardcore fanbase away, and there's a lot of word-of-mouth power there. Again, not THE cause, but a factor.

I liked the old ad campaign, it was nice and simple, but I think the new one sucks and is really cheesy.

---

Dame I absolutely agree with that. The ad campaign wasn't interesting or compelling - and while every other show has kids out there in costumes or sandwich boards pushing two-fer coupons in Times Square, HAIR never did. I don't feel the problem had anything to do with the new cast, its simply that it fell off the radar and no real compelling solution arose to keep people interested in it after the initial steam wore off.

Right, especially in the summer when the sandwich boards are really in full-force and you can't walk down a block without encountering them, it's been overshadowed by more aggressive marketing. I did like the old t.v. ad though.

---

Winston what do you mean when you say SOUTH PACIFIC is "non profit and has bo grosses."

BWW posts the grosses every week so we can see how the show is doing and see that it has been tapering off.

As for HAIR, a look at the historic grosses reveklas that it was at or very near capacity all summer of 2009 and only staretd to taper off after Labour Day. That is why I was always puzzled by Mass's initial prediction that it would close by Labor Day 2009, then by Christmas, then when the cast left in March...and on and on like he was almost wishing the closing into existence. Strange.

---