Hadestown's commercial future

In his Tony Awards wrapup, Peter Marks of the Washington Post raises doubts about whether Hadestown will have staying power.

"'Hadestown,' whose director, Rachel Chavkin, was among the night’s winners, is thick with atmosphere rather than plot; it will appeal, one suspects, to a narrower swath of theatergoers than a crowd-pleaser like 'Ain’t Too Proud,' which outsells it, week after week. It will remain to be seen if the Tony haul augurs a protracted Broadway life for the show."

Marks didn't like Hadestown to begin with, but he raises a reasonable question. What's the commercial outlook for the show? It's selling out, raised prices even before the Tony nominations, and just collected a haul of awards - including the only one that really seems to matter at the box office, Best Musical. The short-term outlook for the musical looks excellent.

But as much as I enjoyed Hadestown, I do wonder how it will do after the buzz fades. In recent years, shows like Fun Home and The Band's Visit won Best Musical. The latter survived for 10 months after its near-sweep, and Fun Home only lasted a few months longer. 

My personal guess is that Hadestown will do better than those shows. Fun Home, as much as I liked it, was always a tough sell because of its subject matter - though it toured well. The Band's Visit, which I haven't seen yet, seems like a much quieter, smaller show. Hadestown seems like it can be more easily sold as a unique event, certainly with the current cast. Ain't Too Proud, the other hit musical of this season, appeals to a very different audience. Moulin Rouge! could undermine Hadestown simply by stealing some attention - although that won't hurt its box office this year.

What I also don't know is what happens by next spring, when some new musical (or musicals) will have garnered positive word-of-mouth and the original cast starts to move on. I don't see Hadestown as another Dear Evan Hansen or Come From Away in terms of longer-term box office potential. (The secret strength of DEH, I've always thought, it that well-heeled parents - unless they're in Toronto - like it at least as much as their children.)

Am I underestimating Hadestown's intermediate-term commercial potential?

I agree that the commercial success of a less obviously commercial show is a very healthy thing. I'm very pleased about its success. I'm just honestly curious how long of a run folks on this board guess it might have. 

Completely agree regarding the reason why Ain't too proud is making more money. All one needs to know is look at the avarage cost of the ticket (Hadestown is near $160, Ain't too proud is near $130), and when you look at the house capacities of the theater it all adds up.

This is anecdotal, but I've been surprised at the number of people I've talked to who are familiar with Anais Mitchell's concept album for Hadestown.

Granted it's not The Who's Tommy, but still.

I agree that if it recoups, that's a really good thing for artsy shows in general.

It's also a more avant-garde show that schools are going to be able to justify field trips to. It's Greek mythology as a musical, after all. My middle/high school students are talking about it a lot, too. 

Warbucks2 said: "Why couldn’t Hadestown essentially be a Come From Away but that actually won the Best Musical Tony (in other words, potentially have even more staying power)?"

Come From Away is a unique case because it was embraced by New York City as a valid and interesting piece of art, but it also has massive tourist appeal due to its patriotic, humanist message. Despite taking place in Newfoundland, it's a great thematic fit for folks travelling to New York City for the first time. As many others have said, Hadestown is much more avant garde. Its anti-capitalist message is masked in metaphor. New Yorkers and theatre fans love it, but eventually the audience has to become more tourist based and I'm unsure if it will have big staying power with out-of-towners. I'd love to be wrong though.

 

While we're here...anyone have any casting predictions? I know it likely won't happen until March, but I find it fun to speculate. Hardly a day goes by where I don't wish to see Damon Daunno in this iteration of the show. It'll be interesting to see who they pull in to keep their number up.

 

 

I saw it in previews at the last minute.  I'm 70 - and loved it.  When my 92 year old mother heard I was going, she and her 92 year old friend got tickets and loved it. I was describing it to my daughter, and my 14 year old grandsons both chimed in they knew the mythology (they did - they told it to me) and they wanted to see it.  So I got tickets for them.  (Now I'm broke.) I think it has wide appeal.  I could be off base, but certainly my mother is not the target audience.  Anyway, I hope it succeeds. 

One of the nice things about Hadestown is that the original cast didn't have any humongous names in the cast.  Sure, Patrick Page and Amber Gray are familiar for the Broadway community, but they aren't huge stars outside Midtown.  The fanbase for the show, which has built up quickly, is based around the show, the music, and the direction - things that won't disappear because of an expired contract.  This is in contrast to a show like Great Comet, which had the same director and writers that were inspired by elements beyond Broadway.  Great Comet might've been able to generate a fanbase based on the show alone, but as incredible as Josh Groban was as Pierre, the show ended up becoming "The Josh Groban Show," and once he left, the you-know-what hit the fan, and the show was gone by early September.  If this show does want to stunt cast eventually, it will have already built up a lasting base from the show itself, so it won't need to worry about whether the aftermath of a stunt cast could be deadly. (no pun intended) (never mind yes pun intended i love puns)

HogansHero said: "A couple of reactions:

1. This is how good producers earn their keep. You take a property and figure out how to sell it forward. Or you don't. What do you do "after the buzz fades"? You don't let it fade.

2. This is howgood critics start sounding silly. I like Marks a lot, even when we don't agree, but he doesn't know the first thing about how to produce a commercial success."

Well, I share with Marks the ignorance of knowing how to produce a commercially successful Broadway show. It seems hard to maintain buzz. I saw Hadestown a few weeks ago, and the excitement in the packed theater before the show was palpable. It wasn't OBC Hamilton-level buzz, but it was in the ballpark, with celebrities in the audience and the like.

But Hadestown has had a lot of opportunities to get attention during the past few months, with its spring opening, largely positive reviews, Tony nominations, Sunday's performance and win as Best Musical. The producers seem to have made several smart moves, and the size of theater (small) and cast (unknown to the general public, so the show isn't dependent on them) work in their favor now.

Going forward, there aren't the same opportunities to grab attention, aside from the release of the cast recording (which is being drawn out). How do even the smartest producers maintain buzz about a show? At a certain point, doesn't it have to rise or fall on its own merits as popular entertainment with the tourists who will determine its longevity? 

I think Hadestown has some advantages. It's a unique show, based on Greek mythology, that is different without seeming too weird or threatening. (I am surprised when people say they found it confusing; if anything, the story is strikingly simple.) And for a tragedy, it ends on a rather uplifting note. The producers are emphasizing that point relentlessly in the advertising and interviews. The flowers handed out after the show are intended to reinforce that message.

But it's a fine line to walk. Hadestown is selling a unique experience, but the producers don't want to scare people away with something that seems too artsy or avant garde. I wondered if Wait for Me, the most visually striking performance in the theater, was necessarily the right choice for the Tony Awards telecast. At the same time, I'm not sure how much Tony Awards performances matter. 

In short, I don't know what the producers ought to do. 

"I don't agree that its an avant garde show at all. "

I suppose there is a spectrum from The Bodyguard (accessible commercial trash) to Pacific Overtures (avant garde), and it's not quite Pacific Overtures - but at least to me it's closer towards Pacific Overtures in the sense that the story is framed in an unusual way (Adaptation of ancient great names + themes but not really set or stylised in that period at all), has spoken dialogue that doesn't follow a typical prose format, has a score that sounds a little different than the current pop standard (even though there are some pop melodies throughout). It's just an 'odd' show to me that doesn't quite fit the mould of a "Broadway musical" (cf. Tootsie, which to me might have been avant-garde if it was written in 1995, but now listening to the OBC seems rather standard fare). 

Updated On: 6/14/19 at 07:25 AM

"1. This is how good producers earn their keep. You take a property and figure out how to sell it forward. Or you don't. What do you do "after the buzz fades"? You don't let it fade."

Good point and I hope they succeed. It is sad to me when a show wins Tony for "Best Musical" and it barely runs for a year. I hope this show has decent 3-4 year run, guess we will see what happens.

yankeefan7 said: "It is sad to me when a show wins Tony for "Best Musical" and it barely runs for a year. I hope this show has decent 3-4 year run, guess we will see what happens."

What are you talking about?? Band's Visit and Fun Home are the shortest-running musicals in recent history, but they still both ran a year and a half. 1994's Passion is the shortest-running Best Musical winner in history (280 perfs/9 months).