Has Grey henson missed any shows in Elf? Will Elf be returning in future seasons?

[NiceWork2]

Posted: 12/30/24 at 5:16pm

I was just wondering if anyone knew if Grey or Ashley Brown or Astin missed any shows this year.     I finally saw the show this weekend and it seems like an investor's dream show - relatively small set, small sized cast, but huge crowds, with inflated holiday prices.      Since Elf is done so frequently around the country in regional venues, i always thought a broadway revival would not work, but this has been extremely profitable obviously.   Will it maybe be rebooted in some future years?   Does this mean a revival of Urinetown might work one day?    And there was even competition from philadelphia's walnut street theatre simultaneous Elf production, and that didn't even slow down the Marriot marquis crowds

[TotallyEffed]

Posted: 12/30/24 at 5:18pm

What the heck does Urinetown have to do with anything?

[Broadway61004]

Posted: 12/30/24 at 5:41pm

TotallyEffed said: "What the heck does Urinetown have to do with anything?"

I have no idea, but now I'm envisioning a production of Urinetown where Cladwell is actually Santa Claus and Urinetown is actually the North Pole.

[the.hard.part]

Posted: 12/30/24 at 6:29pm

Ashley Brown was out the day I went.

[Matt Rogers]

Posted: 12/30/24 at 7:34pm

NiceWork2 said: "I was just wondering if anyone knew if Grey or Ashley Brown or Astin missed any shows this year. I finally saw the show this weekend and it seems like an investor's dream show - relatively small set, small sized cast, but huge crowds, with inflated holiday prices. Since Elf is done so frequently around the country in regional venues, i always thought a broadway revival would not work, but this has been extremely profitable obviously. Will it maybe be rebooted in some future years? Does this mean a revival of Urinetown might work one day? And there was even competition from philadelphia's walnut street theatre simultaneous Elf production, and that didn't even slow down the Marriot marquis crowds"

Why would a Walnut Street Theatre production be competition to Broadway? 

[ErmengardeStopSniveling]

Posted: 12/30/24 at 7:51pm

NiceWork2 said: "I was just wondering if anyone knew if Grey or Ashley Brown or Astin missed any shows this year. I finally saw the show this weekend and it seems like an investor's dream show - relatively small set, small sized cast, but huge crowds, with inflated holiday prices.

ELF had a cast of 26 (including children) and an orchestra of 16. That's not small by modern musical standards.

Since Elf is done so frequently around the country in regional venues, i always thought a broadway revival would not work, but this has been extremely profitable obviously.

You have no way of knowing if the run was profitable without knowing the weekly running cost and the capitalization. Holiday shows are tough to make work financially on Broadway because they can only run for a tiny window of time.

Will it maybe be rebooted in some future years?

We call this a return engagement. I suspect the Broadway capitalization also included a future tour or a New York return in a future season, because it's unlikely they could have recouped in 9 weeks even with predictably solid holiday numbers.

Does this mean a revival of Urinetown might work one day?

?????????????​​​​

And there was even competition from philadelphia's walnut street theatre simultaneous Elf production, and that didn't even slow down the Marriot marquis crowds"

There was no competition. A mid-level regional house 100 miles away is meaningless for Broadway, especially when the show is primarily catering to tourists.

[BoringBoredBoard40]

Posted: 12/31/24 at 2:40am

Not sure why it got brought up here but the City Center Encores production of Urinetown is already raising money for a Broadway transfer

[ACL2006]

Posted: 12/31/24 at 7:05am

Not sure if Elf tours again next year. it did not sell well in most of it's stops this year. Maybe it takes a year break from touring and then possibly returns to Broadway in 2026?

[ErmengardeStopSniveling]

Posted: 1/1/25 at 1:34pm

ACL2006 said: "Not sure if Elf tours again next year. it did not sell well in most of it's stops this year. Maybe it takes a year break from touring and then possibly returns to Broadway in 2026?"

FWIW, the 2024 tour and Broadway productions of ELF were different productions produced by different entities:

• The tour was non-Equity, playing secondary markets, produced by NETworks and semi-based on the original Broadway production.
• The 2024 Broadway production was based on the recent London production, directed by Phil McKinley and produced by Crossroads Live (an international conglomerate that absorbed the company formerly known as TROIKA) and Nederlander. 

There's also a great deal of politicking in touring and it's not merely about # of tix sold. There are guarantees ($ paid upfront by the presenter to the show), and there are relationships. I don't know who has the rights to tour it in 2025, but IF Nederlander is involved it could mean that ELF goes on subscriptions at some Nederlander houses in future years. And if it's on-subscription, it's MUCH easier to make money, as opposed to a one-off that's only getting individual ticket sales.

Updated On: 1/1/25 at 01:34 PM

[ACL2006]

Posted: 1/1/25 at 2:27pm

The non-equity tour decided to play one week stops for all of its schedule this year. Very bizarre because most of their stops/theaters don't do full, one week runs of 8 performances. Knowing people that run the Count Basie Theater in Red Bank, they were dumbfounded the tour booked an entire week. And the tour did not sell outside of the two weekend matinees.

[ErmengardeStopSniveling]

Posted: 1/1/25 at 2:39pm

Your language makes it sound like they were fourwalling (show pays a flat sum to the theater and keeps all revenue), which is usually a bad thing for a tour but a good thing for a venue.

Maybe they were trying to get some casual Jersey people who don’t want to come into the city and capitalize on the Broadway marketing and it blew up in their face. Surprised it was even allowed to happen so close-ish to the city.

[seaweedjstubbs]

Posted: 1/1/25 at 7:07pm

I heard from a friend in the Broadway cast that there’s definitely a tour planned.

[ACL2006]

Posted: 1/1/25 at 7:40pm

seaweedjstubbs said: "I heard from a friend in the Broadway castthat there’s definitely a tour planned."

hopefully an equity tour in 2025 then possibly a Broadway return for 2026.

[bwayphreak234]

Posted: 1/2/25 at 6:25am

I caught this last night, and was shocked by just how much I enjoyed it. The entire cast is so great - Grey Henson's comedic timing and delivery are absolutely spot on. Kayla Davion and Ashley Brown's voices are stunning. The sleigh in the snow at the end is pure magic. Just a REALLY fun show from beginning to end. I am so glad I caught this before it closes this weekend!