Has there ever truly been a show that had a total financial turnaround after the Tony's? — Page 2

goodlead said: "Plays could get a boost from the Tonys, but the show's producers have never found an effective way to present play excerpts."

Some shows have in the past, case in point being Viola Davis’ blistering monologue from King Hedley II

https://youtu.be/nq8cDUklmQE

Something like LuPone's GYPSY opening in the spring, getting rave reviews, winning 3 acting awards, and having a dynamite Tony performance certainly helped –– but it still didn't make it through its full run and lost money.


It was also the victim of the Great Recession. That January day it closed saw something like 9 shows close. It was a bigger bloodbath than normal Januarys, for obvious reasons.

joevitus said: "Is The Wiz an example? I know it opened to terrible business despite great reviews. Had the box office already turned around before the Tonys?"

THE WIZ had a great television ad stating: "THE WIZ is a Wow". I think that had a greater effect on the box office than the Tony Awards.

For financial turnaround for shows that DID NOT win best musical/play that had a financial turnaround after the Tony's...as someone already mentioned Next to Normal, part of it definitively has to do with its performance and its surprise win over both Dolly Parton and Elton John, which left many asking "WHAT IS GOING ON? IS HE DEAD? IS SHE SLEEPING WITH HER SON?" I am not kidding, being one of the few people in my friend group who had seen Next to Normal pre-Tony's all of them had asked me those questions in the days that followed, with my answer being, "Just see it, trust me its worth it."

Beetlejuice, is a more recent example and had it not been for Covid, and The Music Man, it likely would have recouped.

On the play front, there's The Play that Goes Wrong, Hand to God, Peter and the Starcatcher. The running theme with all of these shows outside of Beetlejuice, is they were shows minimal running costs that were loosing money pre-Tony's, but were able to use the exposure from the Tony's to boost sales just enough to remain profitable.

So the bottom line is if you are producing a small production that is loosing money or barely making ends meet before the Tony's it is possible for the show to loose Best Musical/Play/Revival, but ride the exposure from Tony's to a sustained period of profit. Note I am not saying it will make the production recoup, but it can cause a show that's at risk of loosing its entire investment and instead to loose only 25%-50% of the capitalization costs. On the other hand if you are producing a big budget musical that is loosing money pre-Tony's and don't win Best Musical, the odds of the Tony's making enough of an impact on sales to turn the finances around is slim.

''I remember how we used to post here back then, when grosses came out, that Spring Awakening was doing so bad it wouldn’t even make opening.''

I remember the same kind of dire predictions for ''Memphis.'' Its detractors also said it wouldn't make it through the winter, let alone make it to the Tonys. During awards season, ''Memphis'' won Best Musical from the Outer Critics Circle, the Drama Desks and the Tonys, and wound up running nearly 1,200 performances.

In the Heights and Avenue Q were not in danger of closing but they did not particularly look like big hits until after winning the Best Musical Tony.