Heart and Lights Delayed (Cancelled)

[Hum a tune]

Posted: 3/21/14 at 2:05pm

Does anyone know the scoop/dirt? I was seeing it as a filler spot next Sunday.

[PlayItAgain]

Posted: 3/21/14 at 2:08pm

this show is never going to see the light of day. the fact they didnt just delay opening but cancelled the whole thing outright so close to the first preview means its unsalvageable

[RippedMan]

Posted: 3/21/14 at 2:28pm

So crazy! I mean they've been in rehearsals and tech and whatnot. They've spent a ton of money on advertising here in NYC. They've def. sunk a lot of money into it. I wonder how bad it really was? If you look at the "Intermission Pics" they def. had a Heart & Lights one. So they were up and running at least a little.

[AKarp2013]

Posted: 3/21/14 at 2:35pm

"this show is never going to see the light of day. the fact they didnt just delay opening but cancelled the whole thing outright so close to the first preview means its unsalvageable"

Even the great Radio City Music Hall has its share of hiccups every now and then. Who knows what went wrong. Major technical errors perhaps. From what I've been seeing, this is a very large scale show with a lot going on. Maybe story wise they want to perfect the show? Who knows. I'm sure Radio City will deliver it as they always do.

[macnyc]

Posted: 3/21/14 at 3:23pm

Even today, walking around the Radio City area at lunchtime, I saw tons of ads everywhere!

[jaxandmci]

Posted: 3/21/14 at 3:36pm

There goes my three show Saturday next month! We need more 5PM shows!

[astinjeremy]

Posted: 3/21/14 at 3:55pm

I just bought tickets to his last week on TDF. Now I am stuck paying TDF's $4.00/ticket processing fee for nothing.

There goes my 3 show Wednesday!

[evic]

Posted: 3/21/14 at 4:07pm

NY1 just reported that 100,000 tickets have been sold. It is awful news for the company but good for other shows who will absorb a lot of these people who bought tickets. The commercial looked incredible and Linda Haberman always does a bang up job as choreographer. One of the reasons given was that the Football draft picks took up too much time so they couldn't rehearse. How stupid can MSG be??????

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 3/21/14 at 4:13pm

OMG. I hope when the show does go up, I hope people get $4 seats to make up for the processing fee.

[AntV]

Posted: 3/21/14 at 4:37pm

I may be missing something, but I just looked up when the NFL draft is and it says its in May... So what's NY1 talking about?

[RippedMan]

Posted: 3/21/14 at 5:23pm

They use Radio City for some draft pic thing. It's in that new movie "Drafting Day" or whatever the crap is called.

But don't they have a preview process? I could understand then delaying it for a week to work some tech stuff, but to cancel a multimillion dollar show because they didn't have ample rehearsal seems...iffy.

[CapnHook]

Posted: 3/21/14 at 9:07pm

There must be a very significant reason for them to cancel the production. They spent MILLIONS to build the sets, pay the creatives, pay the salaries for the performers/staff/crew, and not to mention all the advertising they have going on (TV commercials, bus stop posters, tour bus wraps, online ads, the cover of Time Out NY, etc. etc. etc.).

They were 4 days away from the first performance. This is crazy mismanagement.

[RippedMan]

Posted: 3/21/14 at 9:41pm

Only selling 10,000 tickets isn't really...good right? But shows have opened with worse in the bank, right?

[CapnHook]

Posted: 3/21/14 at 9:57pm

It's 100,000 - not 10,000. And let's say that the average ticket price was $50. That means they had at least $5,000,000 in the bank prior to performances. In comparison to Broadway musicals...that number is impressive. Not outstanding, but impressive. Certainly not a number that shows disinterest or lack of sales (again, comparing to Broadway).

[SNAFU]

Posted: 3/21/14 at 10:22pm

I have a friend who was working on this. They have been in tech for a month. The announcement blidesided them all.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/22/arts/dance/rockettes-heart-and-lights-is-postponed.html?hpw&rref=arts&_r=0

[everythingtaboo]

Posted: 3/21/14 at 11:05pm

How does one judge ticket sales on this? Radio City sold reportedly 100,000 tickets, but its capacity is 6,000. It's on an 8-9 performance a week schedule for 5 weeks. Even with sloppy math, they were only at about 40% potential gross on a show that stars in less than a week. Maybe they didn't grab as much of the spring break crowd as they thought they would, coupled with the thing just not being ready, they though they should just scratch it and start fresh next Spring? I feel like they should have been promoted it a lot more to the inbound people, school groups, etc. Tourists love anything Rockettes, but yet I've barely heard a peep of awareness until very recently.

A real shame, it looked like it might be a lot of fun.

[Joviedamian]

Posted: 3/21/14 at 11:33pm

I usually keep up with what's going in all aspects of the arts (mostly theater and TV), but OMG have I not heard about this show up until now. I simply had no clue this show was going to happen soon. I don't live in NYC so maybe that's why!

[felixleiter]

Posted: 3/22/14 at 8:40am

This piece has been gestating for a long time. Casting for the non-Rockette roles happened in early September with a supposed first rehearsal in early January. The 2 scenes that I had for the audition and callback seemed pretty polished, but that's just a small section of the show. Music seemed up in the air back at that time, but there were capable people at the helm of this one-although there are more than a few people out there who don't love Haberman's style. I happen to like her.
Daily news seems to say it was Dolan's decision, and the Times cites sources saying that some of the music wasn't gelling with the overall narrative.
Personally, this is super interesting to me. I was down to the end for one of the roles in this one and was kinda bummed that I didn't get it. I guess if things had gone the other way it would have ended up a heartbreaker anyway, but at least I'd have some great stories...

Updated On: 3/22/14 at 08:40 AM

[forgetmenotnyc]

Posted: 3/22/14 at 12:58pm

Geez! What happened to "The Show Must Go On!"? A third sold (which in Radio City Music Hall's mammoth space, is more than just 'something') breaking news today announces "CANCELLED" because of problems (script, effects, lighting, music). Whatz up with That!? Madison Sq. Gardens Entertainment pres./chief exec. Tad Smith is quoted as saying "We simply ran out of time to make the desired changes." HUGE FAIL! Doug Wright, Bway playwright who wrote the story of 2 cousins roaming NYC trying to decipher their grandmothers past said "this chapter in my memoir will be dark satiric & heartbreaking." Castmembers & the Rockettes have performed teaser bits on TV (like America's Got Talent.) The large scale puppetry alone of the Library Lions, the Alice in Wonderland statues in Central Pk, the Wall St. Bull) looked terrific. So upsetting for Linda Haberman former Fosse dancer & dir. who apparently did phenomenal things with new Rockette choreography & staging - I just have a hard time wrapping my brain around artistic failure of such magnitude.

[Plum]

Posted: 3/22/14 at 1:43pm

Joviedamian, I can't say I've kept up with arts news as well as I used to, but I had no idea this show existed either until I saw subway ads (complete with a truly terrifying depiction of the Central Park Alice statue) when I was in the city a couple of weeks ago.

What an utterly bizarre cancellation. They must have really thought they had no chance of success if they decided to give up on the sunk costs and move on.

[Wickedmonkey332]

Posted: 3/22/14 at 10:40pm

A friend of mine was supposed to be in the show. He said it was very sudden and unexpected. They hope to put it up this time next year, he is praying to keep his role!

[oasisjeff]

Posted: 3/22/14 at 10:41pm

Doesn't the show have to begin before it has to go on?

[RippedMan]

Posted: 3/22/14 at 10:51pm

Surprised they didn't do a tour or some tryout to see how this plays first. I guess it's a NYC show, so that'd be hard to tour, but eh. It did seem a weird time to do the show.

Could this be Tony eligible if they had petitioned for it?

[anmiller07]

Posted: 3/22/14 at 11:14pm

Radio City isn't a a Broadway theatre and I think that's one of the eligibility requirements.

[RippedMan]

Posted: 3/22/14 at 11:37pm

But things at MSG have been nominated in the past, no?