Is Broadway A Dying Venture?- Page 2

[RentBoy86]

Posted: 5/13/06 at 12:05am

Flops are inevitable. Show business is a risk. That's where there are so many diverse things on Broadway and that's why some shows work and some don't. WELL worked better off-broadway. Spelling Bee lucked out and got the perfect size house for the show. If it were in a bigger house, it might have flopped. It's all about timing and luck. I don't think the number of flops in a year really matters. Something is going to stick. If Jersey Boys is the only hit of the season (although I'd count Color Purple as a hit), then that's okay.

And Caine Mutiny failed because it didn't get great reviews and it's a boring premis. The posters are boring and the plot just sounds boring.

[allofmylife]

Posted: 5/13/06 at 1:17am

Yankeefan007

are you kidding?

From my perspective of four decades of watching Broadway, THIS is the golden revival. I am SO impressed with how Broadway has learned how to use every media incredibly slickly to reach the public. This site, and broadway.com and playbill.com are fantastic. The emergence of The Macy's Parade and The Summer Fireworks show as a showcase for Broadway is pure genius. The marketing of Broadway (and yes, many take cues from Disney, who know how to sell **** to kakophiles) is superb and Hollywood could take a few lessons. Unique shows like the new Sweeny Todd and The Drowsy Chaperone are selling many many ticket. There's at least hafl a dozen solid hits on Broadway, probably a dozen and a large number of cowd-pleasers to attract the tourists. There is a pileup of shows circling Broadway, "playing the provinces" waiting for a theater to open up in New York. Brave new shows like Doubt win Pulitzers.

Every decade there's all sorts of chicken littles running around saying the sky is falling in on Broadway but today and for the forseeable future things are fine.

I can remember a few years ago when there was only ONE new musical that year eligible for a Tony as Best Musical. That was the year they loosened the rules and let in compilation shows.

No despiration here. Let's move on. Nothing to see. Move on folks.....

[neddyfrank2]

Posted: 5/13/06 at 2:06am

Yankeefan007- Are you really asking why in previews the producers just don't close a show and go back to the drawingboard? And using Disney as an example? This season is not the strongest, but look at next season Zhivago, Leaglly Blonde, Mary Poppins, The Times They Are A Changing, Pal Joey, Princess is on it's way. Plus people have been saying Broadway is dying for years, well it doesn't look dead to me, it looks like it is still in the early stages of a long life.

[ThankstoPhantom]

Posted: 5/13/06 at 8:11am

Why don't we all watch Broadway: The American Musical and listen to whaty Al Hirchfeld had to say...

"People have been saying it was going to disappearm ever since I started wearing long pants!"

Enough said.

[Yankeefan007]

Posted: 5/13/06 at 8:49am

neddyfrank2, look at the titles you just mentioned. Where is the originality in a musical based on Dr. Zhivago? What happened to the days when composers like Cole Porter were churning out one completely original show a year?

I'm not criticising the Zhivago production team. I'm just wondering when everyone will realize that some things don't need to be musicalized.

Updated On: 5/13/06 at 08:49 AM

[TennesseeTwang]

Posted: 5/13/06 at 9:26am

As and avid theater goer who does NOT live in the New York area, I have to say that there is a disconnect between the those of us who live in Nowheresville and theater fans in the Big Apple.

But it's not merely distance or a supposed lack of taste or sophistication by us from the sticks that causes it.

Out-of-towners sometimes default to familiar or star-driven vehicles because we simply feel that we're more likely to get your money's worth with something you know.

God bless Broadway World and other stage interest sites. But sometimes the information posted about various shows is actually more distancing for people like me than it is imformative. Sometimes you can be made to feel that you must know about the work of every single critic, playwright, composer, director and actor in NY no matter how obscure, in order to make intelligent decisions about which show to see. That becomes a job. Who has the time for that?

I pride myself on knowing the work of many of the most obscure TV and movie actors out there. But the stage actors that the people who frequent these boards gush about, raise no interest in someone like me because I don't know them from Adam, and I have no chance of knowing them unless they land a regular gig on a NY-based TV show.

So unfair or not, when theater interest sites post photos of some actor who is identifiable ONLY in New York (and only small parts of NY at that) as the star of some big, new, show with all the hullabaloo that would you would expect for some major movie star, and in a manner that suggests that we should care, it can be very off-putting.

The days of the old Ed Sullivan show when people in the flyover states could see numbers from musicals and feel compeled to see a Broadway show, are long gone and the fact that the Broadway district is no longer a vital and prestigious hub of the showbiz community, but a fringe element, doesn't help.

Also, when you sign on to a site like this, we are told that our tastes are low, and that we can't appreciate real art. It makes Broadway feel like a clique that can't be bothered with us.

But ironically, Broadway still needs our money, because regardless of how much people want to gush about high art, the NY theater is for the most part, a commercial enterprise, and always has been.

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 5/13/06 at 11:02am

New York City & its hotels, restaurants & bars pray it is not

What make kill it is not dearth of product but escalating prices which are simply putting Broadway out of the reach of many & that is a shame

When 33 years ago the top ticket price for a musical was about $ 9 & now $ 110 something is wrong. This is way beyond inflation. It is a luxury & not a necessity & this is the thorny question

[Thesbijean]

Posted: 5/13/06 at 11:40am

As far as originality goes, some of our most "beloved" Golden Age musicals are not original at all:

Oklahoma!
South Pacific
Guys and Dolls
Annie
Kiss Me, Kate
Oliver!
Gypsy
West Side Story
The Sound of Music

All based on previously exisitng material.

Sure, today, that notion has greatly evolved, but that's the way it works.

Shows like Beauty and the Beast, and Mamma Mia!, and Wicked and The Color Purple bring in the people to Broadway so the truly original shows can thrive and have a chance as well.

[Thesbijean]

Posted: 5/13/06 at 11:44am

Also, in terms of how much money it costs to produce a show now compared to 33 years ago, if you want to correlate the ticket price to the capitalization costs, the top regular ticket price today should not be $110, it should be $150 at the least.

[ThankstoPhantom]

Posted: 5/13/06 at 1:01pm

^There was a huge thread about ticket prices where there was discussion on how tickets are not underpriced, but overpriced. Tickets could be about $30 cheaper for the big hits and they'd still make a profit of about $300,00. coughcoughwickedcoughcough.

[ThankstoPhantom]

Posted: 5/13/06 at 1:02pm

Here is the thread:

https://forum.broadwayworld.com/readmessage.cfm?thread=894718#2117195

[BSoBW2]

Posted: 5/13/06 at 1:10pm

Star Power is hardly new. It was always needed.

-----------------------

I don't think you can compare Broadway now to Broadway then.

When T.V.'s and radios didn't cut it. People went to the theatre for their entertainment.

Media killed more than the radio star.

If someone like Ethel Merman came around today and did not use a mic she would be called a novelty or a gimmick, not a star.

(I am pretty sure there are more shwos running today than back when. I was just looking at an old playibll and maybe there were 15 Broadway shows listed as currently playing.)
Updated On: 5/13/06 at 01:10 PM

[ThankstoPhantom]

Posted: 5/13/06 at 1:16pm

It also should be taken into account that there used to be more theatres open than there are now. Broadway has been filled all season and only at the end of it will there be vacancies for the first time in a few months.

[Thesbijean]

Posted: 5/13/06 at 1:50pm

Using WICKED as an example, when a show recoups it's investment it doesn't necessarily need to charge $110, but when it is trying to make back everything, today, the "safe" and comparable to the golden age would be $150 top price for a ticket.

[beyondthebreakofday]

Posted: 5/13/06 at 2:04pm

"Oh, I've been hearing about Broadway disappearing ever since I put on long pants. I mean, it's been the fabulous invalid. But it survives, it survives." --Al Hirschfeld

[RentBoy86]

Posted: 5/13/06 at 11:46pm

The ticket price thing is interesting. I guess they don't see the point in lowering the price since it is selling-out weekly. Maybe in 5 years when it isn't such a big hit, they'll lower prices like RENT did. Unless they're like Phantom and still running at a great capacity for 20 years.