Is It Ever OK to Cancel a Show If the Audience is Too Small? — Page 2

I worked in a theatre for a show that had a long-ish run, and one night they had like 15 people in a house for 500, and they gave everyone tickets to another performance... the last show I directed had a week-long run, and one matinee had really low attendance. We never would've cancelled though- I just went backstage and was like "umm, there's hardly anyone here... but give them the best performance you have". And because it was a ridiculous show in a small house, they just went nuts. It did feel informal, but everyone had fun. The actors got practice and the audience got what they paid for. In those kinds of Off-Broadway kinds of things, I think it can still work just fine.

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I worked at the beginning of my career with the touring company of Second City. That's six (sometimes five people. On ocassion, the cast outnumbered the audience and someone would say "Laugh damn it, we outnumber you and we're ready for a fight."

Got a good laugh.

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Are you guys crazy? IT IS NEVER OKAY TO CANCEL A SHOW, especially based on attendance. No show needs alot of audience members. Wicked does not need 100 people. I would be perfectly happy watching the show all by myself. I've played a show of 8 before and it went amazingly, the audience loved and the actors loved it, because heres the simple truth, YOU SHOULD GIVE 150% WHETHER THEIR ARE 10 PEOPLE OR 1000 PEOPLE IN THE AUDIENCE! It's that simple. There's no audience during run-throughs, so why is it all of a sudden so important to have a big one once the show starts. If you care about the audience size then your not a real actor, your just a diva.

In the late 1950s I saw the first matinee after the opening night in NYC of an import called Patate, atarring Tom Ewell. I spotted only 3 other people in the audience that afternoon. The cast performed this comedy as if the theatre were full. True professionals. The show closed that Saturday night.

It is a very sticky subject with no clear cut answer..

I have been working for professional arts organizations for the past couple of years and there have been several occasions where a show has been cancelled due to lack of ticket sales. Of course, this is due to the fact that with the lack of funding, many of these organizations can't afford to lose money on a show. It is also not usually the presenting theatre who cancels, but the actual performing group. They check the daily sales records and if it looks like the show will be a big financial failure they will cancel rather than risk a huge loss. Last year we had a show booked into a 2,500 seat theatre and a week prior to the show only 300 tickets had been sold. The performer decided to back out of their commitment rather than go on and lose money.

In commercial theatre it is all about money, so of course if it means cutting losses then the powers that be will pull the plug. In amateur or educational productions I don't think a show should be cancelled for lack of audience. Most of the time these organizations have paid for the rights up front (or mostly up front) for a certain number of performances and I am not sure how easy it would be to get any of it refunded if they decided to cancel for lack of ticket sales. I think it is also unfair to performers who have put in time excess of their day jobs, who are performing for nothing more than a love of theatre, to have a production they have put in many nights in row to prepare for cancelled.

I volunteered at a community theatre production of Lippa's John and Jen once and the audience barely outnumbered THAT cast on stage -- but the show went on!

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"a comedy or big action piece that requires audiences laughing and participating needs a lot of noise and energy."


A good actor should never be intimidated by lack of laughs or energy.

Well as a prodcuer of shows I think you should never cancel a show due to the fact that your house is too small. I have produced shows on a small scale ane oncee we had a single person show up for a show I produced during a very well attended long run and we still did the show and the cast gave it 100%. I think doing a show for a sell out crowd or a small group of people is truly a learning experience and what live theater is about

I have personally performed in a play to 6 people in a theater that held 502 seats. It was strange, yes, but we did it.

The next year, I wrote, directed, and acted in a play. On a matinee performance on a Saturday afternoon, we performed for an audience of 6 people (again), but this time in a conference room that we used as a theater. We were a cast of 10. One of the 6 people included my mother!!! But it was a good dress rehearsal because we performed to a sold out house that night!

I am currently in another show. Last Sunday's matinee had a dramatic drop off in attendance in comparison to the Friday and Saturday audiences. One of the actors complained that he didn’t want to perform in front of such a small number of people. I think he was kidding. But I didn’t care! Plus, the audience was fun. This one woman gasped during a scene that made my day. Also, people seemed to be really in the show compared to our Saturday night audience. Plus, I have performed in shows at this school before and know that the Sunday matinees draw small audiences.

So, my conclusion – the show must go on no matter how many people are in the audience!

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I did a performance one night that had two tickets sold at the places call. The audience was to be my dad and his wife. The cast asked if they could come back the next night, but, alas, as they had traveled from out of town and had plans the next night, that was not possible.

When the show started, I was startled to find a third person in the house. Who was it?!?

The man I was dating! Needless to say, the rest of the cast was not amused.

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millie_dillmount, I can't remember the exact title of the show but it started "From Frying Pan to Fire" and I *think* the rest was, "From Animal to Human Holocaust" (and there may have been more after that still) - it was a dark, satirical, political type of thing, a musical, done for Fringe I think...I didn't see it myself - the night I was supposed to go but then was feeling too crap to pull myself out of the house was that night they only had two people!

Forgive me if someone else already posted this:

There's a segment on the tribute to "The Fantasticks" DVD that addresses this question. Tom Jones mentions that although it ended up holding the record as the longest running Off- Broadway show, there were nights when only a handful of people were in the audience. "Once", Jones states, "there was only one man who showed up and we asked him if he would kindly switch his ticket for another evening to which he replied, ABSOLUTELY NOT!" The show went on that evening.

You should never, EVER, cancel a production based on the size of the audience.

First of all, they are paying customers who have probably been looking forward to seeing whatever it is they are seeing.

And Second, if you are a true actor you should love to perform no matter what.

The show must go on!! :)