Is the 'On The Town' Tour Still Happening?

[fbueller]

Posted: 6/8/16 at 9:25am

I haven't heard any mention of this in over a year.  Is a tour still planned?  I know Tony Yazbeck was committed to doing it.

[Call_me_jorge]

Posted: 6/8/16 at 9:33am

The producers lost ALL their money from the Broadway production so I do not think it will be happening any time soon.

[neonlightsxo]

Posted: 6/8/16 at 9:46am

There's no money. Are you paying for it? If not, then no.

[HogansHero]

Posted: 6/8/16 at 10:21am

it.never.was. 

Aside from the obvious money-raising issue (something that could be overcome with an insane investment like the one that kept the show running months beyond its sell-by date), a tour is dependent on a critical mass of venues actually wanting to book the show. 

[QueenAlice]

Posted: 6/8/16 at 5:19pm

I suspect one of the reasons so many productions are 'announced' to tour is that they in fact use the announcement to try to gauge the likelihood of potential bookings.   Hypothetically, you need to have a 'tour' before you can sell it -- and the reason so many announced tours never happen is indeed because there isn't enough interest to justify the costs to move forward with actually producing it. There also seems to be some belief that shows with an 'announced national tour' are given more consideration by the road presenters, many of whom vote for the Tony Awards. 

  

Updated On: 6/8/16 at 05:19 PM

[gypsy101]

Posted: 6/8/16 at 5:22pm

ah yes, like Avenue Q did in '04 (didn't that tour take like 5 or 6 years to finally happen? when it finally did I unfortunately missed it and never heard anything about another visit near me ever again)

[Call_me_jorge]

Posted: 6/8/16 at 5:23pm

Isn't it also to please investors?

[QueenAlice]

Posted: 6/8/16 at 5:32pm

The controversy of AVENUE Q was that it announced a tour and then reneged when a lucrative offer came from Wynn resorts in Vegas to do an exclusive 'sit down' production in lieu of a tour.

In terms of pleasing investors, it would depend completely on what the original subscription documents for the Broadway production define. Sometimes the 'parent' company receives what is more or less a 'licensing fee' when a tour goes out, which is distributed to the original investors -- but usually, its just set up that the investors in the original Broadway production have 'first dibs' on becoming investors in a tour.  At any rate, the tour is always produced as a separate LLC from the Broadway LLC so outside of the scenarios I mention above -- they would operate like two completely different organizations in terms of repaying investors.

[GavestonPS]

Posted: 6/8/16 at 6:16pm

gypsy101 said: "ah yes, like Avenue Q did in '04 (didn't that tour take like 5 or 6 years to finally happen? when it finally did I unfortunately missed it and never heard anything about another visit near me ever again)

 

"

I can't speak for the Eastern half of the country, but I heard AVENUE Q decided to go with a sit-down production in Vegas instead. Part of the deal was that there would be no tour (at least not of the Western states, including CA) that might compete for viewers who also go to Vegas regularly.

After the Vegas production failed, basically, a West Coast tour was hastily assembled. I saw the show in San Diego and it was excellent. The same show later played its way up the West Coast.

(Sorry. Obviously, I hadn't seen that the previous poster had already provided part of the story.)

Updated On: 6/8/16 at 06:16 PM

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 6/8/16 at 6:37pm

Right, I saw the same tour in Vancouver.

 

I wish this tour was happening.  I'm sure it won't--but one thing, while they did originally I believe say it would open in 2016, but oddly they also said it would be a part of the heavily funded Bernstein centenary celebration--which will happen throughout 2018.  So *maybe* something could still happen (yes, yes, I know I'm grasping and you don't have to tell me...)

[LesWickedly]

Posted: 6/8/16 at 6:50pm

I saw the title and laughed.