Just An Opinion Of Legally Blonde/LoveMusik @ Tony's- Page 2

[Unmasked05]

Posted: 5/24/07 at 5:09pm

THAT'S WHAT I'M SAYING UCJRDUDE902 !!!

[wickedfan]

Posted: 5/24/07 at 5:13pm

Here's an idea, let's not do any more tributes, cut down just about everyone's speeches unless there's the off chance that it's interesting, take away those damn annoying representatives for the Tony's who come up with a speech or skit to tell what the Tony's are about and just have pretty much all performances and the winners announced. It should make for about a 2 hour telecast. Sound fair? Sounds fair.

"Well obviously it didn't interest them enough to go out and buy tickets, because the show closed at a loss by the end of the year."

Oh shut up, Foster. You as well as anyone knows that when Tony nominations came out, the show got a nice boost in ticket sales. Not huge, but definitely a noticeable one. Ticket sales remained decent until a few weeks after the Tony's. This isn't because of their friggin' performance, that's probably the only reason the show had a higher attendance rating than usual. Sales started to drop because they won NO TONYS and besides the Wedding Singer fanatics, there wasn't enough word of mouth for the show to go on.

[jordangirl]

Posted: 5/24/07 at 5:19pm

Ok, here's a question about Fantasia performing... Will she be last or first or somewhere in the middle?

Because I'm almost willing to bet that those R&B fans of hers will tune in (if they do) long enough to see HER and then they're outta there. It'll be interesting to see the ratings BEFORE she performs as opposed to AFTER. I'm gonna guess there's a big old drop.

[mightydog]

Posted: 5/24/07 at 5:32pm

My head is spinning from reading this thread. I don't think this point has been raised before but thought I'd throw it out there for discussion/consideration. Why are people making the assumption that if Legally Blonde and LoveMusik performed the ratings would be higher? Assuming that "theatre" fans watch the program to begin with why would those two perfromances draw in people who don't care about theatre? Wouldn't you have to be watching it in the first place to know those two shows were perfroming numbers? Or would CBS advertise Legally Blonde's 3.5 mintue perforrmance in its lead up to the broadcast?

This is all very silly. The real problem is how do we create more theatre fans in the USA. Showing a brief musical number is not going to accomplish that for sure. Like Oh my God you Guys....

[Ourtime992]

Posted: 5/24/07 at 5:58pm

Recent Tony broadcasts have been little more than infomercials designed to convince anyone who might tune in that live theater is boring and not worth bothering with.

Don't forget the Cadillacs. Based on the commercials, the Tony Awards must have been designed to sell a lot of those puppies.

[Virgo]

Posted: 5/24/07 at 6:02pm

"Because I'm almost willing to bet that those R&B fans of hers will tune in (if they do) long enough to see HER and then they're outta there. "

I'm willing to bet if they are strictly r & b fans of hers that they won't tune into the Tony's at all. She's not going to be performing her songs, she's going to be performing a song from TCP musical which if you're a fan of her music only you'll be disappointed because you can't get it anywhere on cd, so her largest draw will come from:

Color Purple Musical Fans
Color Purple Movie Fans
Some American Idol Fans
Her Stellar Reviews
Lifetime watchers of her movie (she had 19 million viewers there)

etc, I'm thinking that the r & b fans are going to be minimal.

[Wanna Be A Foster]

Posted: 5/24/07 at 10:33pm

Very valid points, mightydog.

[jordangirl]

Posted: 5/24/07 at 10:37pm

Good points Virgo.

I do think that the ones who MIGHT watch just for her will turn to another channel pretty quickly after her performance.

[TechEverlasting]

Posted: 5/24/07 at 11:02pm

It is my assumption that if the Tony broadcasts sucked less more people would watch them.

Earlier in the thread I compared the Tony broadcast to the American Idol season finale. I'm not a big A.I. fan, and strongly dislike the excessive ornamentation and ersatz soul singing style that the show has popularized. I have to admit that the portion of the A.I. season finale that I saw was a very engaging, entertaining show. It was one production number after another, varying styles and presentations, and there wasn't a dull moment in it.

Do you guys really think that Broadway can't put on a better TV show than that? Aren't there far more gifted performers working on Broadway, far better songs being written, far better ideas to present? Why should a bunch of amateur hacks be able to get television's biggest audiences while the Broadway community presents two hours of boring speeches interspersed with a few minutes of entertainment here and there.

When an attempt is made to enliven the proceedings with a song from a show that might appeal to younger viewers all we hear about is the rules. Yawn.

[CurtainPullDowner]

Posted: 5/25/07 at 1:24am

I remember as a young Theatre Geek waiting for the TONYs to see a performer like Gwen Verdon, John Rait, or The Merm on my black and white TV.
The idea that Fantasia (despite whatever her talents are) is the big draw on Broadway just depresses me.
And people calling her the best in a decade is just scarey when we have had such people as Sutton and Hunter, Ebersole, Cerveris, Arden, Block, Espinoza, Mc Donald, etc. etc. etc.
oh well.
Updated On: 5/25/07 at 01:24 AM

[RentHead2]

Posted: 5/25/07 at 6:31am

Many good points have been raised here, but really the Tony's should be a celebration of what has been on broadway in the past year - Considering that Legally Blonde is nominated for just about everything BUT Best Musical seems very awkward. By not allowing Legally Blonde/LoveMusik to play they are hurting these productions - especially with the crowd Legally Blonde may be able to draw in. And THE COLOR PURPLE should not be allowed to perform again, why are only specific rules applying to certain shows. I don't care which American Idol it is or what kind of reviews they are getting - they should not be allowed to perform again.

[mightydog]

Posted: 5/25/07 at 9:41am

Renthead I agree with your sentiment. However, Why not Pirate Queen and Les Mis too? Where do they draw the line? Should all shows perform or just the ones still open? Surely, High Fidelity & Times They are a Changing were part of the season. Doesn't B'way celbrate the season when they do the performances in Times Square or Stars inthe alley?

[unckristen]

Posted: 5/25/07 at 9:59am

The line isn't easy to draw if you expand beyond Best Musical and Best Revival nominees. But I would point out that for anyone outside of NY, those Times Square and Stars in the Alley peformances are difficult if not impossible to see. The Tony broadcast and the various talk show performances (Today Show, The View (although that will probably lessen without Rosie pushing it) and the clips you may get to see on Breakfast with the Arts) are about it for most of the country.

[RentHead2]

Posted: 5/25/07 at 10:10am

Truthfully, any show currently on broadway should have its chance to shine at the Tony's whether it was a flop or a success - and it shouldn't matter whos in it. I, for one, am completly turned off by Fantasia in the Color Purple. I want to see an upcoming young star, not someone already established make the role there own; but I believe it bull that they are making a special segment for The Color Purple. And, I hate to admit it but if a show closed during that year they should have a choice of whether they want to perform or not. Its not only about the ratings on tv, its the cd's/tickets that they can sell on broadway with the numbers performed. I remember I bought THE WEDDING SINGER cd immediatly after I saw the performance and bought tickets for the show. And The Wedding Singer became the show I went to see 6 times.....why, "its your wedding day" just got me hooked on the Tony's.

[unckristen]

Posted: 5/25/07 at 10:18am

Renthead -- I agree with your Wedding Singer comment. I never saw the show but after seeing the Tony performance I bought the cast recording (and was glad I did.

[Malaijah]

Posted: 5/25/07 at 2:01pm

“I, for one, am completly turned off by Fantasia in the Color Purple. I want to see an upcoming young star, not someone already established make the role there own”

Have you seen TCP? If so, have you seen it with Fantasia? If not, how can you be turned off by her in TCP. Or is it the idea of her being in it that’s turning you off?

Before TCP, Fantasia had never even seen a Broadway show, so she’s far from “established.” She’s also only 22 years old, so I’d think that would put her in the “young” category. And according the critics’ reviews she’s a star in the role and has made it her own (I saw her in the show and agree). So, what do you want to see in the show again?

Anyway, I agree that more shows should be given the opportunity to perform and shine.

[iliketheater]

Posted: 5/25/07 at 3:06pm

When was it announced that Fantasia would be performing this year? I think that it's totally unfair that they're allowing her to perform, and not shows that actually opened this season. TCP was LAST YEAR for goodness sake! If we're going to see another performance from anything, I'd like it to be a long runner, like Chicago, or anythign we haven't seen in a while. I agree with the idea of even more performances at the Tonys, I actually think that that would help to boost viewship, even if only a little bit. If the Tonys could be the awards show with the best performances (which it already is ), and the MOST performaces, even more theater fans would watch, it would almost be like it's own show

*Just my wishful thinking*

[mightydog]

Posted: 5/25/07 at 3:28pm

Maybe Fantasia and Blake can perform Broadway standards to fill in the gaps. Sprint, who is a sponsor can then have people text the word "vote" and America can select the winners in every category?