LEMPICKA Reviews — Page 4

Why is she getting dragged? She’s said nothing out of line with what others have.

theatergoer3 said: "Holden is getting dragged on Twitter but having seen an earlier preview, it’s a very fair review of the piece."

If twitter is where your most ardent supporters are, you've already failed.

Most shows lose money. If it were badly struggling like a production like Lempicka currently is, it would’ve closed last year. But it managed to eke out a run far longer than most shows and beyond what many expected from it. It wasn’t a case of delusion, as it is for some productions that keep trying to squeeze blood from a stone or bet on a Hail Mary awards turnaround. There was a not unreasonable path to recoupment for it, even if it fell short. ,

I wish everyone in this project the best, because despite not liking the show it was clearly made with good intention and I was never offended.

But I can’t help but wonder…could we be seeing a closing notice posted within the next couple of days?

Michael R Jackson thinking he’s Jeremy O Harris with these takes….other reviews said MUCH pettier things, yet he’s going after one of the only prominent female critics in the biz? (Though I suppose his feelings toward women in general can be gathered by how he writes about and for his own female characters in his shows.) Nevermind that Sara is one of the best in the biz when it comes to being measured and thoughtful. She even gave praise to Be More Chill for gods sake.

Twitter has convinced people like him who reach a certain level of following/echo chamber that the only way to cope with criticism is to say the critic is problematic or that they aren’t qualified because they didn’t “get” a show. There are PLENTY of actually problematic critics (Rex Reed HELLO?).

OhHiii said: "I mean, that's very clearly not the point I making which is a financial one. Kimberly Akimbo lost money for months leading up to the Tonys and very quickly started losing money again thereafter. There is no scenario in which you can call KA a financial success because it limped along through the awards. It won, it still lost money."

I doubt the producers of Kimberly Akimbo have much regret about staying open through last year's awards season. I would guess that they're happy that their show had a healthy run, won the big Tony, and lost some money - rather than closing early and losing some money.

Even from a purely financial standpoint, do you think the show will lose more money than it would have if it closed last spring? It's a genuine question; I'm not sure of the answer. I suspect it had enough good weeks over the past year that keeping it open was a smart business move, even if it will still close at a loss.

BorisTomashevsky said: "I’m seeing comments elsewhere (on DL) of “In two days”.
Not sure if that means it’s closing on Weds or the noticewill be coming out on Weds."

Shows don't typically close mid-week. They have to pay everyone through Sunday.

I have no insider knowledge to this matter, but if they raised only the minimum capitalization (instead of the max), it's possible that they don't have the money to keep running at a loss without a priority loan. Floating "we post closing in two days" can sometimes be a way to attempt to persuade a co-producer/investor to put up some additional funds, though putting a dollar into this sinking ship would be foolish and is not going to help its touring or licensing chances at all.

It's interesting that there are NO pull quotes on the website and socials when they do have shareable quotes that can be used, and typically there's a "war room" of press/advertising on Opening Night + an early-morning ad meeting the day after.

OhHiii said: "Given the STARK lack of any visible advertising this morning for this show, I'm willing to bet they have just enough in reserve to make it to nominations week and will post closing notice on Wednesday, May 1. This will get technical nominations easily, but really not much else that would give any hope of boosting it. There's no money to be made by shows playing hero and pushing through the awards time period. We saw how that panned out for Some Like It Hot, Shucked and Kimberly Akimbo last year."

It's not gonna get technical noms...

Ok, perhaps not re: tech noms.

Also, MRJ has now responded to Sara and completely contradicted his very own argument. He himself is telling a critic how to approach her work that she should not be critiquing how an artist approaches their own. He's made this exchange a....loop.

https://x.com/TheLivingMJ/status/1779915256149450929

He’s been on an anti-critic tear following the reviews for Teeth. I respect him a lot as an artist but he needs to step away from the keyboard.

Woah, I didn't expect the reviews for this show to be so negative, ouch. I hope this doesn't close before I get to see it.

These reviews are awful.