Let's Help Get Mame on Broadway

[Chanticleer148]

Let's Help Get Mame on Broadway#0

Posted: 6/16/06 at 5:46pm

How can we help to get the Kennedy Center Mame with Baranski and Harris on Broadway?

Please send me your suggestions, and I will post and circulate them.

Read the news on Thespis Journal and enjoy the linkfest!
Mame: Maybe on Broadway Linkfest!

[Michael Bennett]

re: Let's Help Get Mame on Broadway#1

Posted: 6/16/06 at 5:51pm

1. You can organize a really really big bakesale and sell cookies for about 100 dollars a piece and/or mortgage your house - two million dollars is what they are short.

2. Go outside of Meryl Streep and/or Nicole Kidman's apartments with 20 of your best friends each wearing one of Mame's fabulous gowns and sing the score until they are either inspired enough to want to do the show on Broadway or exasperated enough to give in.

3. Find 20 union dressers and 40 union stagehands who will work the show for free.

[Theatreboy49]

re: Let's Help Get Mame on Broadway#2

Posted: 6/16/06 at 5:57pm

Those are all great ideas michael

this show must come to NY the cast is wonderful

<------ Me and my friends with patti Lupone at my friends afterparty for her concert with audra mcdonald during the summer of 2007.
"I am sorry but it is an unjust world and virtue is only triumphant in theatricle performances" The Mikado

[ChanceWayne]

re: Let's Help Get Mame on Broadway#3

Posted: 6/16/06 at 8:10pm

"there have been many great shows revived in recent years that have been commercially and artistically successful. The Music Man, Kiss Me Kate, Annie Get Yoru Gun, and The King and I all appeared on Broadway in the last ten years and each played Broadway for more than a year."

I honestly find it hard to believe that "The Music Man" was a financial success. In fact except for "Annie Get Your Gun", I'd question if even "Kiss Me Kate" or "King and I" paid off its' investors. As far as "playing Broadway over a year", at the cost of mounting a show these days I don't believe even "Titanic", which had a healthy run, realized a profit. One things for sure, if "Mame" does go to NY and tanks, after "La Cage"s failure you can pretty well kiss a Broadway revival of "Hello Dolly!" goodbye.

[Katurian2]

re: Let's Help Get Mame on Broadway#4

Posted: 6/16/06 at 8:12pm

That is a lot of quotation marks

"Are you sorry for civilization? I am sorry for it too." ~Coast of Utopia: Shipwreck

[WickedGeek28]

re: Let's Help Get Mame on Broadway#5

Posted: 6/16/06 at 8:14pm

Awesome ideas Michael!

"You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view - until you climb into his skin and walk around in it."
To Kill A Mockingbird

[adamgreer]

re: Let's Help Get Mame on Broadway#6

Posted: 6/16/06 at 8:15pm

Neither The Music Man nor The King and I turned a profit. Kiss Me, Kate and Annie Get Your Gun only made marginal profits.

[WickedGeek28]

re: Let's Help Get Mame on Broadway#7

Posted: 6/16/06 at 8:28pm

If we all put in 10 bucks, we might buy one of Mame's earings.

"You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view - until you climb into his skin and walk around in it."
To Kill A Mockingbird

[Chanticleer148]

re: Let's Help Get Mame on Broadway#8

Posted: 6/16/06 at 8:36pm

Does every investor honestly expect to get their money back? The demise of Broadway revivals has been predicted for over forty years.

Long live Broadway revivals! and I believe that Sweeney Todd, while a small show, has returned its' investment!

[jimnysf]

re: Let's Help Get Mame on Broadway#9

Posted: 6/16/06 at 8:58pm

Make Gooch a vampire.
Give Vera a new song. One that can be shrieked out instead of sung.
Let Mame fly around instead of swing around.

"I've lost everything! Luis, Marty, my baby with Chris, Chris himself, James. All I ever wanted was love." --Sheridan Crane "Passions" ------- "Housework is like bad sex. Every time I do it, I swear I'll never do it again til the next time company comes."--"Lulu" from "Can't Stop The Music" ----- "When the right doors didn't open for him, he went through the wrong ones" - "Sweet Bird of Youth" ------------ --------- "Passions" is uncancelled! See NBC.com for more info.

[Smaxie]

re: Let's Help Get Mame on Broadway#10

Posted: 6/16/06 at 9:12pm

Guys & Dolls in 1992 set off the '90s musical revival craze. Leaving off the non-profit produced revivals, the following musical revivals have failed commercially:

She Loves Me
Damn Yankees
Candide
Show Boat
How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying
Once Upon a Mattress
The King & I
1776
The Sound of Music
On the Town
You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown
Jesus Christ Superstar
The Music Man
The Rocky Horror Show
Bells Are Ringing
42nd Street
Oklahoma!
Into the Woods
Flower Drum Song
Man of La Mancha
La Bohème
Gypsy
Wonderful Town
Fiddler on the Roof
La Cage aux Folles
Sweet Charity

Given that history and the current landscape, a revival of Mame that has already received downbeat notices from the NY Times, AP and Variety, with a $5 million capitalization and a weekly running cost of $600,000, and the lack of a big marquee value star that would have to vacate its theatre after 20 weeks does not seem like a wise investment

Begin at the beginning and go on till you come to the end: then stop.

Updated On: 6/16/06 at 09:12 PM

[morosco]

re: Let's Help Get Mame on Broadway#11

Posted: 6/16/06 at 9:24pm

I wish Liza was in shape to do MAME.

[Chanticleer148]

re: Let's Help Get Mame on Broadway#12

Posted: 6/16/06 at 10:12pm

How could 42nd Street have been a failure? It played for quite a while. Are you sure?
Mame on Broadway

[Chanticleer148]

re: Let's Help Get Mame on Broadway#13

Posted: 6/16/06 at 10:17pm

Check out this link regarding 42nd Street!
42nd Street Not A Commercial Failure!!!!!

[MargoChanning]

re: Let's Help Get Mame on Broadway#14

Posted: 6/16/06 at 10:21pm

"The Broadway production was close to recouping its investment, Playbill On-Line learned, and is expected to eventully pay back via the tour, licensing and in other ways."

So, yes the revival was a flop when it closed.

"What a story........ everything but the bloodhounds snappin' at her rear end." -- Birdie [http://margochanning.broadwayworld.com/] "The Devil Be Hittin' Me" -- Whitney

[FindingNamo]

re: Let's Help Get Mame on Broadway#15

Posted: 6/16/06 at 10:24pm

But it ran a long tiiiiiiiiiime.

Twitter @NamoInExile Instagram none

[Chanticleer148]

re: Let's Help Get Mame on Broadway#16

Posted: 6/16/06 at 10:25pm

Margo, I read your comments often, but you have stooped too low! What is your definition of a flop-"a show that came very close to repaying its' investment-and has a method of repaying it totally"??

Come on, with your standards there will be no more revivals!
Updated On: 6/16/06 at 10:25 PM

[Smaxie]

re: Let's Help Get Mame on Broadway#17

Posted: 6/16/06 at 10:40pm

A show that closes on Broadway without returning its investment is considered a flop, by Variety's standards, no matter how close it got to recouping. I wrote, quite deliberately, that the shows I listed "failed commercially," so as not to confuse financial failure with artistic failure. Although a lot of those musical revivals were artistic failures as well.

Begin at the beginning and go on till you come to the end: then stop.

[FindingNamo]

re: Let's Help Get Mame on Broadway#18

Posted: 6/16/06 at 10:43pm

How dayuh you? Yaw horrible! I bet you're all happy all those actors were out of work!

Twitter @NamoInExile Instagram none

[Chanticleer148]

re: Let's Help Get Mame on Broadway#19

Posted: 6/16/06 at 10:46pm

I wonder if you really personally saw and critqued many of the shows you listed?

The following shows were not artisitic failures by anyone's standard:

Damn Yankees, How To Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, The King And I, 1776, Gypsy, Sweet Charity, Oklahoma!, You're A Good Man Charlie Brown, nor La Boheme.

Bring on more of these great revivals. There is some risk in every investment.
Updated On: 6/16/06 at 10:46 PM

[jimnysf]

re: Let's Help Get Mame on Broadway#20

Posted: 6/16/06 at 10:54pm

"There is some risk in every investment."

I'd have to say the risk is greater for vampire musicals than revivals! So, investors, wise up and put your money into "Mame" instead of the next vampire musical.

"I've lost everything! Luis, Marty, my baby with Chris, Chris himself, James. All I ever wanted was love." --Sheridan Crane "Passions" ------- "Housework is like bad sex. Every time I do it, I swear I'll never do it again til the next time company comes."--"Lulu" from "Can't Stop The Music" ----- "When the right doors didn't open for him, he went through the wrong ones" - "Sweet Bird of Youth" ------------ --------- "Passions" is uncancelled! See NBC.com for more info.

[Smaxie]

re: Let's Help Get Mame on Broadway#21

Posted: 6/16/06 at 10:58pm

Yeah, I saw all of them, and stand by my statement that a lot of them failed commercially AND artistically. But I didn't say ALL of them were artistic failures, although I would argue with a few of the shows you list as artistic successes.

Begin at the beginning and go on till you come to the end: then stop.

[Chanticleer148]

re: Let's Help Get Mame on Broadway#22

Posted: 6/16/06 at 10:58pm

Precisely what my friend Kevin was just saying in our on-going conversation!

All hail the Broadway revival!
Let's Get MAME on Broadway!

[morosco]

re: Let's Help Get Mame on Broadway#23

Posted: 6/16/06 at 10:58pm

"The following shows were not artisitic failures by anyone's standard: Damn Yankees, How To Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, The King And I, 1776, Gypsy, Sweet Charity, Oklahoma!, You're A Good Man Charlie Brown, or La Boheme."

Not artistic failures by anyone's standard? Are you serious?? Or was that a typo?

[Chanticleer148]

re: Let's Help Get Mame on Broadway#24

Posted: 6/16/06 at 11:04pm

No "typo" my friend! These were beautiful productions worthy of long runs on Broadway. Each the shows that I metioned as artistic successes represent true moments of grand theater at its' finest.

Simpky because the public would not pay to see the show does not make the show an artistic failure.

I could provide reviews of most of these shows that would document the greatness of the production.

I am surprised that you could take time away from the re-opening of "The Lion King" to discuss legitimate theater with the rest of us!
Let's Get MAME on Broadway!