London Loved It/New York Hated It — Page 2

everythingtaboo said: "

There was a period of transfers that were well-received in London, but underwhelmed critically or commercially here. I recall Jumpers andEnron, to musicals like The Woman in White,American PsychoandTaboo."

Woman in White was a baffling transfer as it was always struggling in London (and got very mixed reviews) ultimately running a year and a half (and I kinda have a soft spot for the show, so take little pleasure in that :P )

American Psycho seems to be the Almeida curse that Tammy Faye suffered from as well.  Don't get me wrong, I think it's a MUCH better and more interesting show.  But in both cases the shows got great reviews and had sold out limited engagement runs in the TINY (300 seats?) Almeida and then, I guess call it producers' hubris, the decision was that the next move should be a big Broadway production.

(I guess Taboo suffered from that too--the DVD of the London production shows how reliant it was on being a VERY intimate production.  I assume for Broadway there was a concern maybe that they had to really exaggerate and play up things like the 80s London club scene for whatever reason and, God love Charles Bush but he wasn't a great fit for the sincerity of the show, although I'm sure he was just doing what he was asked to, by camping it up.)

 

Chess of course is an obvious example--but not only was the Broadway version a different production, it was a vastly different text as well.  Does that make a difference?  (I suppose that's true of Taboo as well.)

Coming the other way, 2 shows that lasted less than 2 months in the West End, Spring Awakening and The Drowsy Chaperone. Not even Elaine Page couldn't sell tickets for that. I dont recall it having much publicity before it opened.

Jeffrey Karasarides said: "The Trevor Nunn-helmed revival of Oklahoma!.

When it was in London, it received a ton of acclaim. Although when it eventually came to Broadway, it wasn't as well received."

Yeah, I always wondered why this was such a non event.  I had seen Patrick Wilson in the tour of Carousel, I guess almost five years before he played Curly on Broadway--and he was terrific.

TotallyEffed said: "I can’t be the only one who thinks Kinky Boots is trash."

 Between the two, it's certainly the one that's actually written at a small child's reading level. 

Famously you had Carrie which was such a belly flop they based a book on it.

Also Five Guys Named Moe

Blood Brothers was a good show, wonder if it would’ve done better if Frank Rich liked it, but……..

 

TBFL said: "Carrie didnt play in London, it was on in Stratford-Upon-Avon and it also got terrible reviews there"

You are dead right, it only played Stratford Upon Avon (RSC).

One that sprung to mind for no other reason that I’m in London right now and saw at the Bridge Theatre, Into the Woods which a production came from the Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre and transferred to Cemtral Park, Delacorte Theater. I saw both and both were dreadful.

Doesn't exactly count, but the original production of West Side Story did much better when it opened in London than it had in New York, though New York certainly didn't hate it.