MAYBE HAPPY ENDING Reviews — Page 6

CoffeeBreak said: "Although we enjoyed the upgraded monetaryset design from the Asian production, the music never impacted us much. It's a cute showbut could have been done with same effect on smaller efficient budget. Unfortunately letting the creative team run wild with money didn't help this production thrive in the long run. The director and set designer areproducers and likely influential in overshooting the costs. It's unfortunate for this property to succumb to bad choices. The writers have many to blame.

Criss and the jazz singer were both standouts for us. Unfortunately, the big set design kept us from being able to fully engage, or be moved, by the story as we were just constantly watching the set. This show will be great for regional theaters and have more effect with smaller, smarter budgets from director/producers."

This is why I felt like it should’ve been off-broadway. It has real heart and didn’t need all the other stuff. While it was wonderful to experience on Broadway, I felt like that was a misstep.

If anyone is looking for a sign to go see this, go! I’m on my way home from today’s show and thought it was so heartwarming, beautiful, and clever. The cast was great and the sets were clever. The story was also enjoyable and heartwarming. I wish this production the best and hope it can last.


Tickets via TDF mezz left side. Great view.

ErmengardeStopSniveling said: "Please remember:JUST BECAUSE YOU PERSONALLY DON'T SEE ADVERTISING DOESN'T MEAN THEY'RE NOT DOING IT! Every show does advertising, press, marketing, and social media (and yes they are 4 different things). Nowadays, when the majority of the advertising spend goes towards targeted digital advertising, it's quite easy to not be served ads, even if you thinkyou are the target demographic for the show.

Every producer's strategy of when/howad money gets spent is a little different,and every show's needs are different. Saturating the marketplace before previews and in early previews might be a waste of money for a new musical with weird subject matter.

Linear & streaming TV advertising is expensive and sometimes not the best way to reach the target audience. GYPSY is a little easier to advertise in 15-30 seconds; this show needs a little more context as a new musical that nobody has heard of. Same goes for print ads in the NYT (though apparently they had a full page today).

On the press side, it's now much easier to pitch the show out following opening when there are reviews backing them up."

Whatever advertising plan they are doing clearly isn't working. They've got some of the best reviews of the season, yet when I just checked the available tickets for this Saturday evening, more than half of the theater is available. Their advertising strategy is not filling the theater. A show with reviews like MHE got should be selling out at least a week or two in advance. When I'm in the theater district and see ads for Tammy and not MHE, there is a real issue.

And I am likely the kind of theater goer that should be seeing some kind of advertising. I see several shows a year and follow multiple Broadway and theater focused accounts on social media. I have seen nothing and I'm hardly the only one. The producers needed to take these great reviews and do a real advertising push to market the show. Blow some money on some traditional advertising instead of comping and discounting tickets to below TKTS prices. I'm waiting for Tuesdays numbers, but without a serious increase in gross and capacity, I think that the show runners are going to have some hard and painful decisions to make and I take no pleasure in that. A show closing prematurely puts not just the cast, but all of the crew out of work. But the writing on the wall is hard to ignore.

Updated On: 11/18/24 at 03:52 AM

chrishuyen said: "I know people have said it's not possible because of set restrictions, but I think the best hope for this show would be to somehow scale it down for a New World Stages kind of run to basically "keep it in mind" come awards season, unless they magically start doing incredible business on Broadway. As we know, closed shows are rarely Tony winners, but maybe having it play elsewhere (even scaled down) would help keep it in conversation and also be a good chance to allow more people to see it at a lower cost to the production."

I’m thinking a one-night-only reunion concert in the spring, coupled with a cast album release, may help put the show back in the Tony conversation a bit.

If true they close Dec. 1, announcing early this week would get two weeks of solid sales starting to fill the massive financial hole.

Nicole Scherzinger & Helen J. Shen are on The Kelly Clarkson Show this Thursday, shot over 10 days ago.

Updated On: 11/18/24 at 03:57 PM

Updated On: 11/18/24 at 11:03 PM

Yeah, taking EDSOSL with anything but massive grains of salt would be a mistake. They predict every single show's imminent demise based on "people are saying" and whats "been floated" but its clear theyre just repeating unsubstantiated rumors. Some might turn out to be true, sure, but thats just the law of averages at this point. Pay no mind.

THAT SAID, its clear the show is struggling, so I was surprised to see that the two discount codes I have for it are not working, and i dont see it on TDF? Im not sure I understand the strategy of charging $104 to sit in the rear balcony or $250 for side orchestra when you cant sell out more than 40% of the dang place...but you do you, guys.

I have a ticket for the first week of December. Should I be worried?

iluvtheatertrash said: "witchoftheeast2 said: "I have a ticket for the first week of December. Should I be worried?"

As has been said REPEATEDLY, there is no definitive answer to that quesfion."

As I'm sure you realize since you have a brain, not everyone reads every single comment before posting. Cut me some slack, for the love of all that is good lmao

ErmengardeStopSniveling said: "For what all this is worth (and I have no insider knowledge on this show) —

The fact that they changed digital agencies days after opening makes no sense if a Dec 1 closing date is indeed set. That doesn’t mean they’re guaranteed to run for months more but it indicates to me that they’re still trying to make a go of it.

Respectfully, this is actually very common. Multiple shows over the past 3 years have changed or altered marketing agencies and closed within weeks following. Producers and General Managers will grasp at any straw to try and save a production. It's funny how social media suddenly becomes the crux of the issue, as if shows with huge social followings haven't fallen on their faces...

Respectfully, this is actuallyverycommon.Multiple shows over the past 3 years have changed or altered marketing agencies and closed within weeks following. Producers and General Managers will grasp at any straw to try and save a production. It's funny how social media suddenly becomes the crux of the issue, as if shows with huge social followings haven't fallen on their faces...

It appears they have cut ties with the social media agency only.