MUSIC MAN IN LAB

[troynow]

Posted: 9/23/20 at 10:10pm

On a happy note...The Music Man has begun a dance lab! I am reporting because it made me so happy. We are on the road to recovery! 

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 9/23/20 at 10:18pm

Which road to recovery are you looking at cuz it sure as hell ain’t the one these 201K people that died this year are on.

[Wesman702]

Posted: 9/23/20 at 10:54pm

Certainly news to brighten up the day. And the marquee is also up at the Winter Garden. I hope to get tickets for a preview in April, though several friends say that it won't happen until next fall!

[SweetLips22]

Posted: 9/23/20 at 11:14pm

Well at least 2 people are walking around with their head up their proverbial.

[fitzdavid2]

Posted: 9/23/20 at 11:46pm

I'd be surprised if they didn't postpone again, but they seem to be confident as they have just gone into a lab.  Why incur that expense now if you're not going to begin performances in April but are looking to a much later date.  More refunds will await eager ticket purchasers, who bought when the box office opened recently, and a lot of disappointment will be another unfortunate result if another postponement occurs.  Let's hope a vaccine becomes available very soon...for everyone's sake.

[Wallman2]

Posted: 9/24/20 at 12:16am

The marquee has gone up, they are in a lab, people are buying tickets and...they're going to postpone...what again?  Big surprise.  The show's leading character has morphed into reality.   The producer is like Harold Hill, he's a con man, exciting us all and then delaying again to whet our appetite.  I look forward to seeing the show even if Hugh and Sutton are senior citizens when they do it!

[Ravenclaw]

Posted: 9/24/20 at 5:32am

Unfortunately (or, perhaps, quite fortunately), Scott Rudin does not have any inside info on the state of the pandemic that he's keeping from us all. He doesn't know anything more about infectious diseases than anyone else. The fact that The Music Man is moving forward with a dance lab doesn't do anything to help theatre return any sooner.

As for why they would do a lab now if they're likely to postpone again, there are plenty of reasons--namely, it is my understanding (though I have never worked on a show that had a lab) that the purpose of the lab is not to have more rehearsal with the cast but for the creatives to workshop ideas. There are certain things you can only figure out in a rehearsal room with real people before you can tell if they work or not. And if you find out that the footprint of the set design doesn't give you the space that you need for your big dance sequence, or your concept for a number is only interesting for the first two minutes of the four-minute dance break, or some of your ideas just aren't working, it's helpful to know that months in advance, giving you time to make changes without a looming deadline of a first performance weeks away.

What the lab and the marquee do mean is that Rudin is determined to put this show up when he can. He wouldn't sink this much money (and this much publicity) into a show he ultimately would cancel. But the news doesn't indicate that the timeline will be any sooner than previously thought.

[DramaTeach]

Posted: 9/24/20 at 5:59am

I wouldn’t be surprised if they reopen and require masks for the audience and a bubble situation for the cast. It seemed as though other shows announced a spring reopening “if it’s safe” and MM just announced a spring opening. Perhaps a “come at your own risk” situation as long as they get the okay from the state? Schools are now open, so I bet they’re using that as the guinea pig that will help them make decisions about these others types of activities.

[temms]

Posted: 9/24/20 at 6:42am

Schools are not open in NYC. “Come at your own risk” is how we have over 200,000 dead.

[Kimbo]

Posted: 9/24/20 at 8:34am

DramaTeach said: "I wouldn’t be surprised if they reopen and require masks for the audience and a bubble situation for the cast. It seemed as though other shows announced a spring reopening “if it’s safe” and MM just announced a spring opening. Perhaps a “come at your own risk” situation as long as they get the okay from the state? Schools are now open, so I bet they’re using that as the guinea pig that will help them make decisions about these others types of activities."

“Come at your own risk”, “Bring the family but don’t forget your masks” and “Our cast won’t get you sick” is not a great sales pitch for a multi-million-dollar musical revival whose core audience is older theatergoers and tourists at a time when neither of those groups will be seeing shows in the city. That same plan didn’t work for Disney World or other theme parks this summer, it’s clearly not working so well for movies (who have overall younger audiences), and it won’t work for a splashy Broadway musical. 

If they go ahead this spring under those circumstances they’re looking at a blow-the-roof-off number of ticket refunds, cancellations and/or credit card disputes, the previously unthinkable idea of not being able to sell those returned tickets even for half-price at the TKTS booth, and the Hugh Jackman The Music Man playing to unintentionally socially distanced audiences and going down in the history books as one of the most astonishing and unnecessarily foolish flops of all time. 


The Spielberg “West Side Story” postponed for a year yesterday... Elton John announced his cancelled shows from April onward this year have been rescheduled to April on in 2022... smart moves, if it’s going to take a year to fully distribute a vaccine (and given the latest polls showing that currently less than 50% of the population plan on taking it right away).  I look forward to seeing The Music Man - but if it’s earlier than 2022 I’ll be surprised, if it’s earlier than next fall I’ll be stunned, and if it’s earlier than next summer I won’t be seeing it at all, despite having multiple sets of tickets (the production rescheduled me for this spring automatically, without me having to sign or approve anything, which isn’t enforceable in any case if I decide I want a refund for any reason- including, say, the fact that I don’t feel comfortable sitting in a theater until I no longer need to wear a mask).  


My guess? If there is a lab, he went ahead just to reaffirm his commitment to the show, in anticipation of postponing again and to try to make it harder for either of the stars to get out of it (should either of them want to) if/when he has to postpone again, like the Metropolitan Opera, by close to another full year. 

[Kad]

Posted: 9/24/20 at 9:25am

DramaTeach said: "I wouldn’t be surprised if they reopen and require masks for the audience and a bubble situation for the cast. It seemed as though other shows announced a spring reopening “if it’s safe” and MM just announced a spring opening. Perhaps a “come at your own risk” situation as long as they get the okay from the state? Schools are now open, so I bet they’re using that as the guinea pig that will help them make decisions about these others types of activities."

I’m sure Rudin would love that. But it’s not up to him, it’s up to the state and the city. And they have not given a single indication that they would allow theater reopening at this scale. 

[Claudia Draper]

Posted: 9/24/20 at 9:45am

There is no way this is opening in April.  I know it sucks.  Time to face reality.   Lincoln theater cancelled 20-21 season, more to follow.  Plus, IMO, Hugh cant keep his film schedule open.. or he he could.   I Predict Spring 2022.. About 8-12 months after vaccine.. 

[Kimbo]

Posted: 9/24/20 at 11:06am

Claudia Draper said: "There is no way this is opening in April. I know it sucks. Time to face reality. Lincoln theater cancelled 20-21 season, more to follow. Plus, IMO, Hugh cant keep his film schedule open.. or he he could. I Predict Spring 2022.. About 8-12 months after vaccine.."

THIS. Exactly.  I really do feel bad for anyone on here not facing reality and saying "Broadway could still open in March!" and accusing me and others of being pessimistic.  I don't think we are.  But I also don't succumb to the pessimism that  "if they don't open Broadway now they never will" or "Well, I guess The Music Man (or Plaza Suite, The Minutes, Company, [insert name of show here], even MJ) will never happen".  

In the case of the show we're talking about, films and TV are carefully shooting again - Hugh Jackman can easily shoot a feature film and 1 or 2 indies, or even a TV mini-series, in the next year and a half, and then do Music Man in spring 2022 – admittedly, a year and a half after it was supposed to happen. But I remember being in the audience for one of the first previews of Assassins in April 2004, more than TWO and a half years after it was cancelled because of 9/11.  It was thrilling.  And that thrill will benothing compared to the excitement when Music Man (and/or Company, Plaza Suite, etc.) similarly finally happen - when they're meant to, and when it's safe.

[briankershawjr]

Posted: 9/24/20 at 11:40am

Or they can do what Diana doing and record the show, and cast recording and find a streaming service to show it
No one know what Spring 2021 will look like so everyone chill...
Tv shows and movies have gone one let Broadway do the same but in a new way ... time to think outside the box

[DRSisLove]

Posted: 9/24/20 at 11:58am

"Schools are not open in NYC." That is not true. Pre-K and special education classes are back. The majority of classrooms open next week.

[DramaTeach]

Posted: 9/24/20 at 12:15pm

I didn’t say it was a good idea; I just said I could see Rudin doing that as long as he got the go-ahead from Cuomo. And yes, as DRS said, schools are open or opening in the next week.

[HogansHero]

Posted: 9/24/20 at 2:33pm

DramaTeach said: "I didn’t say it was a good idea; I just said I could see Rudin doing that as long as he got the go-ahead from Cuomo. And yes, as DRS said, schools are open or opening in the next week."

There is zero chance of getting the go-ahead from Cuomo for non-socially distanced theatre in the Spring. And as we have rehearsed enough times here that I would not think it requires repeating, Broadway cannot be viable with social distancing. 

Oh, and about the schools: (1) social distancing and (2) paid monitoring (aka teachers, etc) to enforce both SD and masks. Neither of these are viable options in the theatre. We could all learn a lot from ushers, but they cannot monitor 1000+ people crammed into their seats in the dark.

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 9/24/20 at 3:13pm

So much will be dependent on this vaccine which, *could*, according to Faucci, start to be given to frontline workers by November. Then it’s a matter of rollout which could last until the 3rd quarter of 2021. I had heard that when the rollout to the public starts, heavily populated places like NYC would be high on the priority list of places to get it so - I dunno lol.

[Jarethan]

Posted: 9/24/20 at 3:20pm

SweetLips22 said: "Well at least 2 people are walking around with their head up their proverbial."

Love your thought process...I was thinking ‘what fu**ing morons’...no imagery whatsoever.

[Jarethan]

Posted: 9/24/20 at 3:28pm

briankershawjr said: "Or they can do what Diana doing and record the show, and cast recording and find a streaming service to show it
No one know what Spring 2021 will look like so everyone chill...
Tv shows and movies have gone one let Broadway do the same but in a new way ... time to think outside the box "

That is a brilliant idea.  Since a huge percent of the blockbuster audience advance sales were specifically to see HJ, it would probably not have ANY negative impact but on future box office...and Rudin can probably return a huge percentage of the investment before it even has a first preview in front of audiences.

[Kimbo]

Posted: 9/24/20 at 3:39pm

There is ZERO chance of a majority of the population getting a vaccine, in NY or anywhere else, by spring 2021 so as to make a spring re-opening plausible.... even the head of the CDC said as much last week (before getting contradicted by Trump, the great scientist, of course.) "The director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention predicted Wednesday that most of the American public will not have access to a vaccine against the novel coronavirus until late spring or summer of next year — prompting a public rebuke from President Trump, who declared the CDC chief was wrong."

https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/cdc-director-says-coronavirus-vaccines-wont-be-widely-available-till-the-middle-of-next-year/2020/09/16/209fecf6-f827-11ea-be57-d00bb9bc632d_story.html

Look, I don't know what anyone's politics are and I didn't intend for this thread to get political, so I'll just say this:  The number of MAGA-hat-wearing, mask-denying, irresponsible Americans who will eagerly take a vaccine when it's introduced and also can't wait to get to a Broadway musical is a ridiculously small subsection of the population.... but the number of smart, seasoned, regular theatergoers who ARE otherwise responsible people, yet will somehow be the first ones to rush back into indoor theaters as soon as they re-open, is even smaller.  It's tragic that we have such a long road ahead of us.  But as the president said, "It is what it is".

Updated On: 9/24/20 at 03:39 PM

[HogansHero]

Posted: 9/24/20 at 4:13pm

and just to throw another layer of "no one knows" into the mix, today Cuomo has said that NY will do its own vetting of vaccines because we don't trust anything the current federal administration says or does.

In the last week, I have spoken to several doctors (friends, not as a patient) all of whom, separately, have said that there is no health care professional not speaking politically or commercially who thinks a level of vaccination will have penetrated to the extent that things will be "normal" again for another year. 

[Tsao5]

Posted: 9/24/20 at 6:15pm

Does "Lab" mean the ensemble is learning the dances or more along the line that the Choreographer is testing some dance ideas out with his Dance Captain and a few ensemble members?  Does anybody know who is in the ensemble?

[darquegk]

Posted: 9/24/20 at 6:45pm

Dear Scott Rudin: ensemble sways right then left on slow numbers, and bobs up and down at the knee for the uptempo numbers. Featured dancers can Pennywise a little during the dance breaks.

There. Choreographed the whole show. See you in 2024.

[HogansHero]

Posted: 9/24/20 at 7:10pm

darquegk said: "Dear Scott Rudin: ensemble sways right then left on slow numbers, and bobs up and down at the knee for the uptempo numbers. Featured dancers can Pennywise a little during the dance breaks.

There. Choreographed the whole show. See you in 2024."

Could you be any more insulting in 2020?