NY, NY may be on its way to closing-NY Post- Page 6

[ErmengardeStopSniveling]

Posted: 7/24/23 at 12:26am

Tag said: "My bet would be any "staff" finding out through Instagram would be FOH staff."

Or people not checking their emails.

[IronMan]

Posted: 7/24/23 at 12:31am

Yes, by union rules they only need to give one week's notice.  I once worked a flop that was given notice on a Tuesday evening that the show would close at the end of that week on Sunday, which is allowable.  And we all fully expected it. 

When a show is struggling (and everyone involved knew this one wasn't hitting), you dread the expected "Full company meeting on stage" announcement.  It's never cake. 

[Jumpin_J]

Posted: 7/24/23 at 8:05am

This was textbook on how not to produce a show. I mean that literally. This should be taught. Here you have a show originally costing $25M (thought some estimates are now $27M), never tried out of town, no stars, a protagonist who's despicable, more B plots than a hive, and somehow a multi Tony award producer like Sonia Friedman and others thought this was a banger of a show that it would generate $950M per week just to break even. I was approached to be in this. I asked a producer why in the world would I want to invest with all that in mind? They said, "We're marketing this like Moulin Rouge, like an extravaganza". My reply was great, except one problem: you're not Moulin Rouge. Moulin was tried out of town where it got raves, Danny Bernstein was already well known, and people knew the property from the hit movie. NY NY was exactly the opposite. I wouldn't have invested in it with other people's money. This thing was like the Titanic. I knew it would sink on impact and no one would listen to me. It's sad as so many people are going to be out of a job and investors are going to be out a ton of money, but it makes me angry that all of this was 100% predictable. 

[Impeach2017]

Posted: 7/24/23 at 9:11am

I remember the movie - there was zero chemistry between the leads and a boring backstory. The only thing it had going for it was a star turn based on the actress's own mother. It seems the producers decided to follow its lead, except for the star part.

[ucjrdude902]

Posted: 7/24/23 at 9:27am

It seems to me the show banked on putting LMM's name on it and didn't get the return/following they expected. Is his name slowly losing momentum/drawing power?

[verywellthensigh]

Posted: 7/24/23 at 9:37am

Impeach2017 said: "I remember the movie - there was zero chemistry between the leads and a boring backstory. The only thing it had going for it was a star turn based on the actress's own mother. It seems the producers decided to follow its lead, except for the star part."

The movie was actually inspired by Doris Day's early career.

I was rooting for this show, but it seems to have died by trying to be everything to everyone.

[Theatrefanboy1]

Posted: 7/24/23 at 9:43am

I hope this is the point where people realize that LMM is not a god of sorts. I’ve found him overrated since In the heights. (Not saying there’s no talent… just a lot of pretentiousness). Same as Hamilton. Interesting but not the most important piece of theatre.  And yet it seemed to have him thrown into anything now to be the creative. Like not every fish New Yorker American, Hawaiian, needs to drop a beat in some sort of hip hop meh style. Anyway. Hopefully this will let him take a break for like a decade.  

[Mr. Wormwood]

Posted: 7/24/23 at 10:08am

If LMM wrote another original musical himself like In the Heights or Hamilton, it would be a huge event with a ton of advanced sales and initially incredible box office numbers (with the potential to hold up for a long time if the quality is strong). Don't act like him contributing lyrics is the same thing. Yes, I do think the NYNY team thought that was more of a draw than it ended up being but to use that to make a point that LMM isn't a draw anymore is just silly talk 

[BMcGregor]

Posted: 7/24/23 at 10:19am

Theatrefanboy1 said: "I hope this is the point where people realize that LMM is not a god of sorts. I’ve found him overrated since In the heights. (Not saying there’s no talent… just a lot of pretentiousness). Same as Hamilton. Interesting but not the most important piece of theatre. And yet it seemed to have him thrown into anything now to be the creative. Like not every fish New Yorker American, Hawaiian, needs to drop a beat in some sort of hip hop meh style. Anyway. Hopefully this will let him take a break for like a decade."

What a nonsensical takeaway from this situation. 

[Jumpin_J]

Posted: 7/24/23 at 10:57am

The problem here is no one associated with this show is "god of sorts". Susan Strohman. She had a massive hit with The Producers. That was 2000. In the words of Janet Jackson, "what have you done for me lately"? Nearly every show she's done since then has tanked. For LMM, The Disney company has been good to him, but he did Freestyle Love Supreme on Broadway and that tanked. And while John Kander has had many shows, the reality is a handful have been hits, most notably Chicago and Cabaret and Kiss Of The Spider Woman. He still wrote wonderful songs since then, but most of the songs were attached to awful shows. What made anyone think that mashing all of them together would equate a hit show is beyond me. 

[JoeW4]

Posted: 7/24/23 at 11:23am

Jumpin_J said: "he did Freestyle Love Supreme on Broadway and that tanked."

 

https://playbill.com/article/lin-manuel-mirandas-freestyle-love-supreme-recoups-broadway-investment

 

[verywellthensigh]

Posted: 7/24/23 at 11:24am

No one is "a god" nor does anyone ask to be.

They're artists and part of being an artist in the game is having failures. 

[jkcohen626]

Posted: 7/24/23 at 11:26am

I don't know the history, but this show feels like a very producer-driven made-by-committee show. The idea of the show's 4 (living) writers ever sitting down together and coming up with this show or the 4 of them + Stro sitting down feels unlikely to me. It feels like an idea that Sonia and Tom had and they simply brought in people to fill in the gaps. 

[Voter]

Posted: 7/24/23 at 11:31am

I standby that if this had done an out of town... it could have been salvaged

[bdn223]

Posted: 7/24/23 at 11:44am

Jumpin_J said: "The problem here is no one associated with this show is "god of sorts". Susan Strohman. She had a massive hit with The Producers. That was 2000. In the words of Janet Jackson, "what have you done for me lately"? Nearly every show she's done since then has tanked. For LMM, The Disney company has been good to him, but he did Freestyle Love Supreme on Broadway and that tanked. And while John Kander has had many shows, the reality is a handful have been hits, most notably Chicago and Cabaret and Kiss Of The Spider Woman. He still wrote wonderful songs since then, but most of the songs were attached to awful shows. What made anyone think that mashing all of them together would equate a hit show is beyond me."

I don't know what your talking about when it comes to Freestyle Love Supreme. The original 2019-2020 run was a massive hit averaging $740K and 90.7% capacity a week at the Booth with an average ticket price of $137. While yes the 2021-2022 run was averaged only about half that with an average gross of $337K capacity of 74% and ticket price of $80, but remember Freestyle Love Supreme was one of the first shows to reopen on Broadway after the pandemic, when nearly all shows struggled to get audiences into the theater. For a show with no names and just Miranda's name on the marquee is sold on par with both Diana and Girl from the North Country, and Caroline of Change, and nearly tripled the grosses of Slave Play another pre-pandemic limited run with buzz that decided to comeback to a return engagement after the pandemic.

 It was Lin Manuel Miranda's association with New York, New York that allowed the show to build up enough of an advance before reviews came out that the show with no names and no identifiable IP attached to hover around $1M a week in ticket sales through the Tony Awards. To those who disagree, Miranda was the one featured in all of the production's more mainstream press appearances and the angle producers could use to get the show booked. I know Colbert is a theater fan, but do you think his producers would allow him to just have a sit-down interview with John Kander and dedicate basically an entire show to New York, New York if Lin Manuel Miranda were not guaranteed to be sitting beside him?

 

No show nowadays is completely critic proof production unless the show either has a a star with big enough fanbase to sell it or its based on an IP film or musician juggernaut. Once the reviews came in for New York, New York though, the bubble burst for audiences that this would not be the next Hamilton and its not like the show had any other selling points. If the show actually opened to positive reviews and word of mouth, it's early sales indicated it would of been a big hit, it likely wouldn't have turned a profit based on its financials, but it would of at least played a couple of years. Even if the show opened to mixed to positive reviews and lukewarm word of mouth it would of at least made it to January, although I will admit the reported $1.2M operating costs would have been a big hurdle, it could of easily maintained $800K-$900K a week.

[Wonkawizzer]

Posted: 7/24/23 at 11:46am

Sutton Ross said: "n2nbaby said: "From the posts on NYNY’s Instagram posts, people employed with the show found out about its closing on social media. They even sent out work schedules for the first week of August this morning, just to post the closing notice today."

People assumed that and are attacking the show for it but we don't know for a fact they weren't told before today."

I work at the theater and found out on Twitter that I’ll be unemployed as of next sunday

[Dylan Smith4]

Posted: 7/24/23 at 11:47am

Wonkawizzer said: "Sutton Ross said: "n2nbaby said: "From the posts on NYNY’s Instagram posts, people employed with the show found out about its closing on social media. They even sent out work schedules for the first week of August this morning, just to post the closing notice today."

People assumed that and are attacking the show for it but we don't know for a fact they weren't told before today."

I work at the theater and found out on Twitter that I’ll be unemployed as of next sunday"

DAMN!!! So sorry to hear that!

 

[Luminaire2]

Posted: 7/24/23 at 12:12pm

If the reported 1.2 million weekly operating cost is accurate, this needs to be a wake up call to everyone. Such a number is not sustainable.

[Tag]

Posted: 7/24/23 at 12:56pm

Wonkawizzer said: "Sutton Ross said: "n2nbaby said: "From the posts on NYNY’s Instagram posts, people employed with the show found out about its closing on social media. They even sent out work schedules for the first week of August this morning, just to post the closing notice today."

People assumed that and are attacking the show for it but we don't know for a fact they weren't told before today."

I work at the theater and found out on Twitter that I’ll be unemployed as of next sunday"

Can you give us more context.  Like what department you're in? And if you heard officially from the production after finding out on Twitter?  Were you working the show yesterday and not invited to the company meeting?

[B212323]

Posted: 7/24/23 at 12:59pm

Luminaire2 said: "If the reported 1.2 million weekly operating cost is accurate, this needs to be a wake up call to everyone. Such a number is not sustainable."

Unless it's a known IP like Harry Potter no reasonable person would think it would be (I've heard it's closer to 9-950k which is still incredibly steep) the problem is anything that would've worked or given a show a longer life before the shutdown doesn't work anymore and the producers/ creatives are trying to figure out what does IRL. 

[yyys]

Posted: 7/24/23 at 1:09pm

And at least ONE famous person that can bring $$

Voter said: "I standby that if this had done an out of town... it could have been salvaged"

 

[Sutton Ross]

Posted: 7/24/23 at 1:14pm

I work at the theater and found out on Twitter that I’ll be unemployed as of next sunday"

Im incredibly sorry to hear that, there was talk you all found out last week but obviously that was a rumor. I can't imagine finding out one is losing their job in one week, I sincerely hope you find something else immediately. 

Theatrefanboy1 said: "I hope this is the point where people realize that LMM is not a god of sorts. I’ve found him overrated since In the heights. (Not saying there’s no talent… just a lot of pretentiousness). Same as Hamilton. Interesting but not the most important piece of theatre. And yet it seemed to have him thrown into anything now to be the creative. Like not every fish New Yorker American, Hawaiian, needs to drop a beat in some sort of hip hop meh style. Anyway. Hopefully this will let him take a break for like a decade."

Delusional, racist and ridiculous. Lin-Manuel is an incredible artist and one of the greatest of our generation. He will be working tomorrow and the next day and for many decades to come. Enjoy!

[Wonkawizzer]

Posted: 7/24/23 at 4:50pm

Work in FOH and of course heard rumblings but wasn’t told of the actual closing date till I saw it on twitter. No one from the show told the FOH staff. Wasn’t told of any company meeting with producers, just did our job for the matinee and then come home to a closing notice on twitter. 

[JSquared2]

Posted: 7/24/23 at 5:02pm

Wonkawizzer said: "Work in FOH and of course heard rumblings but wasn’t told of the actual closing date till I saw it on twitter. No one from the show told the FOH staff. Wasn’t told of any company meeting with producers, just did our job for the matinee and then come home to a closing notice on twitter."

 

It is standard operating procedure that when the company is told their show is closing, it is at a company meeting with the producers, GM and the actual company of the show (cast, stage mgmt, backstage running crew),  -- not sure what you do FOH (as you're being intentionally vague) -- but departments like merchandise, bar and concessions, ushers, etc. would not be invited.  Have you never worked on a show that closed before?

[Voter]

Posted: 7/24/23 at 5:21pm

Jumpin_J said: "This was textbook on how not to produce a show. I mean that literally. This should be taught. Here you have a show originally costing $25M (thought some estimates are now $27M), never tried out of town, no stars, a protagonist who's despicable, more B plots than a hive, and somehow a multi Tony award producer like Sonia Friedman and others thought this was a banger of a show that it would generate $950M per week just to break even. I was approached to be in this. I asked a producer why in the world would I want to invest with all that in mind? They said, "We're marketing this like Moulin Rouge, like an extravaganza". My reply was great, except one problem: you're not Moulin Rouge. Moulin was tried out of town where it got raves, Danny Bernstein was already well known, and people knew the property from the hit movie. NY NY was exactly the opposite. I wouldn't have invested in it with other people's money. This thing was like the Titanic. I knew it would sink on impact and no one would listen to me. It's sad as so many people are going to be out of a job and investors are going to be out a ton of money, but it makes me angry that all of this was 100% predictable."

Part of the reason this is so bad for the industry, is when investors lose large amounts of money publicly, not only do they become less inclined to give... but so does everyone else...