National Tour Flops — Page 2

David10086 said: "ClumsyDude15 said: "As Dave mentioned, national tours are sold through subscription in each city and subscribers purchase these packages of performances - they are generally new tours making their first engagements or revivals of classic musicals that have been apart of the recent Broadway season..."

I must add - sometimes these shows in the Broadway subscriber package are not from Broadway at all. For example (and I started a thread on this back in February), in my city "The Bodyguard" was an 8 show production, boasting "direct from Broadway - the smash hit musical..'

We all know that show never touched a stage on Broadway, yet it was promoted as a huge Broadway hit finally touring. And before that, in late December, we had "Love Never Dies" under the same 'Direct from Broadway - smash hit Broadway musical' banner. That's 2 misleading productions in one season. (Both shows got awful reviews from the local critics, but no mention of the fact that neither one was so bad they never played Broadway).

An interesting - if unethical - practice to lure innocent people to the box office."

Keep in mind that local advertising is handled by the local presenters. So if you feel there is a show that is being misrepresented a lot of that is on the presenters and not the producers.

David10086 said: "I must add - sometimes these shows in the Broadway subscriber package are not from Broadway at all....


An interesting - if unethical - practice to lure innocent people to the box office."

And not the only one. At the subscription houses where I've worked, it was common practice to announce stars for particular shows during the period when subscription packages were on sale. Then those same stars developed "conflicts" during the season and were replaced by others.

Of course the original announcements were our "dream casts" and weren't yet under contract at all.

***

And, yes, there have always been tours that stumbled: as I've related elsewhere on Christmas Eve of 1976 I had to rush a check for $50,000 (of my boss' money) to famed Broadway producer Alexander Cohen. His tour of RAISIN was so bankrupt he couldn't make the payroll and his actors were facing eviction on Christmas morning. (RAISIN wasn't booked into a subscription house; instead it played the municipal barn in Miami proper in the hope an African-American audience was anxious to go to the theater. It wasn't. At least not for RAISIN, no matter how much Virginia Capers deserved her Tony.) The tour closed soon thereafter, IIRC.

For example (and I started a thread on this back in February), in my city "The Bodyguard" was an 8 show production, boasting "direct from Broadway - the smash hit musical..'

We all know that show never touched a stage on Broadway, yet it was promoted as a huge Broadway hit finally touring. And before that, in late December, we had "Love Never Dies" under the same'Direct from Broadway - smash hit Broadway musical' banner. That's 2 misleading productions in one season.

What city was that? Neither show advertised in Chicago as "direct from Broadway".

GavestonPS said:
And not the only one. At the subscription houses where I've worked, it was common practice to announce stars for particular shows during the period when subscription packages were on sale. Then those same stars developed "conflicts" during the season and were replaced by others.

Of course the original announcements were our "dream casts" and weren't yet under contract at all.

*** ."

I remember when Toni Tennille was touring with "Victor Victoria" back in the 90s. The tour came to our area, and a customer of mine worked for the box office at the theater. As the week of the tour was drawing closer, she told me tickets weren't selling like they thought they would. It was the slowest 'ticket seller' (outside subscriptions) of the season. More than once she offered me free tickets to the show for just about any night (they were running promos as well) but I wasn't interested. (In all fairness, I believe the show was running during a 'school vacation' week - which meant a great deal of their demo was in Disney that week and not in the city).

When the tour came, Toni Tennille was suddenly 'out with laryngitis' of some sort. She missed all the weeknight performances as well as Sunday night and the weekend matinees, but her voice did 'heal' for Friday night and Saturday night. (IIRC her understudy went on and got a decent review).

Of course, my customer explained that according to Tennille's contract, she did not have to perform to a house if ticket sales were under a certain percentage for that evening. Friday and Saturday evenings were close to a full house, so she performed. The other six performances were not - so she sat them out, and the official word was 'slight case of layryngitis' rather than 'lack of ticket sales'.

Didn't the Urinetown tour close early as well?

National Tours that were scheduled to perform in Los Angeles but shut down due to $$ . (top of my head)

1. SHE LOVES ME -- 1994 (?) @ Wilshire Theatre, Beverly Hills

2. 101 DALMATIANS -- 2010 @ Pantages Theatre

3. WHISTLE DOWN THE WIND -- 2008 (?) @ Wilshire Theare, Beverly Hills.

I know that ALW has money to burn, but wonder how the School of Rock tour is faring. At the Detroit stop, there was an embarrassing number of tickets available and the show did very little to promote itself or try to move tickets (unlike On Your Feet, Cinderella, Motown, all of which did a lot of press and specials to get bodies in seats).

CollegeDreamer said: "Clyde15 said: "How did the Hedwig tour do? When I went in Seattle on a Saturday night the theatre was pretty empty "

Seeing the Paramount almost empty is so sad! Although I’m sure it’s the same with other theatres. I saw the 20th Anniversary tour of Rent in Seattle, and I’ve never been to a more empty theatre. The loge which is where I sat and the first 3 rows behind me were the only taken seats in the balcony. No joke."

I saw Hedwig in a half full house of senior citizens in Durham, NC. And, you know what? It was a damn good time to see the elderly get into the show. It really proves that Hedwig is an universal story that shoots right to the soul of anyone willing to experience it!

Sondheimite said: "Matilda was too smart for American Families and it's a shame."

No, you couldn't understand a single word most of the cast of the Matilda tour spoke or sang. No one had a chance to not "get it" and it wasn't a matter of intelligence. It was a matter of a poor sound design that no one bothered to correct. That was a problem that plagued this show in the US in every iteration.

But, at least it finally gave us all an excuse to cast a pudgy boy in a featured role. So, there's that.

I remember when the tour of Tommy flopped. I was heartbroken I didn't get to see that again after being mind-blown by the B'way production.

Mister Matt said: "No, you couldn't understand a single word most of the cast of the Matilda tour spoke or sang. No one had a chance to not "get it" and it wasn't a matter of intelligence. It was a matter of a poor sound design that no one bothered to correct. That was a problem that plagued this show in the US in every iteration.

I understoodeveryone when I saw the Broadway production.

I remember when the tour of Tommy flopped. I was heartbroken I didn't get to see that again after being mind-blown by the B'way production.

It toured for over a year. I don't remember hearing it flopped. What happened? I saw the tour in Houston first and loved it so much, I went the week it closed on Broadway when Cerveris returned to the production. I wish that exact production would return to Broadway again. It was fantastic.

"

The tour production of Matilda was extremely problematic, but not a flop by any means. Very little money was put into it (compared to the Aus traveling production & current European tour), and it lost all of it's magic with it. It looked super cheap (fabric walls instead of wood, no 3D elements, etc), and they didn't even try to accommodate the theaters by using the aisles, and everything they had to re-stage was so boring.

About halfway through the tour, everyone spoke with an American accent except Matilda and the adults, who did a half-baked accent that they tried on Broadway for the 2nd & 3rd round of Matilda's. The sound design was also very poorly received, but it's hard to say why. The lyrics are dense and it's children, but maybe the sound designer just really f*cked up. Hard to know.

Because the tour finished it's American leg, sat down in Canada, and then went back out on a partial second leg, I don't think we can say it flopped. But when you look at the physical production that is currently touring Europe, the differences are astounding. They're using a full wood set that actually resembles the London original, not some weird alteration.

(Mega Matilda fan here, saw the show more times on Broadway I'd care to admit, as well as on tour and in London)

I saw Matilda on tour and I agree about the sound issue. It was very difficult to understand anything they were saying, especially when they were singing. I can't remember any of the songs because I couldn't understand any of the lyrics. The little girl playing Matilda couldn't do a British accent and as a result spoke in a weird American/British hybrid that further complicated the intelligibility. It was incredibly frustrating because you had to actually make an effort to understand every word. I think it's the only show I've seen that I would not see again.

I saw the Matilda tour in Seattle and can attest to its occasional-to-frequent unintelligibility, though I don't remember finding the production itself to be problematic - it was clearly a little bit compacted for the tour, but all the visual elements were entirely satisfactory. But I felt bad for anyone who'd arrived without being familiar with the cast album, because even I had trouble. It was a weird experience because I knew what they were (meant to be) saying, but the actual sounds that arrived at my ears were jumbled.