Rather than obsessive fan hype, I am going to mention two shows that got a lot of advertising hype prior to their openings, one living up to it, one not.
Suessical had a lot of hype leading up to when it opened. The year before all the talk was about how great the show was going to be....then it had all of its out of town troubles and the hype was for naught.
Of course,
Ragtime was also hyped up a lot prior to its opening. I remember seeing ads in the NYC subways almost a year prior to its opening. I immediately went out and bought the concept recording because I wanted to hear this new musical that was going to take Broadway by storm. The good thing is that
Ragtime did turn out to be a wonderful and powerful show.
"You pile up enough tomorrows, and you'll find you are left with nothing but a lot of empty yesterdays. I don't know about you, but I'd like to make today worth remembering." --Harold Hill from The Music Man