PARADISE SQUARE Sets July 17 Closing Date on Broadway- Page 4
PARADISE SQUARE Sets July 17 Closing Date on Broadway
#75PARADISE SQUARE Closing 7/17
Posted: 7/19/22 at 9:40am
David10086 said: "DrMonicaDeMoneco said: "Has Garth given any sort of statement?"
He officially said, "See ya, suckers!" and caught the next plane back to Toronto."
LOL! That he did!
PeterC6482
Understudy Joined: 12/10/19
#76PARADISE SQUARE Closing 7/17
Posted: 7/19/22 at 10:12am
DrMonicaDeMoneco said: "David10086 said: "DrMonicaDeMoneco said: "Has Garth given any sort of statement?"
He officially said, "See ya, suckers!" and caught the next plane back to Toronto."
LOL! That he did!"
Is there any money left to remove the set and lighting equipment, etc, from the theatre this week?
Aren't those costs bonded, also?
There must be storage costs for the set and costumes too. I imagine these could all be leased to the touring company, which is not the original producers.
#77PARADISE SQUARE Closing 7/17
Posted: 7/19/22 at 11:48am
some is bonded, some is in deposits, some not, but there is an entire week's box office sitting there and the Shuberts are not going to pay that out without covering any possible exposure first. I doubt anything will be stored, some may be sellable to offset costs. I also think the chances of a tour are slim or nil and slim is out of town.
#78PARADISE SQUARE Closing 7/17
Posted: 7/19/22 at 12:54pm
is it wishful thinking to want a statement from Garth? Maybe an admission of guilt? Tell the truth for once?
HogansHero said: "some is bonded, some is in deposits, some not, but there is an entire week's box office sitting there and the Shuberts are not going to pay that out without covering any possible exposure first. I doubt anything will be stored, some may be sellable to offset costs. I also think the chances of a tour are slim or nil and slim is out of town."
#79PARADISE SQUARE Closing 7/17
Posted: 7/19/22 at 1:06pm
DrMonicaDeMoneco said: "is it wishful thinking to want a statement from Garth? Maybe an admission of guilt? Tell the truth for once?"
Yes, at best it is wishful thinking. At this point, in addition to his own slithery-ness, I am sure his lawyers have told him to clam up.
Auggie27
Broadway Legend Joined: 10/13/03
#80PARADISE SQUARE Closing 7/17
Posted: 7/19/22 at 1:31pm
Any tour would have to include the Tony winning star, the only marketable creative element for a wider audience. In profile, it’s ostensibly a one number show. Yet the musical couldn’t break even the entire month after the awards season and Tony telecast, the tri-state audience the most likely invested in Tony highlighted material. It’s still intriguing that “word of mouth” was supposed to rescue this show, even recognizing that the “word” was predominantly “meh.”
"I'm a comedian, but in my spare time, things bother me." Garry Shandling
RW3
Broadway Legend Joined: 7/20/13
#81PARADISE SQUARE Closing 7/17
Posted: 7/19/22 at 2:00pm
And here is Variety's in-depth investigation:
https://variety.com/2022/legit/news/paradise-square-broadway-musical-lawsuits-bullying-1235319594/
#82PARADISE SQUARE Closing 7/17
Posted: 7/19/22 at 5:19pm
Chrzczon, the same man who produced those duds Home for the Holidays and Ruben & Clay's First Annual Christmas Carol Family Fun Pageant Spectacular Reunion Show, was the general manager for this? He was also put on equity's 'Do not work list" due to unpaid wages from the latter show. Maybe Garth wanted this to fail...
In our millions, in our billions, we are most powerful when we stand together. TW4C unwaveringly joins the worldwide masses, for we know our liberation is inseparably bound.
Signed,
Theater Workers for a Ceasefire
https://theaterworkersforaceasefire.com/statement
Playbill_Trash
Featured Actor Joined: 3/15/18
#83PARADISE SQUARE Closing 7/17
Posted: 7/19/22 at 7:54pm
Sure, everyone involved is “talented”, but Garth Drabinsky’s reputation is not and was not a secret. He is a literal criminal who has misappropriated funds before.
So how bad can you feel for a cast, crew, and other producers who should have known better in the first place? Why did they decide to work for him in the beginning? What did they think was going to happen? I understand taking any job you can get, but that doesn’t make sense when the person you’re working for is famous for not paying and being a real life Max Bialystock.
So they can go ahead and say the unions didn’t protect them, but they’re all adults who should have known what they were getting into when they saw the name Garth Drabinsky.
morosco
Broadway Legend Joined: 7/10/04
#85PARADISE SQUARE Closing 7/17
Posted: 7/19/22 at 10:47pm
So how bad can you feel for a cast, crew, and other producers who should have known better in the first place? Why did they decide to work for him in the beginning? What did they think was going to happen? I understand taking any job you can get, but that doesn’t make sense when the person you’re working for is famous for not paying and being a real life Max Bialystock.
I completely agree with what you are saying but there is part of me that thinks that many may have thought to themselves that surely that stuff won't happen again after Drabinsky had already fallen from grace and surely he's a changed man. Surely there would be safeguards in place given his past. If I were an actor or worked in some other capacity I think it would be impossible for me to pass up the opportunity to be part of a Broadway show. I mean... how bad could it get? (lol well now we know!)
#86PARADISE SQUARE Closing 7/17
Posted: 7/19/22 at 11:00pm
That, and also most of these performers and crew had been out of a job since at least March 2020, if not longer, they would’ve been hard pressed to pass up on a job. Garth or not.
In our millions, in our billions, we are most powerful when we stand together. TW4C unwaveringly joins the worldwide masses, for we know our liberation is inseparably bound.
Signed,
Theater Workers for a Ceasefire
https://theaterworkersforaceasefire.com/statement
Updated On: 7/20/22 at 11:00 PM
bear88
Broadway Legend Joined: 4/26/16
#87PARADISE SQUARE Closing 7/17
Posted: 7/20/22 at 12:20am
I saw one of the first previews of this show at the Berkeley Rep and wrote a little review on this site in which I was forgiving of the show’s weaknesses even though it had problems. (My wife, generally less critical than me of musicals, disliked it - which in retrospect was a bad sign for its prospects.) Of course, I had read by then about Garth Drabinsky and wondered if it was wise for the Berkeley Rep to get involved with him.
I guess we have our answer.
dickg2
Swing Joined: 11/13/21
#88PARADISE SQUARE Closing 7/17
Posted: 7/20/22 at 3:23am
Full disclosure: Saw this three times in Chicago and twice in New York including the closing.
This closing was tough to take because the show really didn't have a fighting chance. The internal issues made it less competitive in a very competitive time. The cast and crew were simply superb. What went wrong?
The general consensus in Chicago was reflected in mixed reviews. The parts of this show that were good were very good, those that were excellent were quite excellent and then there were those "WTF" moments. We gave our feedback and the New York show was tightened although perhaps to the detriment of upsetting the balance between Nellie and Annie.
The general consensus in Chicago is that we wanted this show to succeed. Even with the baggage it was good enough to deserve it.
This is not a "hip" new show like Hamilton. It is not a "feel good" show or a "jukebox musical." It was challenging and had several themes. Look at what it was up against.
The Music Man. Nowhere near as compelling but Huge Jackman was a more believable and less bombastic Harold Hill than iconic Robert Preston and Sutton Foster added a little street wiseness to the saccharine Shirley Jones. And the cute and talented kids! People forked out obscene amounts of money for tickets to a good but not artistically great show.
MJ. Mr. Saturday Night with Billy Crystal. Hadestown. The much touted Company (which I felt was also good, not great) with a name cast. And then the perennial audience favorites like Wicked, Chicago and Phantom. Others, too.
With more competent management and better promotion maybe this would have had a shot and maybe not given the competition at the moment. We'll never know. But Paradise Square had a unique story worth telling, an amazing cast, powerful music, enormous choreography and maybe it was just too overwhelming for some. It was not trendy enough nor a "feel good" show. Maybe it should have had a run at the Kennedy Center before Broadway and after Chicago. Or it could morph to a movie version.
And maybe timing was off. And maybe it needed a niche (think Come From Away). So let me go back to the beginning (so to speak). We knew in Chicago this had potential. The good parts were very good, the excellent parts quite excellent and the rest needed tweaking. There is no guarantee a show will succeed (remember the Carousel revival with a great cast but up against Bette Midler's Hello Dolly?) but the sour part here is that it seemed like it deserved a fighting chance.
#89PARADISE SQUARE Closing 7/17
Posted: 7/20/22 at 1:02pm
Just watched the video MickeyJoTheater did on the closing (that channel is very addictive). Really a shame, everything that happened. Sounds like the material deserved a better shot and the performers were outstanding, whatever weaknesses people perceived in script or score.
(Tangentially, learning through that video how Colm Wilkinson abused Rebecca Caine in the Toronto production of Phantom is depressing. Yet another revered figure I can no longer revere.)
#90PARADISE SQUARE Closing 7/17
Posted: 7/21/22 at 1:17pm
Canada doesn’t even want to work with Garth! Hahahahahaha!
#91PARADISE SQUARE Closing 7/17
Posted: 7/22/22 at 11:06am
But he can still work in Canada https://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/theatre-and-performance/article-garth-drabinsky-producer-union/
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