PORGY & BESS Moves Broadway Closing Up to September 23, 2012
PORGY & BESS Moves Broadway Closing Up to September 23, 2012
#2PORGY & BESS Moves Broadway Closing Up to September 23, 2012
Posted: 7/18/12 at 10:12am
Wow. So what's going into the Rodgers?
Updated On: 7/18/12 at 10:12 AM
#2PORGY & BESS Moves Broadway Closing Up to September 23, 2012
Posted: 7/18/12 at 10:13amDo we know what the "next engagement" at the Rogers is?
erix
Swing Joined: 1/7/11
#3PORGY & BESS Moves Broadway Closing Up to September 23, 2012
Posted: 7/18/12 at 10:16amHow terribly disappointing! I'll be in town the weekend it was to originally close, and I was really hoping to catch the last performance. What a bummer!
#4PORGY & BESS Moves Broadway Closing Up to September 23, 2012
Posted: 7/18/12 at 10:16amTony Award Wins do not always equal bigger box office... lots of real estate opening up for Fall/Winter... should be interesting
#5PORGY & BESS Moves Broadway Closing Up to September 23, 2012
Posted: 7/18/12 at 10:17am
Maybe a Christmas Story isn't going into the St James after all....?
Not a suprise though, with Aurda being out for the 3 weeks following the Tony Awards it really killed the shows momentum and Porgy and Bess has never be able to recover.
iluvtheatertrash
Broadway Legend Joined: 11/9/04
#6PORGY & BESS Moves Broadway Closing Up to September 23, 2012
Posted: 7/18/12 at 10:20amToo bad... Caught it a second time on Saturday and it was even better than the first time. Every single member of that company is a true professional.
FindingNamo
Broadway Legend Joined: 7/22/03
#7PORGY & BESS Moves Broadway Closing Up to September 23, 2012
Posted: 7/18/12 at 10:23amWell, yes.
#8PORGY & BESS Moves Broadway Closing Up to September 23, 2012
Posted: 7/18/12 at 10:26amI thought they were all getting paid, but you never know in this tough economy.
iluvtheatertrash
Broadway Legend Joined: 11/9/04
#9PORGY & BESS Moves Broadway Closing Up to September 23, 2012
Posted: 7/18/12 at 10:33amWhat I mean is that there is not a single ounce of stale-ness to the show. They've been at it for almost a year, and it's still fresh as ever. Unlike the bored-to-death chorus members at shows like MAMMA MIA! who don't care that they're performing for people who've spent over $100 to see it.
dreaming
Broadway Legend Joined: 4/24/09
#10PORGY & BESS Moves Broadway Closing Up to September 23, 2012
Posted: 7/18/12 at 10:53am
I doubt they'd put a holiday show in for October.
I wonder if Into the Woods might be going in there...
wexy
Broadway Legend Joined: 9/19/05
#11PORGY & BESS Moves Broadway Closing Up to September 23, 2012
Posted: 7/18/12 at 10:55am
Strange marketing. I was at the Four Knots Festival with six indie rock groups with not one African Artist performer. Yet Porgy and Bess was a sponsor. There were a handful of black folks at the show but the Indie Rock was not the crowd to see the show.
They had a raffle and a booth where I won sunscreen and entered to win tickets but there were very few people at the booth.
dreaming
Broadway Legend Joined: 4/24/09
#12PORGY & BESS Moves Broadway Closing Up to September 23, 2012
Posted: 7/18/12 at 10:58am
Now I'm starting to think it's going to be Saving Aimee, that show by Kathie Lee Gifford.
Broadway.com has an article about Carolee Carmello, who talks about her "Broadway-bound" role in that show.
I'm predicting this is the next tenant at the Rodgers.
Updated On: 7/18/12 at 10:58 AM
#13PORGY & BESS Moves Broadway Closing Up to September 23, 2012
Posted: 7/18/12 at 6:25pm
Yes, the actors, musicians and crew will be out of work, but that's why it's called "show business." So let's move past that. (Oh yes, and the poor Gershwin estate won't get royalty checks anymore...)
May this closing mean that this bastardization of a great classic be dead and buried for good.
iluvtheatertrash
Broadway Legend Joined: 11/9/04
#14PORGY & BESS Moves Broadway Closing Up to September 23, 2012
Posted: 7/18/12 at 8:49pmIt's going on tour, jv92.
#15PORGY & BESS Moves Broadway Closing Up to September 23, 2012
Posted: 7/18/12 at 8:51pm
Fabulous.
I guess I'm what Ms. McDonald would call a "Gershwin purist."
Miranda3
Featured Actor Joined: 8/20/11
#16PORGY & BESS Moves Broadway Closing Up to September 23, 2012
Posted: 7/18/12 at 9:14pmWith you all the way, jv92. Love Audra's voice but siding with Sondheim on the "Look, I Made a Spat" issue.
#17PORGY & BESS Moves Broadway Closing Up to September 23, 2012
Posted: 7/18/12 at 9:42pm
JV92: really, please just stop.
I'm an opera person first and a theater-fan second, and I really am sick of the "pure-opera-fan-perspective" on a theater website. Everyone involved (director, actors, librettist) made clear that their efforts were designed to distinguish this musical form of Porgy and Bess from the actual opera. Get over it: it's not the actual opera! Had it been: it would have closed months ago!!!
I loved the opera long before I ever saw the musical and I've seen a number of opera singers sing the role of Bess...but none inhibited the role in quite the same way as Audra (who, by the way, has sung at the LA Opera -- not as Bess -- and was widely [though wrongly] rumored to sing the role of Kitty in "Dr. Atomic " at the MET.)
Instead of bitching about the lack of classical virtues of this production, just sit back and enjoy the Glyndebourne recording and/or DVD conducted by the AWESOME Simon Rattle. ...actually, that recommendation could apply to anyone here. Really a great recording. Rattle is the most exuberant, exciting, and moody conductor on the scene.
Updated On: 7/18/12 at 09:42 PM
#18PORGY & BESS Moves Broadway Closing Up to September 23, 2012
Posted: 7/18/12 at 10:35pmThis production was just awful. Good-bye with no regrets.
On the road...
Chorus Member Joined: 3/15/09
#19PORGY & BESS Moves Broadway Closing Up to September 23, 2012
Posted: 7/18/12 at 10:53pmWilling to bet just about anything that in the coming weeks that closing date gets pushed up even sooner. Their numbers have been less than stellar for weeks now. That Tony Award they sure didn't deserve hasn't really done much to help them.
showchoirguy
Broadway Star Joined: 7/14/10
#20PORGY & BESS Moves Broadway Closing Up to September 23, 2012
Posted: 7/18/12 at 11:31pmWonder if they will participate in the Flea Market this year?
jsg03jd
Broadway Star Joined: 11/24/04
#21PORGY & BESS Moves Broadway Closing Up to September 23, 2012
Posted: 7/19/12 at 12:59amFAIL. Gotta see this again.
#22PORGY & BESS Moves Broadway Closing Up to September 23, 2012
Posted: 7/19/12 at 1:03amInteresting that another tenant is already lined up. October 4th is less than three months away and there has not been an announcement yet... I hope they announce soon.
#23PORGY & BESS Moves Broadway Closing Up to September 23, 2012
Posted: 7/19/12 at 4:38am
Wexy, I'm sure I'm mis-reading you, but you think the show should have only advertised to primarily black audiences?
Maybe it just doesn't work in a commercial house--Trevor Nunn tried to make a more "musical theatre" version a few years back, and that only ran a year as well, didn't it?
Play Esq, I do love the Rattle recording, although I find some of the tempi SOOOOOOooooOOO slow that I think the edge for me goes to the Houston Grand Opera recording from the 70s that Thomas Sepherd produced so theatrically. (I dislike the Trevor Nunn film of the Rattle production though--I wish they had just filmed it live, not on a soundstage with lip synching--something I believe they did for Nunn's Oklahoma too which robs it of some of its immediacy).
#24PORGY & BESS Moves Broadway Closing Up to September 23, 2012
Posted: 7/19/12 at 8:39amThe Kathie Lee Gifford show is going into the Neil Simon http://www.playbill.com/news/article/168187-Sing-Out-Sister-Scandalous-the-Aimee-Semple-McPherson-Musical-Starring-Carolee-Carmello-Will-Play-Broadway
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