Philadelphia: Canceled final week of Moulin Rouge tour — Page 2

The Merriam/Miller needs a serious refurb as it is in pretty poor shape and the refurb that was to happen pre-Covid got scrapped due to lack of funds lost because of Covid. The rename was due to a donor making a donation to hopefully get the refurb done at some point in the future. The seats there are also super uncomfortable in the Balcony and Family Circle because they simply are not wide enough. The Orchestra seating for the most part is good, but the seats in general need a fix.

The Kimmel co-owns the Forrest with the Shuberts, so it's not entirely a Kimmel venue and performances there are all over the place because of the fact it's a co-owned building. So, it's not as cut and dry as everyone here seems to think it is when using the venue.

The Academy is the only theatre that can hold the bigger tours [example: Wicked] because of the backstage space needed for them. I get it's not a popular venue, but it does the trick especially with larger scale tours that come to the area. I do think smaller scale shows would be better suited to the Merriam/Miller or Forrest, but there's clearly a lot of factors involved there. I've also never really had any issues overall there but I've also been going there for basically my whole life and know the venue like the back of my hand.

The $1,000 "donation" thing is really sh*tty, but this also happens in other cities under different names. Doesn't make it right, but Philly isn't the only city who does something like this.

I subscribe, but I have a limited view seat on the extreme sides of the Parquet Circle and don't pay a whole lot and generally enjoy it.

Updated On: 6/29/23 at 11:14 AM

Both full scale 1st National tours of Phantom of the Opera and Miss Saigon played the Forrest Theatre back in the day. I know because I saw them both. Larger shows can fit in that space just fine.

I have a friend that lives in Chicago and can buy really affordable full view seats as part of a subscription package. Philly is at least double for worse seats.

I especially feel bad for people who pay so much for the orchestra when there has regularly been $15 rush tickets. I think almost every Broadway show in Philly has had at least some rush tickets apart from some at the Forrest. One would come out ahead just paying resale markup for the rare show that has no rush and doing rush for the rest in Philly.

While I understand the city of Philly, I don’t understand how it’s feasible for shows to tour, especially tours concurrent with the Broadway production, there when it’s so close to NYC. In my head, it would be similar to if the two Hamilton tours were both booked at the Pantages in LA and Sergerstrom in Costa Mesa at the same time, aka it wouldn’t work.

Saw the performance tonight. It was quite enjoyable but the sound was an issue. Overall music too loud, drowning out the singing from where I was sitting in the 6th row.


I saw Aaron on Broadway but I actually like this Christian. He had a more innocent, nerdy, vulnerable feels vs Aaron felt a bit smirk to me.

Call_me_jorge said: "While I understand the city of Philly, I don’t understand how it’s feasible for shows to tour, especially tours concurrent with the Broadway production, there when it’s so close to NYC. In my head, it would be similar to if the two Hamilton tours were both booked at the Pantages in LA and Sergerstrom in Costa Mesa at the same time, aka it wouldn’t work."

It's been covered earlier in this thread to some degree, but althought that perspective makes sense for us theater fans, more casual theatergoers only make it to Broadway every few years and don't have the same awareness of what's on the boards. Like right now there are people on a sports message board somewhere lamenting how silly it is to see one team in one stadium when I could take a 90-minute train to another that's better...but I have no idea what they're talking about because I just casually go to a game near me every so often (not a perfect analogy, but you get it...).

Even if someone from Philly likely is in NYC more than someone from, say, Chicago, seeing theater isn't a top priority for most of the general public. So they might go to NYC, have no clue that Moulin Rouge is on Broadway, but then see ads for its stop in Philly, or hear about it from a friend, and buy tickets for that.