Riedel on Grey Gardens' Closing — Page 3

Dear BwayInsider,

Welcome to the boards. I do find it strange that you joined today and seem to have the backstage "scoop" on GG. Seems a little seedy if you ask me.
You make some rather loaded statements. If this topic bothers you so much why now just contact Riedel yourself? It's odd that you chose BWW to defend your honor. You seem rather hurt by CE actions. You even compare here to Fantasia. Clearly you are confused. Fantasia works on a show where her Producers care for her and work with her. Where as at GG it appears you work against GG. Even to go as far as to speak out about her on a broadway website. I am sure you see the lame attempts to hurt her feelings or honor. Why not accept the fact that you did a poor job or promoting your show? If you are going to throw stones... hope that the other person chooses a smaller rock.

PS. It is true.. billionaires do not become billionaires "because they don't know what they are doing' but it sure does close a show.

---

http://www.tonyawards.com/en_US/tonynight/speeches/2007-06-11/200706111181542383156.html

---

I know.

I'd like to contact them...

---

P.S. Billionaires don't become billionaires because they 'don't know what they are doing' or are 'stuppit people'.

No. How billionaires become nouveau-riche billionaires has nothing whatsoever to do with how good professional producers become good professional producers.

Firing longtime professionals and re-designing William Ivey Long's costumes are not the acts of professionals. They are the acts of rich thugs.

---

They also added the name of her husband and her children. In the actual speech she just says "my family." The words are all mixed around as well. What a joke. I guess they think they can rewrite Tony history.

---

"Looks like you just joined today. Not the best way to start your time here."

Yea, verily ye must be weary of the "Grey Gardeners" and the "Christine Owns-my-soul's".'

Just kidding y'all.

---

you can go back to your cozy little PR butt-licking job for those two Weissler Wannabes

- LMAOOOOOO. Yes!

"Puppets that curse and have sex."
"A loveable theatre queen recounts the plot of his quirky favorite musical."
"A town where citizens cannot use the toilet."
Those are also tough sells. Yet they were produced by good producers who knew what they were doing and knew how to market their shows.
Spring Awakeing also is a tough sell, and though I don't like the show, it's doing well thanks to some good producing and good marketing (and a Best Musical Tony too, so I guess it's a bad example).
This is a matter of bad producing.

Updated On: 7/18/07 at 03:50 PM

What I did for love.

---

Thank you for the welcome messages.

Sorry to disappoint you all but this poster does not work for nor have any interest in East of Doheny. Just wanted to add some new information to the mix so that judgements did not come down too lopsided. Riedel is completely biased all of the time, just bringing a new bias to the story.

As for mismanagement issues, wouldn't know about that. One would have to be 'at the table' to be aware of the decisions and why they were made.

And Mightydog, are you aware of the relationship between cumulative gross and weekly expense? Let's do the math:
weeks running: 41
cumulative gross: 16M
avg. gross per week: 390K

With a weekly running cost of around 320K plus advertising avg. of 65K/wk, plus a Tony campaign and appearance on the show (rough cost-400K) that comes to a loss of 185K. Please correct me if my numbers are inaccurate.

Now is there something wrong with that picture? Yes. The costs of running B'way shows are too high. So unkless you have a break-out hit, or a large theater and the demand to fill it, shows are most likely to lose money.

Why don't you guys go do some research before calling these producers rich people playing in a sandbox and unqualified? Simply visit the East of Doheny website like I did (upon reading Reidel's column) and take a look at their past theater projects. They've been in this game awhile now, with quite a diverse background in theater, including children's theater in LA. Big River, Art, Sweet Smell of Success, Night Mother...and others. Hardly arrogant people playing in a sandbox.

Backstage drama with them? Sure...good luck finding a show without some! I bet most of the info is even true to some extent!

How quick you are to judge and condemn though, after only reading Reidel's column. Isn't this the same board that generally dismisses Reidel and his column when he disses a favorite actor or actress?

disclaimer: This post is not a personal attack against any one poster in this thread. Please don't take it as such.

second disclaimer: I also don't work at East of Doheny; I merely utilized the search tool on the internet before having my mind made up by a gossip columnist.

---

Get me rewrite!

When I read what Gypsy1527 wrote in this thread this morning, I double-checked it myself, and sure enough, there's deliberate additions to the sentence on the web site.

Here's what Ebersole said at the Tony Awards:

I want to thank my beautiful, beautiful family of Grey Gardens on stage and off, who work tirelessly to make this show come alive eight times a week -- all the way back from Sundance through Playwrights Horizons, who got this show to Broadway.

Here's the sentence in the transcript at TonyAwards.com:

Thank you to my beautiful Grey Gardens family on stage and off, who work tirelessly to make this show come alive eight times a week -- all the way back from Sundance through Playwrights Horizons, and the producers who got this show to Broadway, especially East of Doheny.

That's no transcription error...

I don't know nuthin' about how the Tony awards website works, but could it be that winners submit their speeches in writing and these written submissions are what are posted? This seems possible, I doubt someone has been hired to meticulously transcribe every word of every Tony winner's speech, and I doubt there's some shadowy conspiracy of producers adding thanks to themselves after the fact.

I was starting to feel some sympathy for East of Doheny until justme2 mentioned that they had been involved with "Sweet Smell of Success". Why would anyone ever admit to having been involved with that mess?

---

Updated On: 7/18/07 at 10:06 PM