RICH MAN, POOR SHOW
By MICHAEL RIEDEL
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August 25, 2004 -- IT is theatrical lore that ever since his death in 1931, Broadway impresario David Belasco has haunted the the ater that bears his name. But I'm not sure he's there anymore.
FENRIS: Oh really? And where's your proof then? Me and Dave are good friends and he told me he fled because he saw you
I saw him fleeing the theater right after the first act of "Dracula, the Musical" the other night, and I'm pretty sure he didn't return for the second, for if ever there was a show that could exorcise his ghost from the Belasco, it's "Dracula."
FENRIS: Contradiction. He said he's 'sure' he didn't see him, so that means he doubts it. If he doubts it that doesn't mean he was exactly exorcised. Reidel's contradicted his point
This musical is so plodding and anemic, it would bore to death even the dead.
FENRIS: I've been dead for five years and I enjoyed it
Snoozing through it, you might, when awakened by a blast from one of the synthesizers in the orchestra pit, wonder why anybody would put money — about $7.5 million, if not more — into it.
FENRIS: Because they had a different point of view. Everybody has PERSPECTIVE and a REASON for doing things, you MORON!!!
It didn't, after all, come with what you could call a stellar pedigree.
FENRIS: I'd like to see you do better
It was dismissed by the critics when it debuted in La Jolla three years ago, and its creative team is remarkable for being made up of people who could form their own little Flop Club, they've all had so many.
FENRIS: You call Tommy a flop? You call Jekyll and Hyde a flop? You call Dangerous Liaisons a flop?? ARE YOU ON DRUGS???? These are classic works of American theatre!
One of them — composer Frank Wildhorn — has replaced Andrew Lloyd Webber as the critics' favorite whipping boy, having taking repeated shellackings on "Jekyll & Hyde," "The Scarlet Pimpernel" and "The Civil War," all of which failed on Broadway.
FENRIS: Jekyll failed on Broadway? It re-couped half of its investment, and was successful for four years. It has played everywhere in existence. There's even a production in EGYPT!!
Carrie was a failure, so was Capeman, and neither of them have gone onto international success. Do some research
So, who, then, financed "Dracula" — and why?
FENRIS: Why not? Wildhorn's the most successful new face in theatre today
The answer: Joop van den Ende, a Dutch entertainment mogul, who, it's said, put up most of the money.
His reasons for doing so tell us a lot about how Broadway works today — and why so many bad shows make it as far as "Dracula" has.
Van den Ende is one of the richest men in Europe, having made, according to Forbes, about $1.3 billion in stock from the sale of his company, Endemol, to Telefonica in March 2000.
At Endemol, van den Ende created reality television; one of his most popular shows was the European prototype for "Fear Factor."
But van den Ende has said his first love is theater, especially Broadway musicals. He's produced several. Most of them, however, were terrible and lost money, at least in New York.
His first show — "Cyrano" in 1993 — was a $10 million fiasco that he ran at huge losses for almost six months.
Other clunkers he put money into were "Footloose," "High Society" and a revival of "Into the Woods."
FENRIS: Footloose won the Tony Award. Hardly what you would call a 'clunker'
He is also the chief investor in the splashy but charmless revival of "42nd Street," which is said to have cost $16 million, as yet unrecouped.
FENRIS: But popular and running...
Except for "Cyrano," van den Ende has produced all these shows with New York-based Dodger Stage Holdings, of which he owns 50 percent.
"Dracula" is on Broadway today because van den Ende wanted it there.
According to production sources, he saw a workshop of the musical last spring, loved it and told the Dodgers (who do the actual grunt work of producing) to take it to Broadway.
So "Dracula" is, on one level, a rich man's whim.
It doesn't matter that the critics don't like it; that audiences aren't rushing to see it (it took in just $40,000 the day the reviews came out); that, by any objective measure, it is junk.
Joop likes it and, as he did with "Cyrano," he can prop it up for quite a while.
"He's got money to burn," says one Broadway producer.
FENRIS: Ironic. That's one of the lyrics in Jekyll's FACADE.
Could Riedel be a fan?? But... that would suggest he's inventing his own quotes. Now what critic in their right mind would do that?
But van den Ende isn't just a dilettante with questionable taste.
He is also one of Europe's most powerful theater owners.
FENRIS: He's powerful for a reason. You just DON'T get rich. It's all about struggle
After he cashed out of Endemol, he created a company called Stage Holdings, which owns theaters and neighboring restaurants in the Netherlands, Germany and Spain.
Van den Ende needs shows to fill those theaters, so he appears to be using Broadway as a kind of testing ground for Europe, where there's a taste for gothic schlock like "Dracula."
"Dance of the Vampires" is still playing in Hamburg, and "Jekyll and Hyde" was popular in Madrid.
FENRIS: Dance of the Vampires is a successful OPERA that preceded the Broadway show, and the Broadway show was like seeing the body of a murder-victim. Jekyll and Hyde is popular (or 'famous') in a lot more countries than Madrid. This fool hasn't done his research
That's a double bill that should undermine once and for all any notion that Europeans are culturally superior to Americans.
FENRIS: They are culturally superior. The French Les Mis is legend, full of spirit. The English is just story. Tanz der Vampire is a phenomenom and a masterpiece of eclecticism. It shouldn't be called a flop, because the American version was misconceived. And all the shows to have ever opened on Broadway, from my experience, were ten times as better in Europe. And none of those 'flops' he's alluding to were actually flops.
"Dracula" doesn't even have to be particularly successful in Europe for van den Ende to make money.
As long as it — or any show, for that matter — is in one of his theaters, he'll make a pile on the restaurant next door, the beverage sales at intermission, the merchandise, the handling fees charged on credit card sales.
Says one theater executive: "If you're a theater owner, there are so many other ways to make money, it doesn't matter if the show doesn't."
A producer with deep pockets, middle-brow taste and theaters to fill.
Looks like Frank Wildhorn and everybody else involved in "Dracula" will be in business for a long time to come.
FENRIS: Nice sting, you prick! You may have tried to have stopped Steinman, but not Wildhorn! SALUTE BATMAN!! SALUTE CAMILLE CLAUDEL!!!!
Who can explain it, who can tell you why?
Fools give you reasons, wise men never try
-South Pacific
