Riedel on vultures circling ‘Great Comet’ — Page 3

^ Post Josh's exit it seems like Oak and the name recognition of Hamilton was the plan- when it backfired, there was no plan B and that's how we've gotten here. They should've realized after Amelie shuttered, someone having been in Hamilton wasn't a guaranteed sales plan.

"They should've realized after Amelie shuttered, someone having been in Hamilton wasn't a guaranteed sales plan."

They should've realized Hamilton stars were never a guaranteed sales plan from the beginning.

I think this is all saving face publicity for bad producing - they knew they had The Josh Grobin Show on their hands from the walk outs and the no sales when he was out. To think Oak would pull like Josh is absurd. They should have been mining for a Josh equivalent from the day they signed Grobin. Mandy was a band aid for a few weeks and I wonder what the uptick was in advance sales for the one day he was officially announced? If it was non-existent even more reason for him to step away.

Updated On: 8/4/17 at 10:30 AM

Oak has always started his playbill bio with either "My name is Oak and I have done stuff" or "Shake and Bake." It's not an ego thing for this show.

neonlightsxo said: "Fighting with Rachel Chavkin? Is that part true?



"I don't believe they've only returned 20% of the investment. Some basic calculations prove that even with advertising/marketing accounted for, they've returned over 50% of the investment."

No way. Your math doesn't check out.



If his numbers are anywhere near representative of the reality, these producers must be the most oblivious since Garth Drabinsky. Here they had a show that they must have known was not going to appeal to a broad audience -- don't get mad at me, the same could be said for virtually all of Sondheim (composer / lyricist's) work.

Assuming they even did a back of the envelope assessment of timeline to return of investment, they must have assumed the entire Groban period -- of about a whole months, mind you -- would be selling out with many tickets sold at Hamilton / Hello Dolly premium prices, once it got going. Who would do that?

At this point, I am sure their balloon must be mostly deflated. I personally can't see one scenario in which they return much more of their investment, if Reidel's numbers are anywhere near correct (and the one that smells the most to me is the weekly running cost), so whatever has been returned is about it. So, how invested are they in keeping people employed until they are evicted from the theatre? Will be interested to see what happens, but I am betting that they won't put up with the stress for long if nothing they do is going to be enough to return any significant percentage of their investment.

The biggest message from this has to be to understand, based on how much the weekly nut is, how long the show is going to take to return its investment at grosses that don't involve more than a handful of premium seats per performance (unless you have Bette Midler in a revival of the perfect show for her); and if it is going to take years, go back to the drawing board. Of course, this also applied when Show Boat opened in 1927.

Riedel is incorrect, which should surprise absolutely no one.

(Except that even when Riedel is wrong, there's often a good lot of right in it.)



If indeed Oak met with Casal, that just really irks me, because to me that means he either agreed to, or agreed to let, Casal do the dirty work for him.

Liza's Headband said: "Riedel is incorrect, which should surprise absolutely no one."

Oh, that can also be true.

Once Malloy said the box office gets catastrophically low after Ingrid, that was all the math I needed to hear.

M.O.A.I. said: "I heard from a friend who knows an associate producer on the show (no idea who) that the producers and crew were dissatisfied with Oak, and that he had vowed to learn the accordion but simply didn't. Thus the late start. Apparently not very professional, but this is all hearsay."

For what it's worth, I had heard a similar story from a friend in the industry connected to the show. I wasn't sure whether to believe it at the time, but these reports have me wondering if there may be something to it. (When I saw Oak it certainly seemed like he was concentrating very hard on his playing, although of course I could have been projecting!)

This is pretty much an expression of the agent theory where people need one person to blame for the consequences caused by interconnected actions that lead to it. People want to blame Comet possibly closing earlier than what people really want all on Oak and the behavior of his supporters when the closing of the show was caused by many things, much of it preceding the hiring of Oak. Ultimately, it's not Oak's fault that the show was so desperate that it needed a star to keep it afloat for a few more weeks.

Also note the $700k nut is likely without Groban's salary or possibly his cut of the % of gross sales, which likely increased the running costs dramatically during his run.

This article basically ensures Oak will be blacklisted, unless Lin who is an extremely loyal person, writes another show and casts him. Yes most will blame the producers, but I can't imagine a producer of another production even what to risk dealing with the possible drama Oak could bring to a production.

Lastly I really don't buy the whole "production wasn't ready for me" excuse that Oak used for why his first performance was delayed. Shows are finely run machines, and even if he final costume wasn't ready they would of been able to have a seamstress quickly temporarily tailor one of the understudy costumes to fit him in the mean time. The lack of accordion skills seems the most likely excuse though.... Part of me also wonders if the producers were upset about his inability to grow a beard and thus had to rush to get hair pieces made, as Groban mentioned in several interviews the producers were extremely upset when he trimmed it the day before a press event once. In his Instagram post that announced his delay, his face is very much clean shaven outside of a goatee....and I wonder if they producers wouldn't let him go on without the full beard. This is just speculation though...

Also does anyone else find it weird that Oak isn't going continue his run through his original contract expiration? I think that speaks wonders to who is the adult in the room. The producers admitted that their execution of the plan wasn't the best, and apologized, and offered to have Oak back. Oak then says he is still definitively leaving on the 13th. If this were still the producers choice of departure date, I'd imagine Oak would have made it known. As far as we know it his choice to take the 3 week paid vacation, and give the middle finger to a troubled production, and the entire cast and crew.

I don't see it as negative anymore- Oak departed, Mandy departed- no one is losing jobs to who ever the replacement may be. It's a job at this point, nothing more then any other replacement. The next person would have no responsibility for anything that happened prior to their arrival.

Updated On: 8/4/17 at 12:05 PM