Riedel's Latest Article on HARDBODY

[ClydeBarrow]

Posted: 3/28/13 at 11:10pm

Riedel's latest article is more of a round-up of things we already knew. One thing that he's definitely gotten wrong is the list of stand out performances in HARDBODY. "First-rate performances from Keith Carradine, Hunter Foster and Jacob Ming-Trent." I don't think I've barely heard mention of their performances. And how could he completely leave out Keala Settle?
Hands off a ‘Hardbody’

[RippedMan]

Posted: 3/28/13 at 11:20pm

True. And why would their weekly running cost be so high? Don't all the characters wear the same costumes through the whole show? The set doesn't really move? Why do they need so many stagehands, etc? This show should have gone to 2nd Stage over the summer and then maybe came to Broadway.

[PlayItAgain]

Posted: 3/28/13 at 11:21pm

how the hell does Hands cost 500,000 a week to run?!?!?!

[ClydeBarrow]

Posted: 3/28/13 at 11:27pm

I haven't seen BREAKFAST but I don't get how it could be so much more than that. Although they do have George Wendt...

[SondheimFan5]

Posted: 3/29/13 at 1:14am

But Wendt is not making anything near a Tom Hanks/Al Pacino/Scarlett Johansson salary.

[RippedMan]

Posted: 3/29/13 at 12:21pm

If Wendt is a "name" why not use him in the marketing? Or the girl from Game of Thrones?

[April Saul]

Posted: 3/29/13 at 3:24pm

Awww, I was rooting for this show. It wasn't amazing, but it had lovely moments, I enjoyed much of the music, the subject matter appealed to me in this economy, and they tried to do something different.

[newintown]

Posted: 3/29/13 at 3:41pm

Honest question here, April - what did you see in this show that you found "different?"

I only saw rather reductive clichés; a show that reminded me of Happiness, Welcome To The Club, and others that I call "countdown" shows - wherein a bunch of characters, each basically representing one broad characteristic, is introduced, and the audience waits for each one to have their moment before the festivities end.

[mridley2]

Posted: 3/29/13 at 3:58pm

"If Wendt is a "name" why not use him in the marketing?"

Probably best that they don't. He's barely in the show... Fans who paid to see norm drink at a bar might be a bit upset.

And I thought they were using Emilia Clarke for BoT. Though I have to admit I don't pay much attention to what's being advertised..

[ClydeBarrow]

Posted: 3/29/13 at 5:04pm

Clearly I was joking about Wendt being a name. That might have worked for the Re-Animator musical at NYMF but not on Broadway.

[CurtainPullDowner]

Posted: 3/29/13 at 6:41pm

It's not 1980 anymore.
You can't run a Broadway Musical (even a "small" one) for less than 500,000 these days.

Pull out your program and look how many people are involved.
And Union costs ain't cheap.

I found this HARDBODY a crashing bore and a waste of some extremely talented singers and actors.

[goldenboy]

Posted: 3/29/13 at 8:59pm

Alan Cumming's one man MacBeth breaks even at 230,000 per week.
Bonnie and Clyde broke even at 450,000 per week
so its not hard to understand how Hardbody would have a 500,000 break even.

[Dollypop]

Posted: 3/29/13 at 9:31pm

How could Reidel claim that Tom Hanks is the one to beat for this year's Tony Award? Yes, he's a big name, but Boyd Gaines gave an astonishing performance in AN ENEMA FOR THE PEOPLE and Tracey Letts was magnificent in WHO'S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA MAYO? I'm guessing competition will be pretty stiff for the "Best Actor" award.

[bjh2114]

Posted: 3/29/13 at 9:38pm

Because those performances are long gone. Regardless of how Hanks is, he and Nathan will be giving performances still when the Tony voters are making their rounds. I would love to see Letts pick this one up, but I doubt it will happen. I actually think Riedel is forgetting Alan Cumming here. From what I heard of his run last summer, he will be the one to beat.

[goldenboy]

Posted: 3/29/13 at 9:38pm

An enema for the people???LOL Rofl

[April Saul]

Posted: 3/29/13 at 9:40pm

Newintown--How is Hardbody different than other Broadway musicals I've seen lately? Let's see...country rock score I enjoyed, no splashy sets and costumes, characters who sing about the problems in our country and who aren't drag queens or plucked from fairy tales, comic strips, or children's books. Not that there's anything wrong with the four musicals I can think of that have those kind of characters, but you asked how it was different

The bottom line is that you didn't like it, and I did. I didn't think it was a masterpiece or that it deserves a Best Musical Tony...for me, it was a quiet pleasure, and I'm sorry if it appears to be doomed.

[newintown]

Posted: 3/29/13 at 10:56pm

I didn't mean to imply that you're wrong for liking it. But you used the word "different," and I had thought from some posts that you've seen a lot of theatre, and I honestly wondered what you found "different" about it.

I didn't realize that you were only comparing it to very recent shows.

[Trish2]

Posted: 3/29/13 at 11:59pm

What i found most interesting about Riedel's article was the claim of a 5 Million Dollar advance for Pippin. If that' correct that's pretty damn great !

Posted: 3/30/13 at 12:09am

Re: the running costs.

Also remember all of those actors are on principle contracts. Everyone on stage. That's a LOT of money considering a normal musical has a handful of said contracts and the rest are ensemble.

I didn't like it either, but i believe it has a message and a place. somewhere.

sometimes I wish people wouldn't underestimate the benefits of having a show off broadway and running for longer rather than tanking on broadway. Shame .

[April Saul]

Posted: 3/30/13 at 12:39am

Newintown--Although I have actually seen a ton of theater in my life, starting with Ginger Rogers in Hello, Dolly when I was knee-high, I decided to use recent examples in my post! Like you, I saw Happiness a couple of seasons back, but I wasn't crazy about it and it didn't immediately come to mind as being all that similar to Hardbody, although I have to admit that A Chorus Line did pop into my head.

But do I remember a show where middle-class, middle-Americans in a bad economy sang country-rock songs around a truck? Not so much...

I'm not always very articulate when I try to describe why a like a show. In this case, my sentiments were very close to the NY Times and Variety reviews, which doesn't make me right, but at least lets me know I'm not the only one who didn't love but did kind of like this show...

[RippedMan]

Posted: 3/30/13 at 12:40am

Hardbody wouldn't have worked off-broadway. It would have tanked. It would have been great at Lincoln Center's Mitzi, but I think it's a little to "real" for Lincoln Center.

I'm stil surprised it cost so much to run, but I guess in the scheme of things it's not a "small" musical. It's in a fairly large house; although a play did just run there for over a year, so... who knows.

They might be on principle contracts but they can't be making much money. Foster is the only one of them that's a Broadway "name."

[HeyMrMusic]

Posted: 3/30/13 at 12:46am

Also, there are eight offstage standbys. So that's 15 principals and 8 standbys. Not as small a cast as people think, at least in terms of payroll. (And each character does have multiple costumes.)

Most of the orchestra members double (play multiple instruments), which increases the players' salaries, and two onstage actors play instruments. More money.

And that's just the cast and orchestra. Basically, it just all adds up.

[RippedMan]

Posted: 3/30/13 at 12:53am

You'd think the producers would know that.