Rochester NY 2012-2013 season

[jayclay]

Posted: 3/22/12 at 8:22pm

Mary Poppins
Memphis
The Addams Family
The Book of Mormon
Les Miserables
With specials: John Lithgow: Stories by Heart
Blue Man Group
Wicked

And Seth Rudetsky announced that Gavin Creel would be in one of them...

[sbflyfan]

Posted: 3/22/12 at 10:00pm

He's going back to the role he originated in Mo' Po'? I doubt he's going to be a Mormon... Interesting.

Updated On: 3/22/12 at 10:00 PM

[castlestreet]

Posted: 3/22/12 at 10:21pm

How many times is the RBTL going to bring Wicked and Jersey Boys back into Rochester?!? Enough already!

I do like that they are bringing in some other shows though- I hope they sell better than this season did- lots of empty seats this year at the Aud- very sad!

[jayclay]

Posted: 3/22/12 at 11:37pm

I agree about Wicked and Jersey Boys, but they are their two top sellers, so here they come again... At least Wicked isn't part of the subscription, so we have a choice.

[LizzieCurry]

Posted: 3/22/12 at 11:58pm

I'm also really curious about the Creel announcement.

[jayclay]

Posted: 3/23/12 at 12:29am

My first thought about Gavin Creel was "oh right - Mary Poppins". But then I thought what would be the appeal of being a replacement on tour (Mary Poppins or Memphis). So...Elder Price?

[Gypsy9]

Posted: 3/23/12 at 10:08am

Castlestreet: So the Auditorium Theatre is still functioning. It is a huge theatre so I am not surprised at the many empty seats. In 1961, when I was a student at the University of Rochester, I ushered there a few times, including the engagement of GYPSY with Ethel Merman, straight from Broadway, as the first stop on the national tour. Ah, memories.

[castlestreet]

Posted: 3/23/12 at 10:24am

That's our claim to fame! First stop on the national tour!
Alas the aud is still running- the Rochester economy has taken major hits- especially bc of Kodak - but the attendance at RBTL shows have been really bad this year. A friend of mine told me the entire three week run of Billy Elliot barely sold above 60%
The sound in the theater is awful and if you get stuck under the balcony forget about it. My last couple of experiences in the aud haven't been great- every time we take our girls there they remind us they like NYC much better- too bad because growing up we used to get a lot of great tours with some fairly big names. They also committed major money to a huge renovation back in the mid-90's for a three month sit down of Phantom- something that was unheard of in this city at the time.
About Jersey Boys & Wicked- I think they have gone to the well one too many times- the last time Jersey Boys came it was a sell out- and with just a few weeks to go before the show hits town for a three week run there are a ton of tickets...

[NDR]

Posted: 3/23/12 at 11:07am

Excited to see Book of Mormon, Les Mis and Memphis here in Rochester.
Not sure if I'll do Addams Family and Mary Poppins though.

Wicked - again - I guess they'll sell whatever they think will sell well. They need it after this past season.

[zamedy]

Posted: 3/23/12 at 10:32pm

As someone from Buffalo, it's interesting to hear the difference in the state of theatre between two cities so relatively close to one another. Shea's has just over 3,000 seats (about the same as The Aud I believe?)... and attendance here is BOOMING. In fact, Shea's President Tony Conte says Shea's is the highest grossing theatre for one-week Broadway touring shows right now, which helped us land an exciting upcoming year. Most of Rochester's upcoming shows played Buffalo this past season (MARY POPPINS was here the season before).

Quick thoughts...
1. It's great to hear you're also getting BOOK OF MORMON. We're both lucky.
2. Don't dismiss THE ADDAMS FAMILY like I did. I was very pleasantly surprised and delighted that I went. It's a fun night of theatre.
3. We're finally getting BILLY ELLIOT this season. I find it interesting that we only get a one-week run, when it ran three weeks in Rochester.
4. LES MIS was sold out weeks in advance for its entire week-long run at Shea's two weeks ago.
5. Shea's also underwent a stagehouse expansion in the mid-90s and also first played host to an extended PHANTOM run.


Oh... and Gypsy9, I love you.

[fingerlakessinger]

Posted: 3/23/12 at 11:24pm

I'm excited about WICKED. I'm a fanboy..cannot help it. It sold extremely well the second time here. It broke the record again if not mistaken.

[jayclay]

Posted: 3/25/12 at 1:03pm

Re: Rochester getting shows a year or two after Buffalo...We always wondered why at least half of our shows lag behind Buffalo by a year, so when we went on a backstage tour a few years ago we asked. Both cities have the same "Presenter". Because Buffalo generally sells better than Rochester they sometimes use Buffalo as a test to see if it's worth taking a show to Rochester. This is especially true in cases like Mary Poppins, where they would have to physically alter the ceiling to hoist her up. Shea's has equipment like that in place permanently, but we were told that to bring Mary Poppins here they will have to pay to install the equipment, uninstall the equipment, and restore the ceiling. So if Buffalo's sales indicate it would also sell well enough in Rochester to cover all of that, they will make the investment at a later time (which obviously they're doing). On the flip side, I'm guessing Billy Elliot is only in Buffalo for a week, since it couldn't sustain 3 weeks here?? Also strangely, they said Rochester got Spring Awakening, but they felt it would not be accepted in Buffalo, so they never got it. So they do look at the two cities and tailor things a bit for the tours.

[jayclay]

Posted: 3/29/12 at 3:39pm

So there you go - Creel is Elder Price...nice! I wonder if they'll limit how many extra seats season ticket holders can get...I know a lot of people who will want to see this.