SWEAT Final Broadway Performance 6/25!

https://www.broadwayworld.com/article/Pulitzer-Prize-Winning-SWEAT-To-Play-Final-Broadway-Performance-625-20170613

Imagine Roundabout will now be able to announce what's going into 54 for their upcoming season.

Jarethan said: "I also think that these producers are going to have to realize sooner or later that opening so many plays in such a concentrated time, in hopes of Tony love is backfiring. They need to be spread more across the season so the remaining serious theatergoers can spread out their viewing."

Umm, this seems like a made-up thing. Many shows open late in the season because many other shows close in January? So, they are going into theaters when they become available... Holiday Inn closed in January, so this came in for March.

It's a really great play. It's unfortunate to see it go.

Perhaps now Roundabout will reveal their musical for the season?

It's really sad that we have to see it go. Broadway has become way too "musical" for what it is, and even most of the time when people are talking about "Broadway shows," they are referring to Broadway musicals. It's not that musicals are bad. It's just after getting to see so many great plays in London including Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf, Angels in America, Sylvia or Who's the Goat, Don Juan in Soho (flawed but has it moments), and even a visually spectacular production of Ugly Lies the Bone in one trip, I feel sad that Broadway has so little to offer when it comes to plays.

"I think it is criminal that B'way cannot support a Pulitzer prize winning play."

1) Pulitzers are awarded by a small group of journalists, none of whom are any more expert in theatre than several posters on this site. A Pulitzer is nice to have, but it doesn't confer any additional "quality" to a play/musical.

2) "B'way" has supported quite a number of Pulitzer winners, beginning with Why Marry? in 1918, which ran 120 performances (at a time when a play could easily turn a profit in a few months), and including hits such as Beyond The Horizon, Anna Christie, They Knew What They Wanted, The Green Pastures, Of Thee I Sing, Idiot's Delight, You Can't Take It With You, Harvey, South Pacific, The Heidi Chronicles, Lost In Yonkers, Angels in America, Rent, and a recent show called Hamilton.

3) When Broadway drifted toward appealing to a mass market of tourists, however, plays became scarcer there - face it, most tourists come to New York for fun, not to "think" (I've actually heard that said by out of town friends, unironically), and so they choose musicals for their fare. It's rare that a play turns a profit on Broadway now (as compared to pre-television days, when many plays could make a profit).

So thinking that "B'way" has some sort of obligation to turn any play that wins a rather arbitrary award into a profit maker really just doesn't make sense. Sweat got a lot of visibility, and will have a strong life for the next few years in regional theatres. And if Ms. Nottage's priority is making money, perhaps she will receive an offer to write for TV (it looks like she's already headed that way, with a show based on Spike Lee's She's Gotta Have It). Because every playwright knows that there's not a great deal of money for them in the theatre.

Updated On: 6/14/17 at 08:54 AM

Dancingthrulife2 said: "It's really sad that we have to see it go. Broadway has become way too "musical" for what it is, and even most of the time when people are talking about "Broadway shows," they are referring to Broadway musicals. It's not that musicals are bad. It's just after getting to see so many great plays in London including Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf, Angels in America, Sylvia or Who's the Goat, Don Juan in Soho (flawed but has it moments), and even a visually spectacular production of Ugly Lies the Bone in one trip, I feel sad that Broadway has so little to offer when it comes to plays.



Broadway has plenty to offer when it comes to plays. There are wonderful plays running every season. In one day last week, I was absolutely blown away by Oslo in the afternoon and The Little Foxes in the evening. You'll forgive me if I find it incredibly ironic that people on here bemoan the lack of support for plays by Broadway or by tourists or whoever, when if you look at the Tony viewing thread on this very board from just 3 days ago, 90% of the posters discussing the Tony winners seem to be completely unaware that Tonys for anything other than musicals were even given out. Maybe a post or two discussing Laurie Metcalf, Rebecca Taichman or Oslo's huge wins and then right back to pissing and moaning about Great Comet for the next 75 posts. There's little interest and discussion about the season's best plays on this board, but everyone should keep on blaming the tourists.

I liked, but didn't love Sweat. The people were important, but the story was a bit clunky. I still encourage people to see it as it's a timely and important play