Stand-by Joined: 12/21/05
I saw Thoroughly Modern Millie during a snowstorm when Delta Burke and Sutton Foster were both out-- they were lucky if the theater was 1/3 full, but we got bumped to orchestra seats.
RENT before Adam and Anthony came back last summer.
Cry Baby at it's 3rd preview.
Passing Strange's orchestra was only half full the first time I saw it.
July 4, 1976. (the Bi-Centennial yr) About 50-75 people. Equus. They moved everyone front and center, and the actors gave a stellar performance and thanked the audience for coming.
Well that HIGHLY ILLEGAL UNLICENSED production of 'Rent' I did? There were only THREE people there; one of 'em was me, the other two were asleep. What do you say to THAT?
Glory days wasn't even half full, and the circle in the square is TINY!
Barbra Cook in her show 'Wait 'Till You See Her!'
Albery Theatre (now The Noel Coward) 1986
23 in a theatre with 872 seats.
The first thing she said, as the audience stopped the long applause, was 'We may be few but we will be mighty'
-she continued to do a 2hr 15 min show. This she did for 6 weeks, 8 shows a week.
Passing Strange is probably it for me. Orchestra maybe 1/2 full, mezz about 1/4 full, not a single person in the balcony.
"but I once did a performance of "Ragtime" for about 60 people."
Was it legal, MTF3 ??
Maya,
Did you see Drowsy at Boston's Opera House? I did and though that venue was a barn for a show that should've been playing at a smaller venue. Too bad the Colonial wasn't available at that time.
"Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks" at the Belasco, maybe 4 rows of Orchestra could have bee 3 rows.
On Broadway, I saw a performance of 'Once On This Island' at the Booth in the shows last 5 or 6 weeks. There were no more than 40 or 50 in the house that night. The notices were given 2 weeks later- not to my surprise. Gorgeous show!
my boss saw the OBC of Pacific Overtures and he said since it was a blizzard outside there was no more than 30-40 people there and of course they were spread throughout the entire theatre however in the row in front of him was carol channing and he said she was very plesant.
The emptiest I've ever seen was recently--the Tuesday after Memorial Day with Sunday in the Park with George. No one sat in the rear mezz, but the front mezz section was pretty filled. The orchestra was probably around 3/4 full.
Last time I saw A CHORUS LINE and last time I saw CHICAGO they were both about 50-60% full...and the people that were there were extremely unenthusiastic.
oh this is too easy! Dracula, Belasco Thearte, Winter. We had no more than 50 people in the Orchestra and upstairs was completely empty. And from what I heard myself and 9 others were their on comped tickets that night.-SAD, very sad!
Maya,
Did you see Drowsy at Boston's Opera House? I did and though that venue was a barn for a show that should've been playing at a smaller venue. Too bad the Colonial wasn't available at that time.
Yes, I did in fact. The smaller venue I was referring to was the Colonial...would have been MUCH better there
Broadway Legend Joined: 12/15/05
A performance of A CLASS ACT where only the first few rows of the orchestra had people seated. Wow.
I had stage seats for Xanadu at a Saturday evening show in April and I couldn't believe how many gaps there were in the main auditorium (orchestra and mezz), especially as it was such a tiny theatre and (I thought) a quite well-regarded show. Still, the atmosphere was quite good. I've been to shows with bigger audiences who have been far less responsive and felt it put a downer on the experience (so I guess that means size isn't everything!)
Of recent memory, either The Homecoming or The Farnsworth Invention.
I saw BKLYN no long before it closed and there were maybe 2 dozen people in the theater. Oddly, maybe 6 of us were in the orchestra and the rest upstairs. The ushers would not let people move seats from the far side to anywhere close to center. AWKward.
When I saw the national tour of Little Women at the Kennedy Center 2 years ago, we sat in a balcony that was less than half full. From our vantage point we could also see that the orchestra had very many empty seats, so many that we considered moving down at intermission.
At a Wednesday mat. of Cry Baby about half the orchestra and the first few rows of the mezz were full.
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/15/03
Loretta Swit and Ted Bessell in SAME TIME NEXT YEAR wasn't even 1/4 full (but that didn't stop Miss Swit from giving a glorious performance!)
Mario Cantone's LAUGH WHORE was about 1/2 full and the ushers invited people to move down front.
When I went to Xanadu there were like fifteen people in the mezz, and the orchestra was maybe 2/3 full. Even on stage, where I was, wasn't full... and those only cost 40 bucks.
Young Frankenstein. Almost no one in MEZ, people scattered across orchestra
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