Smallest broadway audience you've ever seen? — Page 2

#26

re: Smallest broadway audience you've ever seen?

Posted: 6/13/08 at 1:58pm

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.

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"I thought that that was just going to be a like one shot deal for me, you know, but they kept talking about it like, 'when we do the production, when we do the production', and I was like, 'yes, yes, when you do the production, cool, I will come and see it'". - John Gallagher Jr. on SA

#27

re: Smallest broadway audience you've ever seen?

Posted: 6/13/08 at 2:04pm

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.

#28

re: Smallest broadway audience you've ever seen?

Posted: 6/13/08 at 2:10pm

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.

#29

re: Smallest broadway audience you've ever seen?

Posted: 6/13/08 at 2:10pm

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?

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Notes from the Earlham Street Gutter

#30

re: Smallest broadway audience you've ever seen?

Posted: 6/13/08 at 2:15pm

Glory days wasn't even half full, and the circle in the square is TINY!

#31

re: Smallest broadway audience you've ever seen?

Posted: 6/13/08 at 2:19pm

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.

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A young actress with Noel coward after a dreadful opening night performance said to him 'Well, i knew my lines backwards this morning!'' Noels fast reply was ''Yes dear, and thats exactly how you said them tonight'!'

Updated On: 6/13/08 at 02:19 PM

#32

re: Smallest broadway audience you've ever seen?

Posted: 6/13/08 at 2:35pm

Passing Strange is probably it for me. Orchestra maybe 1/2 full, mezz about 1/4 full, not a single person in the balcony.

#33

re: Smallest broadway audience you've ever seen?

Posted: 6/13/08 at 2:42pm

"but I once did a performance of "Ragtime" for about 60 people."

Was it legal, MTF3 ??

#34

re: Smallest broadway audience you've ever seen?

Posted: 6/13/08 at 2:46pm

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.

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"We like to snark around here. Sometimes we actually talk about theater...but we try not to let that get in our way." - dramamama611

#35

re: Smallest broadway audience you've ever seen?

Posted: 6/13/08 at 2:47pm

"Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks" at the Belasco, maybe 4 rows of Orchestra could have bee 3 rows.

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"All I ask of you is one thing: please don't be cynical. I hate cynicism -- it's my least favorite quality and it doesn't lead anywhere. Nobody in life gets exactly what they thought they were going to get. But if you work really hard and you're kind, amazing things will happen." Conan O'Brien

#36

re: Smallest broadway audience you've ever seen?

Posted: 6/13/08 at 2:47pm

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!

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A young actress with Noel coward after a dreadful opening night performance said to him 'Well, i knew my lines backwards this morning!'' Noels fast reply was ''Yes dear, and thats exactly how you said them tonight'!'

#37

re: Smallest broadway audience you've ever seen?

Posted: 6/13/08 at 2:50pm

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.

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<------ Me and my friends with patti Lupone at my friends afterparty for her concert with audra mcdonald during the summer of 2007.
"I am sorry but it is an unjust world and virtue is only triumphant in theatricle performances" The Mikado

#38

re: Smallest broadway audience you've ever seen?

Posted: 6/13/08 at 2:52pm

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.

#39

re: Smallest broadway audience you've ever seen?

Posted: 6/13/08 at 2:52pm

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.

#40

re: Smallest broadway audience you've ever seen?

Posted: 6/13/08 at 2:52pm

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!

#41

re: Smallest broadway audience you've ever seen?

Posted: 6/13/08 at 3:01pm

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

#42

re: Smallest broadway audience you've ever seen?

Posted: 6/13/08 at 3:02pm

A performance of A CLASS ACT where only the first few rows of the orchestra had people seated. Wow.

#43

re: Smallest broadway audience you've ever seen?

Posted: 6/13/08 at 5:51pm

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!)

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Seen some shows in my time....

#44

re: Smallest broadway audience you've ever seen?

Posted: 6/13/08 at 5:54pm

Of recent memory, either The Homecoming or The Farnsworth Invention.

#45

re: Smallest broadway audience you've ever seen?

Posted: 6/13/08 at 5:57pm

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.

#46

re: Smallest broadway audience you've ever seen?

Posted: 6/13/08 at 6:01pm

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.

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"You drank a charm to kill John Proctor's wife! You drank a charm to kill Goody Proctor!" - Betty Parris to Abigail Williams in Arthur Miller's The Crucible

#47

re: Smallest broadway audience you've ever seen?

Posted: 6/13/08 at 6:02pm

At a Wednesday mat. of Cry Baby about half the orchestra and the first few rows of the mezz were full.

#48

re: Smallest broadway audience you've ever seen?

Posted: 6/13/08 at 6:03pm

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.

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"Long live God!" (GODSPELL)

#49

re: Smallest broadway audience you've ever seen?

Posted: 6/13/08 at 6:04pm

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.

#50

re: Smallest broadway audience you've ever seen?

Posted: 6/13/08 at 6:29pm

Young Frankenstein. Almost no one in MEZ, people scattered across orchestra