Sondheim financial question

[Theatreboy49]

Posted: 12/3/08 at 3:51pm

So I am writing a speech for my speech class commemorating sondheim. One of the points Im making is that while the shows usually flopped they were critical and artistic sucesses. Does anyone by any chance know a place I can see all of the OBC shows and see the actual numbers that indicated they flopped. For instance I know the original Sweeney didnt recoup until a few years ago due to licensing. Does anyone know where I can find what the original investment was and how much was made back? Any help would be apreciated.

[binau]

Posted: 12/3/08 at 4:20pm

I disagree that Sondheim's shows had critical success (upon opening, that is). There was a thread about it a while ago but something like 50-60% reviews were mixed or negative.

No doubt on artistic success.

[TonyVincent]

Posted: 12/3/08 at 4:26pm

I second qolbinau. The running joke is his critics always hate new pieces, then when they get revived they're revered as longstanding masterpieces.

[Theatreboy49]

Posted: 12/3/08 at 9:54pm

Now that I think about it I remember reading the original Sweeney Review from the times and it wasnt too good. Anyone know where I can see actual numbers

[wonkit]

Posted: 12/3/08 at 10:14pm

You might want to reconsider the use of "commemorating" -

[best12bars]

Posted: 12/3/08 at 10:17pm

I thought you were going to ask how much money he has in his bank account.

[nobodyhome]

Posted: 12/4/08 at 4:22am

Times opening night Sweeney review:

https://www.nytimes.com/books/98/07/19/specials/sondheim-todd.html?scp=2&sq=sweeney%20todd%20richard%20eder&st=cse

Here's the earlier discussion to which qolbinau is referring:

https://forum.broadwayworld.com/readmessage.cfm?page=4&thread=972257&boardid=0

Here's some info I can give you from Hal Prince's book, Contradictions, published in 1974. This is taken from Appendix B: The Prince production record as of September 1, 1974. The second column is the capitalization, the third column the profit or loss as of that date.

West Side Story: $300,000; $1,090,000 profit
Forum: $300,000; $300,000 profit
Company: $550,000; $56,000 profit
Follies: $700,000; $665,000 loss
A Little Night Music: $650,000; $97,500 profit

Obviously, in the 34 years since then, the profits have increased for all of those shows, though I don't think the original Follies investors ever got paid off.

If you can get to the Library of the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center, you can look through the folders for each of the Sondheim shows and you'll get more information (though probably not all the information you might want), and you can also look through the reviews for each show, some of which will be in folders and some of which will be in bound books in a separate area.
Updated On: 12/4/08 at 04:22 AM

[Theatreboy49]

Posted: 12/4/08 at 9:49pm

Nobody home that is exactly what I was looking for thank you so much. I was specifically hoping to find the loss follies had. I would go to the library but I live in chicago though I have gone twice. Thanks again.Best12bars, not even a sock puppet on this site would be dumb enough to ask how much money is in sondheim's bank account.