The Last Ship Lasting

So I was at the Last Ship last night, and let me say I didn't fall head over heals in love the show, but there something about production that got to me. I was speechless afterword, which is rare.
Now as to why I am creating this thread. Last night the theater was basically empty. I originally had seats for the rear mezzanine and was moved into the front mezzanine. Talking to the usher she told me they had sold less than 800 tickets which is a little over half of the total capacity. She also said that has been the norm. Now I did not realize how truly empty the auditorium was until the show was over and their was no traffic jam to leave the theater.

Then at the stage door, the cast just seemed depressed while exiting. I am used to casts begging you to tell your friends at a show that isn't selling, but they just seemed defeated while saying that message, like there was no hope. It seemed as if they were given the "If advance for the holidays doesn't pick up, we aren't even going to be around for them"
speech.
I honestly feel as bad for the cast as they playing to empty houses. Now shows play to empty houses all the time, but The Last Ship actually opened to decent reviews and has a marketing team that is actually doing their jobs. Sting is everywhere promoting the show, and its not helping, which amazes me.

Consider this ship sunk. If On The Town, a joyous classic that received all around raves can't sell tickets, how can Sting expect his dreary, boring musical to be a hit. He is delusional if he thinks theater going audiences care about him. Who will take the Simon in the Spring?

I am one of the people on this board that liked The Last Ship. Yes, there are book problems, but I still managed to like it for the virtues it has. I've seen shows that are far worse than this that have had long runs.

Is there any word on a cast recording? The bits of music I've heard are right up my alley. I'm on of those Billy Elliot/Once type fans. Sadly, I'm too far away to see this in person.

For my money The Last Ship is the best new musical to arrive on Broadway in who knows how long. It has a great score, an affective, moving story,a terrific cast, strong choreography and staging, and great choral singing.
Why would it fail? I guess it's a case of pearls before swine.
Feed the public enough smelly garbage, and they will soon believe that garbage doesn't stink. (Disney and jukebox musicals, specifically.)

Their pricing structure can't be helping sales. I looked into getting a ticket for The Last Ship a while back, and found no discount code available for the date that i wanted, no good seats available, and exorbitant prices for the poor seats that were available. Now maybe they were planning to release good seats later on in the process, but to shaft people who want to buy tickets early isn't really a good strategy, if those people are driven away by the prices and don't come back. I ended up getting a ticket to a different show because The Last Ship seemed too expensive for one that i am not that excited about based on its composer.

Knowing that Sting wrote the music makes it less appealing to me based on his music that i have listened to on the radio. The only reason that i decided to look into getting a ticket at all was because i read that Brian Yorkey was involved as a book writer. I still want to see it because of Mr. Yorkey even if Mr. Sting doesn't inspire any particular excitement for the show on my part. But i might wait to catch it on tour. Maybe having Mr. Yorkey do some of their publicity rather than Sting might make it appeal more to people who are musical theatre fans (and therefore most likely to be buying tickets).

Yorkey wasn't involved in the recent development of the show-- he wrote the early drafts and then left to do If/Then, when Logan took over. There's no way he'll be doing any publicity for it now.

Updated On: 10/31/14 at 12:58 PM

Tourists are really going to plunk down $ 140 a ticket based on what Mr Yorkey has to say? If Sting does not bring you in, nothing will.

Hey, does anyone want to buy the Brooklyn Bridge?

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I specifically said "among musical theatre fans", not "among tourists", although those two groups are not mutually exclusive, as some seem to enjoy implying.

Quick poll - how many people here (presumably all musical theatre fans, or at least theatre fans) have either the Next to Normal or If/Then cast recordings, and how many have Sting or The Police recordings? Even with the latter having many more titles, i would not be surprised if more theatre fans listen to recordings with Yorkey lyrics than with Sting music.

I'll start - I have and listen to both Yorkey recordings and zero Sting recordings.

I have both Yorkey recordings, 10+ Sting records, every Police album, saw Sting 5+ times live, saw the Police once live, so I'm not sure what that proves?!

Also, emphasizing the book writer in a show with a lousy book seems a bad strategy. The best thing about this show is the Sting music.

ouch tough season. I wonder if Side Show will last

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I'm on of those Billy Elliot/Once type fans.

Me too, but I still didn't like The Last Ship. I was bored to pieces by the Chicago tryout.

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I didn't know that Brian Yorkey only wrote the first draft and it was then re-written - i only saw that it was co-written. Thank you for the update; i feel better now about picking another show.