The Piano Lesson - Broadway 2022 — Page 2

ErmengardeStopSniveling said: "fashionguru_23 said: "It will be interestin if they will use the whol auditorium. Seems like a large house for the show"

I suspect they would LIKE to sell all seats without closing off the balcony, considering the star power here. But1,710 seats are still a lot to fill, and sometimes plays can benefit from a smaller house which means tighter ticket. If we're being realistic, Sam Jackson is the one leading the ticket sales here. This thing probably doesn't go without a star of his calibre.

Did they close the balcony at the St. James for Kevin Kline's PRIVATE LIVES in that house a few years ago?"

The St James is still one of the largest theaters on Broadway. Of the past 45 productions that have played there at the St. James in the past 50 years on Broadway only 5 have been plays. The two most recent of which were 2009 Desire Under the Elms revival and the 2017's Present Laughter revival staring Kevin Kline. The former quickly closed after 32 performances, and the later while not a massive flop still did not recoup its investment, playing to only about 80% capacity. I am not saying a play cannot be successful at the St James, its just by playing in such a big house opens the production to a lot "this isn't doing well speculation."



The Piano Lesson is simply not a big play that could have a production big enough to fill the St. James sightline wise. I know Samuel L Jackson is a big name, but still I would think producers would rather sell out a smaller house and charge outrageous prices for premium tickets, than struggle to sell out the barn of the St. James. Due to this I honestly wonder if this was their first choice of theater or they were forced to take the St. James as the Broadhurst, Hudson, Longacre, Golden, and Booth are all supposedly vacant this fall. The only thing I can think of is maybe they will be doing an initiate to either give away or only have students pay $10 for tickets in the balcony. Maybe someone else can shed light on this, but it just doesn't make sense that such a small play would play in one of the largest houses on Broadway if there wasn't some extenuating circumstances.

Several recent shows at the St. James have also done a version where the third floor balcony is closed Tuesday to Thursday, then it's open for Friday to Sunday. Frozen, Present Laughter and Something Rotten! all did this at some point in their runs.

That means there's four performances each week both with and without the added seats. It's possible Piano Lesson could do this too based on demand.

As for "why" the St. James:

– it could be that the producers wanted to work with Jujamcyn, which has a long relationship with the work of August Wilson. The St. James is Jujamcyn's only open venue right now.

– Jujamcyn could be investing $X as a co-producer.

– They might believe –– perhaps foolishly, perhaps correctly –– that this combo of actors could fill the house, as we've seen from some other profitable, starry plays that were in large venues (Mockingbird with Jeff Daniels at the Shubert, All The Way with Bryan Cranston at the Neil Simon, etc). With the balcony closed, the St. James has about 1400 seats. Or they have grand plans to comp/discount a bunch of seats to Black audiences.

Updated On: 3/31/22 at 02:00 PM

Tickets don't go on sale to the general public until May 13. The Audience Rewards presale begins on May 4, with a fan presale starting on May 9.

As far as SeatGeek is concerned, you can't select seats from the seating chart on the app, so using the full site is the way to go, then zoom in on the seating chart to see individual seats.

https://seatgeek.com/august-wilson-s-the-piano-lesson-tickets?active_event_view=calendar

I'm looking forward to seeing this play. I taught it a few times in my career but never felt I did a good job putting this one over the way I was able to do with other works. I don't think I ever "got" the play--possibly due to feeble stage directions in the printed text.

A magnificent play with a magnificent cast.

Oh SH*T! I wanted Into The Woods to extend so I'm not mad but yikes for everyone involved.

Huh. If true, it's a real shame that they'd have to re-build the set. I wonder if Jujamcyn would be responsible for footing that bill. What's the protocol there? They presumably signed a contract, and it's not like Piano Lesson even had the chance to fall below a stop clause. And the for a limited run like Piano Piano lesson, I wonder if changes like this (having to rebuild the set, and playing a smaller house) could mean the difference between recouping, and not.

If so, could Jujamcyn be liable? Or do they sign away all liability as the landlords by having absolute final say about what does or doesn't go into their theatres?

Anyway, speaking as a future audience member for the production, I much prefer the Barrymore over the St. James, and glad I won't have to deal with f*cking SeatGeek.

Updated On: 7/13/22 at 09:28 PM

JBroadway said: "I wonder if Jujamcyn would be responsible for footing that bill. What's the protocol there? They presumably signed a contract, and it's not like Piano Lesson even had the chance to fall below a stop clause. And the for a limited run like Piano Piano lesson, I wonder if changes like this (having to rebuild the set, and playing a smaller house) could mean the difference between recouping, and not.

If so, could Jujamcyn be liable? Or do they sign away all liability as the landlords by having absolute final say about what does or doesn't go into their theatres?"

All good questions. Legally, would of course depend on what the contract says, but assuming competent lawyers drafted it, I'm sure (if any of this is true) that Jujamcyn would be weighing the benefits of ITW at the St James vs the costs of backing out of Piano Lesson. Can't imagine a scenario where The Piano Lesson (even on a pure estoppel theory, contract terms aside) wouldn't have a right to damages caused by this late switcheroo.

That said, the Barrymore makes so much more sense for this show, and if Jujamcyn is making $$ from ITW (with another production coming in in the Spring), it seems like a win-win for everyone.

I purchased tickets for Piano Lesson in mid-October via Seat Geek. Have not heard yet re transferring dale from Seat Geek / St. James to Telecharge / Barrymore. Hope they take the consumer into consideration when doing this.

I'm sure they'd like to extend Into The Woods, but doubt those stars would commit to anything much longer.

Well, my info has changed. There will be a move. And while it was leaked in a very unkind way, I hear they there is quite the price tag attached. A major win for team Piano Lesson.

Updated On: 7/18/22 at 05:12 PM