Two different productions of the same show on Broadway?- Page 2

[jkcohen626]

Posted: 10/14/23 at 1:34pm

BroadwayNYC2 said: "Book of Mormon also considered two productions (and transferring theaters), but obviously didn’t happen."

Very curious to know what would have happened to Mormon if it had moved to a bigger theatre. 

[ErmengardeStopSniveling]

Posted: 10/14/23 at 1:51pm

jkcohen626 said: "BroadwayNYC2 said: "Book of Mormon also considered two productions (and transferring theaters), but obviously didn’t happen."

Very curious to know what would have happened to Mormon if it had moved to a bigger theatre."


I bet it still wouldn't be running today.

The key to success is getting a tour out as quickly as possible, giving tourists an opportunity to see it somewhere other than NYC. HAMILTON achieved it with the Chicago sitdown production, which began 14 months after Broadway. At its peak there were 3 national companies + Bway. MORMON opened in March 2011 and had two tours open by the end of 2012. SIX started touring 6 months after it finally opened on Broadway (a unique circumstance). BACK TO THE FUTURE tour starts in June 2024.

Things were different on the road in the 80s, but LES MIS opened on Broadway in March 1987. They then opened 3 different touring companies in the next twenty months: December 1987, May 1988, November 1988. Insanity.

The benefit is reading the tealeaves & having a sense of the buzz before it actually opens on Broadway (easier if it starts in London). For a show that becomes a sensation after it opens on Bway, it's trickier to get companies out quickly because the bookers need lead-time, the road is saturated, and there's a lot of politics with theatre owners, companies who invest in exchange for tour rights/dates, etc. 

Then sometimes you bet on a hit and then it doesn't pan out that way. Weeks after opening on Broadway, TOOTSIE announced 4 separate productions: London, Australia, Tokyo, and U.S. tour. I think only the tour actually happened, and it was non-Eq. (World events were also a factor)

Updated On: 10/14/23 at 01:51 PM

[Malinda5000]

Posted: 10/14/23 at 2:07pm

Don’t know about the same show but it’s sort of the same story… The Wiz and Wicked will be running on Broadway in the spring at the same time at least for a while. 🤗

[nasty_khakis]

Posted: 10/14/23 at 2:17pm

It's been years and I don't remember all the details but didn't Ziegfeld open a second production of Showboat in NYC during the original run? Or maybe he just talked about it. I can't same to find anything but I know it was something I've read about before.

[Fosse76]

Posted: 10/14/23 at 3:36pm

jkcohen626 said: "BroadwayNYC2 said: "Book of Mormon also considered two productions (and transferring theaters), but obviously didn’t happen."

Very curious to know what would have happened to Mormon if it had moved to a bigger theatre."

They would have needed Jujamcyn's cooperation to move to one of their larger houses. Otherwise they'd have had to breach their contract (the stop clause protects the landlords, not only to evict underperforming shows, but to prevent hit shows from moving to a larger, competing house).

I know the Shuberts have a clause preventing shows from performing more than 15 minutes of the show's material in an outside venue, without their consent, within eight weeks after the closing performance (tours/sitdowns notwithstanding, but there's a distance minimum). It's hard to think that Jujamcyn or Nederlander don't also have similar clauses. 

Basically, to move without Jujamcyn's permission, they'd have had to force an eviction,  and halt performances for eight weeks (or whatever Jujamcyn's minimum may be). That would be such bad precedent, I can't imagine any producer doing that. Future agreements then would be more restrictive. 

BoM's "hit" status was unexpected... they'd been offering discounts prior to previews. But once performances began, it became a runaway hit almost overnight. The discounts were rescinded during that first week. Moving to a larger house would have interrupted the flow... especially if they didn't build a new set for the new venue, since performances would have been halted for probably a month or so. I think it would have done more harm than good. 

[ChairinMain]

Posted: 10/16/23 at 12:12pm

Not quite two of the same show on broadway, but:

In 1964, When Richard Burton was playing HAMLET on Broadway, a production of the same play was on at the Delacorte (at the time, run by the New York Shakespeare Festival). On opening night of the Delacorte production, their Hamlet, Alfred Ryder, went out of the show with Laryngitis and Burton's understudy Robert Burr, stepped in with three hours notice to save the show. Burton gave curtain speeches Burr's run at the Delacorte encouraging his audiences to go see the other production. 

[darquegk]

Posted: 10/16/23 at 4:44pm

The Astor Place Riots in the 1840s arose when an American and British production of Hamlet played New York together, and fans of the more masculine American Hamlet clashed with fans of the more effete British Hamlet.