Ugly Sweeney rumor

I'm dying to see the new production of Sweeney Todd, but I live way down South. The soonest I can get away to see a show is going to be late March or April. I assumed that with Sweeney's small cast and relatively low production cost it would at least be able to run through Tony season, but a friend of mine told me the show was only slated to run to the end of December.

Her story was, she tried to buy rush tickets, and was told (by an hourly-wage ticket-booth type person) that rush tickets weren't available because the show was closing at the end of the year and expected to sell out it's run without resorting to rush tickets.

This just sounds like crazy talk to me. Why mount such an innovative performance... Why market in a way to build up so much advance... Why bother talking Patti LuPone out of a self-imposed 17 year Broadway role exile... if you are only going to do a limited run?

Not only that, but why would I not have heard anything about such a limited run ahead of time? ESPECIALLY HERE?!?!

Please, tell me my friend is wrong, and that unless the show flops miserably, I should still be able to see it in April.

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Updated On: 10/24/05 at 10:56 PM

I know I read somewhere that Patti was contracted through March.

That doesn't mean the show wouldn't close before then if it isn't selling well, but it seems to directly contradict your sales person.

It's def an open-ended run. Besides I don't think it would be "doing" that badly yet. It's actually got a buzz about it because it's so new. I think they'd wait until it at least opened to decide when to close it (IF it were doing badly). It's not as if it's some new obscure piece of theatre.

I bought tickets for Jan.

"I bought tickets for Jan."

When I bought tickets online for the first preview, there was a note that said Patti LuPone will not be performing on two dates in January, and it was sometime in the middle of that month. So obviously they plan on running in January (at this time),

Someone else said when they bought tickets they were told that Patti LuPone would be out for a week in February.

Obviously this was some piece of information from a random disgruntled person who was trying to avoid an argument before the end of their shift. Cool.

I thought that was an awful amount of trouble for them to go to for a limited run. Thanks, guys!

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hahahahahhahahahahaha NO LIE! hahahahahahahahahahahaha

"GUYS IT IS A ROUNDABOUT SHOW haha it is a limited engagement and it might not last all the way till april cause of pajama game haha so this show is a limited engagement the rumor is true, read the ny times on sundays and go to the listings or go to the show ureself this is a limited engagement no LIE"

Cabaret was a Roundabout show too. That ran for years. If Sweeney is a hit (just like Cabaret was), Roundabout will accomodate that. They're not going to close a show if it's making them a significant amount of money. That's absurd.

Especially considering it was a $3.5 million production that earned a $3 million dollar advance. Who turns their nose up to that kind of percentage?

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"GUYS IT IS A ROUNDABOUT SHOW haha it is a limited engagement and it might not last all the way till april cause of pajama game haha so this show is a limited engagement the rumor is true, read the ny times on sundays and go to the listings or go to the show ureself this is a limited engagement no LIE"

Pajama game is at the American Airlines theatre and has absolutely nothing to do with whether or not Sweeny Todd Extends... Limited engagement or not!

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Oh yeah and I meant to say... Its not a ROUNDABOUT SHOW.
Thanks Girlfriend from CA!

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Sweeney Todd is being Produced by Thomas Viertel, Steven Baruch, Marc Routh, Richard Frankel, The Ambassador Theatre Group, Adam Kenwright and Tulchin/Bartner/Bagert

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individual tickets are on sale through the end of february

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