Posted: 10/14/16 at 3:22pm
It was the highest-grossing show in the history of the Goodman Theater in Chicago.
I'm not surprised considering the tickets were the highest priced in Goodman history as well, which makes mention of the grosses nothing more than a sensational marketing ploy. The real evidence would be in the net income (if any). It's clear that a lot of money went into the design and God knows what the star salaries were. The current production of Wonderful Town is so vastly superior to War Paint, it only served to move the latter even further from my memory.
I didn't get the impression that what I saw would cause any great buzz or enthusiasm that translates to a potential hit other than possibly for the leading ladies. Once the musical theatre enthusiasts have flooded the initial few weeks, I'm not sure even critical raves would be enough to keep the show afloat. It's not as if the show was this big smash hit in Chicago everyone was talking about. It would be great if they do a massive amount of work to re-write and re-stage the show into a more compelling piece of theatre, and I'd love to see that happen and wish the show success, but based on what I saw, the show has a very steep uphill climb on the backs of the two leading women (only one of whom delivered the only song that seemed memorable enough to reference in connection with the show).


