West Side Story???- Page 4

[George in DC]

Posted: 8/9/21 at 7:45pm

Damn, I really wanted to see this.  Oh well.

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 8/9/21 at 7:51pm

Call_me_jorge said: "I think a revival of shrek is in order"

Capital idea. If not any Wildhorne show will do nicely. Wink wink

 

 

Updated On: 8/9/21 at 07:51 PM

[Sutton Ross]

Posted: 8/9/21 at 7:55pm

If not any Wildhorne will do nicely

Fax. 

[gibsons2]

Posted: 8/9/21 at 7:55pm

Sutton Ross said: "This is not the only show that would have bled money, they’re just the first ones to be realistic.

Great comment, they knew they would never recoup so they made the right decision."

In their weekly pre pandemic grosses, WSS was bested by only Hamilton, MR and a couple of other blockbusters. The production was clearly financially successful. Why wouldn't it recoup? I mean,  even the Girl from the North Country with its dismal ticket sales reopened....

[HogansHero]

Posted: 8/9/21 at 8:14pm

gibsons2 said: "Sutton Ross said: "This is not the only show that would have bled money, they’re just the first ones to be realistic.

Great comment, they knew they would never recoup so they made the right decision."

In their weekly pre pandemic grosses, WSS was bested by only Hamilton, MR and a couple of other blockbusters. The production was clearly financially successful. Why wouldn't it recoup? I mean, even the Girl from the North Country withits dismal ticket sales reopened...."

No one knows if WSS would have recouped or not, but as I explained above, the producers had a host of reasons not to reopen even if they believed they would recoup. It is not correct to say that a show was "clearly financially successful" when it had less than 10 frames of track record. Do you have the info on the advance? Without it, you could not possibly say. Finally, respectfully but ironically, your mention of Girl from the North Country, by highlighting the inanity of reopening all of these shows with "dismal ticket sales," buttresses Sutton's point far more than it contradicts it.

[Sutton Ross]

Posted: 8/9/21 at 8:15pm

Gibson, you're absolutely right about it being popular before an international pandemic occurred. Broadway is different now though. And, it was not "financially successful". Do you think it made a dime in the 3 months it was open? No, it did not. They were given a 10 million grant this year, and they still decided it could not keep them afloat. It's unfortunate, but the interest in seeing West Side Story in the Trump era would have faded away by January, in my opinion. It was problematic from the start and had very mixed reviews as well.

I have no information as to why, but the producers think that Girl from the North Country could possibly be lucacrive. And I truly hope they are right, as it's a beautiful piece of theater. 

“This difficult and painful decision comes after we have explored every possible path to a successful run, and unfortunately, for a variety of reasons, reopening is not a practical proposition,” Kate Horton, a producer on the show, said in a statement. 

They obviously tried to make it work, but it did not. It's unfortunate and Playbill Trash was just pointing that out. 

[gibsons2]

Posted: 8/9/21 at 8:44pm

HogansHero said: "Finally, respectfully but ironically, your mention of Girl from the North Country, by highlightingthe inanity of reopening all of these shows with "dismal ticket sales," buttresses Sutton's point far more than it contradicts it."

I should have specified pre-pandemic dismal tickets sales. I hope the Girl survives. I hope every show that opens and re-opens this year does and completes its intended run. I just fail to see the logic of not reopening the WSS. Maybe it's just disappointment and grief talking. Regardless of what I feel, the show isn't coming back. 

Updated On: 8/9/21 at 08:44 PM

[Sutton Ross]

Posted: 8/9/21 at 8:53pm

The producer explained and gave you an answer. It would not make money. Period.

[HogansHero]

Posted: 8/9/21 at 8:53pm

gibsons2 said: "I should have specifiedpre-pandemicdismal tickets sales. I hope the Girl survives. I hope every show that opens and re-opens this year does and completes its intended run. I just fail to see the logic ofnot reopening the WSS. Maybe it's just disappointment and grief talking. Regardless, the show isn't coming back."

I understood you meant pre-pandemic. I hope it survives too but I can't imagine where they would have found a pot of gold in ticket sales (beyond the SVOG bucks) and I just think there is going to be way too much supply and not nearly enough demand. For a LOT of these shows. I've offered my thoughts on the logic re WSS above.

Posted: 8/9/21 at 9:35pm

I also find this closing to be kind of mystifying. I understand the rational financial reasons for closing a show in the current environment, but of all the shows that are re-opening I would have considered WSS one of the more promising in terms of its potential profitability.

If the hot take is that it closed because "these producers are the only realistic ones" then thank god for the optimistic producers or all of Broadway would be dark.

[HogansHero]

Posted: 8/9/21 at 9:56pm

optimistic is not an antonym of realistic.

 

[Sutton Ross]

Posted: 8/9/21 at 10:20pm

And if anyone thinks it was 100% about the money...

Lolz.

Posted: 8/9/21 at 10:27pm

HogansHero said: "optimistic is not an antonym of realistic."

This is exactly what I was hoping people would take away from that post.

[OMG U Guyz]

Posted: 8/9/21 at 11:49pm

Isaac booked a series regular role in the Sex and The City reboot he wouldn’t have returned if the show did come back this winter. He has to wait to get nominated for the 2022 awards anyway bc it wasn’t eligible this year.

[JBroadway]

Posted: 8/10/21 at 12:15am

OMG U Guyz said: "Isaac booked a series regular role in the Sex and The City reboot he wouldn’t have returned if the show did come back this winter. He has to wait to get nominated for the 2022 awards anyway bc it wasn’t eligible this year."

 

Someone in another thread said they work on the reboot and said his role was just a one-off with a few days of shooting. Anonymous message board, so grain of salt and all that, but worth noting. 

[Wee Thomas2]

Posted: 8/10/21 at 6:16am

I didn't read the first couple pages but the cast was not kept informed of the plans here and were surprised (and of course disappointed) in the announcement

[ColorTheHours048]

Posted: 8/10/21 at 8:09am

Even it was making a lot of money before they shut it down, it was a MASSIVELY expensive show to run. Huge cast, full orchestra, large set elements, expensive equipment that probably needs to be meticulously taken care of, and high rent for a gigantic theater. By their projections, it probably would have needed to run - completely sold out - for a year or more to recoup. Maybe the WSS movie coming out in December would have boosted sales, but I think it would have suffered from unfair comparisons.

[K-MO]

Posted: 8/10/21 at 10:37am

"The problem is that they didn't have time to invite enough of the Tony voters to see it."

I'm curious about this.  I know that Tony voters were given archive recordings of shows they didn't see.  (There's a clip of the end of part 1 of "The Inheritance" floating around out there.) Should I assume an archive was not made in time for WSS or Country?

 

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 8/10/21 at 10:41am

I don’t think those recordings were made for all shows, for Tony Voters. I may be wrong but weren’t they only Roundabout shows they did that for?

[JBroadway]

Posted: 8/10/21 at 10:48am

It's possible that they didn't have time, or didn't choose to make a recording.

But I'd wager that the more relevant answer to your question is that these recordings are only designed to be used as refreshers for the voters. I'm not 100% about the rules, but my guess is that the voters have to see the shows in person in order to vote, and can't ONLY go off of a recording. But if they see a show in September and have to vote in April, the recordings can be used for reference. 

 

[K-MO]

Posted: 8/10/21 at 11:13am

JBroadway said: "It's possible that they didn't have time, or didn't choose to make a recording.

But I'd wager that the more relevant answer to your question is that these recordings are only designed to be used as refreshers for the voters. I'm not 100% about the rules, but my guess is that the voters have to see the shows in person in order to vote, and can't ONLY go off of a recording. But if they see a show in September and have to vote in April, the recordings can be used for reference.

"

Makes perfect sense.

[OMG U Guyz]

Posted: 8/11/21 at 4:05am

One of the trades said series regular - unless the role was downgraded while in production.

[bwayphreak234]

Posted: 8/11/21 at 8:51am

Speaking of recordings, I am really bummed we will not be getting a cast album for this production. I thought the vocals and orchestrations were absolutely divine, and the show never sounded better than it did in this revival IMO.

[joevitus]

Posted: 8/11/21 at 9:56am

bwayphreak234 said: "Speaking of recordings, I am really bummed we will not be getting a cast album for this production. I thought the vocals and orchestrations were absolutely divine, and the show never sounded better than it did in this revival IMO."

Technical question because I know so little about the contemporary Broadway soundscape, but is that because of the quality of the singers and musicians or the kind of sound design that is now possible for a Broadway show? I mean, it is that a live performance can create more of a perfect sound analogous to the controlled atmosphere of a cast recording (which is not usually the quality you used get at an actual performance), or were the singers musicians actually better than those on previously released recordings?

[Impeach2017]

Posted: 8/11/21 at 11:26am

maybe there was a potential colorism brouhaha and they just said f^^k this