What is your probability of seeing a show based on a celebrity being in it?

[bwaybabe2]

Posted: 12/26/09 at 8:17pm

To be honest, I have seen shows just because a certain famous actor is in it. But to expand...the actor is usually someone whose work I admire, so it has not been just because they are famous or a celebrity

[rmusic11322]

Posted: 12/26/09 at 8:23pm

Since I'm a technology child, a celebrity is considered to Taylor Swift or Lady Gaga. And dout anything like THAT would happen. Haha!

[once a month]

Posted: 12/26/09 at 8:27pm

A Dancers Life...featuring Chita Rivera
Leader of the Pack...including Ellie Greenwich (RIP)
The Lady and Her Music (?)...Lena Horne

a lot of one person shows I would guess
It would depend upon the celebrity. Updated On: 12/26/09 at 08:27 PM

[bwaybabe2]

Posted: 12/26/09 at 8:29pm

Don't be so sure, rmusic...Lady Gaga is quite the entrepreneur, it seems
And Taylor, well, she's all over lately, it seems, with or without Kanye

[Craww]

Posted: 12/26/09 at 8:36pm

Depends on the celebrity. I'm not gonna lie, I'd probably be twice as likely to see a straight play if an actor I loved from movies/tv was cast in it. I wouldn't go just for celebrity, but I would for the preconceived affections that accompany it. Then again, the same stands for theater actors I'm already familiar with, so I guess my answer has more to do with familiarity than celebrity.

[LizzieCurry]

Posted: 12/26/09 at 8:37pm

It would depend on the celebrity and their fandom. If I'm bound to be surrounded by annoying people, I won't go.

[hicaesar]

Posted: 12/26/09 at 8:37pm

I think part of the appeal of seeing a Broadway show is the opportunity to see a celebrity live and in person. Even if the show doens't have a current celebrity, chances are it will have a future celebrity in the cast.

I must say I am definately planning on going to see Night Music based solely on the all-star line-up.

[Craww]

Posted: 12/26/09 at 8:40pm

It would depend on the celebrity and their fandom. If I'm bound to be surrounded by annoying people, I won't go.

If I'm considering Broadway in general to be a fandom, then I'll have to say I think you're doomed to being surrounded by annoying people regardless.

[singtopher]

Posted: 12/26/09 at 8:41pm

The probability would be good. I frequently go to a show to see a particular actor do their thing, and sometimes that actor is well known to the general american public.

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 12/26/09 at 9:10pm

With Alec Baldwin it's somewhere between 75 and 99%. When a whispering Jessica Lange is his costar, the appeal plummets. Had they gone ahead with a Stanley Kawalski nude scene I would have paid extra for seats in the splash zone, even with Jessica Lange.

[rmusic11322]

Posted: 12/26/09 at 9:16pm

I know she's not mainstream, but the MAIN reason why I saw West Side Story today was becuase of Karen Olivo. After I found out I was going, I got more interested becuase of the music and dancing.

[MusicSnob1]

Posted: 12/26/09 at 9:20pm

Karen Olivo is probably the opposite of "celebrity"

LOL

[HBBrock]

Posted: 12/26/09 at 10:22pm

I want to see "Lips Together, Teeth Apart" because of the Mullally/Oswalt casting.
Updated On: 12/26/09 at 10:22 PM

[saveusmike]

Posted: 12/27/09 at 2:03am

Karen is great but (with all due respect) she hardly a celebrity.
I am almost positive no one outside the Bway community knows who she is.

I think the OP means like
Jerry Springer in Chicago
Or Craig/Jackman in Steady Rain
etc..

[Weez]

Posted: 12/27/09 at 8:22am

It depends on the show, really. I was all over Daniel Radcliffe in Equus, but that's because I enjoy Peter Shaffer. I saw the David Tennant Hamlet four times (well, twice with Tennant anyway XD), but that's because I turned into a Shakespeare fangirl and card-carrying member of the RSC before it ever came to light. I went to see The Misanthrope with Keira Knightley, but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't more excited about Chuk Iwuji and Dominic Rowan (and LORD what a shame they didn't have more to do ).

I guess it helps that celebrities tend to pick interesting things to do. If [insert famous person here] decided they wanted to be in Mamma Mia! or Phantom, I'd wish them luck and carry on with my day. But most of them go for plays, and with play turn-over being what it is, I do find myself going to see a LOT of plays, so quite often I will see a show with a celebrity in it. But it's rare I'm seeing that show FOR the celebrity. (And even though I love plays, it'd take someone freakin' STELLAR to get me back to an Ayckbourn play! XP)

I'm a theatre fan! I'll follow the actors I'm a fan of in whatever they go for, as long as travel costs aren't prohibitive and they haven't gone any further afield than Leicester. But because I'm a theatre fan, there is no way you can call ANY of 'em celebrities.

[Yero my Hero]

Posted: 12/27/09 at 10:56am

If it's a celebrity I'm a fan of, their casting could make me more likely to see something I would otherwise not have much interest in. But I won't see something JUST because a famous person is in it and I won't sit through a show I hate just to see the star.

[wendilin622]

Posted: 12/27/09 at 11:00am

I won't lie, if it was someone I admired, I wouldn't even read the name of the play before buying tickets. I've said it before but I would pay big bucks to see Neil Patrick Harris perform the phone book. Also if someone like Natalie Portman ever made her way to the stage, I'd buy tickets in a flash.

[lovinlovett]

Posted: 12/27/09 at 9:28pm

I'll bet for everyone on this board there's at least one *celebrity* they would go see live no matter what they were doing! Come on, admit it!

[perfectlymarvelous]

Posted: 12/28/09 at 12:15am

I think my interest in certain shows has been piqued by actors I like being in them...Daniel Radcliffe in Equus, Lauren Graham in Guys and Dolls, Jude Law in Hamlet, etc., but I think I would've wanted to see those shows anyway even if the celeb hadn't been in them.

[bwaybabe2]

Posted: 12/28/09 at 5:02am

"I'll bet for everyone on this board there's at least one *celebrity* they would go see live no matter what they were doing! Come on, admit it!"
Ha, ha...agree with you

[justafan2]

Posted: 12/28/09 at 8:23am

If Nathan Lane is in it, I'd definitely get tickets. (altho' I was disappointed in "The Odd Couple") But----I'd still see him in anything!

[Schmerg_The_Impaler]

Posted: 12/28/09 at 10:10am

Well, I wouldn't say celebrities, but my interest in a show spikes dramatically if an actor I admire is in it. I saw two shows because they had Norm Lewis in them, and I had absolutely no interest at all in the Addams Family Musical until I saw that Terrence Mann had been cast (alongside several other wonderfully talented actors).

And if Hugh Laurie did a show, no matter what it was, I'd be there in seconds (although I know he said he hates doing theatre).

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 12/28/09 at 10:13am

Well, I see pretty much everything at is it but if there was somebody that I really liked, it would make me see it immediately instead of waiting, thinking I'll get there eventually. I saw Julia Roberts in THREE DAYS OF RAIN about a dozen times. Love her. :) :)

[MusicSnob1]

Posted: 12/28/09 at 10:17am

"I'll bet for everyone on this board there's at least one *celebrity* they would go see live no matter what they were doing! Come on, admit it!"

Negative.

[mywonderwa11]

Posted: 12/28/09 at 10:33am

MusicSnob - that's a lie.

Whatever happened to that play Jake Gyllenhaal was suppose to do a year or two ago...?