When Avenue Q moved to back Off-Broadway...

[rmusic11322]

Posted: 1/8/11 at 10:02pm

Were there any rumors about it prior to it's Broadway closing? The reason I'm asking is that I might be getting ahead of myself about In The Heights' likelihood about moving back. BWW posted a "saying goodbye to..." video about A Little Night Music and not In The Heights. Am I just getting ahead of myself?

[TheatreFan4]

Posted: 1/8/11 at 10:09pm

I was told In The Heights was moving back Off-Broadway back in August. Whether or not that still holds true, I don't know.

[tking001]

Posted: 1/8/11 at 10:15pm

I think it could happen bc The same producers did Avenue Q and RENT both of which are back off Bway(well Rent will be in June)
so I don't see it as so far out

But the question is would they announce it tomorrow night like ave q? Or would they wait till we "forgot about it"

[JP2]

Posted: 1/8/11 at 10:23pm

I don't remember any rumors regarding Ave. Q. I do remember it was quite the shock and surprised when they announced it at the closing show.

[jagfkb]

Posted: 1/8/11 at 10:38pm

^Exactly. I remeber first seeing the announcement and initally just thinking it was Playbill still saying it had closed. Then i read the headline and nearly fell off my chair.

And I hate to be the Debbie Downer, but while Avenue Q was a very easy transfer due to it's small size, In the Heights is a much larger show which (to my understanding) closed and moved to Broadway because it was the only way it could possibly stay afloat...

[winston89]

Posted: 1/9/11 at 12:02am

I remember reading in The TImes that the announcement of Avenue Q moving to New World was a deal that was completed in the zero hour. That the producers found out about it just before the closing night performance of the show on Broadway and thus announced it from the stage after the show.

Also, there might be some time between them announcing a move back to Off Broadway with In The Heights and it closing on Broadway. If I recall correctly, another show that also did the same thing, 39 Steps, was one show that didn't announce the move the second it closed up shop on Broadway.

And, I don't think that In The Heights moved because that was the only way to keep it open. Regardless of the size of the show running costs are always cheaper off Broadway. And, I think that the fact that it was selling very well at a space that was very hard to get to had more to do with it moving rather then it having to move to stay afloat.

[bwaylvsong]

Posted: 1/9/11 at 1:13am

If any closing musical were to move off-Broadway, N2N would make the most sense.

[dramamama611]

Posted: 1/9/11 at 1:14am

I'm fairly certain that ITH was closed before funding was found for a B'way run. I DO remember the delightful spoof YouTube vid that Lin Manuel Miranda posted about it!

[PopAria]

Posted: 1/9/11 at 1:29am

Avenue Q planned to move to New World before it was announced that it was closing.

Apparently Mr. Ken Davenport was pissed because they announced closing instead of announcing the Off-Bway move. And so I guess that meant no sales for the Off-Bway show until it was announced at the closing night...

can you imagine how hard it must have been to get people to realize it wasn't closed?? After all the press of it closing just to sell tickets... and then they had to do more marketing for re-opening.

I hope In The Heights goes off-bway ... There are tons of ppl who haven't seen this yet who need to see it.

[hairspraydude1962]

Posted: 1/9/11 at 1:32am

Yeah, I don't remember hearing any rumors about Avenue Q's move. I just remember seeing all the announcements after the Broadway closing.

[Radioactiveduck]

Posted: 1/9/11 at 2:51am

I was at the closing matinee of Ave Q and it didn't seem like ANYONE knew about the move. I talked to Anne Harada after the show (she had just come back after the closing of 9 to 5), and she said that it was a hard time for her. "Never close 2 shows in the same week" she told me.

[CapnHook]

Posted: 1/9/11 at 11:13am

It makes sense to move it off-Broadway ONLY if the movie is still due this year. (They were supposed to film in early Spring/Summer for a hopeful Winter release.)

[Borstalboy]

Posted: 1/9/11 at 11:36am

I saw the show back in September and it was in very poor shape. The leads were second rate, which brought out the gazillion flaws in the cloyingly sentimental book. I just don't think it would do well off-Broadway unless Miranda agreed to do a VERY long commitment. It had a great run. Let it be.

[bwayfan7000]

Posted: 1/9/11 at 4:44pm

I, like Winston, remember that ITH moved in the first place because it was playing in a theatre with a bad location. So, perhaps it plans to move to a more accessible off-Bway theatre. And I really don't think it is a huge show to move...it only has one set, really.

[Wishing Only Wounds]

Posted: 1/9/11 at 4:54pm

When I saw the show two weeks ago, all the enthusiasm was out of the ensemble and the leads were only getting energy from Lin. Let it close on a (semi) high note.