Why are some shows only running 7 performances a week?

[musicalperson17]

Why are some shows only running 7 performances a week?#1

Posted: 11/1/10 at 6:40pm

I've noticed it with Elf and Merchant of Venice

[WithoutATrace]

Why are some shows only running 7 performances a week?#2

Posted: 11/1/10 at 6:50pm

ELF - because it is in previews and lots of shows do that while in previews

MERCHANT - Al Pacino's schedule determined the performance schedule (and it is also currently still in previews)

[RippedMan]

Why are some shows only running 7 performances a week?#2

Posted: 11/1/10 at 10:35pm

ELF is opening cold on Broadway, so I'm sure they needed time to tinker around with things?

[bjh2114]

Why are some shows only running 7 performances a week?#3

Posted: 11/1/10 at 10:47pm

Merchant is the third highest grossing show this week with only 7 shows. Imagine if they played a full 8 shows. That's an amazing gross for a Shakespeare play.

[AC126748]

Why are some shows only running 7 performances a week?#4

Posted: 11/1/10 at 10:50pm

Exactly. Merchant is grossing $1 million a week. If they can play 7 performances a week and turn a profit, why the heck not?

"You travel alone because other people are only there to remind you how much that hook hurts that we all bit down on. Wait for that one day we can bite free and get back out there in space where we belong, sail back over water, over skies, into space, the hook finally out of our mouths and we wander back out there in space spawning to other planets never to return hurrah to earth and we'll look back and can't even see these lives here anymore. Only the taste of blood to remind us we ever existed. The earth is small. We're gone. We're dead. We're safe." -John Guare, Landscape of the Body

[Fosse76]

Why are some shows only running 7 performances a week?#5

Posted: 11/2/10 at 10:58am

"Merchant is the third highest grossing show this week with only 7 shows. Imagine if they played a full 8 shows. That's an amazing gross for a Shakespeare play."

They'll be adding an 8th for certain weeks.

[tommyboy]

Why are some shows only running 7 performances a week?#6

Posted: 11/2/10 at 11:59am

We need to remember performances of any Shakespeare play is going to be 3 (that is THREE) hours. Consider the cast and crew. Two days a week are Mat and Eve perfs. As an actor, I've been there. 6 hours of curtain UP time is a drain.

[swimmingzeppo]

Why are some shows only running 7 performances a week?#7

Posted: 11/2/10 at 2:48pm

Pacino didn't want to do 8 (originally he only wanted to do 6)