Why did Grey Garden's close?

[Fiyero13]

Posted: 8/8/07 at 6:44pm

I heard it was brilliant, what happened?

[wonderfulwizard11]

Posted: 8/8/07 at 6:45pm

As brilliant as it was, no one wanted to see it.

[ashley0139]

Posted: 8/8/07 at 6:55pm

The apostrophe is hurting my heart.

[Bwayfan4]

Posted: 8/8/07 at 6:59pm

Yeah, I wasn't terribly impressed by this show..

[bwaylvsong]

Posted: 8/8/07 at 7:13pm

Poor marketing

[BrodyFosse123]

Posted: 8/8/07 at 7:20pm

Excellent production. Excellent Tony Award winning performances. Unfortunately, the general public didn't come in droves to see it. Too expensive to keep running at 8 performances a week, so the producers did the wise thing to close the show, which they did since they already lost their entire 6 million dollar investment and was losing more and more each performance.

This is the reality of WHY shows close. It's not always about the show being bad -- it's just too expensive to keep a show running when money is being lost performance to performance. Shows need to fill a certain amount of seats EACH performance just to make ends meet. If this doesn't happen, the investors who brought the show to Broadway lose their investment, which no one wants to see happen.

[Bettyboy72]

Posted: 8/8/07 at 7:28pm

Actually, the marketing was really good. The promoters tried a lot of different advertising approaches and fun ideas. I just think the concept of the show was hard to sell.

[SNAFU]

Posted: 8/8/07 at 7:44pm

I disagree. I think they really didn't know how to market the show. The attempt at Tabloid headlines was "Horrible! HORRIBLE!".Didn't get the idea or feeling of the show across at all!

[jv92]

Posted: 8/8/07 at 7:48pm

They [The Tourists] wanted to see Legally Blonde instead. Other than that, ask Kelly and Lou Gonda.

[Bettyboy72]

Posted: 8/8/07 at 7:55pm

I disagree Snafu. I think the print ads, commercials, buttons, tabloids were great. I think the website, the actors ( who promoted the show like none other I've seen-Ebersole was EVERYWHERE!!!) all were very clear about the story, its characters, the premise, and the signifigance. I just think it is a hard show to sell based on the rather sad content.

I do think some of MLW's songs could have been showcased in the promos rather than IMO overextending the use of Revolutionary Costume, but I don't think Wilson was doing much singing outside of the show.

[artscallion]

Posted: 8/8/07 at 7:59pm

I agree with both of you. I think it's a really difficult concept to bring out in an advertising campaign. I mean how can you convey the spirit of this show in a billboard or poster? I do think there might have been a way to do it. But they failed to find that way.

As it stood, the advertising did not communicate what kind of show a ticket buyer could expect to see. As a consequence, people spent their ticket money elsewhere. It has nothing to do with the quality of the show, which I thought was terrific. It had to do with the fact that people who didn't already know what it was weren't able to figure it out from the ads. It just looked odd. But there was nothing to say, "yeah it's odd, but it's also really funny and really moving, with some great songs..."

[B3TA07]

Posted: 8/8/07 at 8:10pm

Grey Gardens closed because it was unable to perform a search feature on this very subject on a Broadway Message Board.

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 8/8/07 at 8:39pm

Much like Sideshow, which I liked better, it was a hard sell as far as subject matter.

Tourists rule the roost & being asked to shell out more & more they make choices re their tastes & some shows do not make the cut due to taste & cost factors

[theaterkid1015]

Posted: 8/8/07 at 8:53pm

It was a hard sell. And, they went for the best angle, "JACKIE O'S IN THE FIRST ACT!"

As far as the marketing campaign goes, it was Christine Ebersole. The print ads were cute, but c'mon, she was the draw and the promoter all rolled into one. How many benefits has she done this year?

[BigFatBlonde]

Posted: 8/8/07 at 8:54pm

All shows close.

[broadwaybaby086]

Posted: 8/8/07 at 9:17pm

It's true, Ashley0139. It closed because of inappropriate usage of the possessive "'s" by the public. Another casualty of grammar.

[MrSweetNAwful]

Posted: 8/8/07 at 11:24pm

because you touch yourself at night.


or a better answer, because god hates me...i wanted so much to see it 8[ *uber sad face

[winston89]

Posted: 8/9/07 at 12:20am

It closed for two reasons. The first is that the tabloid ads amoung the different ad choices gave me the imperssion that they didn't know how to properlly sell this show. That being said, I also think that it was hard via the ads to figure out what the show was about. That in and of itself can make it hard to for a torist to buy a ticket for a show. I also think that the major problem with the show was the producers lack of interst in it.

Ridel said it best when talking about the producers of the show. He said that Grey Gardens was like another toy in thier sandbox and when they got bored playing with it they moved on to something else to play with.

This makes me wonder. If the producers really didn't care about this show that much from the get go the why bring it to Broadway. I do realize that the next sentence might be answering my own qustion. I think it's because of the fact that they wanted the money and thought that they could sell the show on broadway and make a lot more then they ever could off broadway.

[jojo1973]

Posted: 8/9/07 at 12:28am

Well I think the tabloid ads took away from the show. I love the original look of the show. Even changing the web site to look like a tabloid made the show look cheap.

I also did hear the producers were bored with the show. The show was doing fairly good after the TONYS.

Also moving it to Broadway might not have been the best thing for the show. I know someone who saw the show several times and said it lost something in the larger space.

[justme2]

Posted: 8/9/07 at 1:09am

Before you start believing all the info gossip monger Reidel has to report, and begin repeating his "toys in a sandbox" remarks as fact...please do the same research I did upon reading his rather vicious attack. It helps a bit to get a more well rounded look at things.

Go to East of Doheny's website and take a look at all the other shows these producers " got bored with" in their "sandbox". Art, Full Monty, Night Mother, Sweet Smell of Success, Flower Drum Song...and more. Take a look at the theater program they have in LA for children's theater, as well. These are not rich people just playing and getting bored.

I think it's time to start questioning just what Reidel has against these producers...two columns filled with his "inside info"? He can't even print the emails from people defending them without being snide about it, for gods sake! Was he not invited to a press preview to GG? What is it?

And I liked the Tabloid Ads.

[justme2]

Posted: 8/9/07 at 2:20pm

Wow, this thread died.

I'm hoping it's because all those taking Reidel's "insider info" for fact decided to do the same research I did.

[millie_dillmount]

Posted: 8/9/07 at 2:23pm

I didn't really like the advertising campaign. It might've been more liked by people who have seen and understood what the show was about, but to first timers, it made the show look cheap.

I liked the old look to the show. It was beautiful and elegant.

[uncageg]

Posted: 8/9/07 at 2:25pm

I think the 's killed it!

[SNAFU]

Posted: 8/9/07 at 3:08pm

As much as the tabloid motif didn't sell the show properly I don't think the more elegant first version did either. Although absolutly stunning, it did little to give the potential theatre goer an idea of what the show was about.
I personally thought the tabloid motif is a case where it sounded like a good idea in the boardroom but looked like crap on the sides of buses.

[Thesbijean]

Posted: 8/9/07 at 3:11pm

The question shouldn't be why it closed, it should be why they opened it so early.

I know that scheduling for actors and to nab a theatre is tricky business, but I feel that if they had opened it a little later, it would have had a healthier run.