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Will Legally Blonde even last until the reality show????

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#1

Will Legally Blonde even last until the reality show????

Posted: 2/2/08 at 1:00am

And will it matter?

I saw the show tonight (great fun, but complete fluff), and the Palace was deserted. My TDF seat was in the first row of the left mezz, two seats off the center aisle. The mezz was less than half full, and the balcony was empty. There was no one sitting in any seat above that first landing, when you come in. The usher (a nice lady named Destiny) was scrambling to move anyone who had seats back there, down to the front section. I noticed she made two young ladies' night by moving them to a box, which I thought was a very nice gesture.

I know it's winter and the weather was not ideal tonight, but it still is a Friday night...I can't imagine what the place will look like Sunday night, when everyone is watching the Super Bowl.

Updated On: 2/2/08 at 01:00 AM

#4

re: Will Legally Blonde even last until the reality show????

Posted: 2/2/08 at 1:19am

It's gonna be tough to stay open with the numbers it's been posting recently-However these are always the worst weeks on Broadway. The Palace is pretty desirable real estate though, especially with the amount of product out there looking for big musical houses. I think its chances of making it to Tony night without posting a closing notice are about 70/30 against.
Other than that, did you enjoy the play Mrs Lincoln?
#5

re: Will Legally Blonde even last until the reality show????

Posted: 2/2/08 at 1:43am

i think it will, but it won't last much past that. I will be stunned if it lasts past labor day. I mean once you hit may you can ride the wave to the fall, but the producers have to know that there is no way it will make it through next winter.
#6

re: Will Legally Blonde even last until the reality show????

Posted: 2/2/08 at 1:46am

The reality show could be to do the role on tour...
"The Spectacle has, indeed, an emotional attraction of its own, but, of all the parts, it is the least artistic, and connected least with the art of poetry. For the power of Tragedy, we may be sure, is felt even apart from representation and actors. Besides, the production of spectacular effects depends more on the art of the stage machinist than on that of the poet."
--Aristotle
#7

re: Will Legally Blonde even last until the reality show????

Posted: 2/2/08 at 1:49am

I personally believe the show will last for awhile longer, once the winter blues which hits all shows, is over, the show will bounce back, I know alot of school groups and such are interested in show dates in the springtime, so I think group advances and good publicity from this "reality show" will bring the show some well-needed seat fillage.

Plus, there attedance may be down, but so are all the shows.
Unless your Wicked, Hairspray, Avenue Q, or Spring Awakening, your at risk in the winter of loss of attendance and closure.
"Anybody that goes to the theater, I think we’re all misfits, so we ended up on stage or in the audience.” --- Patti LuPone.
#9

re: Will Legally Blonde even last until the reality show????

Posted: 2/2/08 at 1:56am

I think putting it out on tour with the MTV winner would be a better stratedgy. It seems like most of the audiences for tour shows - at least in my town - are the older genre (middle aged - elderly). This doesn't seem like the target audience for Legally Blonde: The Musical. But, I wouldn't be suprised if a ton of teenage girls went to see the tour because of the reality winner.
#10

re: Will Legally Blonde even last until the reality show????

Posted: 2/2/08 at 10:14am

"Plus, there attedance may be down, but so are all the shows.
Unless your Wicked, Hairspray, Avenue Q, or Spring Awakening, your at risk in the winter of loss of attendance and closure."

That list needs to be seriously amended....unless you're Wicked, Jersey Boys, The Lion King, or The Little Mermaid, you're having a tougher time right now. With the exception of Wicked, all of the shows you mentioned are struggling right now and are very aggressively discounting. Even Spring Awakening was empty a couple of Tuesdays ago.
#12

re: Will Legally Blonde even last until the reality show????

Posted: 2/2/08 at 11:11am

Except that it's been poorly attended since about Oct. with a good week here and there. The MTV airing did little for sales. There was a week in the middle of December that I saw the show and there were maybe a few hundred people in attendance. It is a big expensive show and I don't see it lasting all that much longer. I'd speculate it will close and go on tour.
#13

re: Will Legally Blonde even last until the reality show????

Posted: 2/2/08 at 11:28am

yes, and also schools don't make a show run. Group sales with 50 tickets being sold at 40-60 bucks a pop are not what Legally Blonde needs. They need 80-100 dollar tix sales. Which they are not going to get with "a bunch of schools" wanting to see it.
#14

re: Will Legally Blonde even last until the reality show????

Posted: 2/2/08 at 3:11pm

None of you guys know anything and you are all talking out of your arses UNLESS you know the weekly nut of this show, the producer/owner deal AND what the subsidy rate is. Is MGM or MTV covering the down times until things pick up? In addition, remember the Palace is a barn with the fifth largest seating on Broadway AND it's February.

So stop the fake earnest prognostications unless you know of what you speak.
http://www.broadwayworld.com/board/readmessage.cfm?thread=972787#3631451 http://www.broadwayworld.com/board/readmessage.cfm?thread=963561#3533883 http://www.broadwayworld.com/board/readmessage.cfm?thread=955158#3440952 http://www.broadwayworld.com/board/readmessage.cfm?thread=954269#3427915 http://www.broadwayworld.com/board/readmessage.cfm?thread=955012#3441622 http://www.broadwayworld.com/board/readmessage.cfm?thread=954344#3428699
#15

re: Will Legally Blonde even last until the reality show????

Posted: 2/2/08 at 3:18pm

But you have to consider that the bigger the theater a show is renting, the higher they're paying to rent it per week, driving up the weekly running cost. That's why people pay so much attention to percentage.
"If there was a Mount Rushmore for Broadway scores, "West Side Story" would be front and center. It snaps, it crackles it pops! It surges with a roar, its energy and sheer life undiminished by the years" - NYPost reviewer Elisabeth Vincentelli
#16

re: Will Legally Blonde even last until the reality show????

Posted: 2/2/08 at 4:08pm

allofmylife,

First off, I don't think my "prognostications" are fake. I think they are entirely real.


Secondly, i think we can reasonable assume that the running costs are equal to or higher than 600,000 (seeing that other shows of such capitalization and theater capacity are around the same number. Its called market research). So with this being discerned the people on this board can safely assume because of the surrounding shows having such a op cost that Legally Blonde bringing in gross profits that average around 625,000 for the past number of weeks are barely if at all making op costs.

And I didn't know subsidy rates were given to for-profit theater ventures. Please explain? Are you speaking of the investment's and what kind of yield they receive on their investment? Or are you talking points concerning the investment. I am interested to learn why there would be a rate of subsidy on an investment specifically and not a loan? I don't think the show is being subsidized..is it? Maybe I just don't understand.

And why would MGM/or MTV (Viacom) put up more money to save the fledgling show? Wouldn't the Producers have to take money from the small profits that they have garnered to keep the show afloat in the "down times"? Usually thats what happens in my experience unless the show hasn't made any profits at all (Walmartopia, Pirate Queen, Urban Cowboy) then the producers hope their investors will cough up more money to try to save the show. It doesn't seem likely that they will have to do that when Blonde seemingly has made some sort of profit already.
#17

re: Will Legally Blonde even last until the reality show????

Posted: 2/2/08 at 4:22pm

"I think its chances of making it to Tony night without posting a closing notice are about 70/30 against."

But it doesn't really matter if it makes it to Tony night, does it? It's technically from last season... They don't have to worry about awards.
#20

re: Will Legally Blonde even last until the reality show????

Posted: 2/2/08 at 10:24pm

I saw it this past Wednesday night, from the Left Front Mezzanine, and the Mezzanine was practically empty.
"Winning a Tony this year is like winning Best Attendance in third grade: no one will care but the winner and their mom."
-Kad

"I have also met him in person, and I find him to be quite funny actually. Arrogant and often misinformed, but still funny."
-bjh2114 (on Michael Riedel)
#22

re: Will Legally Blonde even last until the reality show????

Posted: 2/2/08 at 10:26pm

Will you be auditioning, Rath?
"Winning a Tony this year is like winning Best Attendance in third grade: no one will care but the winner and their mom."
-Kad

"I have also met him in person, and I find him to be quite funny actually. Arrogant and often misinformed, but still funny."
-bjh2114 (on Michael Riedel)

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