Xanadu now closing this Sunday, Sept. 28th — Page 6

Oh comparatively speaking, this is nothing. Although I did have the sense the spirit of HamletWasBipolar was invoked last night.

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Well i refuse to look at things as British/American, we are all theatre fans.

Now adults and kids is a whole other story lol

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Testing - You're 100% right. Somebody else was ready to jump into the HH & the pressure was on... probably an ultimatum from the producers of "SLAVA'S SNOWSHOW" of 'now or never.' Here's the story...
http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117992686.html?categoryid=15&cs=1

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Testing, I'd love to know how you know for a fact that the shows were nearly sold out.

And, no, searching for tickets on telecharge is not a reliable way to guesstimate that information.

Per Variety:

'Early shuttering of "Xanadu" was prodded by impending losses that would have been incurred in keeping the musical running. Last week, when nearly every production on the boards saw weekly sale rise, "Xanadu" was one of the few to dip slightly, slipping to $162,616."

Stage seats selling out isn't a big deal. They're not expensive, and in the grand scheme of things it's not 40 dollar seats that matter, its all those 100.00 seats that matter, and those weren't selling. Look at the grosses and see for yourself.

Maybe all of these shows closing is a sign that ticket prices rose too fast? What if shows at least went back to $100 max. ticket price?

yeah i think thats right Parks...I'll bet someone on here can digg up some factual numbers on the increase in price....but I do believe ticket prices have risen dramatically in the past 10-15 years.

What really kills me now besides a lot of people losing their jobs is Kerry Butler's new understudy losing her job so quickly. Basically, because Kate Loprest was in last week, this girl didn't start until this week. Granted, I should be glad that Kerry will be at all the closing performances, but this girl will not get to perform at all now, unless something happens to someone between now and Sunday. And I will stop talking because I probably just cursed it even more now.

Oh yeah, and Kerry Butler's understudy is Veronica Kuehn, who played Ali in Mamma Mia. (The stage version.) I liked her, so I hope she and everyone else involved in the show can get another gig soon.

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tourboi - STFU already... you don't know what you're talking about. The show was selling in the 50% range for months, and they didn't close then. So why, all of a sudden is 50.. 60.. or 70% so low they couldn't finish out the next 2 - 3 weeks? Because somebody else wanted the theater... that's why!!!

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Updated On: 5/1/09 at 04:00 AM

Jeff, I get that. I can't be there either, and it bums be out. I guess really what I meant by all that is this: This wasn't done intentionally to upset the fans, as some posts have seemed to insinuate. The show just was running out of financial steam.

Now I've produced shows, myself. If were in the same shoes, and I'd announced a closing, only to find that the sales increase I'd (in theory) counted on coming with a closing notice didn't come afterall, I'd pull the plug early. Unfortunately, in that situation, the fans wouldn't be the first thing I'd think of. Minimizing losses for my investors would. It's business, and nothing personal towards the fans.

I feel like the producers have been villified in this process, and I just don't think it's called for. Thats all.

Believe me, as a fan of the show, it kills me a lil' inside to see it close, and that I can't be there. But I understand why.

We got heated there, man. WHEW! I've many times enjoyed our conversations (all of us fanadus!) and the closing of the show shouldn't bring about such lashing out.

I apologize for my part, perhaps I wasn't clear. :) A truce!

"...don't Bogart that joint!"

I understand that, but I really don't think they meant it to be a slap in the face. :)