teen musicals flop on broadway

I think people here aren`t interested in that kinda stuff. They want musical comedies based on hit movies and BIG revivals with big name stars! That`s all we even get anyway!

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The shows you listed aren't "teen shows" for the current generation of teens though.

All Shook Up and Good Vibrations were about music that teens' parents are more familar with than they were (and in some cases, grandparents).

Saturday Night Fever is based on a disco film. Do you know many teens into disco these days? Again, it appeals to their parents.

Footloose and Fame were cult classic 80's films that many teens aren't familiar with anyway.

All those shows appeal to an older crowd who wants to reminisce about their youth.

I would say that shows geared towards today's teenagers have done remarkably well on Broadway. Look at Wicked, Rent, and Aida, to name three examples.

Updated On: 6/26/06 at 02:25 PM

"Footloose and Fame were cult classic 80's films that many teens aren't familiar with anyway."

Not familiar with? Really? How sad.

"Aida was for teens?"

Yeah, pretty much.

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I think people here aren`t interested in that kinda stuff. They want musical comedies based on hit movies and BIG revivals with big name stars! That`s all we even get anyway!

Thats funny, it seems as if the too most adored musicals on this board are The Light In the Piazza which is not a musical based on a hit comedy movie, and Sweeney Todd which is the smallest revival I have ever seen.

Aida was definitely a Disney musical aimed at the teen age group. The story line was a little more grown-up and serious than kid-friendly fare like The Lion King and Beauty and the Beast, but it still was toned down enough to make it family friendly. The "adult" language and situations were few and the tragic ending was softened by adding on the scenes in the museum.

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ps i also meant teen shows in the sense they deal with teens lol

margo thats rubbish

thesse shows were aimed at teens would u like me to send you the advertisment for footloose and the fame production they are aimed at a young audience.You only have to listen to the scores to know that theese shows are aimed at the teen to mid 20s.
Fames advertising in london ended up 1 year been pink and green with good looking teens on(aimed at teens)and footloose what im in now again has the good looking young cast and attention grabbing slogans etc on the posters(again aimed at the teens).
Every night at the stage door its young people waiting to talk to us and even the director says its the youngsters we are trying to get in the theatre.

lol

What's rubbish?

And as I pointed out, HAIRSPRAY and SPELLING BEE are both aimed at younger audiences and have featured young people in their advertising (and on stage) and both are hits because they are very good shows, popular with both teens and adults, and received great reviews.

Can't speak for the UK, but here FOOTLOOSE was marketed primarily to 30- and 40-somethings who were fans of the hit 80s movie as well as anyone younger since much of the cast was young-ish (25 year olds playing teens). The print advertising all revolved around the theme of "Remember the 80s???" (which no teen would have been able to remember and featured the titles of the various songs from the soundtrack that were top ten hits that 40 year olds would know. The radio ads all featured lame covers of "Let's Hear It For The Boy" and other songs from the movie that only play on oldies stations these days -- whose main audience are people in their 30s and 40s and certainly not teens. While it ran a year and a half here, it never did great business and closed in the red.

FAME (which never even made it to Broadway here, only Off-Broadway, and lost its entire investment) was an embarassment to the "professional" theatre and had extremely little positive buzz on this side of the Atlantic -- from teens or adults. I can remember that the majority of teens who discussed those shows at all on the theatre boards back then had mostly awful things to say about them and advised their peers not to waste their money (and people apparently took their advice -- it barely ran 6 months in a 499 seat theatre and was typically more than half empty for most performances).

Perhaps it was different in London.

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all i know is it seems odd how shows like fame and footloose seem to do well around the world and not on broadway.
Fame is not a bad show its a young fun show with its heart in the right place.No major spectacle(ala wicked) no big name launch(ala well nearly every show in new york)just a simple fun show.

"Footloose" had a "boy band" ad campaign at one point. That would be marketing to teens.

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I have heard that Footloose the musical did have a fan base of people in their teens, the fans who did the rush line over and over again. (I myself don't remember the advertising, except that the poster was not attractive!) But it didn't find a wide enough audience to keep it running.

As someone who grew up listening to the soundtrack of Footloose, and having seen the movie multiple times on cable (which you consider to be free when your parents are paying for it!), I didn't feel the need to pay the price of a theater ticket to hear those songs and see that particular story played out again. Same with Saturday Night Fever, though I didn't own that soundtrack until much later when I was feeling nostalgic. (And I do mean soundtracks, I don't own the cast recordings to either show.)

Nowadays I tend to see more shows - knowing about lotteries and play by play helps! - and the reason Good Vibrations didn't succeed was because it was just plain bad, and not, in my opinion, a good way to introduce anyone to either Broadway or the Beach Boys. And while I actually enjoyed All Shook Up, I don't think it was aimed at teens...all I could think of was how I wanted to bring my parents to see it. (Sadly it closed before that could happen.)

I do wonder why musicals based on somewhat cheesy, if enjoyable, American movies do so well in the UK...I hear it is very hard to get a ticket to Dirty Dancing, the Musical!

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"Footloose" (700+ performances) ran longer than "All Shook Up", so did "Saturday Night Fever" (500+).

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