why Xanadu isn't opening in time for Tonys?- Page 2

[WickedGeek28]

Posted: 4/22/07 at 7:52am

jv, don't doubt the show until you actually see it. The problem with this board is that people always pass damn and pass judgements on shows that they've never seen. This show may surprise you.

[Mattbrain]

Posted: 4/22/07 at 8:26am

"And a year after HAIRSPRAY, AVENUE Q opened on Broadway in July and swept the Tonys the next year as well."

How is winning Best Musical, Best Book, and Best Score sweeping the Tonies when Assassins was the big winner that year?

[SeanMartin]

Posted: 4/22/07 at 8:28am

>> How is winning Best Musical, Best Book, and Best Score sweeping the Tonies

You're joking, right? I mean, it's like saying one film gets the Oscar for Best Picture and Best Director and Best Actor while another one picks up a dozen technical awards.

[Mattbrain]

Posted: 4/22/07 at 8:32am

Good point.

[BrodyFosse123]

Posted: 4/22/07 at 10:40am

30 ROCK has been renewed and will be back next season, regardless of how low the ratings were for it's debut season. Also, it is being bumped-up to the 9pm spot on Thursday, which is the most wanted spot and time on NBC. NBC is pushing this show to make it work, so Jane Krakowski's decision is a smart and quite logical one, for now at least.

She was definitely interested in XANADU if 30 ROCK was cancelled, but it wasn't.

[jbdc]

Posted: 4/22/07 at 11:00am

What makes me really want to see Xanadu, though, is the poster art that says...

"XANADU

On Broadway

seriously."


That's genius. If the rest of show is that smart, I'll be a fanadu.
Updated On: 4/22/07 at 11:00 AM

[VIETgrlTerifa]

Posted: 4/22/07 at 1:50pm

You're joking, right? I mean, it's like saying one film gets the Oscar for Best Picture and Best Director and Best Actor while another one picks up a dozen technical awards.

Well to be fair to the original poster, Assassins wasn't eligible for Best Score, Book, and Best Musical, but it won it's own Best Musical award that it was eligible for. Not to mention it did win Best Director. Even if it won the three most important awards, three awards isn't really a sweep.

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 4/22/07 at 2:16pm

"Satire is what closes on Saturday night."

--George S. Kaufman

[Yankeefan007]

Posted: 4/22/07 at 2:23pm

I dunno....Xanadu could surprise us all. I'm actually excited for it, though moreso if Krakow were involved.

[banjoman]

Posted: 4/22/07 at 2:42pm

I saw the reading in January and I can't see it working without Jane. She was so great on those skates! It was magical. I think without Jane, it's going to be hard to pull this one off.

[ray-andallthatjazz86]

Posted: 4/22/07 at 3:57pm

Even if 30 ROCK was renewed, Krakowski's character has become almost as peripheral to the show as Rachel Dratch's little guest star spots. There are some episodes where she's on the credits but her character is nowhere to be found and last week she was given the best line in the show ("this is so Sex & the City of us: I'm Samantha, you're Charlotte, and you're the lady who watches it at home") but she was in all of 2 short scenes. Very disappointing given that she's my favorite part of the show.
I wish she hadn't passed on XANADU, it'd have been great to see her back on Broadway.

[devonian.t]

Posted: 4/22/07 at 4:55pm

I've said it before, but there are some smart people on this show. Those who have read/ heard it aren't dismissing it.

Satire may close on Saturday, but what about spoof?

"Camp classic", it might just be. I'm ready to be pleasantly surprised. And I want to see Mary Testa and Jackie H rollerskating down the aisle more than anything!

[BwayUSAGal]

Posted: 4/22/07 at 6:14pm

Good point about the satire vs. spoof.

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 4/22/07 at 7:19pm

As a corollary to Kaufman's quote I still question whether audiences will be willing to pay Broadway prices ($110 a ticket) to see a high camp spoof. Downtown NY theatre used to be heavily populated with these sorts of shows every season in the 70s, 80s and 90s (often done by groups like TWEED, as well as artists from Ludlam to Charles Busch to Lypsinka to Jackie Hoffman -- who's in XANADU). I can recall seeing stage versions of everything from Valley of the Dolls to Mommie Dearest to Mildred Pierce to Carrie (not the Broadway one) to the Bad Seed to Myra Breckinridge and on and on and on...... They were hysterical, over-the-top, wonderfully performed, inventively staged and often included original music, elaborate-looking costumes and wigs and sets......... and I don't think I ever paid more than $15-20 to see ANY of them (and some were less than that. Even a major downtown hit like LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS only set me back about $15 when I saw it back at the Orpheum in the early 80s (about a third of the Broadway top at the time -- and notice when it was revived on Broadway a few years ago that it flopped at those prices).

Are there really tens of thousands of people out there (especially of the tourist persuasion) willing to plunk down $110 a piece for a take-off of a crappy roller disco movie from the 80s (a movie you could probably find in a 99 cent bin at a garage sale)? And I say tens of thousands because that's the minimum of full-price sales any show needs to have even a prayer of recouping (even for a show as small as XANADU). I'm not sure there's a market for this kind of show on mainstream Broadway -- and frankly given the swift demises of EVIL DEAD: THE MUSICAL and JOHNNY GUITAR off-Broadway (despite good reviews in both cases) I question whether there's a market for camp musicals in the city anymore anywhere (other than PS 122 or one of the other few remaining inexpensive downtown off-off-Broadway artists' spaces).

I like several of the people attached, so I wish it well, but I can't help but wonder whether it can find an audience at these astronomical prices.

[sidneybruhl]

Posted: 4/22/07 at 9:56pm

As always, Margo hits the nail on the head. I wouldn't go to see this show if someone gave me a ticket.

[BwayUSAGal]

Posted: 4/22/07 at 10:07pm

Keep in mind though that people pay $110 all the time to see crap. Plus in a theatre this small, they only have to get half the amount of the people who are seeing the other crap to pay to go see this crap. So in a strictly mathematical sense, it should run about twice as long as the other crap :)

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 4/22/07 at 10:36pm

BayUSAGal, it doesn't work like that. This show is reportedly capitalized at $5 million (more than a million more than a couple of comparably small shows like AVENUE Q and SPELLING BEE which were both around $3.5 million) and regardless of anything, that's at least how much the show has to make back in order to recoup and repay investors (that figure doesn't include the sometimes huge costs of marketing). Unfortunately they have to pay back that sum in a theater that holds less than 600 people (unlike Q with 800 and BEE with 650). That means that they had BETTER be getting capacity or near-capacity audiences paying full price on a very regular basis. They can't afford to do too much discounting because seating is so limited they need as many full-price sales as they can get just to cover expenses.

[BwayUSAGal]

Posted: 4/22/07 at 11:06pm

Thanks for the explanation, Margo. I actually did know that, but I was being facetious with my mathematical equation...hence my smiley face :)

[buddharich]

Posted: 4/22/07 at 11:19pm

When I first saw that there was a musical called "Xanadu" I was thinking: oh, a musical version of "Citizen Kane"! Seems odd they would do a musical version of the bomb movie of the same name, but as others have said, we have to wait and see.

My other reaction: will that great classic movie musical "Can't Stop the Music" be next?? (i hope everybody knows I'm joking!)

[buddharich]

Posted: 4/22/07 at 11:19pm

When I first saw that there was a musical called "Xanadu" I was thinking: oh, a musical version of "Citizen Kane"! Seems odd they would do a musical version of the bomb movie of the same name, but as others have said, we have to wait and see.

My other reaction: will that great classic movie musical "Can't Stop the Music" be next?? (i hope everybody knows I'm joking!)

[SeanMartin]

Posted: 4/23/07 at 7:34am

I wouldnt joke too much about that. The Village People are about the only major 70s/80s group left whose catalogue could b made into a jukebox show, and frankly it's only a matter of time.

[markymatt]

Posted: 4/23/07 at 12:41pm

The radio ad for this show is horrible. They may have hit the nail on the head when it comes to saving money (small theatre, small cast), but they might want to re-think what they are using to get people to buy tickets.

And, I don't think they'll have a problem making the Hayes stage look full. Jay Johnson didn't get lost with just himself and his dummies. If anything, I think nine cast members and onstage seating might get a little crowded.

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 4/23/07 at 1:43pm

"How the hell is a roller skating musical playing the Helen Hayes?!"

To be honest, roller skating really wasn't the focus of the movie. It was featured as it was a popular fad of the period, but it wasn't as if it played an essential role in the plot. I can only imagine the use of roller skates at all in the show would be a tongue-in-cheek campy nod to the film and used sparingly. It's not like this is Starlight Express.

I'm gleefully looking forward to the show, but I'm terribly afraid booking the Helen Hayes is a grave mistake. In my mind's eye, I was really hoping for a big splashy extravaganza, but who knows? It could be enormously entertaining as a small show. Should the show have breathtaking staging and lighting that could help generate positive buzz for the show, it could still stand a chance (Pirate Queen manages to sell tickets while being devoid of both).