will CHITTY last till MARCH? — Page 2

NO it cant be true! its my favorite show (along with Wicked and Les Miz!)

I wanna see the new Piazza billboard!!!!!

LUVTHEEMCEE: I too love this show, and was surprised at how much I loved it. But changes are made to shows after previews, maybe not huge ones, but they can happen. Beauty and the Beast added a song...Wicked has changed some costumes, some lighting, some orchestrations, and some choreography, and so on.

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Updated On: 10/13/05 at 05:15 PM

Riedel wrote something "outing" the rumors.

I hate him.

They can make *changes* (choreography and the like, sure) but if they're thinking of closing, where's the logic in chopping out part of act one? Signs don't point to *any* indication of moving. I'm wondering if it has to do with tech accomodations for that car, or something. *shrugs* Now I'm just sort of waiting for a date. *sulks*

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Chitty can tour. And my best guess, with some inside info, is that it will. It is a very BIG show to put on the road, but they are doing it now in the UK. Also, the "car" flying mechanism was completely redesigned here in the States from the system used in London for that very reason (easy to tour)...

It's sad that NYC just seems like the wrong venue for the show... Out-of-towners love it (proven by 11 nomination by the Outer Critics Circle) and not loved so much by the "stuffy" NY Tony people... reviews from papers around the country after the B-Way opening were also much "friendlier" than the NY critics... is CHITTY to nice for NYC???

The show still has money in the bank, but of course, it can't run red ink forever...that is just plain business...I do know that the marketing and promotion is constantly being looked at and tweeked to get butts in the seats...most everyone that sees the show, leaves happy!

I think the size of the theatre, in retrospect, was also a mistake...just too many seats to fill with kids, and are Moms and Dads really willing to shell out $100 each for a 6 or 7 year old? I think the numbers have answered that question...but can it survive with deep discounts? That turned PHANTOM around and it put it back on the map, but CHITTY? Hard to say...

"People who come to New York who want to see Broadway will want to see something like Phantom, not a movie-turned-show... I guess."

Then how do you explain the success of Beauty and the Beast or The Lion King? Both have ridden the success of their previous film incarnations.

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Don't want to see a "movie turned show?" What? Last time I checked, the "musical" Phantom of the Opera was first a novel, then a movie, then a show, than a movie again...Are we also forgetting BATB, TLK, etc, etc, etc. That's not the issue with the lack of stellar success of CHITTY...If your saying it's an "original" work thing v. a "previous" work thing, I don't think that's it...

I'm not trying to make a blanket statement, but think about it. Pretend you were a tourist. I'd want to see something that's... I can't find the right word. But when you think about the New York theatre scene from an outside point of view, you think of something like Les Mis, or Phantom. That's really all I'm saying. It's hard to compare something new(ish) like Chitty to something like Phantom with 18 years of considerable success and international productions behind its name. I didn't mean for it to come off as being that all movies-turned-shows are going to flop like this, or whatever (and I'm perfectly well aware of the ambiguity in the original versus unoriginal debate), because that is *clearly* not the case at all. I'm saying that maybe it's a factor here -- because people know Chitty as a movie, and by today's standards, I don't think we can say it's as widely known as a Disney movie.

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Updated On: 10/14/05 at 12:29 PM

My point about downsizing the show was made as I too believe the theatre was too big. On its worst week Chitty took in about 400,000. I believe with downsizing and a smaller theatre, it could run but a tour might be the better way to go. How any poster can write that people dont want to see a movie turned play is really mind boggling and is not the case. It was as wrong as writing that a show cant make changes once it is frozen. Please look at the facts and history of NY theater before posting. Even an opinion should be based on some factual or historical base.

Like I said, I was not making a blanket statement on either one of those fronts: about changes OR about movies turned into plays. Qualifiers are present in both of my statements. Read the rest of my posts before you tell me I'm crazy. I'm perfectly willing to learn what it is that I do not know, but I'm not willing to be talked down to for what is in part my mistake and in other part someone else's misinterpretation. I'm not totally without knowledge.

Downsizing might be a fabulous idea, but it's also really unlikely, no matter how many posters with tons of knowledge of workings and history say that it's a good idea. Continuing to say it is going to help how? Proving you're "correct" with the numbers won't make the show move. There's a difference between assumed correctness by theory and realistic practicality.

(But we all love Chitty, so shouldn't the happy, family-friendly ideal be not to argue if we're all in a similar boat? )

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Updated On: 10/14/05 at 01:47 PM

I'll take the last word with you, then, since you've so gracefully backed out. To say that we don't need to make predictions is hypocritical. Trust me, these aren't just predictions, and what you've done is hardly better -- to predict of what it "might" do or want to do. Opinion should, yes, be based on fact. But do *not* tell me that what I say is factless simply because you continually choose to read my comments in the wrong way, because honestly, to put things in that light doesn't make you look any better, smarter or more well-versed. It makes you look quite disgustingly, ridiculously elitist, wanting to prove that your theory is perhaps faultless and better. But, you know, I made a bit of a mistake so I'm thoughtless, not worth the thought and unproductive. The anger is about the tone, not the correction. I can indeed play a similar game. You want people to learn? Don't speak to them that way. "Children" don't learn from being spoken to like idiots and told that conversing with them is without purpose and that their opinions are diatribe. You've made any productiveness to this simply evaporate away, and since you've said what you think of *my* postings, I'll say that I find that pretty damned inappropriate.

Time will indeed tell. It will tell that you're like incorrect, even with your numbers, since that's what you seem to have chosen to make this about. Correctness.

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Updated On: 10/14/05 at 04:14 PM

There IS no Broadway cast recording, and there's not an exact closing date.

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