will CHITTY last till MARCH?- Page 2

[adamgreer]

Posted: 10/13/05 at 3:12pm

If the Broadway production closes, they can use those sets and costumes.

However, I assume they'd have to simplify some of the flying, because I doubt that set up would fit in all theaters.

The show should do well on the road.

[Penny4Eyes]

Posted: 10/13/05 at 3:13pm

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

[LouW95]

Posted: 10/13/05 at 4:58pm

On its worst week, Chitty pulled in close to $400,000 and on its best over $1,000,000. It opened with a huge advance and already has a fine holiday advance. This comes from reliable sources. Maybe it should follow Beauty & The Beast, downsize and move to a theatre not as huge as the Hilton. Most shows would kill to pull in $400,000 a week. Chitty needs to cut expenses and speed up the first act. I have seen it 3 times and the audience reaction was tremendous. It is a crowd pleaser, even if it did not please all the elitist critics. John Simon gave it a rave review!!!!
Updated On: 10/13/05 at 04:58 PM

[ljay889]

Posted: 10/13/05 at 5:02pm

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

[luvtheEmcee]

Posted: 10/13/05 at 5:06pm

And regardless of how nice that rave was, or how much people love it, and how reliable the sources of the numbers are, that doesn't make the apparently inevitable less true.

If changes were going to be made to shorten the act, it would've had to happen in previews. Nothing to be done now; that show is frozen.

Looking at numbers of dollars and looking at percentages are two very different things. Chitty may be making what another show would look at as boatloads of money, but that doesn't mean that in comparison to its capacity it's doing well. You don't need to be a brain surgeon to figure that out -- it's rather obvious and honestly, naive to think that just because the dollar amount is high, things should be all well and good. It comes down to whether or not they can fill that theatre. Plus, it's a freaking expensive show to run. There's not really a mystery here.

People loving the show and going on about how it's lovely and family friendly and crowd pleasing just isn't gonna be enough. I'm not happy about this, but let's wake up.

Updated On: 10/13/05 at 05:06 PM

[ThankstoPhantom]

Posted: 10/13/05 at 5:15pm

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.

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

[LouW95]

Posted: 10/14/05 at 10:45am

I think Citty will prob not scale down and go on tour but the term FROZEN refers to a show being locked in for the official opening. It is not to be used as a literal or forever term. Bway has had quite a few examples to prove my point. A few years ago, Beauty and the Beast was revamped when it moved from the Palace to the Lunt and that was years after it opened and was "frozen". Les Miserab. was also shortened by 30 mins. The bottom line is if any show is reaching enough above its break even point to keep afloat and make money. It is not about capacity or size of theatre alone. Like it or not, it is show BUSINESS.

Updated On: 10/14/05 at 10:45 AM

[luvtheEmcee]

Posted: 10/14/05 at 10:52am

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*

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 10/14/05 at 11:37am

What sad news, if it is indeed true. I found Chitty to be magical and delightful. I thought for sure it would hold on until Tarzan or Mary Poppins moved in to steal the thunder. I only wish I could see it again before it's gone. When th car flew, I felt like a kid again. It was nice.

[thedeepend]

Posted: 10/14/05 at 12:06pm

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...

[luvtheEmcee]

Posted: 10/14/05 at 12:08pm

Even still, something like Phantom... there's a sort of "prestige," for lack of a better term behind that name. 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.

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 10/14/05 at 12:12pm

"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.

[luvtheEmcee]

Posted: 10/14/05 at 12:14pm

I wouldn't take a seven-year-old to Phantom. If I were 7, I'd be scared! But people who have little kids are probably more attracted to Disney, don't you think? I think the success lies in the label. I probably posted it before, but if Chitty closes, that's going to put even more truth to the tale that Disney's gaining a monopoly on this family-friendly demographic. Those shows have to have *something* to do with the fact that Chitty can't break into it, because it's not *that* bad of a show.

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

[thedeepend]

Posted: 10/14/05 at 12:20pm

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...

[RYANWOODS]

Posted: 10/14/05 at 12:28pm

a company member told me that theres a lot of buzz going around that the show will be pulled sometime in February.

Got a feeling A Chorus Line may enter.

[luvtheEmcee]

Posted: 10/14/05 at 12:29pm

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.

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

[Charlotte]

Posted: 10/14/05 at 12:54pm

The show is touring here now in england. one of my freinds is playing jemima

[LouW95]

Posted: 10/14/05 at 1:45pm

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.

[Katecab99]

Posted: 10/14/05 at 1:46pm

i keep putting it off, and now i'm gonna have to make a go for it so that i don't miss it! i just want to wait till kudisch is back in the cast!!

[luvtheEmcee]

Posted: 10/14/05 at 1:47pm

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? )

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

[LouW95]

Posted: 10/14/05 at 3:15pm

Learn from history and do not get angry especially when you post very opinionated and factless diabtribes. I am out of this thread as of this message. It really has no productive purpose. Time will tell if and when any show closes, downsizes or goes on tour. We do not need to make predictions. That was the main point of many of my postings.

[luvtheEmcee]

Posted: 10/14/05 at 4:14pm

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.

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

[w_tanoto]

Posted: 10/17/05 at 5:23pm

Hi! I'm new here!
I was really sad when Chitty was closed in London Palladium, and I'm thinking that I will be happy if citty still survive somewhere. But when i heard this.....
When exactly chitty will be closing? Do you know if the cast recording will reach UK?

[luvtheEmcee]

Posted: 10/17/05 at 5:25pm

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

[DAME]

Posted: 10/17/05 at 5:33pm

Closing right after New Years.