Guys and dolls
R...@mlb.com
Broadway after a gigantic downturn due to the economy is
now doing much better now.
stephen...@gmail.com
http://www.playbill.com/features/article/129766-Broadway_Grosses_May_25-31
It took just shy of $430,000 last week, playing to 72.2% capacity over
8 performances, at an average ticket price of about $61. That sounds
like a lot of money, but it's actually not great ("Jersey Boys", a
fully-fledged hit in a similar-sized theatre, played to 100% capacity
and took about $1,100,000 over the same timeframe). Weekly running
costs for a large musical on Broadway are more than you might think; a
box office gross of $430,000 means that the show is probably covering
costs, but not much more that that, and it certainly won't be
returning a great deal of the several-milion-dollar capitalisation
needed to get the production up and running to the investors. So
unfortunately this particular production is not doing especially well.
--
Stephen
stephen...@gmail.com
> It took just shy of $430,000 last week, playing to 72.2% capacity over
> 8 performances, at an average ticket price of about $61.
That sounds high, incidentally, but the top-price ticket is $125, and
the theatre has only two price bands ($125 and $50) - so an average
sale price of $61 indicates that the show has gone to discounts,
either at the TKTS booth or online or both, which is not an especially
healthy sign in a production from this season. They didn't get much in
the way of awards nominations, they're not going to win the best
musical revival Tony, they *may* get a bit of a boost from appearing
on the telecast, but, much as I'd love them to succeed, the odds are
looking good that this production will be a financial flop.
--
Stephen
stephen...@gmail.com
Closing this coming Sunday, June 14th:
http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/06/09/guys-and-dolls-to-close-on-sunday/
--
Stephen
David Milligan
<stephen...@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:488d4067-1a20-4e5a...@r13g2000vbr.googlegroups.com...
http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/06/09/guys-and-dolls-to-close-on-sunday/
--
Stephen
Sorry to hear about that. I wonder if Lauren will join the
national tour next year.
--
David E. Milligan
http://geocities.com/daviderl31/GilmoreGirls.htm
http://daviderl31.blogspot.com/
stephen...@gmail.com
> <stephen.far...@gmail.com> wrote in message
>
> news:488d4067-1a20-4e5a...@r13g2000vbr.googlegroups.com...
> On Jun 1, 7:00 pm, R...@mlb.com wrote:
>
> > Any word on how Guys and Dolls w/ Lg is doing now? Seems that
> > Broadway after a gigantic downturn due to the economy is
> > now doing much better now.
>
> Closing this coming Sunday, June 14th:
>
>
> Stephen
>
> Sorry to hear about that. I wonder if Lauren will join the
> national tour next year.
The first question is whether or not there will *be* a national tour
next year. Despite the announcement, it's not a foregone conclusion.
The Broadway production, when it closes, will, conservatively, have
lost somewhere in the region of $8-$12 million, perhaps more - a big
Broadway musical, these days, costs at least $10 million upfront, and
the box office figures suggest that it's been running sufficiently
close to breakeven since it opened that it won't have paid much if any
of that back, and depending on what they've spent on advertising it
could conceivably have lost even more. Print ads and TV spots are
very, very expensive, but if you've got a struggling Broadway show -
and this production has been struggling for more or less the entire
length of the run - then buying advertising is the only proven way of
getting more people through the door, and even *that* doesn't always
work, particularly if you don't have stellar reviews, which is the
case here. The loss from the Broadway production will be sufficiently
large that a tour is unlikely to recoup it, even though a tour could
be considerably less expensive to set up because they'd be able to
recycle the Broadway sets once the show has closed there. And "Guys
and Dolls", on the road, is a tough sell if the production is less
than stellar - it's hard to charge $80+ per ticket for a show that's
been done by every high school and every community theatre unless you
have very strong reviews behind you.
And all that comes *before* the question of whether LG would do a
tour. The show has flopped on Broadway with her in one of the leads.
Maybe she wouldn't want to repeat the experience. Even if she *did*,
there's the question of her price tag - none of the Broadway leads, LG
included, got brilliant reviews across the board (though LG came out
of the reviews as well as if not better than the other three). Maybe
the producers, given the Broadway leads' reviews, would want new
blood. Maybe LG would simply be too expensive. Maybe, to keep costs
down, the tour will be non-Equity. The variables involved mean that if
a tour happens it's at least as likely as not that the Broadway leads
will not be in the cast.
--
Stephen
Diner
I got to see the show the night before it closed. Lauren was great -
it's a hilarious role, and she seemed to be really having a lot of
fun. Her singing and dancing were quite good - nothing to complain
about. And I was really surprised to see her showing off her body so
much, more than in any role I've seen her in.
Sadly, aside from Craig Bierko and Lauren, there wasn't much to
recommend about the show. They never quite got the right tone. Oliver
Platt was TERRIBLE as Nathan - instead of broad comedy, he played him
as a tough guy. None of his comedy scenes worked. It's one of the
funniest musicals ever written, but aside from Lauren and Craig,
nobody seemed to be having much fun, and everybody seemed to be trying
way too hard. A real shame, but I can see why it closed.
-Tim