Posted on 08/31/2005 11:30:49 AM PDT by Millee
It doesn't look so good for the beleaguered Broadway musical about John Lennon. The eponymous titled show, which got scathing reviews after finally opening on Aug. 14, is limping along with few patrons.
Last week, Lennon took in a measly $303,959 and played to less than a half full theater on most days. The box office was down about 14 percent from the previous week, and those numbers hadn’t been very encouraging either.
Of course, “Lennon: The Musical” is a god-awful piece of work that portrays the late ex-Beatle with five actors. The show completely skips using any Beatles’ songs, and instead focuses on Lennon’s solo career and his enormous love for second wife Yoko Ono.
Ono, in a steady stream of interviews before the show opened, stood by her decision to let the show proceed as it was and is. This meant cutting out basic biographical information about Lennon, emphasizing minor songs no one wanted to hear and re-imagining rock history. Apparently, audiences have not flocked to this idea.
It’s not like Broadway is having a great August, but nearly every show did better than Lennon last week, even those playing for a long time.
“Spamalot,” “The Lion King,” “The Producers,” “Dirty Rotten Scoundrels,” “Wicked,” “Mamma Mia” and “Hairspray” are still pulling in nearly sold-out dates. Lennon is lagging far behind all of them, and even not doing as well as dramas like “The Pillowman” and "The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee."
Of course, the whole point of “Lennon” was to make it to the singer’s 65th birthday on Oct. 9 and the 25th anniversary of his death on Dec. 9. Neither seems likely. Ono is planning to release a book of reminiscences about Lennon for early October. By that time, the musical should be long gone.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
I blame Mark Chapman for being a piss-poor shot. She was standing right next to him, for god's sake!
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