Posted on 12/10/2008 10:07:10 AM PST by raccoonradio
America's economic woes have taken a heavy toll on Broadway, where the final curtain is coming down on 15 shows in the next six weeks.
Even some of New York’s most feted productions, such as the Equus revival starring Daniel Radcliffe, have been playing to half-filled houses while other shows have survived no more than weeks.
In one of many worrying statistics for the US' theatre capital, only two Broadway productions made money this season – a revival of The Seagull starring Kristin Scott-Thomas and another of Arthur Miller's All My Sons, starring Katie Holmes – and they were both limited runs.
Theatre-goers are not the only ones avoiding Broadway because of the financial crunch. Investment prospects are also bleak as producers shy away from all but the safest theatrical bets.
Multi-million dollar productions of Grease, Young Frankenstein, Hairspray, 13 and Boeing-Boeing will all close at the end of the holiday season on January 4.
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
>>High ticket prices have also been a factor.
Shocked, shocked I tell you.
>>Radcliffe will strip naked for Equus
Groucho Marx in 70s: “I heard there’s a musical, Oh Calcutta, where you pay $11 to see actors in the nude. I went home and took off my clothes. Believe me, it wasn’t worth $11.”
I would think that call in gay day would devastate Broadway.
If they had any brains they would look back to what helped Broadway in prior troubled times.........POSITIVE MUSIC.
Where are the Gershwins, the Porters, the Berlins, and all the other geniuses that brought America to its feet with patriotic and positive music?
Instead we get “Brokeback Mountain..the gay musical”
All but a handful of these are “revivals” of old shows. So no, I’m not surprised to see that people are not willing to cough up $400 just to see “Young Frankenstein”, “Hairspray”, or even “Grease”, which has been done by every high school since the 80’s.
No wonder some of these are shutting down.
With the pc lip lock coming down on the students in college and arts school these days there are not a lot of great words being written, composed, choreographed or produced. The libs have shut down forward motion in the arts.
Do you still have that NYC ping list?
Seeing the Phantom of the Opera (original cast) on Broadway is an experience not to be replicated by a high school group.
I’ve seen the lights go out on Broadway
I saw the Empire State laid low.
And life went on beyond the Palisades,
They all bought bright Cadillacs
And left there long ago.
We held a concert out in Brooklyn
To watch the Island bridges blow.
They turned our power down,
And drove us underground
But we went right on with the show...
I’ve seen the lights go out on Broadway
I saw the ruins at my feet,
You know we almost didn’t notice it
We’d see it all the time on Forty-Second Street.
They burned the churches up in Harlem
Like in that Spanish Civil War
The flames were everywhere,
But no one really cared
It always burned up there before...
I’ve seen the lights go out on Broadway
I watched the mighty skyline fall.
The boats were waiting at the Battery,
The union went on strike
They never sailed at all.
They sent a carrier out from Norfolk
And picked the Yankees up for free.
They said that Queens could stay,
They blew the Bronx away
And sank Manhattan out to sea...
You know those lights were bright on Broadway
But that was so many years ago...
Before we all lived here in Florida
Before the Mafia took over Mexico.
There are not many who remember
They say a handful still survive...
To tell the world about...
The way the lights went out,
And keep the memory alive
I modified a script for the stage a few years ago then went looking for backers. Here's what I learned....
Costumes - only a very few companies can make costumes for Broadway shows, all union shops.
Stage sets - only two companies allowed - both union.
Musicians - union contracts mandate a minimum of nine musicians per performance, even if there is no music (as with Waiting for Godot).
Electricians - one gets paid to do nothing but press the button that raises the curtain.
It is nearly impossible to break even, let alone make a profit. That is why deep pocket companies like Disney are almost running the game now.
The movie Boeing-Boeing is very funny. The Turner Classic Movies network plays it every once in a while. Thelma Ritter, the maid/cook, should have won an Academy Award for her part.
Oh, I agree (even though some will try, LOL!). But Grease, on the other hand, has been done to death.
When I was younger, I got to see Richard Harris as King Arthur in the stage version of “Camelot”. The man couldn’t sing his way out of a bag, but I was mesmerized by his performance, and adored every moment of the experience. I can’ help but think you would never see that kind of casting nowadays.
LOL! I know what you mean!
Lord. I have not even heard of it! It is a classic movie? As a previous film major it passed me by—that is for sure. I will check it out. Thanks for the heads up.
An spamalot a couple of weeks later.
Many of these shows have had good runs,. however, and had about run their course anyway.
They say the neon lights are dimming, on Broadway...
They're not. Many interesting new shows are Broadway-bound, from a revival of West Side Story to a musical of the Addams Family.
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