Leaping Lizard's! Musical Theatre HELL.

[MamasDoin'Fine]

Posted: 4/20/12 at 10:04am

The New York Post.

There are a lot of prayer meetings going on at “Leap of Faith,” the new musical at the St. James about a con-man evangelist.
But most of them are taking place offstage.

Production members are praying for a miracle — namely that the show doesn’t close right after it opens.
With opening night less than a week away, the show is in serious trouble. It’s been bleeding money in previews — hundreds of thousands of dollars a week — and its advance sales can only be seen through a microscope.
On the managerial side, I hear there’s disarray.
Well, how could there not be? “Leap of Faith” has more producers than Ibzan had children.

“Leap of Faith,” which is set to open next week but has had disappointing preview and advance sales. Meetings among its numerous producers are chaotic.

I estimate 23, though that may be on the conservative side.
Others say the figure is so high that “Leap of Faith” could be an Ira Pittelman production. Ira, had something like 584 for “Spring Awakening.”
With so many producers sitting around the conference table — which must be larger than the one used for the Vietnam peace talks — chaos is inevitable.

And in fact, sources say, some meetings have degenerated into shouting matches and finger-pointing. Simple marketing decisions are debated to death. I believe a subcommittee was formed to decide whether leading man Raul Esparza looked too fat in some publicity shots.
Hey! The poor guy isn’t Zero Mostel.
Yet.

Things have gotten so out of hand that e-mails have gone around advising people on how to behave at the meetings. I asked veteran producer Richard Frankel, who’s responsible for herding all these — what shall we call them? — “conference table producers” in and out of meetings, about the management structure at “Leap of Faith.”
“We have a lot of producers who have put a significant amount of money into the show, and they are passionate and vocal,” he said, doing a fair impression of a UN diplomat.
“They have opinions they want heard. Sometimes they have opinions they want followed. It is difficult producing shows in this way, but it is the way of the world.”
He paused and then added: “God bless Kermit Bloomgarden.”
Bloomgarden was one of the great producers of the Golden Age, shepherding to Broadway such hits as “The Music Man,” “Death of a Salesman” and “Look Homeward, Angel.” His was the only name above the title. There were no committees and certainly no conference tables.

Frankel said that all the key decisions on “Leap” are being made by himself and his four general partners.
“There are,” he said, “millions of opinions at these meetings — it’s the way things are — but we persevere.”
None of the conference-table producers, he said, are allowed to interfere with the creative team — composer Alan Menken, lyricist Glenn Slater, book writer Warren Leight, director Christopher Ashley.
“We speak as one voice to them,” he said. “There is no messing around with that.”

As for the financial situation at “Leap,” Frankel acknowledged the show was in a tight spot but that more investment money was on the way.
“We have already raised hundreds of thousands of dollars, and we have commitments of hundreds of thousands more,” he said. “We have enough to function. There are producers who really believe passionately in this show.”
Maybe that means he’s going to have to get a bigger conference table.



Updated On: 4/20/12 at 10:04 AM

[MamasDoin'Fine]

Posted: 4/20/12 at 10:06am

One of the very worst evenings I've ever had in a Broadway theatre, or anywhere else!!!

[Jonwo]

Posted: 4/20/12 at 12:22pm

Wonder if we'll see notices once the reviews are out or will it hold out until September.

[MamasDoin'Fine]

Posted: 4/20/12 at 12:26pm

When I saw it last week there was talk that it may not even see opening night.
Not sure if thats the situation still but it would like being kind to a very sick animal if they killed it off today.
It really is a dire evening, its up there with 'Dance Of the Vampires', 'Good Vibrations' and many more, for some of my worse nightmare nights in New York.

Updated On: 4/20/12 at 12:26 PM

[Jonwo]

Posted: 4/20/12 at 12:29pm

It should have never transferred to Broadway so quickly, the St James is becoming cursed as this is the second flop in a row.

[Phantom of London]

Posted: 4/20/12 at 1:12pm

^ The St James has along way to go to catch up with The Marquis, you cold transfer Wicked into the later and it will still bomb.

Hope to see this, when I get to New York eventually.

[MamasDoin'Fine]

Posted: 4/20/12 at 1:17pm

POL, unless your becoming a lover of seeing theatrical disasters, like myself, don't waste a precious night in NY!

[Jonwo]

Posted: 4/20/12 at 1:41pm

Looks like Alan Menken will have the rare opportunity of having both a hit musical with Newsies and a flop musical with Leap of Faith both in the same season!

[MamasDoin'Fine]

Posted: 4/20/12 at 1:53pm

'Sister Act! Not yet rated a hit or flop!
It will be rembered for being a 'hit' I guess.

[Jonwo]

Posted: 4/20/12 at 2:02pm

Forgot about Sister Act, looks like that show may last a little longer thanks to the casting of Raven Symone.

[devonian.t]

Posted: 4/20/12 at 2:36pm

I found Dance of the Vampires quite entertaining in a crystal meth kind of way!

[MamasDoin'Fine]

Posted: 4/20/12 at 2:41pm

Yes it was, but we would wouldn't we!

[devonian.t]

Posted: 4/21/12 at 2:17am

True, true.

That new BWW video is a mess! The score is not well represented (or maybe it is)- it reminds me of some of those '70s and '80s shows where the brass section would just blast away in the hope of creating excitement when melody was absent.

And that set design...

[tommyslim]

Posted: 4/21/12 at 5:10am

Well i managed 3 minutes of that awful video. and why does raul look so gay?

[Phantom of London]

Posted: 4/21/12 at 11:56am

As much as I love theatre and seeing great shows, I do love seeing train wrecks too, I find them quite enchanting, but it has to be awful.

Congratulations to Alan Menken and Andrew Lloyd Webber having three shows running simultaneously on the Great White Way at the same time, throw it there to you guys, who was the last person to achieve this feat?

[CATSNYrevival]

Posted: 4/21/12 at 12:56pm

^I'm pretty sure Frank Wildhorn did for a very brief period when Jekyll & Hyde, The Scarlet Pimpernel and The Civil War were all playing on Broadway at the same time. The Civil War closed pretty quickly though.

Also, you guys are so mean! I guess I just love flop shows because it doesn't look that bad to me and Raul looks like he's giving the best performance he can with the material. Tommy that comment was pretty offensive.

[MamasDoin'Fine]

Posted: 4/22/12 at 7:52am

No it wasn't!