This saddens me as I feel this is a play that could benefit the older generation greatly in terms of humanizing the inability to adapt to rapid social changes. I'm glad it ran this long in a commercial run, as it may not have gotten as long of a run at a non-profit house.
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I saw this in previews, and while there were a few bumps in the road as there should be in previews, I found it a very touching show. Got to see the stage afterwards, and it was a really great play.
It says a tour is in discussion- do we think Tyne would do it? Would it be able to sell tickets even with her? I hope it gets some sort of life after Broadway.
They always say a tour is in discussion. It's one of the default statements shows make especially when they are disappointed about not doing well on Broadway. But think about it for a moment. This play flopped horribly. The last month, it struggled to fill 2 out of every 5 seats. It has never once reached 33% of its gross potential, not once during the entire run. Tyne Daly is a wonderful actress and I'm sure the show has some important things to say but for whatever reason, it just never connected with audiences. The Geffen and the Mark Taper want to bring in shows with buzz that were successful in New York, not massive flops, that's why the Geffen brought in Bette in December and the Taper brought in Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike and is bringing in Buyer and Cellar this summer. They're not going to bring this in, not in a million years.
I am so disappointed....I had tickets for June 29th. I did go ahead and order the Pride Playbill today. It was going to be a highlight of my NYC trip. Sure hope it tours and comes to Dallas.
Sad for the company, but it seems the critical consensus was that it wasn't a very good play. That's what likely doomed it. You also have to wonder if the producers held out this long because they didn't want to hurt or offend Daly. Is that naive or does that kind of compassion ever overrule common sense on Broadway?
I'm not sure about your interpretation of its critical consensus, I recall it being more mixed to positive, with the NY Times seeming rather positive. I went back a second time recently, since I thought it was rather poignant.
As for timing, with Tyne up for Actress and the show up for Best Play, they probably waited to see if they took home any awards, which could have helped things, so an announcement right after the awards seems right. It was only running through early July, so it's not like it was an open run, they just pulled closing in by two weeks.
The reviews were mixed to tepid from the critics that matter. (Go back and read them.) FishermanBob has it right, as numbers don't lie. When you can't break 50 per cent capacity for most of your run, that's a flop by any objective standard.
I found this play to be a relic. Poorly written and preachy. The reason it never found an audience is because there was no word of mouth. McNally has written some great stuff, but I think his window is closed. He's very disconnected from the reality of modern times. There was a time his plays were important and vital-this isn't one of those times.
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^ I was just on the Telecharge website and there were over 100 tickets available in the orchestra and plenty of seats in the Mezzanine for both shows next Wednesday. I'm not so sure it is a tough ticket to get even with the closing notices up.