"Jinxed" Theatres?

[philly03]

Posted: 6/6/08 at 8:03pm

I was just thinking about how jinxed the Plymouth/Schoenfeld Theatre is!

With the exception of "A Chorus Line", which correct me if I'm wrong, recently recouped...what shows could really be considered a hit/profit there!?

Jekyll & Hyde was the last major tenant, and that was 10 years ago, and it flopped financially.

Are there any other theatres where hits are just rare?

The Marquis seems like the runner-up.
Updated On: 6/7/08 at 08:03 PM

[Wanna Be A Foster]

Posted: 6/6/08 at 8:04pm

I believe the most jinxed theatre on Broadway is the Longacre, which hasn't had a hit in something like 15 years.

It looks like that might finally change with BOEING-BOEING.

[adamgreer]

Posted: 6/6/08 at 8:07pm

"The Marquis seems like the runner-up."

Drowsy and the Bernadette Annie Get Your Gun revival were certainly hits.

[mikem]

Posted: 6/6/08 at 8:10pm

I think the most jinxed theater is the Belasco -- I think someone said that there has NEVER been a production that originated there that lasted for more than 250 performances. (Here's hoping Passing Strange breaks that record!)

Posted: 6/6/08 at 8:11pm

It's a myth. The Gershwin was considered "Jinxed" till the biggest show in town started selling out every night.

Put a hit in there and suddenly the jinx will vanish.

[jaystarr]

Posted: 6/6/08 at 8:13pm

How about the Belasco & the Cort Theater?

J*

[Weez]

Posted: 6/6/08 at 8:23pm

I hate to seem to agree with JoeKv99, but he's got a point. The Shaftesbury Theatre in the West End is HUGE and a little out of the way, but as soon as 'Hairspray' went in, the jinx just seemed to melt away. Which is nice. ^_^

[BroadwayEnthusiast2]

Posted: 6/6/08 at 8:26pm

I'd like to know the theatre that has had the most hits.

[jaystarr]

Posted: 6/6/08 at 8:28pm

Shubert- I think?

[CyCoSpAz2]

Posted: 6/6/08 at 8:29pm

The Majestic... I hear it's haunted by a phantom.

[BroadwayEnthusiast2]

Posted: 6/6/08 at 8:35pm

The Alvin/Neil Simon has also had a lot of hits.

[BillyE]

Posted: 6/6/08 at 8:47pm

As for "the most hits", how about the (Cadillac) Winter Garden. Only two shows in the last two decades or so, with no signs of change anytime soon.

[songanddanceman2]

Posted: 6/6/08 at 9:15pm

Yeah the Shaftsbury in the West End seemed like it was the most doomed theatre on the planet with Rent, Tommy, Daddy Cool, High Society to name but a few all closing early on the runs....but then came Hairspray.

However i think the curse has spread out amongst a few other west end theatres recently lol

[bwaybabe2]

Posted: 6/7/08 at 1:17am

Maybe is not the theaters that are jinxed...but the producers who book them...;]

[roadmixer]

Posted: 6/7/08 at 1:31am

Typically, a theatre gets a reputation as jinxed not because the theatre has bad mojo or a haunting or anything related to the occult... Some theatres face negatives like small seating plan, bad location, small stage, inadequate facilities etc. and this drives away some of the projects that are more successful. Producers have a gut feeling if nothing else before they book their show in NYC and this leads them toward the right theatre - or they start at the wrong one and then move.

It is doubtful that moving Wicked to a "jinxed" theatre would stop it from being a hit, but it might kill it through diminished revenue or a bad experience due to sightlines, cramped seats etc.

Likewise, the producers of Billy Elliot would not put it into the Music Box because they are optimistic that it will be a hit - the Imperial is a theatre of hits... right size, location etc. etc.

[winston89]

Posted: 6/7/08 at 2:59am

Well I don't know if I would call the Cort, The Belasco and the Lyceum jinxed but I do agree to the whole "wrong side of Broadway" thing.

For those of you that don't know. People say that The Belasco, The Cort and the Lyceum are out of the general line of sight then most theatre so people don't see them/realize that something is playing there.

[Smaxie]

Posted: 6/7/08 at 8:53am

>I was just thinking about how jinxed the Plymouth/Schoenfeld Theatre is! With the exception of "A Chorus Line", which correct me if I'm wrong, recently recouped...what shows could really be considered a hit/profit there!? Jekyll & Hyde was the last major tenant, and that was 10 years ago.<

What of the multi-Tony winning Long Day's Journey Into Night revival? And while it was poorly reviewed, The Graduate was a hit there as well.

>The Marquis seems like the runner-up.<

In addition to Drowsy and Annie Get Your Gun (both hits that returned their investments), the house also opened with a hit - Me and My Girl.

>I think the most jinxed theater is the Belasco<

It has had a few legit hits in the past few years - Frankie and Johnny, Julius Caesar, the non-profit Awake and Sing, the Ralph Fiennes Hamlet, the Janet McTeer A Doll's House. While these are not long runners, they are at least distinguished productions.

>Cort Theater?<

It has had its ups and downs, certainly, but 39 Steps is performing well there. It has had hits with Freak, Blue Room and going a little further back, Sarafina. Absolutely nothing wrong with it, apart from lack of visibility and its second balcony.

>I believe the most jinxed theatre on Broadway is the Longacre, which hasn't had a hit in something like 15 years.<

The Longacre had a hit with the limited run of Medea with Diana Rigg, but before then, you have to go back to Children of a Lesser God in 1980 to find a hit that played that house. Even the Virginia Woolf revival - which should have been a hit - couldn't catch on. If any theatre ever had a rep as a jinx house, that was the one. I'm glad it got the renovation it needed, and I hope Boeing Boeing is the first of many hits there.

>I'd like to know the theatre that has had the most hits.<

It has had a few flops in recent years, with interim bookings while waiting for Billy Elliott, but the Imperial was always the theatre that was considered the house of hits. If you check its IBDB listing, it's remarkably short, compared to other vintage musical houses - a testament to its track record. Certainly, the Majestic and Winter Garden have been taken up with long runners in the past two decades, but that wasn't always the case.

>Well I don't know if I would call the Cort, The Belasco and the Lyceum jinxed but I do agree to the whole "wrong side of Broadway" thing.<

I don't quite buy the wrong side of Broadway thing. It's not like people had trouble finding the Cort when Nicole Kidman was naked there in The Blue Room or the Belasco, when Denzel Washington was starring in Julius Caesar. I think the bigger issue is that all three theatres are limited sized playhouses with second balconies, which is what makes them less desirable. (Same thing goes for the Longacre). The Lyceum, in particular, has the smallest orchestra level on Broadway, so the amount of "prime" seats you can sell is extremely limited.

Apart from the theatres already mentioned - the Nederlander, pre Rent, had long periods where it stood empty, although given the neighborhood at the time, it wasn't a mystery. That theatre was absolutely a last choice booking. Same for the Ambassador prior to Chicago. There was a stretch from 1989 to 1995 where it had no tenants. Prior to MTC, the Biltmore had flop after flop, to such a degree that its owner tried to burn it down to collect the insurance money, which led to it being destroyed by vandals and sitting abandoned for 17 years.

Updated On: 6/7/08 at 08:53 AM

[husk_charmer]

Posted: 6/7/08 at 9:04am

What about the Mark Hellinger? More flops than I can count, and it's only real hits didn't seem to stay there more than a few months before moving theatres, with the only real exception being the original "My Fair Lady."

[Smaxie]

Posted: 6/7/08 at 9:09am

Yes, lots of flops at the Hellinger, but boy do we need it back. At least in the 1980s, it had a hit with Sugar Babies.

[Gypsy9]

Posted: 6/7/08 at 10:14am

Although it probably does not belong in this thread, the Craig Theatre at 152 West 54th Steet, which changed names almost as much as its short runs, was demolished in the late 1960's. Its other names were the 54th Street, the Adelphi, and the George Abbott. It was considered to be an unlucky theatre from the start, although it had a hit with the Leonard Bernstein show ON THE TOWN in the mid 1940's. In the 1950's the TV company Dumont(Channel 5 in NYC) took over the theatre as a TV studio, hosting the wonderful THE HONEYMOONERS, starring Jackie Gleason, Audrey Meadows and Art Carney. It then reverted back to legitimate use, where shows would transfer there late in their runs, like DAMN YANKEES and BYE BYE BIRDIE. DARLING OF THE DAY, with a wonderful score by Jule Styne, flopped there in the mid 1960's. Its out of the way location probably contributed to its succession of fading shows and outright flops and the Hilton Hotel demolished it later in the 1960's to add on to its 6th Avenue hotel.

I would have to agree with the Shubert being a "house of hits" with BELLS ARE RINGING, STOP THE WORLD, I WANT TO GET OFF, A CHORUS LINE, CRAZY FOR YOU, and the current SPAMALOT. But it has also had its share of flops, including the distinguished but under attended early 1960's I CAN GET IT FOR YOU WHOLESALE, with a book by Arthur Laurents and a score by Harold Rome and starring Elliot Gould and his soon to be wife Barbra Streisand, making her Broadway debut.

[Smaxie]

Posted: 6/7/08 at 10:32am

Gypsy, FYI, No Strings also premiered at the 54th Street, but soon moved to the Broadhurst.

Updated On: 6/7/08 at 10:32 AM

[frogs_fan85]

Posted: 6/7/08 at 12:13pm

In the twelve and a half years since The Heiress closed, the Cort has had only one show (Kat and the Kings- 157) run longer than 150 performances, so make of that what you will. Did The Blue Room recoup?

[Smaxie]

Posted: 6/7/08 at 12:23pm

Yes, The Blue Room recouped, as per its producer Scott Rudin. It is mentioned in this article about David Hare's Vertical Hour and Amy's View also having recouped.
Variety - Blue Room

[winston89]

Posted: 6/7/08 at 12:27pm

Smaxie, The reaosn why I mentioned the whole wrong side of of Broadway thing is that as a whole those three theatres have had a problem of finding an audience. This is because they are not visible. They are closer to 6th then they are to 7th whereas most Broadway theatres are between 7th and 8th. A lot of people (tourists) don't see the Belasco or Cort or Lyceum because of that fact. Sure, they have had their individual successes. Ceaser with Washington for example. But, overall it is hard to find a hit show in those particular theatres.

A lot of tourists don't see up to the sixth avenue side because all the things (theatres and whatnot) are around seventh and eighth so that is where their eyes are geared towards. You have to actually look in order to find the Belasco. The Lyceum has a VERY small marquee so it is hard to know what is playing there half of the time and it is covered by a big times square building so most people wouldn't see that. And the Cort is so tucked away that even I for a while had trouble finding it.

[Smaxie]

Posted: 6/7/08 at 12:57pm

I know all about the "wrong side of Broadway" argument. My point is that the theatres aren't the destinations, the shows inside them are. People find them just fine when there's something there that they want to see. However, because those theatres have their less desirable stigma, they usually get the lesser bookings and their "jinxed" history feeds itself. Bobbie Boland would have fared no better at the Broadhurst. Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks would not have run longer had it played the Music Box.

As for tourists... how much street shopping for theatre really gets done these days? Either they come to town with their tickets already in hand, or they buy them online, at the half price booth, through the concierge or a broker. Some people still buy at the box office, but that's becoming more and more infrequent. I think shows at the Cort, Lyceum or Belasco only suffer for the handful of impulse buyers who try to pick up a ticket at a sold out show near curtain time and get turned away and look for something else nearby to see. That's the only time their remote locations truly play against them.