Flops of the season.- Page 2

[JSquared2]

Posted: 2/16/19 at 2:39pm

Andres_123 said: "Be more chill is actually selling really well, todays 2pm performance only had two seats left. It’s first preview along with Thursday’s and Friday’s show didn’t sell out but had two to five seats left. I truly don’t believe this show will close right after it opens I see it lasting till at least January of 2020."

 

Tons of papering is being done, and anyone who shows up for rush gets in --- both great ways to show 100% capacity, but lousy ways to keep a show running.  One of the lead producers of this show is former Davenport disciple Jennifer Ashley Tepper --- and Ms. Tepper appears to be borrowing liberally from the Davenport playbook. 

[\_(•_•)_/]

Posted: 2/16/19 at 2:41pm

how dare yOu atTacK tHe FaNdOM

[Call_me_jorge]

Posted: 2/16/19 at 4:44pm

Once the prom and be more chill close high school theatre groups will be RUNNING to get the licenses. They don’t need New York to be successful.

King Kong will just die, but if the producers are smart, they’ll set up shop in Las Vegas.

[Annette170]

Posted: 2/16/19 at 4:55pm

I loved THE PROM. So much fun

[Lifesmellsweird]

Posted: 2/16/19 at 5:03pm

BroadwayRox3588 said: "Look. I knowBe More Chillisn't everybody's cup of tea, and believe me it is far from my favorite show of all-time. But come on...do you honestly think it's gonna flop so bad that it closes during previews or right after opening night? We'll see how much staying power it has in the long run, but I guarantee you it'll be more than that."

Thank you for this. It seems like so many people here want this to fail. It’s been in previews for ten seconds. Give it a chance. I’m 40 and I love this show. Not my favorite but it’s terrific nonetheless. Hearing people make fun of it and talk about its failure is really not cool.

[SomethingPeculiar]

Posted: 2/16/19 at 5:11pm

sing_dance_love said: "LOL, “Gettin’ the Head Over Margaritaville” is brilliant."

Thank you, that title might have sold some tix. (Or maybe that's the Forbidden Broadway parody of this season?)

[BritCrit]

Posted: 2/17/19 at 7:59am

Call_me_jorge said: "Once the prom and be more chill close high school theatre groups will be RUNNING to get the licenses. They don’t need New York to be successful."

I agree with this 100%. One theatre in one city should not be the sole indicator of success or failure. High schools and drama clubs all over America will really take an interest in "Be More Chill" and "The Prom".

Apparently, 'Be More Chill' is ALREADY available for licensing...

https://www.forbes.com/sites/marchershberg/2019/02/12/broadway-becomes-more-chill-in-approach-to-licensing/#7073c20b4d3a

 

[SomethingPeculiar]

Posted: 2/17/19 at 11:36am

BritCrit said: "One theatre in one city should not be the sole indicator of success or failure. High schools and drama clubs all over America will really take an interest in "Be More Chill" and "The Prom"."


Well........sort of.

The Broadway production of Be More Chill had a capitalization of $9million, so there's a lot of pressure on the line. But if a Broadway production doesn't return a substantial percentage of money to its investors, it's unlikely that it recoups 100% through subsidiary licensing. Footloose and Seussical tanked on Broadway; despite every theatre/high school in America producing them, they still haven't 100% recouped. Now, when a show like Millie only returns 80% to investors on Broadway, has touring/international productions, and then gets licensed: that's a much rosier financial situation. (I wish I had figures for other shows, but this is what's publicly available.)

So while licensing can be a huge source of income, it's being divided between a LOT of people who worked to make the show happen. (The author's 60% share gets divided between ~3 people; the producer/investors' 40% share gets divided between ~100 people.) They say "don't invest it if you can't afford to lose it," and only 1/4 of shows fully recoup. Let's see what happens!!

[yfs]

Posted: 2/17/19 at 5:49pm

In the case of "Senator Joe" it was the only show in my memory to have its plastics up on two marquees at once -- right across the street from each other -- the Virginia (now the Wilson)  and the Simon. The producer, Adela Holzer,  couldn't post a bond to Jujamcyn, which owned the Wilson, and so made a deal for the Simon with the Nederlanders and moved across the street. By April of the following year she was incarcerated at the Bedford Hills Correctional Facility for Women. I think she's still alive. 

 

[trentsketch]

Posted: 2/17/19 at 8:54pm

Be More Chill has been available to license for quite a while. I feel like Samuel French had it after the Two Rivers' run and now it's on RNH, though it might just be that Samuel French has other Joe Iconis titles and was selling vocal selections and a libretto separate from licensing. Either way, productions popped up a few times before the off-Broadway run in my area.

It's usually only local productions that get impacted when a show is available to license before bowing on Broadway. I still remember working for a school that lost the rights to Cinderella the day before they announced the new Broadway production. Other schools further away maintained the rights; we were just too close to NYC for an amateur production. 

[GavestonPS]

Posted: 2/17/19 at 9:28pm

qolbinau said: "I mean, we'll find out in a couple of days, but I suspect that your predictions are wrong. Be More Chill is not going to immediately stagger like any of the truly devastating flops that might have been better off closing in previews (e.g., The Visit, The Scottsboro Boys, Bridges of Madison County etc.). It may not be a hit, but the way you are describing this show makes it sound like it is about to be a complete fiasco financially."

Why would any of the shows you mention have been better off closing in previews? They are all shows by serious artists and will have long lives beyond Broadway. I've seen two of the three via national tours; all three were preserved and widely disseminated via audio recordings. None of that would have been likely to happen had the shows closed in previews.

This is a rare instance where you baffle me, qolbinau.

[Jarethan]

Posted: 2/17/19 at 11:13pm

qolbinau said: "I mean, we'll find out in a couple of days, but I suspect that your predictions are wrong. Be More Chill is not going to immediately stagger like any of the truly devastating flops that might have been better off closing in previews (e.g., The Visit, The Scottsboro Boys, Bridges of Madison County etc.). It may not be a hit, but the way you are describing this show makes it sound like it is about to be a complete fiasco financially."

I am hoping that you were in some state of inebriation when you wrote that or had a lot of typos that auto-correct seriously erroneously altered.  While those shows may not have been financially successful, they were the work of major theatre artists, and the small audiences that saw them were well rewarded.  I still find it hard to believe that The Scottsboro Boys could not achieve a longer run; but, does that mean that Kander and Ebb should not have bothered to start it or The Visit in the first place, or that Susan Stroman should have worked on something mindless instead of Scottsboro?  

[jeffrey2]

Posted: 2/18/19 at 1:01pm

Was there any audio or video of Bobbi Boland that surfaced?