"If I could leave 'Sunset' tomorrow, I would" - Glenn Close (April, 1995)- Page 2

[AEA AGMA SM]

Posted: 9/15/19 at 4:37pm

David10086 said: "If I remember correctly, Mason led the first national tour of 'Sunset' which closed early. Was that because she wasn't getting good reviews, and not selling tickets?"

The original tour was massively expensive to run due to the cost/time of both the load in and load out. I remember reading at some point that it would need to do a minimum of three weeks in most venues to just cover the costs related to the load in and out, and at that time without a star in the role most venues weren't able to sell it for that long, let alone the up to six weeks they were hoping to be booked for. The producers were assuming that it would generate Phantom/Les Mis levels of hype on the road (those tours could sell a venue for six weeks at that time), but the public interest out on the road just wasn't there.

[David10086]

Posted: 9/15/19 at 11:21pm

AEA AGMA SM said: "David10086 said: "If I remember correctly, Mason led the first national tour of 'Sunset' which closed early. Was that because she wasn't getting good reviews, and not selling tickets?"

The original tour was massively expensive to run due to the cost/time of both the load in and load out. I remember reading at some point that it would need to do a minimum of three weeks in most venues to just cover the costs related to the load in and out, and at that time without a star in the role most venues weren't able to sell it for that long, let alone the up to six weeks they were hoping to be booked for. The producers were assuming that it would generatePhantom/Les Mislevels of hype on the road (those tours could sell a venue for six weeks at that time), but the public interest out on the road just wasn't there."

WOW! Thanks for explaining all this (and my apologies to the other poster for thinking Mason was the lead in the tour. Thanks for correcting me on Balford!)

SO my next question is, why didn't ALW go with a 'star name' to do the tour the first time around? It strikes me as odd that so much money would be spent on the tour with the original set designs, yet not a star name to travel with it.

 

I did see the Petula Clark tour when it hit my area. I found the set and the actress very disappointing to say the least. This was a few years after I had seen Buckley on B'way.