The cast is really upset that they are playing to half the house everynight. Pull the plug on it and make everyone happy. I would like to know everyones opinion on why the show is such a disaster. Be serious. The show is actually entertaining but people are staying away like its got the plauge. Why do you think that is?
Word of mouth is not good...they made the serious mistake of using pastiche music which doesn't work at all- same thing happened to Big Deal. They should have hired composers who could do original music in the style of the period. Zac Braff doesn't sell tickets- and after all of the speculation about who will play the diva- they settled on an actress that the majority of the public doesn't know- they needed a power star name in the role. Also poorly directed. Pretty sets and costumes. Another Stroman flop this season. The cast should be happy to get a paycheck every week. They can always spend their time on stage counting the empty seats. when I saw it, the balcony was closed. Big Big flop.- Gone very soon unless the producers want to flush more millions down the toilet.
Being serious, I would put much of the blame on the marketing campaign (aside from very mixed reviews.) And by the way, there were enough fantastic pull quotes from some of the major critics that could have been used better in marketing also, but that's not my major point.
This is a big, SEXY show! Lots of pretty girls for straight guys to look at. But you'd never know it from the marketing, which for the most part featured Nick Cordero and the gangsters. It all looked very dark, but the show isn't dark at all, it's very funny.
Also, they couldn't decide whether or not to feature Woody (and even his movies are generally not big box office hits), Stro (and who other than theater geeks buy tickets based on the director) or Zach Braff, who I agree does not sell tickets either.
Woody Allen films are not "big" films. I love many of them, but they are subtle in many ways. They are usually short and often have a darkness to them.
So somewhere, the pitch that this is a big, splashy, sexy, funny show got lost. At least that's how it seemed to me.
CZJ at opening night party for A Little Night Music, Dec 13, 2009.
The two biggest flaws in this show are the score and the pacing. The plot doesn't really get interesting until midway through the second act, and the lack of an original score makes many scenes read as "Well we really wanted an excuse to use this song here".
Its not necessarily a bad show, in fact I found it moderately entertaining, but it lacks "wow" factor. The atta girls occasional scantily clad appearances are the only thing that particularly kept my attention in the first act.
"Grease," the fourth revival of the season, is the worst show in the history of theater and represents an unparalleled assault on Western civilization and its values. - Michael Reidel
"This is a big, SEXY show! Lots of pretty girls for straight guys to look at."
I don't know about your world, but the straight guys I know just use their iPads to look at sexy girls (wearing less and doing a lot more than the girls in Bullets), and it's free.
"Seeing people live is far better than anything a crappy Apple product can provide."
I don't know about your world, but the straight guys I know would disagree, particularly when it comes to a question of ogling entirely unclad naughty women vs. watching chorus girls dancing in tights.