I actually agree with a lot of Mr. Green's assessment of this production(and play, honestly). I did however, disagree with his final statement about the wound having healed. Scott was a fairly close family friend, and watching his work on Broadway all these years later, I was struck by how fresh that wound felt to me.
Granted, that is a personal anecdote that is hard to remove myself from, so perhaps take it with a grain of salt :)
I do truly miss the days when a play could have a commercial Off Broadway run in an intimate space. 700 seats is just too big a house for a quiet play like Marvin's Room.
Other small plays and musicals that had long, profitable Off Broadway runs (some with film sales and adaptations), never needing Broadway cred (whether they got it later or not), include Little Shop of Horrors, Your Own Thing, A Shayna Maidel, Dames At Sea, Steel Magnolias, Driving Miss Daisy, Altar Boyz, Jacques Brel..., Nunsense, Hedwig..., The Foreigner, A Soldier's Play, Fool For Love, True West, Full Gallop, Gross Indecency, Vampire Lesbians of Sodom, The Mystery of Irma Vep, Psycho Beach Party, The Boys in the Band, etc.
newintown, that's an interesting list, especially because most of the shows there that eventually ended up on Broadway in a different production were unsuccessful, either commercially (Little Shop of Horrors) or artistically (Hedwig) or both (Dames at Sea).
bakerwiliams wrote "newintown, that's an interesting list, especially because most of the shows there that eventually ended up on Broadway in a different production were unsuccessful, either commercially (Little Shop of Horrors) or artistically (Hedwig) or both (Dames at Sea)."
I would say that that's because the very things that make a show successful in an intimate venue prohibit equal or greater success in a much larger one. I know enough people who know about the business of theatre, however, who maintain that commercial success Off Broadway is no longer possible (except for non-verbal shows like Stomp or De La Guarda that appeal to non-English speaking tourists in search of a spectacle or physical experience). It's unfortunate, because it forces everyone to think that "success" only means "Broadway," pushing small shows to open there where they have far less chance of connecting with an audience than they would have in a more intimate room.