Is Tootsie Closing Next?- Page 4

[Miles2Go2]

Posted: 7/26/19 at 1:45am

I’m a bit conflicted on its odds of closing soon. On one hand, its box office percentages are horrible. On the other hand, it’s still pulling in close to a million a week. It’s hard to imagine that its weekly nut is more than that. It’s not gonna recoup, but unless its weekly nut is higher than I think, it could last awhile. Of course, it all comes down to advance sales, I suppose. It reminds me of The Great Comet which was pulling in large numbers, but didn’t have good advance sales after Josh Groban left. I don’t recall its percentages being this low though. Of course, Comet was troubled my poor money management as well.

[Theatrefanboy1]

Posted: 7/26/19 at 10:18am

I know it’s not the same style or anything. But I just don’t see it competing with shows like Moulin Rouge, Tina, Jagged Little Pill And Girl From the. North county. I see (unfortunately) beetle juice taking hold of the musical comedy goers. Never mind if mrs doubtfire is waiting in the wings.

[Colin852]

Posted: 7/26/19 at 10:44am

I guess the bigger issue is that even at 900K, once you take off the fees (right off the top) and the weekly running costs, there's not much left to pay down the original investment.

[BroadwayNoob]

Posted: 7/26/19 at 2:20pm

I just saw the show on Tuesday from a lottery win. There must have been at least 200 people in the lottery line, but overall the theater seemed full which was nice to see since it was just a Tuesday night. The audience was really into the show and I really enjoyed it. It was funny and had a great book. Songs/choreo didn’t stand out, but it worked for the show. I think with this wave of closings their profits should be able to stay afloat. The show can’t possibly cost a whole lot to run compared to other shows (small cast, stage isn’t too extravagant). If they were to close, I’d say it would happen around late February, early April. The holiday season will keep it afloat, and it’s not a bad show!

If you were to compare stats to Kinky Boots at this time last year, Tootsie is doing better, and I think grosses will either stay about the same for now or increase.

[Miles2Go2]

Posted: 7/26/19 at 5:51pm

BroadwayNoob said: "I just saw the show on Tuesday from a lottery win. There must have been at least 200 people in the lottery line, but overall the theater seemed full which was nice to see since it was just a Tuesday night. The audience was really into the show and I really enjoyed it. It was funny and had a great book. Songs/choreo didn’t stand out, but it worked for the show. I think with this wave of closings their profits should be able to stay afloat. The show can’t possibly cost a whole lot to run compared to other shows (small cast, stage isn’t too extravagant). If they were to close, I’d say it would happen around late February, early April. The holiday season will keep it afloat, and it’s not a bad show!

If you were to compare stats to Kinky Boots at this time last year, Tootsie is doing better, and I think grosses will either stay about the same for now or increase. "

May I ask where your lottery seat was located?  

[BroadwayNoob]

Posted: 7/26/19 at 7:29pm

Orch Row V - seats 19 and 21. Seems far back but it was a perfect view and super roomy. It seemed like most of my area was lotto winners, and I’m sure the mezz was full of winners too

[BroadwayNoob]

Posted: 7/26/19 at 10:20pm

To add to my above message - my friend won the lottery for tonight after 1 standby and ended up with left mezz row G

[zainmax]

Posted: 8/2/19 at 11:21am

Some interesting points in this FORBES article.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/marchershberg/2019/08/01/why-beetlejuice-is-beating-tootsie-at-the-broadway-box-office/

[MollyJeanneMusic]

Posted: 8/2/19 at 8:30pm

zainmax said: "Some interesting points in this FORBES article.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/marchershberg/2019/08/01/why-beetlejuice-is-beating-tootsie-at-the-broadway-box-office/"

I find it interesting that this article quotes someone as saying that "I Won't Let You Down" would have been the "obvious" choice for performing at the Tonys.  The second my father learned about the show, he wanted to know if they would do a quick change on stage.  When they did, he was flabbergasted and thrilled.  In an otherwise-boring number, that quick change saved the performance.

Beetlejuice's performance was great, however, and I do think that has something to do with it.  The Beetlejuice performance has 853K views on YouTube, while Tootsie has 173K views.  While obviously repeat viewers factor in, I doubt every single person who watched the Beetlejuice performance after the fact watched it 7 or 8 times.

[chrishuyen]

Posted: 8/3/19 at 6:02am

MollyJeanneMusic said: "
I find it interesting that this article quotes someone as saying that "I Won't Let You Down" would have been the "obvious" choice for performing at the Tonys. The second my father learned about the show, he wanted to know if they would do a quick change on stage. When they did, he was flabbergasted and thrilled. In an otherwise-boring number, that quick change saved the performance.
"

I think you kind of nailed the mark with "otherwise-boring" because while the quick change can be thrilling I personally don't think it was enough to redeem the performance, and Santino sings in a weird mix after the quick change that isn't quite his normal voice but isn't quite his Dorothy voice either, though I feel that it wasn't clear that it's not full Dorothy singing. 

I get why people would want I Wont Let You Down, but my pick would've been I Like What Shes Doing which has the rest of the characters reacting to what Dorothy suggests and includes a reprise of I Wont Let You Down, where I feel like they could've scripted in a quick change if they really wanted to. I also just think Unstoppable is not that great of a song which also added to how dull the performance was. 

I do agree that Beetlejuice really knew how to play to it's strengths and take advantage of things like different camera angles which really made it's performance pop amongst a group of mostly flat performances. 

[rg7759]

Posted: 8/3/19 at 2:05pm

not new, but can we lump this with bat out of hell. only with respect to 'whoa, you should have waited for the right theater.'

[VintageSnarker]

Posted: 8/3/19 at 4:50pm

chrishuyen said: "I do agree that Beetlejuice really knew how to play to it's strengths and take advantage of things like different camera angles which really made it's performance pop amongsta group of mostly flat performances."

I agree that Beetlejuice had a much better Tony performance. It almost seemed like a number written for the host to play to the audience. But how many times have people said that youtube views, streaming numbers, online chatter, etc. don't translate to ticket sales? I think the points made later in the Forbes article about Beetlejuice having more appeal (rightly or wrongly) as a family musical to summer audiences rings more true. And with Be More Chill and The Prom dropping out, I can see Beetlejuice getting those audiences that don't want to pay for Hadestown, Moulin Rouge, and Hamilton and who have already seen Mean Girls, Dear Evan Hansen, etc.

I think Six has the best chance of eating into the teen demographic. West Side Story, Tina, and Jagged Little Pill seem like dark horses but aside from Six and Moulin Rouge, I don't see another new show as of now directly trying to appeal to audience members 12 to 30. Tootsie tried to go for that older audience but I don't think it has much appeal for the many younger people who have no knowledge of the movie. 

[Miles2Go2]

Posted: 8/3/19 at 5:07pm

Just grabbed my ticket for October 4th. $99 + fees (Row M13 in the orchestra). If you look back a ways in the orchestra and don’t mind sitting in the middle of the right or left rows, that’s when prices start to drop to $99. Now I’ll just have to wait to see if Tootsie stays open until then.

[bear88]

Posted: 8/3/19 at 9:37pm

Maybe I'm underestimating the impact of the Tony performance, but my gut reaction is that VintageSnarker is right - and that Beetlejuice is likely to appeal to families on summer vacations more. (Also, the people buying the tickets would be familiar with the movie.) Tootsie is an old-fashioned show based on a movie that doesn't get talked about as much today (even though it was a big hit in 1982), and was relying on an older audience.

Also, Beetlejuice - which I didn't see - seems to be one of those shows that drew critical pans (and a very mixed reaction here) that regular folks looking for a fun show want to see more.  

[SweetLips22]

Posted: 8/4/19 at 1:59am

I am sure that 99% of people deciding which of these 2 shows to see do it for brand name only--certainly not the music and Beetlejuice is more currently familiar and family friendly.

[Jarethan]

Posted: 8/4/19 at 11:43pm

Miles2Go2 said: "Just grabbed my ticket for October 4th. $99 + fees (Row M13 in the orchestra). If you look back a ways in the orchestra and don’t mind sitting in the middle of the right or left rows, that’s when prices start to drop to $99. Now I’ll just have to wait to see if Tootsie stays open until then. "

Will be anxious to hear what you think.  As time goes by, I dislike it more and more...even though I think I enjoyed it when I saw it because of the book, certainly not the score, direction, choreography, or sets.

[Miles2Go2]

Posted: 8/5/19 at 1:58am

I’m hoping to have a good time, of course. Right now I’m just hoping it stays open long enough for me to see it. If not, I’ve got a roster of replacement shows ready to go to pick a show from.

Updated On: 8/6/19 at 01:58 AM

[Pashacar]

Posted: 8/5/19 at 7:30pm

BroadwayNoob said: "There must have been at least 200 people in the lottery line,"

This sounds like a couple few months before closing at SpongeBob....

[MollyJeanneMusic]

Posted: 8/5/19 at 9:22pm

Pashacar said: "BroadwayNoob said: "There must have been at least 200 people in the lottery line,"

This sounds like a couple few months before closing at SpongeBob...."

Wasn't that closing mostly determined by the Palace Theatre renovations?

[magictodo123]

Posted: 8/6/19 at 9:26am

Speed said: "I liked TOOTSIE very much but "wishing people out of work" actually wishes people from the new show INTO work. If everything runs forever, there are no new shows."

Sorry just saw this...people don't automatically go from one show to the next. There could be long stretches where they're out of work. Theater and Broadway doesn't work like that. 

[VotePeron]

Posted: 8/6/19 at 9:33am

I listened to the quite sad Billboard on Broadway podcast episode with David, Lily, and Andy that dropped this week - I may be reading too much into it, but their morale surrounding the show was incredibly low, and David is very self deprecating towards it, admitting he didn’t think it would work and said no to the project for years.

I genuinely really enjoyed the show, but cannot listen to the cast recording as it’s just not good, and haven’t returned to the show even though I see most shows multiple times.

All that said, no matter what’s actually going on, it seems very clear to me that morale around the show isn’t high and no one on the team is working to turn this around. Santino has also been extremely defensive and passive aggressive in every interview he’s done, and no one is willing to have a transparent conversation about the show and the people’s exact problems with it.

Tootsie is not a transphobic show, but it’s allowing itself to be taken down and suffer a slow death by doing the bare minimum to stand up for itself and market. It’ll have an incredible regional and high school theater life, and people will forget about this run very soon.

[magictodo123]

Posted: 8/6/19 at 9:39am

VotePeron said: "I listened to the quite sad Billboard on Broadway podcast episode with David, Lily, and Andy that dropped this week - I may be reading too much into it, but their morale surrounding the show was incredibly low, and David is very self deprecating towards it, admitting he didn’t think it would work and said no to the project for years.

I genuinely really enjoyed the show, but cannot listen to the cast recording as it’s just not good, and haven’t returned to the show even though I see most shows multiple times.

All that said, no matter what’s actually going on, it seems very clear to me that morale around the show isn’t high and no one on the team is working to turn this around. Santino has also been extremely defensive and passive aggressive in every interview he’s done, and no one is willing to have a transparent conversation about the show and the people’s exact problems with it.

Tootsie is not a transphobic show, but it’s allowing itself to be taken down and suffer a slow death by doing the bare minimum to stand up for itself and market. It’ll have an incredible regional and high school theater life, and people will forget about this run very soon."

People have been so, so adamant about calling it transphobic. I just don't understand why they don't focus their energy elsewhere. But I also agree with you- I have noticed that aside from saying "thanks for coming" to people who see the show when they express how much they liked it on Twitter, social media for the show has been surprisingly quiet. When that t-shirt/merchandise fiasco happened, they pulled the shirt, but they didn't say anything about it. They've been very quiet. I'm actually very surprised about this. 

[zainmax]

Posted: 8/6/19 at 10:55am

MollyJeanneMusic said: "Pashacar said: "BroadwayNoob said: "There must have been at least 200 people in the lottery line,"

This sounds like a couple few months before closing at SpongeBob...."

Wasn't that closing mostly determined by the Palace Theatre renovations?"

Officially, yes. Unofficially, I think that, if it was selling like Hamilton or Springsteen, then they could have postponed the renovations or something to make room for it. They also could have moved into another theater like the Marquis, which was dark at the time.

[mxfish1313]

Posted: 8/6/19 at 1:46pm

Miles2Go2 said: "I’m hoping to have s good time, of course. Right now I’m just hoping it stays open long enough for me to see it. If not, I’ve got a roster of replacement shows ready to go to pick a show from."

My family and I have tickets for 10/20 and I've been watching this thread closely as I'm also concerned. I feel like it should last til then, considering it's partially a numbers game and so many other musicals closed/are closing, but you just never know.

[youdontgetit]

Posted: 8/6/19 at 3:41pm

magictodo123 said: "VotePeron said: People have been so, so adamant about calling it transphobic. I just don't understand why they don't focus their energy elsewhere. But I also agree with you- I have noticed that aside from saying "thanks for coming" to people who see the show when they express how much they liked it on Twitter, social media for the show has been surprisingly quiet. When that t-shirt/merchandise fiasco happened, they pulled the shirt, but they didn't say anything about it. They've been very quiet. I'm actually very surprised about this."

Okay, so I'm a lurker of this message board and have been following all Tootsie related things for awhile now. I'm trans and I work in the theater industry in NY. I am choosing to remain anonymous and that will remain. It seems, with all due respect, there's a lot of pearl-clutching on this board over the idea that this show may actually be incredibly problematic. A few high profile articles have come out about it and yet it still doesn't seem to click. As someone who has been working on the inside to address the issues with this and the upcoming production of Mrs. Doubtfire in Seattle, I'm making myself available to answer your questions about why these shows feed into the same logic that has (for example) been recently seen by politicians trying to ban us from using bathrooms that correlate with our actual gender. This is not an opportunity for trans 101, by the way. You have google for that. This is also not an opportunity for free consulting. I get paid to do that. This is specifically about this show.

 

Updated On: 8/7/19 at 03:41 PM