High Fidelity will be missed...

[theater_nut]

Posted: 12/18/06 at 4:53pm

A true indication of producers mismanaging a show. Unfortunately, I think it it's very easy to see some reasons why High Fidelity closed so soon.
There was absolutely no advertising on this show. Word of mouth is good, but not enough these days. The producers should be ashamed of themselves for not giving this show the chance it deserved.

I've been talking with my friends and they think Brantley's review closed the show. I disagree. Reviews were bad, but not the death of the show IMHO. The show's buzz was good at the start, but the only press people ever saw on this show was bad reviews. Another reason why the producers should have done way more advertising, this way the bad reviews would not have made such an impact. By the way, Ben Brantley was out to trash this show from day 1. He has no business reviewing new edgy rock musicals. He should be fired from the NY TImes. All he does is brown nose Kristin Chenoweth anyway - had no business reviewing this show. Honestly, any bad review he's written had been for shows I love.

As for the producers, If they put up a billboard, or spent more money getting people to the theater, the reviews wouldn't have mattered so much. Look at Wedding Singer.

The show had such heart. Such talent. Great music. I am very dissapointed. I saw the show 3 times and it was better each time. I can't wait for the recording, so the wonderful music of this show will live on!

love live HIGH FIDELITY!

[luvtheEmcee]

Posted: 12/18/06 at 4:59pm

Oy. Brantley has power, but to insist that he has THAT much power is to be whiny and play victim. His bad review had pull, but at that point, it just sealed the deal that was pretty much already made.

However, saying that because something isn't particularly his style, whatever his style is, is a ridiculous reason for saying he shouldn't be allowed to review it. If critics were only "permitted" by whatever standard to review stuff they knew they'd like, that defeats about half of their purpose. It's not like bad reviews aren't allowed. I'm not defending his antics by any means, but your assessment seems pretty far off to me.

[myManCape]

Posted: 12/18/06 at 5:06pm

Its official. High Fidelity has now broken the record of "Most Threads Created in a 48 Hour Span" previously held by Rent and Wicked.

Congrats.

[Liverpool]

Posted: 12/18/06 at 5:07pm

Missed by who exactly? The thousands of people who realized ahead of time it was gonna be terrible and chose not to see it? Or the thousands of people who realized too late that it was terrible and wished they had chosen not to see it?

[Yankeefan007]

Posted: 12/18/06 at 5:08pm

"Honestly, any bad review he's written had been for shows I love." ---- Because Brantley cares about YOU.

"If they put up a billboard, or spent more money getting people to the theater, the reviews wouldn't have mattered so much." ----Have you taken the New York City subway system lately? If you have, you'd see billboards and signs all over the place.

"All he does is brown-nose Kristin Chenoweth, anyway..." ----and Julie White, Christine Ebersole, Raul Esparza, Patti LuPone, Harry Connick, Jr., Brian F. O'Byrne, Idina Menzel, Bernadette Peters, and even Will Chase. Updated On: 12/18/06 at 05:08 PM

[TheActr97J]

Posted: 12/18/06 at 5:09pm

I don't know what great word of mouth you are referring to, because there wasn't much.

[theater_nut]

Posted: 12/18/06 at 5:11pm

Right - Brantley does NOT care about ME. Which further illustrates my point.
He doesn't write reviews that reflect theh general opinion of the public. He is out of touch.

RE: Advertising: posters on a subway - big deal.

Legally Blonde has a billboard in times square 6 months before they open.

That's what I mean.
Updated On: 12/18/06 at 05:11 PM

[Liverpool]

Posted: 12/18/06 at 5:16pm

"He doesn't write reviews that reflect theh general opinion of the public. He is out of touch."


Now i'm not one for defending brantley because i think frankly he's a douche bag that rarely knows what he's talking about. But his job isn't to have (or even write) the opinion of the public. He's paid to have and write HIS opinion.


Also, the general opinion of the public was that High Fidelity blew. Thats why no one bought tickets BAD WORD OF MOUTH.

[ClumsyDude15]

Posted: 12/18/06 at 5:18pm

You can claim a flop has had bad reviews. But promotion is one thing that can make or a break a show. Good example is that LEGALLY BLONDE billboard: It's already stirring attention to the show.

All Shook Up got mixed reviews and still had a brief but successful 6 month run. I feel atleast High Fidelity deserved that. I adored All Shook Up and was sad to see it go, and you can ask any fan of a closed too soon musical, they will be missed. Be happy you get a cast recording to remember it by, some shows {BRYAN's favorites? Anyone.} don't get that. I was blessed with an ASU cast recording, and hopefully the HIFI cast recording will lessen the blow, and their may even be a tour: who knows? ASU got a tour.

Updated On: 12/18/06 at 05:18 PM

[theater_nut]

Posted: 12/18/06 at 5:24pm

Liverpool:
You obviously miss my point. I am saying that BAD ADVERTISING is what closed the show.

Tix sales are low for ANY new musical in previews, unless there is ADVERTISING. Advertising costs money. The reviews will def boost sales, of course, but shouldn't close a show if the producers' strategy was to sucessfully create a buzz by ADVERTISING well in advance, so that the impact of inevitable bad reviews would have little impact on advance.

I hear that most people who saw the show actually loved it and cannot understand why it is closing so fast. The bad buzz you speak of is from people who read bad reviews and trust Brantley without seeing the show themselves (maybe yourself?)

Brantley is out of touch. His reviews aren'y reviews - they are trash-fests.
Since there was no advertising, the only word of mouth was whatever press came out. Since there was no press except for the bad reviews that came out mixed with the - HELLO - lack of advertising, than in my opinion, these are the reasons the show closed.


Updated On: 12/18/06 at 05:24 PM

[CurtainPullDowner]

Posted: 12/18/06 at 5:25pm

But you need money to advertise, and you need to sell tickets.
The out of town reviews and word of mouth on this show were terrible and no one bought a ticket.

[Wanna Be A Foster]

Posted: 12/18/06 at 5:28pm

The show's buzz was good at the start, but the only press people ever saw on this show was bad reviews. Another reason why the producers should have done way more advertising, this way the bad reviews would not have made such an impact.

There is a difference between press and advertising. Press is when a publication writes about or does a feature on a piece. This is at the discretion of the editors and it is free. Advertising costs money, and there was plenty of it for this show. You can't blame the producers for a lack of press about their show though, aside from the negative reviews. They can't *make* the editors of publications write about their show. Their press agent can try, but if the topic lacks interest (for example, this show, which already had bad word of mouth from its out of town reviews), it's less likely that the more prominent publications are going to want to write about it.

Updated On: 12/18/06 at 05:28 PM

[BobbyBubby]

Posted: 12/18/06 at 5:30pm

He isn't hired to reflect the general opinion. Though, based on 99 percent of the other reviews and box office sales, he sort of is reflecting general opinion about this show isn't he?

[Liverpool]

Posted: 12/18/06 at 5:33pm

you clearly have no clue. I really think theatre should be like it used to, where bad shows closed after a week. There's a reason Carrie closed after 3 days. Terrible show all around. Merrily we Roll Along closed after 12 days because the concept didn't translate.


Shows like In My Life, Dance of The Vampires, and Lennon shouldn't have had their month+ runs.

[Yankeefan007]

Posted: 12/18/06 at 5:33pm

Brantley is not out of touch with anything. He's getting paid to write his opinion of a show. If he feels a need to call it forgettable and trash it, so be it. Since when does anyone write reviews that reflect what the general public feels? It's not his fault that the show got s**t reviews in Boston and New York. Obviously, he wasn't alone in thinking it sucked.

As far as advertising - why does a show need a billboard in Times Square to be considered successful when it comes to advertising? I'd say spending money putting up signs at every subway stop this side of Manhattan is better than 1 billboard.

Updated On: 12/18/06 at 05:33 PM

[Liverpool]

Posted: 12/18/06 at 5:35pm

and tehater_nut you are clearly missing my point, i;m saying it's wasn't bad anything but the show that closed the show. High Fidelity was bad, people got wind people didn't buy tickets. when ticket's aren't purchased the show closes.

[magicfingers]

Posted: 12/18/06 at 5:40pm

Liverpool.....Did u SEE High Fidelity?

[Rathnait62]

Posted: 12/18/06 at 5:42pm

A point that hasn't been addressed is that the timing was bad. Two shows came along at the same time that were targeted to the same demographic. If SPRING AWAKENING had opened much earlier or later, HIGH FIDELITY might have had a shot to find an audience.

[thevolleyballer]

Posted: 12/18/06 at 5:44pm

I wonder, has the closing of a show ever seen such an outcry as this? I mean, granted, when Sweeney closed in September, some were upset, but it didn't garner half as much a reaction as this has (or Wedding Singer, for that matter).

[Liverpool]

Posted: 12/18/06 at 5:44pm

no, because i realized it was gonna be bad. It got terrible notice out of town and followed those up by terrible notices in town. Plus, I've seen the movie and the story isn't exactly one that lends itself easily to the stage.

Bad word of mouth kept me away. All the advertising in the world wasn't gonna get me tot hat show.

Stop blaming the lack of advertising, because I've a lot of advertising for this show (TV, internet, posters, subway adds). The advertising was there, the quality of material, wasn't.

[Yankeefan007]

Posted: 12/18/06 at 5:47pm

Exactly. The advertising WAS there. Demos were sent around. Songs were made downloadable. Radio ads are STILL playing. Signs in the subway system are STILL up and have been since they announced the show will come to Broadway. They even made a music video and put that on every site, from YouTube to the NY Times.

And I did see the show.

[BobbyBubby]

Posted: 12/18/06 at 5:48pm

We do realize that complaining about what happened to this show won't bring it back, don't we?

[papalovesmambo]

Posted: 12/18/06 at 5:49pm

psssst...bobby bubby killed high fidelity in shubert alley with a pipe wrench. pass it on.

[BobbyBubby]

Posted: 12/18/06 at 5:53pm

Shhhhhhhh....

[BobbyBubby]

Posted: 12/18/06 at 5:53pm

Shhhhhhhh....