Chorus Line Lotto: No More

[MyLife]

Posted: 7/29/07 at 6:39pm

Went to A Chorus Line today, and to my surprise it was announced that it would be the last day they are doing it. It is unknown if a general rush will take its place, and if so it is unknown if they will give away the front row or go back to partial view.

The show itself was great. I am split on the new cast.

Lorin Latarro was on for Sheila. Her singing was worlds better that Deidre's, but her acting was nowhere near as good. I prefer Deidre.

Jessica Lea Patty was Cassie (main reason why I went today). For those who don't know, she is Cassie on Sundays since Charlotte signed a 6 perf/wk contract. After seeing both Charlotte and Nadine, I was starting to think they wouldn't be able to find a dancing Cassie who can act well and sing well. Jessica Lea Patty, though she does look very young, was fantastic. Best Cassie I've seen. She really understood the role, and I am glad she will get to show off her talents at least once a week.

As for the new cast members, I really enjoyed J. Elaine Marcos (Connie), Will Taylor (Bobby), Krysta Rodriguez (Bebe), and

The new cast members that did not do it for me were Nick Adams (Larry) (He was all over the place and tried even harder than Tyler Hanes to stand out), and Maggie Lone (Maggie) (Blech).

Kevin Worley (Al), Katherine Tokarz (Kristine) Michael Gruber (Greg), and Jason Patrick Sands (Don) were all very good replacements. I miss Yazbeck and Paternostro, but these replacements were well cast, and I'm sure they will grow even more into their parts. As of now, they don't impress me. Though Worley and Tokarz have GREAT chemistry.

Katherine Tokarz played Kristine very differently. She dumbed herself down, and her voice is adorable. She loses many jokes though, and I do still prefer Chryssie.

I LOVE Jessica Lee Goldyn

On a side note Mara Davi was at the lottery, and her boyfriend (?) won, though I do not think it was rigged. Most people at the lotto won. She was having a blast at the show, rooting everyone on. Giving a standing ovation at the end. I wish her all the luck in Drowsy, I can't wait to catch her. She is adorable.

Also, the entire cast of Spring Awakening (minus Lea Michelle, Jonathon Groff, Jonathon B. Wright, Brian Charles Johnson, and John Gallagher Jr. from what I saw)sat in the boxes, I am assuming to see Krysta. Needless to say she got a huge round of applause during her "bow."

Sad to see lotto go.

[mikem]

Posted: 7/29/07 at 6:56pm

Thanks for the posting! I was at the show at the Saturday matinee, and Deirdre Goodwin, Jason Tam, and Charlotte were all out, which was disappointing. Was Jason Tam in on Sunday? (Did anyone see the show on Saturday evening -- were any of them in at that performance?)

[COOOOLkid]

Posted: 7/29/07 at 7:12pm

^ How was the Paul understudy?

[BrianIdol]

Posted: 7/29/07 at 7:25pm

hopefully they'll do a general rush, which i always prefer to a lotto.:)

[orangeskittles]

Posted: 7/29/07 at 7:36pm

Congratulations to all the assholes here that b*tched about the lotto being "rigged". No matter how many times it's made abundantly clear that people within the industry read these boards, people STILL don't get that their obnoxious rants and reviews ARE read by people that can have an impact.

I hope avab802 is proud of her tantrum.

[MyLife]

Posted: 7/29/07 at 7:45pm

Exactly Orange Skittles. Because now, there is no chance at all of anyone winning. And if there is a general rush where they give away 20 tix, they can still give tickets to the cast, making people online bi*ch about how there are not enough seats available.

And, Brian, just a question, why do you prefer rush to lotto? Rush takes so much more time out of ones day? Do you live in the NY area? I have always preferred lottos, and I think I will only rush for matinees because I hate getting to a theater at 10 and then having to get back at 8. And since I live in NY, it doesnt take that much time out to try lotto. Maybe if I lived far away, I'd prefer rush to better guarentee me a ticket. Just wondering

[wonderfulwizard11]

Posted: 7/29/07 at 7:46pm

"Congratulations to all the assholes here that b*tched about the lotto being "rigged". No matter how many times it's made abundantly clear that people within the industry read these boards, people STILL don't get that their obnoxious rants and reviews ARE read by people that can have an impact."

Ditto. Have fun paying $90 for the last row instead of sitting in the front row for $20!

[Yankeefan007]

Posted: 7/29/07 at 7:48pm

Actually, they recently made the last few rows $66.

You can get standing room for $20, you can also get tickets from TKTS for $55.

Or, you can just bite the big one and wait online for rush. Won't kill 'ya.

[orangeskittles]

Posted: 7/29/07 at 8:16pm

They haven't announced rush; that's speculation. Even if we could "bite the big one", it's not an option.

SRO is $26.25, not $20. And ACL isn't consistently sold out- maybe once or twice a week, so it's hardly the same as the guaranteed lotto.

Updated On: 7/29/07 at 08:16 PM

[Steve2]

Posted: 7/29/07 at 8:30pm

Does everyone really think that the recent complaints on BWW and ATT are the reason for ending the Lotto? That doesn't make sense.

[JerseyScoundrel]

Posted: 7/29/07 at 8:32pm

Actually, there is a plan to have student rush for a Chorus Line starting on Tuesday August 5th for $35. This is what I found out on the Telecharge website.

[orangeskittles]

Posted: 7/29/07 at 8:37pm

Why doesn't it make sense? Much more dramatic actions have taken place because of posts on BWW; it's not completely ridiculous to assume the bad press online had some impact on the decision.

Updated On: 7/29/07 at 08:37 PM

[Yankeefan007]

Posted: 7/29/07 at 8:39pm

If you read ATC, as well, you'll see that the so-called "outrage" wasn't only here.

[Steve2]

Posted: 7/29/07 at 8:56pm

orangeskittles, there were extensive threads on both BWW and ATC. It still doesn't make sense to me why they would cancel Lotto due that. If anything, it indicates that perhaps it was rigged. If it was above board then they wouldn't have needed to cancel it.

[JustAGuy]

Posted: 7/29/07 at 9:05pm

I think it's because Fenchurch has been picketing the theatre wearing a sandwich board proclaiming the lotto was rigged. How much bad publicity can they take?

[orangeskittles]

Posted: 7/29/07 at 9:28pm

I know there was a thread on ATC as well; there was a lot of crossover traffic amongst the posters (i.e everyone that was bitter they lost). It doesn't indicate it was rigged; it could mean they didn't want to make the effort babysitting the lotto to make sure no one was abusing it and thought it better to just be rid of it. Jersey Boys did the same thing and they had much bigger problems there than "Boohoo, the cast member's family beat me!"

Updated On: 7/29/07 at 09:28 PM

[BrianIdol]

Posted: 7/29/07 at 9:33pm

MyLife - i prefer rush's because as long as you're willing to get up early, you can almost guarentee a ticket for yourself....whereas lotto's seem like more often than not the chances are very slim...I'm sure we've all lost the Wicked lotto at least a few times:) I live in midtown manhattan so gettin up early to run over to a theater is a snap for me...

[dancingthrulife04]

Posted: 7/29/07 at 9:59pm

Damn. I really hope they put in a rush policy.

[focusingonmoviesmatt]

Posted: 7/29/07 at 10:01pm

the nice lotto lady said that a rush would start the 7th but she didnt have any details. not everyone won the lottery troday cause i lost

[focusingonmoviesmatt]

Posted: 7/29/07 at 10:01pm

the nice lotto lady said that a rush would start the 7th but she didnt have any details. not everyone won the lottery today cause i lost

[winston89]

Posted: 7/29/07 at 10:14pm

Isn't this similar to what happend at Jersey Boys. The theatre did a bad job monotoring the lotto and people got extra tickets or something like that.

The point that I am trying to make is that all lottos have thier faults. I was at a lotto for rent that Matt Caplan playing the lotto for his now wife. He won. No one there made a whole to do saying it was rigged because a member of the cast entered.

I strongly feel that it was by chance ( the same chance that anyone else had) that the cast member(s) from a chorus line won. I do think that it was because of that someone wrongly called fowl and thought that it HAD to have been rigged because someone in the show won. I think that that is what caused this problem to end up where it is right now.

In my opinion lottos and rushes can always be set up in a way that makes people unhappy. For example, you can run a lott and make a rule saying that if you already have a ticket for the show then you cannot try your luck at the lotto. That the lotto is only for people that don't have tickets. Then people who already do have them that want to try thier luck at better seats will get upset because they are not able to do that.

I do think that Rushes and lottos are a good thing for people like me who cannot afford tickets that are on the typical price list at the box offie. But, no matter who runs them and how they are run they will allways manage to bother one group of people or another.

[dancingthrulife04]

Posted: 7/29/07 at 10:24pm

As long as their setting up a rush policy I'm happy.

[broadwayguy2]

Posted: 7/29/07 at 10:46pm

It's no coincidence that it was canceled soon after the brats on here started a mini riot.
They didn't cancel because it was rigged. They canceled, in part I am sure, because SOME posters from here and ATC had been making a scene at the theatre, which I had seen. There was one day witha bout 60 people there and some guy started ranting, as they were drawing, that if he didn't win his tickets, then OBVIOUSLY it was rigged and he would make a scene about it until they gave him tickets. He did this VERY loudly just in front of lottery staff.
sadly, he won.

On a fun lotto note, last time I went, a girl won by the name of Winnie Pooh. Needless to say.. it was a great laugh!

[goofy108]

Posted: 7/29/07 at 11:05pm

rush? for $35?
how much does tkts usually run?

[broadwayguy2]

Posted: 7/29/07 at 11:07pm

orchestra would be about $60 if they sell at 50% at the booth. Half price plus the per ticket service charge.