The Playgoer: If A Bell Rings In A Forest...

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Wednesday, August 06, 2008

If A Bell Rings In A Forest...

By Dr. Cashmere

Abigail brings up the subject of the Broadway imprimatur, and what it even means anymore.

Whatever else it means, I'd venture this: I bet no one was signing up the [title of show] cast to ring the opening bell at NASDAQ when the musical was playing off-Broadway.

On the other hand, I always thought NASDAQ was invisible. Or ethereal. Or something. So maybe off-Broadway gets the last laugh.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

[TOS] better ring that bell while they can. This week's gross is already down 3%. They're just scraping above 50% and not on the climb, so the chance they run longer than Passing Strange is looking quite slim. Quick, get Spike over there to film it before it's gone.

Anonymous said...

For a show that only cost $2 million to produce, [tos] has already grossed $700,000 in the first month--and they've hovered around 50% capacity since previews. At that rate, Kevin McCollum and his merry band of producers will have made their money back by mid-September and everything from there is gravy.

[tos] had back to back boosts in attendance since reviews came out. And as low budget as that musical is to produce, they could be at 20% capacity and still make money. [tos] is doing just fine. And I'm pretty sure the producers are ECSTATIC with the returns.

Unknown said...

I'd agree with anonymous. Broadwayworld.com is showing back to back weekly increases for [title of show]. It's not a typical Broadway show and it's not being produced or marketed like a typical Broadway show. I would keep my eye on the bottom line (net profit), rather than gross sales.

If [tos] can accomplish in two months what it took Jekyl and Hyde 6 years to do (i.e. be in the black), I would be hard pressed to say it's scraping by. Scrapping by, but not scraping!

Anonymous said...

Me thinks the ladies doth protest too much - you must be on the clock.

while i love everything that [tos] stands for, it's down to 48% and sliding. now, i don't know what it's weekly running costs are, but clearly less than half-a-house must be dispiriting for the cast to look out on, and surely isn't gonna be able to buy much on any advt, tv or otherwise.

if the producers really wanna be bold, move it to a smaller OB house - be the first! - and make it the longest running show since The Fantastics.