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re: if that's what it needs, why not?

Posted by:	AlanScott 12:30 am EDT 08/18/14
In reply to:	re: if that's what it needs, why not? - Delvino 09:02 pm EDT 08/17/14

There are several stories like that, of seemingly small changes turning a show around. Not that a new opening number is such a small change, but I bet most people who saw and disliked Forum pre-Broadway would not have thought that simply changing the opening number would have made such a huge difference. Admittedly, more than just a new opening number was done when Robbins came on board. But it does seem that the new opening number was the change that turned a flop to a classic. Another example, at least according to Josh Logan, was Picnic. It was disliked out of town. They gradually realized that the audience thought they were supposed to think of Hal as the play's hero, and the audiences weren't liking him as a character, they thought he was a conceited blowhard. They added some lines (I think from Alan) in which an anti-Hal point-of-view was articulated, and that supposedly turned everything around. Paradoxically, it probably also helped the audience to like him more and to feel for him.

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