Threaded Order Chronological Order
| re: Once On This Island - breaking even? | |
| Posted by: ryhog 07:15 pm EST 01/12/18 | |
| In reply to: re: Once On This Island - breaking even? - Michael_Portantiere 07:06 pm EST 01/12/18 | |
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| That's a lot of important exceptions, MP. I think you have to create interest in your show, just as you would if you were selling widgits. Build it and they will come doesn't work in the theatre very often. | |
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| re: Once On This Island - breaking even? | |
| Posted by: NewtonUK 10:50 am EST 01/13/18 | |
| In reply to: re: Once On This Island - breaking even? - ryhog 07:15 pm EST 01/12/18 | |
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| Plus - word of mouth is not actually as strong as one would think. WOM is crucial. | |
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| re: Once On This Island - breaking even? | |
| Posted by: ryhog 11:17 am EST 01/13/18 | |
| In reply to: re: Once On This Island - breaking even? - NewtonUK 10:50 am EST 01/13/18 | |
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| Yes, it's apparent that it is not, because if it were, this would be a must-see, and if it was a must-see, there would be premium demand and this show would succeed. But that's in the nature of a pipe dream here. Even if the show is breaking even, there is really no path to recoupment at this point, and once the spring competition arrives (taking away not only audience but the attention it could expect with a slower opening to build audience), my guess is it would be in a tail spin. One other point regarding timing. Davenport seems to specialize in bottom feeding for theatres. He got this one at a time there was low demand, in a scenario (similar to Spring Awakening) in which a quick close would give the landlord a window for a new tenant before the cutoff. (I have no idea how this plays out, except if it recoups, I'll buy everyone here tickets to the Tonys.) | |
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| re: Once On This Island - breaking even? | |
| Posted by: Michael_Portantiere 08:24 pm EST 01/13/18 | |
| In reply to: re: Once On This Island - breaking even? - ryhog 11:17 am EST 01/13/18 | |
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| I've always felt that how good or bad "word of mouth" on a show may be is very difficult to judge. I myself adored this production of ONCE ON THIS ISLAND, but aside from that, I have heard nothing but extremely positive word of mouth from everyone I know who has seen it. So, I guess it depends at least partly on whom you talk to :-) | |
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| re: Once On This Island - breaking even? | |
| Posted by: ryhog 08:46 pm EST 01/13/18 | |
| In reply to: re: Once On This Island - breaking even? - Michael_Portantiere 08:24 pm EST 01/13/18 | |
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| My sense is that the show has not received bad word of mouth but that its positive word of mouth has not been emphatic enough to make this a "must see" beyond the usual suspects (us included and, in your case at least, everyone you talk to). That's a marketing failure superficially, but at the core it is a producing failure because I don't appreciate that there was ever a clear path to making this the must-see that, esp at Circle, it has to be to have a chance to succeed. And I must say that the comparison to the Spring Awakening revival seems apt. I don't believe this proves that you have to have a star or a brand name title, as you suggest elsewhere, because we have too many examples of successful shows that don't. (Not to mention shows with stars or titles that fail.) But you have to have something, and this didn't. Can you point to any marketing that would prompt someone to buy tickets because it is a show that can't be missed? | |
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| re: Once On This Island - breaking even? | |
| Posted by: Michael_Portantiere 11:27 am EST 01/14/18 | |
| In reply to: re: Once On This Island - breaking even? - ryhog 08:46 pm EST 01/13/18 | |
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| "Can you point to any marketing that would prompt someone to buy tickets because it is a show that can't be missed?" Not specifically. If a show doesn't have a major star in it, and if the title is not a brand name, I would think the best way to market it is to make it very clear what the story of show is, and to quote reviews stating that it must be seen because of the quality of the show itself and the overall production. Do you feel that the creative concept of this specific production -- the story being told in the context of the aftermath of a recent hurricane, with a pre-show that includes actors interacting with the audience -- has been made clear in the marketing, and if not, would doing so have helped make this a must-see? Has it been made clear that ONCE ON THIS ISLAND was written by the people who gave us RAGTIME, SEUSSICAL, and ANASTASIA, and would it have helped to stress this fact more? |
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| re: Once On This Island - breaking even? | |
| Posted by: ryhog 12:17 pm EST 01/14/18 | |
| In reply to: re: Once On This Island - breaking even? - Michael_Portantiere 11:27 am EST 01/14/18 | |
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| I don't, and I agree that those ideas *might* have helped. But we have to be at least a little humble about it because it's the theatre and there is alchemy involved. (See, e.g., Come From Away.) What we can say without over-stating our case is that you have to do *something* to get people excited or at least interested, and I don't see that that happened. The dirty little secret about social media is that you can have the greatest media pitch on earth, but that does not automatically take care of the social part of it. A tree that falls in the forest etc etc. I don't think this is an easy sale (even if you can't imagine why everyone would not rush to see it :-) ) and deep down I think (as I said in some earlier post I think) this is more in the nature of a non-profit production. I think I said the same thing about Spring Awakening, and if Hello Dolly had come to Broadway with even someone like Donna Murphy, I think it would be looking a lot like OOTI. I am not a fan of revivals on commercial Broadway, but I think it is fair to say that if you are going to do one, you need someone who will sell tickets. I actually don't think the data supports brand name (i.e., a movie) as a seller. We've had plenty of flop musical revivals that had been movies at some point. You need SOMETHING to capture the imagination. (A slightly different version of all this is The Great Comet which, despite a ticket-bait star, did not sell out. That also failed to convincingly market its excitement.) So in the end of course we don't know. Sometimes things are doomed from the outset. Producers fall in love with an idea but don't think it through. So it fails for the reason that was not confronted. Here, however, I'd say they did not seem to give it their best effort; they just thought (as I've said) if they built it folks would come. Never wise. |
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