| re: HELLO, DOLLY! Closing Question | |
| Posted by: NewtonUK 08:17 am EDT 05/27/18 | |
| In reply to: HELLO, DOLLY! Closing Question - DCollingwood 06:19 pm EDT 05/26/18 | |
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| For me, I think what Mr Rudin is doing is great. The show opened - two great stars have played Dolly, plus a third, Donna Murphy, subbing for Bette once a week. The show has earned its investment back. Some profit has been made. Close it, let's have another show. Until very recently, Broadway wasn't a theme park, which it has (and still is) at risk of being. Bring in a branded show (Disney, Phantom, Chicago) and just plant it in a theatre for 15-20-30 years. 50 if you can pull it off. There is no real reason that everyone who ever lives should see a show in New York or London - even if they weren't born when the show opened. Theatre reflects the times. Plays and musicals that were mega hits in 1960 or 1970 are about 1960 and 1970 - no matter what they are supposedly about it. THE MUSIC MAN was about the world we were losing - the picture post card mid-America (very white) world of barbershop quartets, and banning Balzac from the library. Even the fast talking big city grifter, Harold Hill, is sucked in by this fantasy version of pre WW2 America. ah if only we could go back - and recall we were still in the decade after the end of WW2, and the Korean War. Escapism. If it had run 30 years - what purpose would it have served? None, in my book. The magic of PIPPIN in the 70's was that it was very obvious in content, and in Fosse's production, and anti-Vietnam musical. Peace loving son rebels against war monger father. Scene after scene song after song. And it basically has the same ending as Bernstein's CANDIDE - a variant of leave us alone and let our garden grow. So do not mourn good shows closing. They should earn their money back, make a bit of profit, then go away and let another good show try to grow. Do we really want a generation growing up, coming to NYC on holiday every year, and revisiting the SAME show every time? Don;t quite see the point of that. The magic of theatre is that if you a miss a show you missed it - it will never come back in the same way again. Its about the moment it lives in. But LION KING and CHICAGO and PHANTOM and ALADDIN are not shows anymore - they are tourist sites, like the Statue of Liberty. You come to NY, its always there, you see it over and over and over. Not for me. Congrats Scott Rudin for letting the show go before it becomes a long running joke like CHICAGO, starring anyone who they can rope into 10 weeks. | |
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