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| re: That's great! | |
| Posted by: cinderonbroadway 12:13 pm EDT 09/05/18 | |
| In reply to: That's great! - Ann 10:47 am EDT 09/05/18 | |
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| I saw it Saturday night with my 13 year old grandson who said it was the best show he'd ever seen - and he's seen a fair amount. I decided to get tickets for his twin (who was away this past weekend) - but the Broadway tickets are VERY expensive. I can't imagine there will be kids seeing this over and over at these prices! | |
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| Let's hope there are some special deals... | |
| Posted by: gad90210 12:29 pm EDT 09/05/18 | |
| In reply to: re: That's great! - cinderonbroadway 12:13 pm EDT 09/05/18 | |
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| including rush and/or lottery. | |
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| re: Let's hope there are some special deals... | |
| Posted by: Ann 01:34 pm EDT 09/05/18 | |
| In reply to: Let's hope there are some special deals... - gad90210 12:29 pm EDT 09/05/18 | |
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| It's a two-edged sword. You need young people to be able to afford to go, but you need to bring in high average ticket prices to survive. Dear Evan Hansen has done it, but maybe it has a wider appeal? | |
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| re: Let's hope there are some special deals... | |
| Posted by: cinderonbroadway 01:50 pm EDT 09/05/18 | |
| In reply to: re: Let's hope there are some special deals... - Ann 01:34 pm EDT 09/05/18 | |
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| Dear Evan Hansen is much more sophisticated. The night I went to Be More Chill, I estimate 90% of the audience were teens/young 20's. The only "older" people I noticed were like me - accompanying kids. I'm actually surprised Be More Chill didn't choose an off broadway venue to have an open run. | |
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| re: Let's hope there are some special deals... | |
| Posted by: ryhog 06:36 pm EDT 09/05/18 | |
| In reply to: re: Let's hope there are some special deals... - cinderonbroadway 01:50 pm EDT 09/05/18 | |
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| re "I'm actually surprised Be More Chill didn't choose an off broadway venue to have an open run." "They say the neon lights are bright On Broadway (on Broadway) They say there's always magic in the air (on Broadway)" I think we may be underestimating the demographic. Kids in the target demographic are supported, not living hand to mouth. If they get the money to go see Bruno, they can get money to go see this. Will they? That's another question. |
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| re: Let's hope there are some special deals... | |
| Posted by: NewtonUK 01:34 pm EDT 09/05/18 | |
| In reply to: Let's hope there are some special deals... - gad90210 12:29 pm EDT 09/05/18 | |
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| The transfer is $9 million. They cant make too many offers. | |
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| They’re trying to get $110 for the front of the balcony | |
| Posted by: JBarnet 09:25 pm EDT 09/05/18 | |
| In reply to: re: Let's hope there are some special deals... - NewtonUK 01:34 pm EDT 09/05/18 | |
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| I haven’t been up in the balcony at the Lyceum for a while, but I remember it feeling very, very far away. The Play That Goes Wrong has been making all of their tickets up there $30 to $45. To me this says that the producers don’t know what kind of show they have. I don’t see this is a show with crossover appeal. I’m reminded of another extremely niche musical that (briefly) played the Lyceum: [title of show] I thought it was the greatest thing ever, but I was the exact target audience. On the whole, commercially the show failed to connect. |
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| re: They’re trying to get $110 for the front of the balcony | |
| Posted by: carolinaguy 08:23 am EDT 09/06/18 | |
| In reply to: They’re trying to get $110 for the front of the balcony - JBarnet 09:25 pm EDT 09/05/18 | |
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| The whole of the Lyceum is a pit to me, and the balcony is very far away. There are also a lot of sightline issues with railings up there too. | |
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| re: They’re trying to get $110 for the front of the balcony | |
| Posted by: ryhog 09:47 pm EDT 09/05/18 | |
| In reply to: They’re trying to get $110 for the front of the balcony - JBarnet 09:25 pm EDT 09/05/18 | |
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| "To me this says that the producers don’t know what kind of show they have." To me this says that the producers don't know what they are doing. The lead producers curriculum vitae includes exactly one Broadway show, which was a Christmas show that ran a few weeks. |
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| re: They’re trying to get $110 for the front of the balcony | |
| Posted by: NewtonUK 06:59 am EDT 09/06/18 | |
| In reply to: re: They’re trying to get $110 for the front of the balcony - ryhog 09:47 pm EDT 09/05/18 | |
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| Put aside whether this show is actually good or not. It exists off Broadway because of viral frenzy over songs that appeared online after the show's lacklustre run at Two Rivers in NJ in 2015. I say lackluster because it wasn't reviewed very well and vanished without a trace. But a young audience clamored for it, and has filled the houses at the Diamond in the Signature. And they are having a great time. But .... Back in the day when RENT opened at NYTW, a buzzy rock musical became a hit with the older audience at NYTW. It extended, sold out, and the audience mostly mirrored the age range of the Broadway audience - maybe NYTW skews 5 years or so younger overall. It became a hit because critics and adults loved it. And continued to buy tickets after it moved to Broadway, as did younger audiences. Flash forward to AMERICAN IDIOT. Green Day is not a band on adult radar. And yet here this show came to Broadway. And enthusiastic Green Day fans ... couldn;t afford to buy tickets. The natural audience for a Green Day musical was not Broadway friendly. The BE MORE CHILL fanatics skew even younger than Green Day fans. The show is going to Broadway and will cost, I would imagine, $7-8 million to move (in the West End you could move this show for under $1 million, but thats another story). Of course the producers have to charge Broadway prices - otherwise the recoupment math will never work. I question whether the audience for this show can afford to support it on Broadway. And I might suggest that in subject matter and presentation (and content) this is not a show that is going to score highly with grown up theatregoers (the BANDS VISIT and HAMILTON crowd) nor with tourists. This feels a bit like the Edinburgh Fringe Syndrome, where some smash hit at the Fringe goes to the West End and dies. So much frenzy about its smaller venue success - but in fact it was just the nest of the 800 shows you saw at the FRinge that year, and you were desperate to love something. And the major critics already are not favorable to your show, so you can write that off. I would have found another OB home, and let it be a hit for a year or so, and make some $. But the lure of Broadway seems irresistible. Sadly. One does not want to see a hit become a flop, ever (e.g. title of show, Passing Strange, Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson, Scottsboro Boys, Caroline or Change) |
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| re: They’re trying to get $110 for the front of the balcony | |
| Posted by: ryhog 09:34 am EDT 09/06/18 | |
| In reply to: re: They’re trying to get $110 for the front of the balcony - NewtonUK 06:59 am EDT 09/06/18 | |
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| You have a huge misunderstanding of American Idiot as well as some insight. Green Day is most assuredly on "adult radar." They have been around since the 80s and have been a very well known quantity for about 25 of those years. I have been a fan for decades, as have lots of others (including Michael Mayer, who is slightly older than me). They are NOT really a band with a huge millennial following. It is laughable to suggest that their fans couldn't afford tickets. Laughable. You are correct that the "natural audience" is not "Broadway friendly." That, I would suggest, is Broadway's fault, not theirs. How sustainable the social media-generated buzz for this show proves to be is TBD. But an analysis based on critics and the like is (I would think you would realize) irrelevant. I agree this target market is not in the post-millennial range, but this nonsense about not being able to afford tickets just really misapprehends the market. I think an off-B path might have been better, though off-B is not a place one thinks of as a money maker for a show like this. Going to NWS is not cheap either, and London is irrelevant. I understand why this show is willing to roll the dice, even though I would not have. I think the play here is to tour, and of course the Broadway logic for that is quite enticing. |
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| re: They’re trying to get $110 for the front of the balcony | |
| Last Edit: EvFoDr 10:20 am EDT 09/06/18 | |
| Posted by: EvFoDr 10:18 am EDT 09/06/18 | |
| In reply to: re: They’re trying to get $110 for the front of the balcony - ryhog 09:34 am EDT 09/06/18 | |
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| I don't know why any Producer would be excited about a commercial off-Broadway transfer, and it makes perfect sense that they would instead go for Broadway rather than just let this thing stop after its current limited run. I know you know and have read all the articles about how commercial off-Broadway is all but dead. As also evidenced by the fact that so many of the venues that house that kind of show have ceased operating. They've been able to spin some magic down at the Barrow Street. Who knows about NWS since we don't see grosses. It seems the most successful things there--at least in terms of profile and longevity--are things that moved there after playing Broadway. I can certainly see why Broadway looks like a crazy choice, but that's the business. To me, off-Broadway looks even more ridiculous. And why the diss to A Christmas Story? :-) You have to start somewhere. For me that was a wonderfully crafted piece of theatre that delivered far more than any of the other holiday entertainments that seem cobbled together to make a buck off their brand. It was Tony nominated for Best Musical, a rarity indeed for a holiday show. As well as Tony nom for Pasek and Paul who were just a few notches away from becoming superstars. I admire a producer who is willing to make the incredibly difficult decision to part ways with the writer of the original score (which wasn't that great) and bring in a new team. I (and we on the board) often lament how the people who create shows MUST see what doesn't work about them and yet don't roll their sleeves up to fix them. Rather than dismiss them for only have one major Broadway credit, I am actually excited to see what they will do with Be More Chill. |
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| re: They’re trying to get $110 for the front of the balcony | |
| Posted by: ryhog 11:14 am EDT 09/06/18 | |
| In reply to: re: They’re trying to get $110 for the front of the balcony - EvFoDr 10:18 am EDT 09/06/18 | |
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| In theory, I could understand an argument for NWS based on the idea that the buzz was sufficient to make it work, just as it does for Ave Q. That said, I have not really paid much attention so I absolutely don't know the depth of that buzz. Needless to say, buzz sufficient for a short time at Signature does not automatically mean it would sustain a long run in a bigger venue. But to repeat I don't know. Maybe they have enough to sustain a Broadway run too. We will have to see what marketing they do, and if they can stoke the social media flames enough to fill the place. The off-B economics, I agree, is harder to make work, even on paper, and it reduces soft dollar benefits that you get with even a half successful Broadway run. I was not dissing A Christmas Story. I was dissing the decision to price the balcony at over $100, and blaming it on a perceived lack of experience with non-event style producing. That does not mean the producer is evil :-) I can't say I am "excited" to see what they do but I am interested. |
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