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| re: Ain't Too Proud last night | |
| Posted by: EvFoDr 12:41 pm EST 03/09/19 | |
| In reply to: re: Ain't Too Proud last night - Michael_Portantiere 12:28 am EST 03/09/19 | |
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| I have no skin in the Motown game, in fact I didn't really like it. But in the interest of expanding on this, I think you have mis-characterized its success. Number of performances isn't the only metric. Leaving out the lackluster return to Broadway for three weeks, which didn't have the momentum of the original behind it, the grosses were enviable. They didn't have a single week under 800K and only 20 weeks were less than 1M (all in the 800K and 900K's). This out of roughly 96 weeks, and the average weekly gross was 1.2M if my math is correct. On top of that, it never fizzled out. Grosses were consistent and strong right until the end. Wasn't the rumor that they were forced out because Harvey needed a theatre for Finding Neverland? I remember being shocked when Motown announced closing because nothing in their sales patterns indicated they were going in that direction. You can pretty much tell when a show is going to announce closing (unless they have some angel pumping money in) and Motown wasn't like that. It also had very strong numbers on tour, doing business near or just below the blockbusters. There is no question that this not very good musical was very popular and did very strong business. |
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| Link | Motown Grosses |
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| re: Ain't Too Proud last night | |
| Posted by: Michael_Portantiere 01:39 pm EST 03/09/19 | |
| In reply to: re: Ain't Too Proud last night - EvFoDr 12:41 pm EST 03/09/19 | |
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| Thanks for the details about the grosses, and I had forgotten about that rumor. If MOTOWN was indeed doing that well just prior to its closing on Broadway, it's really surprising and too bad for them that they couldn't find another Broadway theater. But again, I certainly don't remember all the details of what went down at the time. | |
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| MOTOWN | |
| Posted by: BroadwayTonyJ 07:18 pm EST 03/09/19 | |
| In reply to: re: Ain't Too Proud last night - Michael_Portantiere 01:39 pm EST 03/09/19 | |
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| The Broadway production was capitalized at $18 million and announced its recoupment shortly before it closed on Broadway. However, the 1st national company toured for 2 years, 3 months and must have made a bundle before returning to Broadway for 3 weeks (Note: during those 3 weeks the grosses were poor). The 2nd national company toured for about 7-1/2 months. Overall I would guess that the production was a significant commercial success despite the fact it was not considered a particularly distinguished show. | |
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| re: MOTOWN | |
| Posted by: mikem 12:46 am EDT 03/11/19 | |
| In reply to: MOTOWN - BroadwayTonyJ 07:18 pm EST 03/09/19 | |
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| I wonder if Motown's relative success may hurt Ain't Too Proud. Some of the potential audience may feel that they've already seen these songs live on stage (and in a show that they probably enjoyed but was not great). | |
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