| Perhaps not analogous, since the show was a revival, but the recent revival of "On the Town" garnered strongly favorable reviews, then struggled for months at the box office and finally closed. Somewhat similarly, the last revival of "Carousel" got some good reviews, but also failed. This makes me wonder if audiences exist for musicals in the classic Broadway mold. "Some Like It Hot" sells on being a traditional Broadway musical, as well it is, some tweaks aside. My doctor is a house physician at Lincoln Center and he says the core audience that sold out Met productions has died off and no audience has materialized to take its place. Does a similar phenomenon pertains to Broadway? (Also, as someone suggests hereabouts, older theatergoers hesitate to return to the theater because of Covid fears and the relaxing of mask mandates. At the performance of "Some Like It Hot" that I attended Wednesday afternoon, I would guess well under fifty people wore masks.) |
