I think Champion and Merrick were vastly bigger names. Champion, of course, had a career as a performer and he was famous for that before he became a regular presence on Broadway as a director-choreographer. (Phrased that carefully.)
And Merrick was a self-promotion genius.
Nicholaw has turned out a few misses so he hasn't been quite consistently turning out hits, but a great track record, no question.
Anyway, I think we can all agree that things have changed in several ways. And even if Sugar paid off, as Variety reported it did but I have doubts, it was a very mild hit that went through tryout hell. Maybe this material just shouldn't be a musical, even if well-done.
I'll use this post to mention that do still have group sales, and even group-sales presentations, as there used to be presentations for the theatre-party ladies, so perhaps that is one thing that has not changed as much as I suggested in other posts. This brings up the question of whether we are in a period of super-low group-sales attendance or if SLIH does not appeal to the group-sales people. I wonder if SLIH didn't do a group-sales presentation, but I would be surprised if it didn't. |
