Jeremy just announced he’s leaving The Great Gatsby in mid Jan. It will be interesting to see how this will affect ticket sales as the show is still selling through Sept 2025. With only one Tony award win, the show has pretty much earned 1 million dollars each week for most of its run.
It will make a big difference. Noblezada is a talented singer. Daisy is supposed to be so beautiful she drives men wild. She looks like Yoko Ono who only drove Lennon wild. This show will only succeed if they bring in Aaron Tveit come January. Then again Moulin Rouge may claim him
I saw all of the shows mentioned. Suffs is the show I wish was staying open longer, once they announced they were closing I bought a ticket to see it in December to see it one last time. The other two had their highlights but didn’t warrant a repeat viewing for me.
I actually saw water for elephants because I couldn’t get rush tickets to outsiders so I walked across the street. I did really enjoy it but as someone who goes back to see multiple shows multiple times if I love them, I was happy only seeing it once.
I found Water for Elephants rather mid, but I did think it was a perfect show for non-English speaking tourists going to Broadway. Really beautiful staging and acrobatics you could appreciate without worrying about the plot. But then… those tourists would still be better served by going to the Lion King so it’s not an unexpected closing.
"He's no George Clooney 😂." I go to NYC 1-2 times a year for a Broadway binge--and though I was excited when Back to the Future was first announced, it never made my final cut of shows to see. I am obsessed with Water for Elephants (which I saw 3 times over my 2 NYC trips this year), and I LOVED Suffs (only saw it once, and I'm so sad that I won't be back before it closes). Great video!
New shows will charge near-Wicked prices then show the audience the bare brick back wall the whole time. The era of the mega-musical is ending and nobody knows how to adapt
My old handbell director's son plays Biff in BTTF, so of course, we had to go see it when we were on our annual trip to NYC last year. My husband isn't the musical geek that I am, but he said it was his favorite show we've seen since beginning this annual tradition! I thought it was a ton of fun, but none of the music stayed with me.
With Suffs, I think a lot of the marketing issue is that, when you describe the basic idea of the show, the image that a lot of people will get is sort of "scolding schoolmarm." Like, the way that Alice Paul sees Carrie Chapman Catt is pretty much the way that suffragists of that period are still seen today by a lot of people. The show really needed to work to get past that, and I'm not sure that they did. Something like "If We Were Married" would have been a good way to cut through that, I think, but it's an odd song to showcase.
I feel like theater is not accounting for how expensive a trip to NY is on top of theater! I can’t afford a trip to NY that often and then can’t see that many shows. I love seeing the tours since they come closer to me. I also wish that audience comfort was taken into account these theaters need updates with bigger seats wider aisles, more bathrooms I mean I know I am large but those seats are so beyond uncomfortable it makes me want to limit my choices!
Yep. The cost of airfare, hotel, and food is astronomical, then shows are easily 200+ unless you want nosebleed seats, seats are *tiny* and painful and policies are inconsistent. I'm 6'2 and overweight and I'll only go back to theaters I know and have had a good experience in at this point. Seats that are wide enough have so little leg room I'm in agony. Seats that have legroom are so narrow I'm also in agony. Seats that are both too narrow AND not enough leg room! It's not worth it when I can't focus on the show.
So I'm one of those people obsessed with the Outsiders. For context I'm Polish, I'm 33 and I didn't know the book or movie prior. It just looked cool and I like stories about brothers. I related with the show 2 minutes after Ponyboy started talking. Loving movies, appreciating sunsets. I love this dude. And then Soda and Daryl are absolutely wonderful. The whole Stay gold concept is something I lve been thinking about a lot in my life so that hit me really hard. To sum up I related to a lot of the show, loved the story, absolutely loved the voices and got pretty quickly attached emotionally to the brothers. I wanted to see suffs in January but oh well too late 😢
As soon as I saw the Water For Elephants Tony performance, I knew I wanted to see it if there is a tour stop near where I live. I’m not hugely into acrobatics/circus-type performances, but I know my best friend is. Now to get her to check out the cast album to see if she might actually be interested.
I agree with you completely about the quality of Suffs & The Outsiders. Suffs is fantastic & the best show of that season. The Outsiders was underwhelming.
With the extremely high budgets and funding Broadway shows need it seem like an uphill struggle for any show to be able to make back it's money and continue for so long and i don't think that issue should be put on the audiences having to pay overpriced tickets.
I'm seeing the BTTF tour next June, which is why I declined to see it in NYC when I went last month. Cabaret was my priority when I went to NYC, but I would've seen Suffs if given the chance (and had the money and time). It is touring starting next year, so I'm hoping it comes to our local touring venue. I wouldn't mind seeing Water for Elephants either, if that happens to tour near me as well.
I'm sure you're going to see Maybe Happy Ending but I hope you're making plans to see We Live in Cairo as well at New York Theatre Workshop. One of the reasons I think last year's shows aren't making it is because there were tons of new ones last year and they were all somewhere from pretty good to very good but we haven't had a new potential classic in a long time (Hadestown?). I found both of the above shows more delightful (Maybe Happy) and thrilling (We Live) than anything I have seen in a very long time.
Back to the Future sounds like Young Frankenstein the musical- it tries to recreate the movie and just adds songs that are not needed- or perhaps it just needed a better score - I mean its a musical and we go for the score too
I think that there was limited advertising for Suffs. As you said, so many musicals are not heard about beyond NYC metro area. I don’t think they found the right platforms to find a bigger audience. I was typing this comment when I got to your discussion of the marketing. People got bent out of shape about Hillary. I never look at producers when deciding ticket purchases. Fair point about the optics of an endorsement. I loved Suffs. Very glad it will tour. Still recommending to friends and colleagues.
I loved BTTF but we picked London rather than New York- 1st time in NY and my teenagers didn't want to "waste" time going to a show instead of seeing the sights. I am a massive theatre fan but wanted to see something I couldn't see at home. We flew from London so went to see BTTH when we got back- with the whole family. Another plus of BTTF is Gala Pro- audio description for every performance. It enabled my severely visually impaired teenage son to enjoy the show( he loved the films when sighted) . Most shows just have occasional audio described performances, often mid week. Broadway is better since the Shubert organisation own Gala Pro.
I haven't been back to Broadway in a long time, but comparing to local prices (Toronto) and even more so, West End, it's such a huge investment to take a risk on an unknown show. On a separate note, we saw Idina Menzel perform a solo show in Toronto in the summer, and she spoke about her upcoming new show, Redwoods, opening on Broadway in 2025. Have you heard much about that show?
Saw The Outsiders and Water for Elephants back to back on my trip to New York this summer (we did the rush for Elephants and got good seats for $49). Guess there's only room for one show on 45th St. about a guy whose parents die in a car crash and makes his escape on a train.
21st Century (the Act 2 opener of BTTF) makes me happy! Maybe I love it because I am a PSB fan and the scene very much reminds me of one of their concerts. I think starting the US tour so soon after the opening on Broadway put a big dent in the Winter Garden takings, but yes, I also have to concede that most people don't like the songs much. That said, if the songs are so unpopular and the main reason for the closure, then why is the tour doing so well? Anyway, Casey Likes is really good as Marty McFly, and his chemistry with Roger Bart is a ton of fun. A shout out too for supporting cast members Jelani Remy, Liana Hunt and Nate Hackmann - all wonderful. I was supposed to be seeing it again in January, but the final performance is the day before we fly. 🤦🏻♀
I enjoyed W4E a lot and look forward to hopefully seeing it again on tour, but I agree it simply suffered from this year's very robust competition. The show is better put together than most, but for each specific individual element (score, design, star lead, etc.) there's a different new show generally considered to have better. Yes, you should go see The Outsiders again! Maybe it'll grow on you and maybe not, but IMO among its season, it's the show with the most similar vibe to Hadestown, and we know how your opinion of Hadestown evolved! I haven't seen BTTF nor Suffs. Simply no interest in BTTF - yes, I have a nostalgic fondness for the movie, but the stage musical version, given the poor reviews of the score, doesn't seem to add anything. As for Suffs, on paper it's a show I should love, but I'm going to see the tour. There's nothing about the staging of it that won't translate to the tour production, and none of the stars were enough of a draw for me personally to prioritize seeing it in my limited time in NYC; in fact, I'm not a fan of Shaina Taub's voice so i expect I'll like the show better with someone else in her role. My mom and my daughter live in the Seattle area, so as soon as the tour was announced to be starting from 5th Ave, we made plans to see it there together!
16:12 because people are tired of being taught at. I am not spending hundreds on a broadway ticket to get a history class, I'll go to whatever sounds fun and not preachy 17:17 okay this is patently untrue the year BARBIE was they biggest movie in the world..maybe suffs just wasnt that good
While representation matters (and is really good at bringing people in who may not normally go), I think the public connect great with characters unlike them. (Unless they are so blinkered they can only get on board with people like themselves, in which case what can you do?) I like the film Little Women, and the characters obviously aren't at all like me, but I can be interested in what is going on with them. So I guess the annecdote you gave is very similar in reverse. Also if people have like, one shot at a theatre show I think a lot of people will often pick what they think they will have the most entertaining time at rather than thinking they better try something because it has people like them. Or maybe they think the cast is great (or hot, maybe, that happens). If tickets were more affordable, I'm sure subsequent trips may be more of the 'try it out' variety. Suffs sounds interesting by the way, I'd like to see it if it gets to this side of the pond. Shame about Back to the future too, I really like the London show.
As a woman, my priority in a show is rarely female representation. Give me a great story with characters (regardless of sex love great male as well as female characters) who engage me and a journey that moves or touches me. Representation, meh. This is why many new shows are not connecting. Lecturing, hectoring, identity politics, no thanks.
Water for elephants isn’t a well known enough as a film, and the songs were not good! BTTF, let’s be honest the car is the star. The rest is just… not good
The Outsiders was an absolutely beautifully written and tragic book that many people read as part of their school curriculum. A lot of people also saw the movie (myself included) and I thought it was really faithful to the story. We have nostalgia for that story. It's not because of what the actors look like although they were all very talented. I also checked in with my aunt (60s), mum (60s), older sister (30s), brother (20s) and a few female friends (ages 19-29) to check just now--we're all in it for the story. Please don't insult young people as if they're mindless. Thanks!
Those teenage girls are going to see The Outsiders because they fancy the cast..not because it speaks to them etc. I also cannot believe your argument that people are not going to see Suffs because they don't like Hilary Clinton.. unless you are super into Broadway details.. most audience members are not going to know or care who the producers are.
I have a hard time imagining anyone on the anti-Hillary-Clinton bus wanting to see a new show with such an explicitly feminist message regardless of who its producers are. Sure, she's polarizing even among Democratic voters but the people I know whose entertainment choices would be negatively influenced by the attachment of her name to anything are people who would stick to a spectacular, already-popular jukebox if they go see a Broadway show at all. They were never in Suffs' potential audience. And I don't believe that teenage girls, in general, are choosing Outsiders over Suffs primarily because of shirtless vulnerable men. I mean, shirtless Jason Schmidt is undeniably an attraction! But young women and teenage girls are also interested in the visual and emotional impact of the spectacular, yet also intimate, way the show tells a familiar story about relatable teenagers. Suffs, on the other hand, has some rousing songs but no spectacle - the Tonys performance looked boring tbh - and, going by the marketing, no characters with a particularly compelling, relatable personal story.
Community theatre! I live in New England, and the reality is that we have an abundance of smaller and incredibly talented community theatres where an annual membership is the cost of 1 broadway ticket (and that's without having to pay for time off work, travel, hotel, food, etc.) Add to that there's touring companies, live music concerts, and local ballet companies, touring comediens, let alone movies and streaming, and going to a even 1 Broadway show (even if it's brilliant) just isn't worth it. I can also have once in-a-lifetime experiences traveling the world for the same price as going one weekend to NYC. Not sustainable. Also, I think that Hamilton opened the door to musical theatre being able to evolve by legitimately genre mixing and then the rest of the broadway community was like, 'Amazing! Let's do very little to expand ourselves and understand other communities by edit: way of* evolving our medium'. Musical theatre on Broadway just isn't relatable to most people, and in many ways, it feels out of step with the culture; it feels exclusionary even when it isn't trying to be. Then you see what a ticket costs and...🫣😮💨 ...is it even really a surprise?
