[Mb-hair] More Broadway, (Baby)...

[Jim Burns]

Now, not to correct you...

:-)

But I may have hit the wrong key. LITTLE WOMEN may have been brought in
for LESS than 5.8 million...

And WICKED is one of the INCREDIBLE sucess stories--

GROSSING almost ONE-AND-A-QUARTER-MILLION DOLLARS--


 A week.


The show is a cash machine, made all the more remarkable, because, flaws
and all--it's a bit uneven, occasonally slow--at its heart, it's about
intolerance--

And the power of love.

And taking truth, to power...


And, it's one of he few shows on Broadway over in the massive, 1600-plus
seat Gershwin), that FEELS like a Broadway show...


(Actually, to me, the most remarkable Broadway success story of the
moment, is PHANTOM OF THE OPERA. Revitalized by the movie, the Broadway
show has been back to selling over NINETY PERCENT OF ITS TICKETS, for
months--after running for about seventeen years.

(A film version of a Broadway show, as many of you here, know, used to
mark the end of a long-time hit's main-stem reign.


(But CHICAGO has changed that paradigm.


(The unique element to the PHANTOM movie is that it's NOT a good
adaptation of the play. I had even wondered if it would hurt folks'
interest in the various stage PHANTOMS, around the country.


(But I've run into so many tourists, and native New Yorkers in the hours
after final curtain, around Broadway, who were finally driven to see
PHANTOM, live at the Majestic, BECAUSE they had loved the movie.


(The film clearly worked, for thoe wo had never seen the play.)  


(Not unlike the HAIR movie, come to think of it... I've always consided
it a travesty. MANY long-time HAIR fans, though, got their fist exposure
to HAIR, of course, from the Milos-mash...)


To the other:


I've been thinking A LOT, lately, about aternative venues for staging
theatrial events.  But, the truth is, MANY of the great ballrooms, are
long gone.

And those that exist, are oten priced as high as their theatrical
equivalents. 

(Quick aside, for tourists and natives alike: it can be great fun to
walk through the handful of old New York hotels, that still maintain
their 1930s-era ballrooms, and lobbies.  Much like so much of the better
heart of Manhattan, you can feel the past...)

But there are some interesting possbilities, out there, for presenting
events...


But remember, venues aside, when doing a play, ultimately, you will
likely be dealing with unions. The're NOT your natural enemy. They've
generally had to raise their prices to deal with the economic realities
faced by their own membership.

While there are theatrical horror stories of personages as esteemed as
Harold Prince not being able to get concessions, from some of the
unions--

It is not impossible to regard the unions as your PARTNER in trying to
achieve something of value.


Virtually everyone on Broadway, and off, would rather be involved with
something, good.


And, as it's early in the morning, this gentleman of Broadway, must be
saying,


'Good night.


;-)


Jim Burns