Re: Tony Show is symbolic of Broadway

Date: 06 Jun 2003 03:54:13 GMT
Newsgroups: rec.arts.theatre.musicals
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>Royalties make writers into partners,
Say that to most of the writers I know and you will get a long, sustained
laugh. If they were our partners, we wouldn't need a Guild to protect us.
>>and logically that means they should want to make sure shows run in the way
likely to produce the best result. But writers are subject to the same big-itis
that applies to producers and, after all, a Broadway credit, even for a
financial failure, is still a Broadway credit.
You do not understand most writers worth beans. A production in the wrong
space can kill the future of a play, and most of the writers I know are very
well aware of this. Having a flop Broadway credit does not outweigh having a
shot at seeing your show done the way you intend and so have a chance at
succeeding. Writers are generally much more protective of their babies than to
be so careless as to let them be staged in places they honestly don't believe
they'll fare well. Now, writers can sometimes be mistaken and, yes,
over-estimate the appeal of their work. But they seldom make tha mistake
twice. No writer I know, for instance, wants to play the Minskoff the Gershwin
or the Broadway, despite the potential grosses in those houses. They are barns
and show-killers unless you're doing something that's absolutely
presentational.
>Lynn Redgrave is a film/TV star.
She hasn't carried a TV show or a movie in decades. She is, however, a
substantial theatre star.
>Also, why are you focusing on organizations that are principally landlords
rather than producers?
Because they ARE producers. More often than you seem to know, they initiate
productions or cause them to happen. Some of them even have on-staff
dramaturgs.
>I am not at all unfamiliar but it is laughable to imagine a meeting where Mr.
Schoenfeld tells Legrand and Lapine he wants to put their show in a Broadway
house and they refuse. And the same goes for virtually any writer I have ever
seen in action, except Neil Simon, once.
Oh please, the number of established Broadway figures who start their plays
off-Broadway is enormous. You think Woody Allen couldn't have gotten a Broadway
house with that cast?
You have written nothing that supports the assertion that a large-cast musical
paying Equity minimums in a 200-seat house could meet its nut playing at, say,
70% capacity. Give me a hypothetical budget that includes rent, advertising,
union wages and the other expenses ...