New York Post: "HOW handy it is these days for producers to blame 'the economy' whenever a show falls apart.
And how easily the media accept it.
The latest example: The cancellation, on the eve of rehearsals, of John Guare's new play, 'A Free Man of Color,' at The Public Theater."
5 comments:
I love the journalist remark that there are not that many rich people out their willing to fun shows so when one of them asks for a rewrite to bend over, lick the floor, and hand over the damn rewrite. I don't know id this production has any promise however because the designers and production team seem to have a considerable lack of imagination if they cannot produce this show for anything less than $1 million dollars. I'm not saying the script is nothing noteworthy, merely the creativity of the production.
I always enjoy Riedels columns. It's surprising to hear of this "write off-blame the economy B.S." because frankly, for the last few months I thought it was the economy. However, what Michael argues in his article does blame the economy. He mentions of rich people becoming more sparse, which seems to be a direct effect of our current day. I think what we need to recognize is that not ALL of show's closing's faults are because of the Economy.
I really liked the part about how there are still rich people out there to fund shows, just not as many. How true, and though the Public may be used to people individually shelling out hundreds of thousands if not millions of dollars but to let an entire production ride on the funding of one person, that just seems like a risky business plan. The economy clearly has a part in this, but that is like blaming the weather for a rainy day, yea it sucks but get over it and make some theatre.
I understand Riedel's point of view but I respectfully disagree. Our economy is doing so poorly right now of course the effects will be felt in Broadway. I think its not fair of him to claim that producers are coping out on shows and just using the economy as an excuse.
I agree with Nicole that the production team probably could have produced the play for less money if they really thought about it. Also, they could have had all the money they wanted if they had just sent the donor what she wanted! It seems like these people were biting, or at least ignoring, the hand that fed them, and it came back to haunt them.
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