Rolling Stone: Despite a big-name director and an impressive soundtrack featuring the Beach Boys, Surf:The Musical is closing in Las Vegas after a disappointing six-week run, reports Las Vegas Weekly. Planet Hollywood pulled the plug on the show, which had a preview opening June 29th and a formal debut July 17th. The musical will close August 15th.
4 comments:
Maybe naming a Musical something that sounds like a Dreamworks movie about penguins was the first problem. There are many shows that make the way to the stage that don't exactly scream "musical" to me, but I enjoy a good Beach Boys song. I wonder if the plot didn't appeal to the generation that grew up listening to the Beach Boys. It doesn't really appeal to me very much either.
Also, OUCH. Less than 50 seats sold in a 1,500 seat theater? They even saw the impending doom approaching before they opened.
I think that this is a sign that maybe that Las Vegas has seen enough rock stage shows. First with Cirque having to close their Elvis show and now this Beach Boys show having to close, they may be only a certain amount of shows that Las Vegas can support. There are tons of really good show in Vegas and which have been there a long time. Now other people want to join and make some money on their own show. Since these shows are very established they have a following and extensive world of mouth to talk up the shows. Producing the press that you have to go to “blank show”, it was amazing. I feel that we will see less and less successful new shows in Las Vegas.
I think this is another sign that people are over mediocre jukebox musicals. There seem to be so many shows similar to this one that just can't quite make it. What people want in a jukebox musical is a funny, compelling, educational storyline such as the one in Jersey Boys. Honestly I don't even like calling Jersey Boys a jukebox musical- it's more of a biographical musical. I think the difference is that Jersey Boys is telling the real story of the men who wrote and performed the music involved, while shows such as Surf: The Musical are trying to force classic songs into an average musical romantic-comedy kind of storyline. It just doesn't work. The music can speak for itself much better than a cheesy musical can.
Also, I'm from Vegas/obsessed with Vegas and didn't even know this show was happening. That is not a good sign. To sell 50 seats in a 1,500 seat theatre is insane to me, especially over the summer in such a busy tourist attraction of a city. The only problem here can't have been the show itself, but I'm sure there were also issues with the way the show was marketed. Also, a Beach Boys musical is not really what the typical Vegas weekend-vacationer wants to go see. I don't know first-hand what the quality of the show was, but it seems like enough a pretty good show would have to fight to make it in those circumstances.
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