NYTimes.com: About that closing of “The Fantasticks”: Never mind.
The producers of the long-running Off-Broadway staple, who announced last month that they would close the show in early May, said on Saturday that two unnamed fans had contributed enough money to keep it open indefinitely.
“The Fantasticks” has had near-death experiences before – in 2002, it closed, after 17,162 performances over 42 years, only to reopen in 2006.
2 comments:
Umm, What? How does that even work? What to people have the money to continue “indefinitely” the cost it takes to run a show of that size? Just paying the actors and crew is astronomical! Aside from the obviously huge donation that has to be made, what about the logistics of this? The show was obviously closing for a reason – they weren’t selling enough seats. This logically means that the popularity was dwindling. Don’t get me wrong, I am all for preserving as much theater as possible, but if this show has had a history of ups and downs, its either time for a revamping or an end. I wonder what the thought process was to keeping this show open in months other than those of tourist’s season, would it be more economical if the company scaled down just to working during the months when they have enough ticket sales to keep the show going comfortably.
This is kind of a theatrical dream come true. It's like a financial fairy godmother has swooped in with her magic money wand. Good for them. That said, this does kind of undermine the system of supply and demand. I am thrilled that more shows will remain open, which means more jobs for industry professionals, but most shows aren't meant to live forever. Extinction is inevitable and even vital when it comes to shows. If we kept every nostalgic show running past the time that enough people wanted to buy tickets for it, we'd have no room for new work, and productions playing for bored or empty houses because the same production has been playing for 50 years. Shows close sometimes unfortunately, but usually they close because it's time for them to. The theatre scene needs to move on. Sometimes the shows we love will close. But if we don't let things die peacefully, we are just guaranteeing a pathetic petering out later on.
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