Friday, October 12, 2007
The 16-Week Dash: The Limited Run Play Thrives on Broadway
Yahoo! News: "Though each production was on the boards for only a few months, leaving producers only a narrow window of opportunity in which to earn back their investment, every one of these shows passed the finish line in the black."
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3 comments:
I think that it's fascinating that the one star straight play offers a fairly confident money maker. I understand that these shows offer incentives for the producer, performer and theatre crowd, as shows are running shorter times and are thus offer a wider variety of shows. However, I am disturbed to think what would happen if more than 2 of these shows were happening at once.
If all the shows were cut away to leave only one star shows, not only would technical jobs be lost, but the jobs for performers would be lost as well. The whole idea is very healthy for producing, but not so much for the theatre industry.
Normally today on Broadway you would never think of there being a limited run. Broadway is place for big, long running, on demand shows. But with limited run shows it is not only is a good tactic for money making, of course if you have a big star name to go with it, but also a way to produce shows that normally would not be good ticket sellers in the long run. Some are not in a high enough demand to last a long run on Broadway. So the limited run is a way for these plays, especially plays, to be able to make their Broadway premiere and still have good ticket sales over all.
"Limited run" being attached to a show will make someone buy a ticket for the show more quickly. It is a good marketing scheme that, if a show is planned to have a limited run, as many shows with big name stars are, they announced this beforehand. This makes teh audience realize that they need to act quickly before missing out on this "once in a lifetime" event that will not be lasting for too long. This also is a great amount of time for the theatregoing crowd that frequents Broadway to be able to see your show, for it allows just the right amount of time without the show getting stale.
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