Friday, March 18, 2011
Theater Talkback: Spring Can Really Hang You Up The Most
NYTimes.com: "I finally knuckled under and went to see “Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark” last weekend. And guess what? I’m not going to say a word about it! The interminable saga of this interminable musical’s long gestation, technical problems, serially delayed opening night and awesome badness has long since exhausted my interest in the topic, which was never exactly feverish to begin with. And I’m sure I’m not the only one suffering from Spidey-fatigue.
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3 comments:
The part of this phenomenon that Isherwood only touches on is that there's this sudden influx of shows in April for Tony season, but there's also a major dropoff when tons of shows close immediately after the Christmas season. I wonder about the technicians and actors who must play (or be played) by this boom-and-bust cycle. Are April and January just natural on/off points for people to hop into a Broadway cycle? Can it be simplified down all the way to that?
I think Isherwood is smart to bring up how drastically the broadway wave does change. In an article of a similar nature last year on "The Producer's Perspective," Ken Davenport gave a nod to "next to normal," which was the only broadway show to play on the 4th of july. Like "the importance of being earnest," which opened in the typically slow phase of the Broadway season (January), those producers and marketers took a risk being the only ones in town for some period of time. It seems to have paid off for "Earnest," which I saw in December and loved. the fact that Roundabout runs their shows in repertory probably has something to do with the timing, but I think other shows can still consider them as an example of a timing risk that might just pay off.
One quote that stuck out for me in this article was:
"You can’t decide to skip “Arcadia” and catch up with it on Netflix later."
True that.
I think the real point the author is playing with here is about the cycles of shows, and why they open when they do. As Isherwood reminds us, the Tony season is a HUGE factor in the opening dates of most shows on Broadway, thus resulting in many shows opening just before the Tony cut-off in order to be considered for that year's awards. His suggestion that this causes too many shows to be playing at once is grounded in some truth, but honestly is rather silly. If the entertainment industry is doing well enough that we CAN open 13 shows on Broadway next month, then by all means, we should. It means more jobs for more people, and more OPTIONS for theatregoers. Limiting big musical releases to one part of the season and dramas to another, as they often do in film, just would never work in this environment. Theatregoers need options--they need the choice of campy musical versus teary drama. If all we have to choose from in any given November are the latter, then our follower-base will drop considerably, and we will certainly feel it.
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