Ken Davenport - Opinions from a Broadway Producer: Patti LuPone should play Annie Oakley some day, because the woman is the 'straightest shooter' I've ever seen.
When something's buggin' her, whether it's a photographer in a theater, or a circus in Broadway's backyard, she's going to tell you, and everyone around you, exactly what she thinks.
3 comments:
It's silly of Patti LuPone to take such a firm stance on this; we're not talking about Cirque sucking money out of not-for-profit theatre, but rather sucking dollars out of other commercial theatre. Commercial theatre is capitalism exemplified: there is a supply of tickets, and the ticket cost is set such that supply meets demand at the most profitable place. While Cirque has moved other productions' demand curves down, it hasn't done anything differently than any other Broadway show would; it's just done it to a greater extent. And how many people who have seen a few Cirque shows already are going to choose Zarkana over a Broadway show? Some, yes, but Cirque has variations on similar acts, where artists are trained in the same craft at the same location; all Broadway shows are different.
I understand the place that people are coming from saying that New York should be for theater. But Cirque is a type of theater that is keeping people working in the USA. Yes it is taking money away from some of the theaters in the area but I am sure that it is bringing more money to the area. The Cirque type of theater is the type of theater that people want to see so it may be that the New York theaters need to change the way in which they are working, like the way that Spider_man spent a lot of money and time to develop the show which is more like the way that Cirque dose it shows. Some of the Cirque shows are in tech for months on end and they burn a lot of money. So the key may be to just spend more time in tech and developing the show more.
This article completely takes the love of art away for me. Theatre has become such a commercial business; we all want to make money, but sometimes you need to appreciate other peoples art forms, and their gain. People obviously feel threatened by Cirque because it is a business that is growing that is producing great works. Cirque is committed to the art, as well as others, but they are a business that does and doesn't worry about others. People should be worrying about themselves instead of trying to put down others for taking money "away" from them. Money isn't guaranteed to go to a certain place until it is spent. People will see the shows they want to see and should have the opportunity to see a variety of shows instead of just theatre, the plays and the musicals we all know.
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