NYTimes.com: The highly anticipated Off Broadway production of the musical “American Psycho” has been canceled after the show’s commercial backers pulled the rights from Second Stage Theater, its artistic director, Carole Rothman, said on Friday. No explanation was given; the commercial backers at Act 4 Entertainment, who were teaming up with Second Stage to develop the show in hopes of an eventual transfer to Broadway, did not immediately return phone calls.
3 comments:
Rough. I get it though if there's no money it can't happen, but it's lame if they're about to put the show up. This is also really unfortunately for the actors involved because they are now out of work that they anticipated would pay for living expenses.
It seems as though there may have been some initial problems that might not have raised red flags. One of the first things that seemed out of place was that the company which was producing had never produced an piece of theatre before, let alone an Off-Broadway or Broadway musical. Second, a decent portion of the money was raised through Kickstarter. Although I love Kickstarter and the products and movements that are developed for it, I don't think that Broadway is quite ready for a show produced by that many supporters. What this comes down to I think is an issue that is becoming more and more apparent in this day and age: the role of the producer. Who is the producer, how much control do they have, how should they interact with the show, and how many should there be?
It seems that this show was doomed from the beginning. The company that was going to produce it should have figured out the major problems of being able to produce it, such as the budget and getting the actors, before they announced this as their debut theatrical production. It's sad to see such a hopeful attempt to create theatre go down in flames like this. But then again, choosing a Broadway show as their first ever theatrical production, especially a show that is going though revisions, is a risky decision to begin with. I agree with what Ben said about a big pitfall being they tried to do an Off-Broadway show before they even attempted any other productions.
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