NYTimes.com: Two veteran Broadway producers helped torpedo an Off Broadway theater’s premiere of the high-profile musical “American Psycho” and are now in talks to bring it directly to Broadway next fall, several theater executives with the show said on Wednesday.
2 comments:
If "American Psycho" is attempting to usurp Second Stage and go straight to Broadway, they should really be ready and make sure their show is airtight. "American Psycho", like The Book of Mormon, deals with a very controversial issue and shows like that tend to be hit or miss on broadway. Especially since the musical got some mixed reviews.
I believe that instead of going straight to Broadway, the musical should maybe continue their run for a bit somewhere else and tweak the show a bit. Because any Broadway musical, controversial or not, should get better than mixed reviews if they are expected to have a long run on Broadway.
This is an alarming trend and one that will have negative implications beyond Off Broadway companies. Working in the regional theatres on the west coast I had the opportunity on several occasions to put on productions of shows eventually headed to Broadway. Workshopping of shows destined for bigger things is not only an important source of income and notoriety for regional companies, but provides opportunities for regional designers, actors, and technicians to get their work associated with productions and production companies to which they otherwise would not have access.
Another thought. This seems indicative to me of the more general trend in entertainment culture to revisit old work rather than producing new. Why come up with a popular story if there are so many proven ones? The regional and off Broadway theaters have long been the patrons, incubators and protectors of new work. If commercial theatre believes all the lucrative stories have already been written, then I say we leave them to their comic book characters and eighties movies.
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