Fast Company | Business + Innovation: Our curtain opens to reveal: a flop.
When Almost, Maine made its Off-Broadway premiere in 2006, it closed after a month due to poor ticket sales. Charles Isherwood, reviewing it for The New York Times, wrote that it "may leave the cloying aftertaste of an overly sweetened Sno-Cone."
But our second act contains surprises: The play survived a death-sentence review to become one of the biggest hits in contemporary global theater.
7 comments:
This kind of story makes me really happy. It's just a testament to the fact that every piece of art is completely subjective and that interpretation and individual production decisions can really make all the difference. I personally really enjoy Almost, Maine. I, like practically every other theatre kid in the country, worked on a production of it in high school. It was both cheesy and oddly beautiful, I thought. I also see how it has great strength in community theatres and high schools as opposed to being on Broadway. The play is essentially a collection of little plays, vignettes, that all explore themes everyone can understand: love and loss. It is a very human play with a very wide array of acting and storytelling opportunity. Not only can it put many actors in one show by having so many little pieces, there is also a little bit of something for everyone. Regardless of age range, gender, relationship status, etc., there's something to enjoy. I think that is why when the play began to be performed in more accessible venues, it spread like wildfire. Someone, somewhere, found some happiness and some heartbreak in it, and decided to share it with their community too.
I, like 95% of this school probably, participated in a production of this play in high school, in fact it was my first. When I was a spot op for the show, the idea of where this play started and had its beginnings never crossed my minds. To read now that it had a history Off-Broadway, was initially suprising, but it took me a moment to process the fact that one of the most commonly performed plays in America started somewhere. I guess it’s something that you don’t really think about that often. This article is definitely a testament to the idea that art is subjective. I don’t think we have this dialogue that often in theatre specifically. I feel that after you walk out of a show you can go up to a group of 50 people and you would probably get fairly similar thoughts. I don’t know if this is a good thing or a bad thing. For a director to be able to coerce the same emotion out of a large group of people could be considered a success, however there could also be accusations of giving in to the status quo of thought.
I have a very emotional history with the show Almost, Maine. During the beginning of my senior year of school this show was planned to be our October play. I was the lighting, set and costume designer along with being the stage manager. Almost, Maine was my baby. for two months i lived and breathed the world of this show an I would often get fussed at in my other classes for having my script out or sketching ideas. I was totally invested and then four weeks before opening our principal cancelled the show due to "inappropriate content." We were devastated. For a lot of the actors in the show this may have been our last show at Wilson Hall and it had been canceled. We reluctantly went to the script a cut two scenes and multiple lines and qualities of the show. My heart broke when I saw this gutted version of the script. Our show was still canceled. Our principal claimed that the show had bad connotations and the title alone brought "bad opinions on our fine school." We were never able to put on Almost, Maine. Now, reading this article I am reinvigorated by the idea of this show and all that can happen when things are investigated creatively and allowed to be given a chance. Anything can happen.
Almost, Maine is one of my favorite shows of all time. It was the first show I called in high school and I had the best time working on it. Almost, Maine is really funny and cute, but it also has some very serious and relatable moments. It is the kind of play that just makes people happy. There are so many connections between the scenes and hidden messages, even though they are all separate scenes. It is great for high schools because the material is not too mature for them and there are a lot of different parts. There can be a pretty big cast of people and all of the parts are good since there are only 2 people in every scene. I am really glad that it is getting more and more popular. I saw it off Broadway with John Cariani in the cast and it was really special to see.
This is one of my favorite plays I have ever done.It is very interesting to read that this was not a success at first. Most people now can relate to some degree to this play. Also one thing that did shock me was Johns take to the play. Just because a play is not financially successful does not mean it is not a good play. Johns reaction to the show closing and the years following was that it was not good. But now that is become a hit around the united states, he thinks its amazing. I feel like a play write should love there work no matter what.
When I did the show in high school, they did a revival and John was starring in it. We were able to have a talk back after with the whole cast. I think he beautiful portrayed the actors in it. What was interesting is that every night for the They Fell scene they would switch two girls and two boys. This made it even more welcoming in 2016 to people of all walks of life! Yay John for changing his work for the better!
This article is actually very interesting. How successful a play is in New York or how many Tony Awards it is able to rack up is by no means an accurate way to determine how successful or popular a play is. Many plays tend to have a very good life after it leaves the bright obnoxious lights of Broadway or does not get nominated for a single Tony Award. The thing about plays is that there are many things that factor into determining how good it is. In fact, all of those factors are very subjective, and no two people are going to feel the exact same way about every single little detail about the play. It is exactly that that makes working in this industry so magical because you can do the same play twice, and each production will be extremely different (even if it is a remount).
Almost, Maine is a show I've had a little bit of experience with as we used the play for scene work in our performing arts class. The content of the show can be it little too cutesy at times, but that's not necessarily always a bad thing. It's innocent nature allows it to appeal to all audiences, which would explain why it's so popular for high school students. I was surprise to learn that schools have banned it, as Almost, Maine really isn't the kind of show I would think an administration would take issue with. The only slightly controversial scene in it is "They Fell", which depicts two men realizing they are in love with each other. At this point I would love to think that schools wouldn't ban shows due to the presence of LGBT+ characters, but unfortunately in many places that's not the case. I'm from a relatively liberal area so having shows get banned isn't an issue, and I feel so bad for students who have to deal with this. I can't imagine how devastating it must be to have something you're so passionate about be taken away, just because someone has a problem with a small part of it.
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