StageLync: January is notoriously brutal for Broadway. The holidays end, ticket sales dip, and one by one, shows pack up their sets and say goodbye. Just this month, we’ve seen Back to the Future, Suffs, Stereophonic, and Our Town take their final bows. And it doesn’t stop there—Cult of Love, All In, Eureka Day, the new Romeo & Juliet, A Wonderful World: The Louis Armstrong Musical, English, and even the long-running Blue Man Group are all set to close in the coming weeks.
5 comments:
Broadway shutdowns aren’t shocking, but they’re still frustrating. A show can have great reviews, a solid cast, and even some buzz, but if ticket sales don’t hold up, it’s gone. I feel like January always hits hard, people just stop spending after the holidays, and weaker shows don’t stand a chance. Still, it’s wild to see how fast some productions disappear. Some barely run long enough for people to hear about them before they’re out. Some of these shows that announced their closing I didn't even know were on Broadway and I literally live in the city. It makes me wonder if it’s really about quality or just luck. Obviously, some shows fail because they aren’t great, but others just don’t find their audience in time. Even long-running shows like Blue Man Group aren’t safe forever. Ultimately nothing on Broadway is. At the same time, that’s just how the industry works. It’s brutal, but it moves fast, and new things are always coming and going.
I originally thought that this article would just be one with the reviews of shows that were closing, however, I was pleasantly surprised to see that it was actually an article about persistence, trials, and errors. I think it is so important for us as humans and artists to realize that work takes time. The feeling is crushing when you work so hard on something only for it to not turn out well, or, in your mind, turn out outstanding, and have no one else feel or think the same way. What makes a true artist, though, is the ability to not get dragged down to the bottom and sink under these feelings, but instead to keep going. To work harder and harder each day and not to rush yourself. My favourite line from this article was when Jones wrote, “But if you’re waiting for universal approval, you’re in the wrong business.” This is so true. He affirms that “art isn’t about pleasing everyone” and it is important to hear this from people in the business world. There is not an artist in the world who hasn’t struggled or faced backlash.
The phrase in this article that stuck out the most to me was “embrace the messiness of the process.” I love this idea. I think often, at least in my brain, the word “process” feels very clear-cut and perhaps defined. I think of the way the writing process is taught: ideation, first draft, editing, second draft, editing, final draft. Or the engineering design process: define the problem, research, develop solutions, prototype, test, etc. But no process I’ve ever done – writing, engineering, or otherwise – was that clearcut. The steps never felt separated from each other. As this article’s author notes, the process is messy. I think letting go of that idea of defined process can be crucial to get myself out of my head. Of course, for some people and in some situations, that structure can be helpful. But I think accepting that the process is often nonlinear and undefined is a powerful step to find the way forward in a project as opposed to prescribing it.
It's always bittersweet to see a production close, on one hand it feels nice to no longer have responsibility tied to a production, but on the other hand it's always sad to watch everything get torn apart during strike, never to be put up again. This article has a fantastic perspective on this dilemma in my opinion. While it hurts to let go of what was once fantastic, you need to create space for new works of art to be brought to the stage and have time in the light. I wasn’t aware that January is typically a hard month for Broadway but I suppose it makes sense. With the new year people typically have less money to freely spend with tax season coming around and the resetting of insurance deductibles. But again, with the closing of running Broadway productions creates the room for new productions to fill in the holes and I can’t wait to see what comes to Broadway in replacement of all of these shows.
Post a Comment