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Broadway has star power this fall including Al Pacino and Katie Holmes: the former in a revival of David Mamet’s Glengarry Glen Ross, the latter in a new play called Dead Accounts by Theresa Rebeck.
Pacino has delivered a $6 million box office advance, but a few weeks ago producers set back its press performances. The hurricane was blamed – a lame excuse for a show already well into preview with the real reason seeming to rest more in that its star was not ready. However, why risk your advance for a set of poor notices when in truth you actually don’t need them?
Whilst Dead Accounts is sitting on a healthy advance and its star Katie Holmes may not be tripping over her lines, she instead is reluctant to do any solo press interviews – no doubt to avoid any awkward questions relating to scientologists. For its producers, however, here you have the frustration of a strong but not entirely proven name as your lead but with limited media opportunities to capitalise upon it.
This would seem like great news then for the B-listers on Broadway. Never had Henry Winkler (aka “The Fonz”) been more evident as he happily filled the empty void talking about his new play The Performers. It was seen as a golden egg for its producers to land this sort of press coverage but even so it still did not sell tickets, closing on November 18 four days after its opening.
Whoever the star is, it’s no longer an absolute cert for a sell-out Broadway season
Whoever the star is, it’s no longer an absolute cert for a sell-out Broadway season. Despite the millions of people who have seen The Mummy or George Of The Jungle, both quintessential mainstream Hollywood blockbusters, no one wanted to see Brendan Fraser in Elling, running for just nine performances after its opening in 2010. An even bigger star, Robin Williams, had an equally chequered run in Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo in 2011. The failure of these shows and their stars in them illustrates an important point: that those who may want to see Williams or Fraser on stage did not want to see them in these plays – their fans want them to be like they are in their movies.
Which is why Pacino will succeed irrespective of what any critic could write; as in Glengarry Glen Ross, he does exactly what it says on the packet in a play he has already acted in on screen (although in a different role) and as a result, audiences forgive the faults.
Robin Williams played against type but had a healthy advance only for poor reviews and word mouth to decimate it. That offers a stark warning for the forthcoming productions of Tom Hanks in Lucky Guy and Scarlett Johansson in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. Producers banking on the power of their stars’ names have put them into large houses more traditionally used for musicals. If the gamble pays off, then with great reviews comes healthy sales – but it’s potentially a lot of empty seats if it doesn’t.
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While the main thrust of this column is valid, there are a couple of errors that undermine its argument. The first is simple: Scarlett Johansson will be appearing as Maggie in CAT ON A HOT TINE ROOF, not STREETCAR, and certainly the role is consistent with her recent screen appearances; the greatest challenge for the show is that it is Broadway’s 3rd CAT in less than a decade. Secondly, the reviews for BENGAL TIGER AT THE BAGHDAD ZOO were not poor, as characterized here, but quite good; I refer you to the review aggregator StageGrade to make your own assessment: http://www.stagegrade.com/productions/685
It is also worth noting that BENGAL TIGER was a highly unusual production for the commercial arena of Broadway, and the challenge in selling the show was less that Robin Williams was playing against type (his “tiger” monologues were not far removed from his stand-up persona) but that the play itself was not a conventional narrative. Finally, if playing against type is a box office impediment, how doe you explain the success of THE BOY FROM OZ, which had Hugh Jackman — best known at that time in the U.S. as an action star from X-MEN — as gay singer-songwriter Peter Allen? There are no formulas and no absolutes, but a wide variety of elements that determine whether a show finds success on Broadway.Report comment
Firstly Howard, thank you for pointing out my error that Scarlett Johansson is in fact appearing in A CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF and not A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE. I have amended my blog accordingly. I had the wrong Tennessee Williams’ play on the brain as on Broadway there have also been at least two revivals of that play in the last decade. It is, of course, a valid point that there are many factors which determine a show’s success including placement and when a focus is placed on a name to carry a production, it cannot be ignored when these are clearly being treated as the driving thrust in the various producing decisions being made. Stage grade gave BENGAL TIGER AT THE BAGHDAD ZOO a B+ which many productions would be delighted with drawn from a mixed set of reviews. When critics are divided that can make for a very interesting play but in the Broadway economy it can also be a risk. The problem with BENGAL TIGER was that the public word of mouth was very poor and its placement in the Richard Rogers Theater was too large for where this play should have played – a decision made I am sure in the belief of how many tickets its producers had hoped to sell. The other problem with this play was that when you saw it, although sold on his name, Robin William’s role was as much part of an ensemble performance and not in the lead that audiences wanted or were led to believe they would be paying to see. In contrast, THE BOY FROM OZ got a terrible notice in the NY Times but offered real charm from its star and a good public word of mouth with a set of familiar populist hits – it did exactly what it said on the ticket. Jackman also provided a blueprint in how to play the Broadway and public media game. Yes, Jackman was playing against type, but already had achieved some profile as a musical actor – The NT production of Oklahoma which was filmed for TV had been shown in the US and and extracts from it were also used in some of the interviews with Jackman. Within his commitment to promoting BOY FROM OZ it also offered him the ability to easily perform a number from it on any TV show that wanted him. Finally, perhaps Jackman’s biggest hook, enhanced by his movie profile, is the strong female fan base ticket-buying audience he attracts and who would probably be just as happy to have him as their gay best friend as they would an X Man!Report comment