As I sit waiting eagerly for the email that will announce the Tony Award nominees this morning, I’ve been thinking about “Glory Days.” We T-lines spent part of Mother’s Day with a couple from Northern Virginia who are really theater-o-philes. They have season subscriptions to three different companies up there and go to NYC three or four times a year.
These folks informed me of the ignoble fate of the Virginia-born musical that closed recently after one performance. Apparently, two pretty negative reviews (including the one in the New York Times) plus low advance sales sealed the fate of this production. Now, speculation is whether the show will even be a possible Tony-award contender in a season where the buzz has been around straight plays not new musicals.
The interesting perspective of these theater-going pals who had seen the Signature production when it played in Chantilly had much more to do with business than art. They thought it was a good show but they thought the producers saw a small-cast show with minimal technical requirements, thought they could open it on Broadway, get at least some acclaim and then mount road shows fairly quickly that could then rake in the dough. It’s a pretty cynical view but, given the ignominious speed with which the show was shuttered, it sure smacks of truth to me.
No comments:
Post a Comment