Variety brings news today that The Vertical Hour has recouped, in spite of the nasty reviews and an early closing. Producer Scott Rudin said, "We had a couple of rocky weeks coming up, and we decided we'd accomplished what we'd set out to do with the play." Uh huh.
While I wish any show success, and can hardly begrudge any recoupment, this just rubs me the wrong way. I really like Julianne Moore on film (her naked, screaming entrance by flight in The Big Lebowski is one of my favorite moments on film), but she was heinously ill-suited for that roll, and possibly just not fit for the stage. I love love love Bill Nighy, but for God's sake, put him in a play that's worth a damn, not this meandering and arrogant claptrap.
The thing that irritates me is the damning evidence that audiences would rather shell out their $110 for a bad performance by someone they've seen on film than pay $60 for a fabulously-reviewed Off-Broadway show featuring talented stage actors. I recently heard a well-known not-for-profit theater producer say that Off-Broadway is tougher than ever because producing is almost as expensive off as it is on. Adding insult to injury, the real droves of audiences just won't come out unless you have an elucidating title like "My Father is Jewish, My Mother's Italian, and I'm in Therapy". Because of these, and other more complicated issues, you can expect Off-Broadway hits like The Voysey Inheritance or The Clean House to have multiple extensions, but not to transfer to a commercial Off-Broadway venue and have a long run, as they might have 10 years ago. More and more, it's becoming Broadway transfers or nothing at all, which is hugely limiting to say the least. What happened? Were audiences really just more discriminating back then? More willing to trek below 42nd Street? Smarter? Where has the Off-Broadway audience gone?
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