Variety: Back on Broadway one of 3 financial hits

[jo]

I couldn't find the original Variety article, but ATC reports on the NEW hits/flops/too-soon-to-tell shows in the past season.

Back on Broadway was the only new musical financial hit of the past season. Other two are plays ( Death of a Salesman and The Mountaintop).

www.talkinbroadway.com/allthatchat/d.php?id=2078389

I wonder if Hugh expected his one-man show which he said has been residing in his mind in the last 15 years to have had SUCH an impact on Broadway - a critical as well as a commercial hit!

I guess the second TONY was part acknowledgment of this accomplishment.

[mamaleh]

What surprises me is that shows such as MEMPHIS, which, whatever one's opinion of it, have been running for three years and still haven't turned a profit. The weekly nut must be fairly high in relation to weekly grosses.

[jo]

Not just the weekly nut -- but

the development costs of a project like Back on Broadway relative to other musicals like Memphis was probably way too low.

[jo]

Somewhat OT - a NY Times article on Wendi Murdoch seems to imply something that I find a too much an extension of the truth, re Back on Broadway's move to Broadway.

www.nytimes.com/2012/06/17/fashion/wendi-murdoch-is-creating-a-career-of-her-own.html?_r=2&ref=style

In May 2011, when Hugh Jackman, a close friend who made a cameo in “Snow Flower and the Secret Fan,” was in early performances of his one-man show in San Francisco, the project was largely a low-profile one. Until Mrs. Murdoch got involved.

“As a surprise Wendi flew in with about a dozen of the most influential people in the business,” Mr. Jackman wrote in an e-mail. “She is the best publicist anyone could ever have.” The show later moved to Broadway.

She may have invited some friends to go to SanFran ( which Hugh may have acknowledged in the email as appreciation for a good friend's gesture, not necessarily saying that it saved the show from an unremarkable first run - Hugh did get raves from the San Fran media on the basis of his talent as a performer) but the writer is making it sound as if this was the lifesaver for the show! Her husband may be the owner of FOX Studios but I think the presence of Tom Rothman and Lauren Shuler Donner have something more to do with the long-running success of the XMEN franchise...and the new creative team of HOUDINI ( Schwartz, Rockwell, etc) were there for the new Broadway project.

The SanFran show was a try-out, deliberately low-profile!

As for the move to Broadway -- ha!

Hugh is the acknowledged royal peer of Broadway - by producers, by creatives, by fans and the rest of the Broadway community. We have heard of so many stories how he is the go-to leading man for Broadway new musicals ( Leap of Faith, Big Fish, On the 20th Century, etc., of the more current ones) and maybe even some plays ( McAlary, if that happened with Mike Nichols). The second TONY was significant in that Broadway gave him the formal acknowledgment of what he meant to the Broadway community. And it was not just all about his work with BC/EFA - Michael Riedel talked about how they simply wanted to bring him back on the TONYs - LOL! It seemed that it was also an acknowledgement of his work for Back on Broadway ( both critical and box office- wise) because they had, for whatever unfathomed reason, eliminated the category of Special Theatrical Event from their list of worthy awards!

And he has this connection with the Shubert Organization from way back! It is interesting to note that Hugh said they were planning to do the show a year later, but the Shubert Organization itself penned his show in the theatre schedule for 2011, to his surprise! Plus the Shuberts also became co-producers ( as they were for A Steady Rain). If there had been any unseen shadow maybe influencing Hugh's Broadway career - maybe it was the late Gerry Schoenfeld's huge regard for him! He seemed to have given that to the current CEO of the Shubert Organization, Philip Smith, in his will

Wendi did not say directly what was implied by the writer -- perhaps it is too much active imagination on the part of the writer to make the article more provocative or interesting

Jo

[jo]

Btw, this is the tweet that drew me to the NYTimes article --

Lisa Fungþ@lfung

Funny that Wendi Murdoch is credited with bringing @realhughjackman's show to Broadway. He needed help? nyti.ms/KFdUDA #theater

Even the tweeter ( Lisa Fung was former arts and entertainment editor of L.A. Times.com) seems skeptical

Jo

[broadwaygal]

Jo, that article really annoyed me - as if Hugh needed Wendi's influential, high profile people to get the show to Broadway. But then it occurred to me that they may have become investors!

And let's not forget one other very important person who was the key player (besides Hugh, LOL)
in bringing the show to Broadway - Robert Fox!

Cheryl

[jo]

Definitely Robert Fox, too, Cheryl -- from San Fran to Toronto and to Broadway! And for San Fran - it was Curran theatre owner, Carole Shorenstein Hays, also a renowned theatre angel, who might have also lent a helping hand in the debut of the one-man show.

But if the Shuberts had not given their blessings for the use of such a medium-sized, well-located theatre, and at such a great time during the theatre season, it might have taken another year for the show to come to Broadway.

Great Broadway connection - if the Shubert Organization becomes a business partner, too, and not just the landlord

And let us not forget Hugh's longtime agent and friend, Patrick Whitesell - he was the first one that Hugh thanked in his acceptance speech for his second TONY


Jo

[jo]

Re the new record set by Hello Dolly for Shubert Broadway houses --

The new Broadway production of Hello, Dolly! starring Bette Midler has already made a habit out of breaking the house record at the Shubert Theatre, and now it has had the best week in the history of the entire Shubert Organization. As previously announced, Hello, Dolly!, on the heels of its ecstatic reviews, grossed $2,105,473 over just seven performances, last week. This number tops the previous highest weekly gross in the organization's history, set by Hugh Jackman: Back on Broadway with $2,056,956 over nine performances. The Shubert Organization is America's oldest professional theatre company and the largest theatre owner on the Broadway. Shubert currently owns and operates seventeen Broadway theatres and six off-Broadway venues.

That's nice to know -- and it took 6 years to break the record set by BACK ON BROADWAY