THE MUSIC MAN 🎵

[hughmanity]

This thought has occurred to me:  how many of these hysterical  GenZ/Tik-Tok using individuals were also GREATEST SHOWMAN fans?

[hughmanity]

Btw, last week I saw Sutton Foster in concert in Florida. She is extraordinarily talented and I am sure she will bring something special to her role. Slightly puzzling for me was that she made absolutely no mention of THE MUSIC MAN.

[jo]

Maybe because of the current controversy, she may have decided to be more prudent. Mentioning it might bring it to the fore with the audience (who might raise questions). Hugh is also very quiet on the current issue. Maybe they have been advised on how the whole controversy will be handled...and are patiently waiting in the wings.

Also, there is still no announcement that The Music Man has found its theatre. The ticket page continues to carry the message of tickets to be sent when a theatre is announced. Maybe they have also taken the more prudent strategy of letting the brouhaha die down and wait for the right time to make the announcement. I am thinking that maybe Scott Rudin will do it in an interview with a major trade paper...to be accompanied by a full blast of publicity! Hopefully, excluding The New York Times

Jo

[hughmanity]

I saw her on 12/7, which I think is right before the whole thing started.  But true, the producers probably knew the announcement was imminent and may have advised her to stay mum.

[jo]

Neither the official site of the Telecharge Ticket Page or Broadway Inbound Group Sales Page have indicated that The Music Man is playing at the Winter Garden. The message continues about the musical being shown " at a Shubert Theatre".

I wonder what she meant - maybe it is just a confirmation of the sale of tickets and not the tickets themselves?

[jo]

Not exactly directly related, although the subject play was part of a potential option which did not work out ( moving out to give way to The Music Man) to resolve the theatre issue relating to The Music Man, but it looks like Scott Rudin is going to take the high road in terms of gaining public approval and goodwill amidst the current controversy! He will be producing a free one-performance of TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD at the arena of Madison Square Garden! Yes, the same place where we saw Hugh Jackman stage TheManTheMusicTheShow! This will create a tremendous amount of goodwill and public appreciation for such a literary event for the school youth!


www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/kill-a-mockingbird-sets-free-performance-18000-new-york-school-students-1263560

CULTURE

'To Kill a Mockingbird' Sets Free Performance for 18,000 New York School Students (Exclusive)

5:30 AM PST 12/18/2019 by David Rooney



Carl Scheffel/MSG Photos
From left: Scott Rudin, Aaron Sorkin, James L. Dolan, Ed Harris, Taylor Trensch, Nick Robinson and Nina Grollman


Aaron Sorkin's blockbuster adaptation of the Harper Lee novel will be the first Broadway play staged at Madison Square Garden, featuring the entire cast led by Ed Harris.

Early next year, roughly 18,000 students from New York City Department of Education public middle and high schools in all five boroughs will get one of the toughest tickets on Broadway, gratis.

Producers Scott Rudin and Barry Diller, New York Mayor Bill de Blasio and Schools Chancellor Richard A. Carranza announced today that Aaron Sorkin's smash Broadway adaptation of the classic Harper Lee novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, will play a free performance Feb. 26 for students in the arena at Madison Square Garden.

This marks the first time the massive venue has been used to stage a Broadway play, a single-performance event organized with support from James L. Dolan, executive chairman and CEO of The Madison Square Garden Company.

The entire Broadway cast, led by Ed Harris as Atticus Finch and featuring Nick Robinson, Eliza Scanlen, Kyle Scatliffe, LisaGay Hamilton, Nina Grollman and Taylor Trensch among the principals, will appear in the special performance.


The trenchant story of bitter racial injustice in the Deep South has been a box office phenomenon in director Bartlett Sher's production. It began preview performances at the Shubert Theatre on Nov. 1, 2018, and opened Dec. 13 to glowing reviews, playing to standing-room-only houses ever since and going on to become the highest-grossing American play in Broadway history. The show regularly pulls in $2 million or more a week; last week its cumulative tally topped $100 million.

"The only remotely unhappy thing about what has been an otherwise entirely thrilling and profoundly rewarding experience has been our failure at achieving diversity inside our building, especially where kids are concerned," Rudin told The Hollywood Reporter. "We felt a need to correct it — and to take a big step toward making that specific aspect of this production achieve what this play is, by definition, required to achieve. We simply had to fix it."

Rudin went on to acknowledge the invaluable help of his producing partner Diller, the generosity of Dolan in offering up the building and all its attendant support, and the passionate enthusiasm of the entire Mockingbird cast to be a part of the outreach involved in creating such a unique event. All tickets to the Feb. 26 performance will be provided free and exclusively through the NYC Department of Education, with no other tickets available.



"We are going to present what I hope will be a beautiful, hand-made, pop-up version of To Kill a Mockingbird — it's the Supreme store version of the show," continued Rudin. "It will be super-DIY, incredibly inclusive in how it's presented, re-conceived for the space and fully remade for this one-day event."

Indicating the power of theater as a teaching tool to expand our capacity for empathy, de Blasio commented: "That To Kill a Mockingbird will be shared by such a vast number of students who represent the widest imaginable spectrum of races, religions, sexual identities and abilities, seated in the round and facing one another, is what makes it particularly profound. I see this as a remarkable invitation to our entire vibrant creative community to find ways to engage with young people on this level. Events like this possess the power to change the world."


Dolan said he hopes this will be the first of many such impactful events at MSG.

In addition to the Broadway production, To Kill a Mockingbird will launch its coast-to-coast national tour in August 2020 at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., with Richard Thomas playing Atticus. Rhys Ifans will play the small-town Alabama lawyer in another production scheduled to open in London's West End at the Gielgud Theatre in May. Harris and the current cast took over from the original ensemble, led by Jeff Daniels, when the Broadway engagement hit its first-year anniversary.



David Rooney
[e-mail]
@thr

Rudin's cultural offering to the youth!

[njr]

Dec 17, 2019 23:52:15 GMT -5 jo said:

Neither the official site of the Telecharge Ticket Page or Broadway Inbound Group Sales Page have indicated that The Music Man is playing at the Winter Garden. The message continues about the musical being shown " at a Shubert Theatre".

I wonder what she meant - maybe it is just a confirmation of the sale of tickets and not the tickets themselves?

Of course - she was just saying she bought the tix online.

[jo]

Group tickets are not available online (unlike single ticket sales) - one can only get it by making a request with Broadway Inbound ( also affiliated with Telecharge) and they (likely) confirm if and when the request can be filled.


Jo

[njr]

Dec 18, 2019 18:02:31 GMT -5 jo said:

Group tickets are not available online (unlike single ticket sales) - one can only get it by making a request with Broadway Inbound ( also affiliated with Telecharge) and they (likely) confirm if and when the request can be filled.


Jo

The point is that she didn’t have the tickets in hand and had merely requested them and/or received confirmation.

[jo]

It is even more difficult to identify seats with group sales, given that the theatre ( and exact seats) have not been physically named and identified. The point I am wondering about is if there is already an internal decision to identify specific seats whether for group or single sales, but they are still withholding the info ( and the physical tickets) until the current brouhaha over BJuice has waned or died down. This is interesting to me in the light that some have purchased the tickets as possible holiday gifts ( it would be a little amusing to receive a gift note that says "two seats have been purchased for you at a still unidentified theatre for The Music Man on such-and-such a date"). C'est drole!

JO

[jo]

Re ticket prices --

From comments on JackmansLanding --

Trudi Miller I was so excited to see this, but cheapest tickets in nose-bleed seats are $847 each....I love you Hugh & Foster, but not that much!!😢

Maybe she was trying to get them via secondary sellers? Best pricing (without booking fees) is at the box office ( except we do not know which theatre will host The Music Man officially). Other than that - best pricing will be at the official ticketseller TELECHARGE for single sales or BROADWAY INBOUND for group sales.

Here's the SCHEDULE and PRICING Telecharge Page --

www.telecharge.com/Broadway/The-Music-Man/Schedules-Prices

Lowest price is at $ 99, which given that the WinterGarden only has Mezzanine (Front and Rear) and no Balcony may be better than most other big hits. But this price is likely for the ones (Far Side) which could have some obstructed viewing (unless the WinterGarden is partly renovated to cure that), so the next lowest-priced tickets @ $ 199 could be the better choice? And then the choices become better as the pricing adjusts accordingly. Hopefully, SRO tickets...and maybe RUSH tickets will eventually be offered?

Joanne Lotsko I must say, these ticket prices are outrageous!!!
Having been on Broadway myself and having gone to All of Hugh’s Shows especially BFOz. Many times, this is getting ridiculous!!!

The frustration is understandable if this is being compared to The Boy from Oz ticket prices. But that was 2003-2004! A STEADY RAIN was the start of the Shubert Organization's "dynamic pricing" policy ( I remember that official ticket pricing for front row/near front row seats were already at $500. For BACK ON BROADWAY, it was the same level of pricing, given that it was supposed to be the hottest ticket in town ( Ben Brantley's awesome praise for the show and Hugh contributed to that ) … We were lucky with THE RIVER because some seats were offered at $35 at CITS, due to the initiative of Brit producer Sonia Friedman ( whose reputation in the UK is also sterling, partly helped by the fact that she produces many subsidized/national theatre productions) and Hugh Jackman.

Maybe the best gauge of comparability of ticket prices would be to compare the incoming show with current major hits ( Hamilton, Moulin Rouge, Hadestown, Book of Mormon or even To Kill A Mockingbird)?

Here are the past week's broadway grosses, incl info on ticket pricing --

www.broadwayworld.com/grosses.cfm


Maybe the best thing to do if one wants to be sure to see the show, maybe at a particular time of its yearlong run, is to get tickets now rather than later. If the show becomes the next big thing and is a major hit, expect the secondary market ticket pricing to soar even further than the current high prices?

Jo

[jo]

Michael Riedel updates on the MusicManVBeetlejuice! Ferrari wins! Jk


nypost.com/2019/12/19/how-and-why-beetlejuice-got-evicted-by-its-broadway-theater/

Michael Riedel
Entertainment

How and why ‘Beetlejuice’ got evicted by its Broadway theater
By Michael Riedel
December 19, 2019 | 5:54pm

Never mind its recent box-office bump: “Beetlejuice” was never going to be the next “Phantom of the Opera.”

As The Post reported months ago, the show’s being evicted from the Winter Garden in June to make way for Hugh Jackman in “The Music Man” in the fall.

That shouldn’t have surprised anyone last spring, when “Beetlejuice” opened to negative reviews. Its weekly grosses were so low, the Shuberts exercised the stop clause.


The stop clause has been part of theater deals forever. If shows fall below a certain weekly gross, theater owners can evict them. It’s not something they do often, since it can cause bad blood. They prefer to let producers decide when it’s time to close a show. As I recall, the last time the Shuberts invoked a stop clause was in 2000, when they sent a failing revival of Arthur Miller’s “The Price” packing.



“Beetlejuice” fell below the stop clause in the spring and got its notice. But tourists who flooded New York in the summer and fall who couldn’t get “Hamilton” tickets made a beeline for “Beetlejuice,” a title they knew at a price they could afford. The grosses hit over $1 million a week.

“Beetlejuice” backers thought, “Why do we have to leave? We’re a hit!” They discussed their predicament in the press last week. The publicity has done them some good. The box office has since taken in nearly $2.5 million in the last week.

But the truth is, “Beetlejuice” was unlikely to recoup. It cost around $20 million and would have to run for several years at capacity to return that kind of money.


“The Music Man,” on the other hand, will open like gangbusters. Jackman’s in the show for a year, and tickets are already selling far above anything for “Beetlejuice.” The Shuberts stand to make more money in one year with Jackman and his premium-priced tickets than they would if “Beetlejuice” ran another two or three years.
I’m as impressed with the show’s resiliency as everyone else on Broadway. But let’s not pretend it was on its way to being a smash.

“Music Man” producer Scott Rudin did “Beetlejuice” a favor. He could have taken the Winter Garden for the critically acclaimed “The Lehman Trilogy” in the spring. Instead, he took it to the Nederlander so “Beetlejuice” could continue to make some money. The Nederlander has 300 fewer seats than the Winter Garden, so he’s leaving a nice chunk of change on the table.

All is not lost for “Beetlejuice.” I hear the Shuberts are trying to find another theater for it, though an available Broadway theater is as rare as an open table at Rao’s.

“The best-case scenario is they move to a smaller theater and cut $100,000 from the weekly running cost to make it more sustainable,” says a producer not affiliated with the show. “They could make it work.”
Stay tuned.

[jo]

Interesting comment from this interview with the head of WarnerMedia's HBO & HBO-MAX about producing for Broadway.


www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/bob-greenblatt-reveals-growth-strategy-hbo-max-streamer-he-pitched-nbc-1263871

There were lots of rumblings about your next act being Broadway related …

Yes, if I want to be poor, that's what I would do. And lose millions of dollars! (Laughs.) No, my heart is in the executive ranks and, honestly, it was really about going direct to the consumer that was interesting to me. I had some conversations with some other people in town, who shall remain nameless, who were also going direct to consumer

*Isn't the theatre an even more "direct-to-consumer" undertaking? Your audience is there and will give instant feedback!

*No matter what some people say about Scott Rudin ( with a rep for an abrasive managerial style), he has supported both film and stage, both major and small artistic efforts. He has also taken risks if he thinks the project has merit! Not always for the expected $$$ returns...and his recently announced project to allow 18,000 students from NYC to watch a solo performance of TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD at MSG for free is one of his contributions to giving the theatrical arts a boost! No matter how some cynics call it a publicity stunt.


Jo

[jo]

Dec 16, 2019 19:06:31 GMT -5 hughmanity said:

This thought has occurred to me:  how many of these hysterical  GenZ/Tik-Tok using individuals were also GREATEST SHOWMAN fans?

China-based app Tik-Tok has been banned by the US Navy for security reasons --


www.msn.com/en-ph/news/technology/us-navy-bans-tiktok-over-security-worries/ar-BBYeiTO?ocid=spartandhp


Not necessarily directly traceable to producers/creatives of BJuice, but much of the unofficial BJuice show videos used this app?

Kids go thru phases ( as we did when we were young) -- but what I've seen looks almost bizarre - generation gap


Jo

[jo]

Broadway.com ( which is also a ticket outlet for The Music Man, with their own set of charges) puts this notice on its ticket page -- indicating possible delivery date of tickets, presumably informed by Telecharge on such a date?

Select a Delivery Method

Print at Home
Your e-tickets will be sent to you in a separate email prior to your event. You will receive your tickets in time for the show. Tickets will not be sent until a theatre is assigned. Print or download your tickets before arriving at the venue. Each ticket must be printed on a separate page. If you print multiple tickets on one page, the barcode will not work. Your ticket's unique barcode is only valid for one entry. (after Feb 1, 2020)
Free

Box Office Pickup
Your tickets will be held at the theatre box office. Due to increased security, please plan to pick up your tickets at least 45 minutes prior to curtain. Please Note: You must present the credit card used to make your purchase when picking tickets up at the box office. Tickets held at the Box Office will not be available until a theatre is assigned and the hours of operation have been confirmed (after Feb 1, 2020)

[jo]

The younger set offhandedly dismiss revivals of golden age classics - but if they are not very entertaining, why is The Music Man such a revival bait in parts of the USA! Maybe because it is classic and pure Americana, a part of American culture that is such a remind!er of happier times? And a surfeit of display of triple-threat-talents!

This recent one, for the holidays, was revived in Florida. It starred Avenue Q lead John Tartaglia.

You remember that time when Hugh hosted the 2004 Tony's and one of the Avenue Q puppets ( was it Rod?) had a crush on Hugh Jackman … His puppeteer-performer was John Tartaglia


Here is his interpretation of Harold Hill's antics!

[jo]

In case you have forgotten...or missed this the first time around --

Here are Hugh and Rod ( aka John Tartaglia) --





Now their paths somewhat cross again

[jo]

From an interview with Sutton last August --

Have you met with Hugh Jackman yet?

In January this year I was with the team and sang through all the material. I didn’t know if I could do it. So it was a really interesting process of coming to it. I thought the same way when I got Reno Sweeney. It felt scary and terrifying. But then the more I think about it, the more I read the script, I was like, ‘Oh no, she’s feisty, she’s outspoken.” There’s so much going on with Marian I’m really looking forward. She’s complicated. I’m excited to be able to play her.

We’re actually going to be doing a couple labs, like a lab in September and then there’s another lab in February. I’m thrilled the team wants to go back into the show. My approach always is—I did this with Anything Goes, too—is, yes, this is obviously a show that has so much history, but I like to approach it as if it’s never been done before. Because the shoes are too big to fill. I can’t step into Barbara Cook, Shirley Jones. So how do I find my way into this? I’m excited, I’m terrified but excited.

So, we know what Hugh will be doing after he completes filming REMINISCENCE this month

The September lab took about a month, without Hugh but with Sutton. I wonder if Warren Carlyle has recovered fully from his appendectomy procedure? Or will the lab be less of the dance ( featured in the September lab) but more on exploring the other aspects of the musical?


Jo

[jo]

Someone created a site that illustrates in great detail a rated seating arrangement for The WinterGarden Theatre --

BUT -- it was created for Beetlejuice, the theatre's present occupant.


You may want to use it as a GENERAL guide if and when you purchase your tickets - for whatever it's worth.

Keep scrolling down as it has a lot of useful information, if you are particular about seats, co-relating it to pricing and comfort.


blog.headout.com/winter-garden-theatre-seating-chart/


Jo

[jo]

Will a revival of FUNNY GIRL compete with THE MUSIC MAN for the TONY Best Revival? There is a report that there may be plans for a revival on Broadway, with Idina Menzel in the lead. No official announcement has been made!

broadwayjournal.com/idina-menzel-looks-like-a-go-for-funny-girl-exclusive/

Which show will have mass appeal? The Music Man, given the producer and creatives lineup, and the casting -- will likely be a splashy family-friendly spectacle. Not so sure how FUNNY GIRL will be revived, given that one of the lead producers is Sonia Friedman (she produced The River) and the show may be somewhat related to the West End revival.

Btw, Hugh won a TONY for TBFO in the 2003/04 season while Idina also won a TONY for WICKED in the same season. Both shows lost the TONY for Best Musical to AVENUE Q.


Jo

[jo]

Can you believe this

It is about post-Jackman casting ideas for THE MUSIC MAN.

As someone in an eye-roller post says, it is 2 years away! LOL!


www.broadwayworld.com/board/readmessage.php?thread=1120989&dt=8

[jo]

I've added this comment on that BWW topic

jo
Send PM
Broadway Legend
joined:5/15/03
The Music Man Revival post Jackman and Foster
#10

Posted: 1/21/20 at 7:06pm
How many major revivals have there been which ran for very much longer after its original revival cast left? I am not referring to subsequent touring productions, but a continuing run on Broadway?

Also --

My interest is not in the post-Jackman Music Man recasting, but --

for EGOT producer Scott Rudin and Oscar-nominated Hugh Jackman to collaborate on a new major motion picture. Rudin has produced some outstanding films and hopefully their theatrical partnership will lead to another artistic project in a different medium.

Rudin won an Oscar for NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN ( if I am not mistaken, it also won an Oscar for Javier Bardem for Best Supporting Actor). He also produced the very popular THE SOCIAL NETWORK ( which surprisingly lost to THE KING'S SPEECH).


Wikipedia notes on Rudin --

Jump to search
Scott Rudin
Born
July 14, 1958 (age 61)
Baldwin, New York, U.S.
Occupation
Producer
Years active
1978–present
Scott Rudin (born July 14, 1958)[1] is an American film, TV and theatre producer.

His notable films include the Academy Award-winning Best Picture No Country for Old Men, as well as Lady Bird, Fences, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Social Network, School of Rock, The Hours, Zoolander, The Truman Show, The First Wives Club, Clueless, The Firm, The Addams Family, and eight Wes Anderson films.[2]

On Broadway, he has won fifteen Tony Awards for shows such as The Book of Mormon, Hello, Dolly!, The Humans, A View from the Bridge, Fences, and Passion.[3]

His television credits include executive-producing Aaron Sorkin's The Newsroom for HBO and School of Rock for Nickelodeon.

In 2012, Rudin became one of the few people who have won an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony Award, and the first producer to do so.

[jo]

Someone resurrected an old BWW thread speculating on whether Winthrop is Marian's son or her brother?

The original thread was opened in 2006!

www.broadwayworld.com/board/readmessage.php?thread=912589&page=1

Will the revival give a direct answer to this controversial question


Jo

[mamaleh]

I think the speculation is pretty silly. Yes, Marian is appreciably older than her brother, but it was far from unheard of to have siblings born 20 years apart in those days. Plus, author-composer Meredith Willson based Marian on his much-older sister. Of course, judicious casting can help in that regard.

Ellen

[jo]

I wanted to put in a different suggestion to end the speculation ( by making another speculation) - but I was not sure they would see it as a possibility?

How about --

Winthrop was a foundling and Mrs. Paroo ( and her then husband) adopted him legally. Marian could not do it because she is a single woman ( maybe not allowed by the law then).

What I would be curious about is how the revival will handle that issue, if it does

Btw, someone said that Mrs Paroo will be played by a 66-year old actress. Maybe it was done because Sutton is already 44?


Jo