Update 8.14.24: Water patronage slip continues, down to 75.67%. Show announces national tour starting in the fall of 2025. Can they reverse declining attendance?
Update: 8.8.24 Water for Elephants played to the smallest capacity (79.9%) of all shows on Broadway, the only one in the 70% range.
*** Revised, 7.30.24
TODAY'S WONDERMENTS begin with the 84% of seats being filled at Water for the Elephants on Broadway. Number looks good to me, but in fact it looms near the bottom of an official tracking website. Only one or two shows sink lower. Most musicals are well in the 90% range, and many are packing them in – just to give you a jolt of perspective. 70%? Virtually none. One of the leads already has announced exiting in September. The end of summer could spell less patronage. They might hang on long enough to claim legitimacy for a national tour.
FOREVER BARNUM: Rival adaptations of The Greatest Showman are forming on both sides of the Pond, or are they? Over Here, the Mickey Mouse musicals division of Disney still has in the works, or so reported Stage Spy in West End Theater last October, a stage adaptation of the Hugh Jackman film. Rumors suggested an opening anywhere as far out as 2027. But hold your animal crackers!
OVER THERE, for a fact, the same score is being featured in Come Alive!, an extravaganza “inspired” by the Jackman film. This one kept the songs, but ditched the largely fictional script for a new model. And it’s slated to open under a 700-seat tent at the Empress museum in Earls Court of London on September 23. ***Disney, which owns 20th Century Fox, maker of the film , appears to be peripherally involved, having "sanctioned" the production. Which begs the question: Are they still at work on their own adaptation? All suckers, to the front of the line. How so true did this feel to the darker history of P.T. renting out use of his name simultaneously to rival big tops.
OUT, DAMN GLOBE OF DEATH! From Italy to the UK comes creatively rich Gravity Circus. As noted by Douglas McPherson in his review of the show on on his blog, Circus Mania, “Circus thrives in the new.” At its best, surely it does. At the top Gravity’s roster of the new, they’ve 86d that tired old Globe of Death carny stunt. Taking a cue, I’d guess, from a similar arch of flying motorcyclists on Circus Extreme, the riders here soar over “a ring full of dancers and jugglers passing the central fountain while fire erupts in rising balls of flame.” Whew! Greyhound: Have you a through bus to there?
END RINGERS: Speaking of Barnum, latest issue of Bandwagon delivers a Big Show in Part 1 of Chris Berry’s spectacular story, “There Used 5o Be a Circus Here: Madison Square Garden." Lavishly illustrated yarn is centered around P.T. and other major tenting tycoons who played a role. I can’t wait for Berry to gets to the later years when I was around, assuming he does.
ROYALLY SPEAKING: Also In the same Bandwagon issue, James Royal is profiled by Lane Talbuet for his 10-year career in the UK, ringmastering, producing. and promoting. He has a way of partnering with names in the Gold class. He joined with Philip and Carol Gandley to create the telemarketed Circus Britannia – The Circus With a Purpose. A few years later, they brought out Circus Star. I’m waiting to see what Jim has to say about his days in partnership with John Ringling North II
7.28.24.
4 comments:
Has Show Biz David ever tossed sear bibles, unrolled canvas, lifted side poles, or worked a tear done in the pouring rain?
YES! Some of it -- Surprised? You can read all about it in my book Keep That Day Job, in the chapter titled Be a Clown, Be a Sledgehammer. Yes, BELIEVE IT.
p.s to All: I don't know what this weird new layout is for.
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