It's just amazing that a show that runs 2 and 1/2 weeks and is widely reviled as schlock gets a tour. I suppose some markets will buy anything to fill a season. Gazillion Bubble Show would probably be just as good by them. Maybe better.
Just because Ben Brantley didn't like it doesn't mean that others won't. From what I've seen on the interwebs, the audience members enjoyed the show, even if Brantley did savage work tearing it apart and maiming it.
"Just because Ben Brantley didn't like it doesn't mean that others won't." There were some others who loathed it, too.
"From what I've seen on the interwebs, the audience members enjoyed the show..." This audience member didn't enjoy it; and clearly not enough audience members enjoyed it to give it sufficient word of mouth to run more than 2 and 1/2 weeks.
Just because it was nominated for Best Musical doesn't mean it will perform. It cost more than $100,000 to perform at the Tonys, so a show that lost 14 million a month before the Tonys is not likely to perform. The tour and record sales are the only reason it's performing.
Most, maybe all, of the major critics hated Leap of Faith, and obviously not enough people liked it enough to pay more than $20 (about the average ticket price)to see it. And I tend to like shows more when I know I'm not wasting a lot of money on it.
If this "tour" ever happens, I will eat my hat. The one who should be most embarassed would be the Raul. Why would he perform after the scathing review he got from the TIMES? Some "producers" love to throw away money.
I don't think he perform because the show had such a short run and it was critically panned, including his performance. It's not like when The Scottsboro Boys performed last year, I believe that show got really good reviews, it just didn't get a large enough audience. And he's not nominated for best actor, so I don't think he gets anything out of it
@GatorNY, That is true. Well, despite the bad reviews, I do hope for a national tour. I would like the oppurtunity to see the show and judge it for myself.
Well, then, maybe you could also ask your local presenter to demand tours of Glory Days, Hot Feet, Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson, The Pirate Queen, A Tale of Two Cities, In My Life, Dance of the Vampires, Bonnie and Clyde, The Story of my Life and other unbearably bad mega-flops.
Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson got a rave for the nytimes, as well as other papers. It was just not embraced by the general public. It was "too experimental" for broadway.
I saw the World Premiere of BBAJ at The Kirk Douglas in LA and it was amazing. More for a younger audience though, so I see why it didn't make it on Broadway. I think it would have had a long life off-Broadway
I can't see a tour happening for this either - does anyone have any idea that this movie existed anymore?
Titles like A Tale of Two Cities, WONDERLAND, Bonnie & Clyde, Ghost, etc would do better than this on tour, especially considering that the reviews for all the musicals were pretty terrible.
I'm frankly confused as to why anyone thinks producers in their right minds would tour this thing. And sell it based on what? Being a spectacular flop? Adapted from a movie that virtually nobody even knows exists? Yes, audiences at large seemed to really go for it once you got them in the building, but it just seems wildly unrealistic (and kind of silly) to me.
I saw the show the week before it closed and I haven't posted about it because I don't think anybody really cares what I have to say. But it made me so upset because it was just a skeleton of what it used to be. (Opinion based on previous incarnations.) It was heartbreaking to have seen how great it could have been, and then to see that hacked to pieces. It just didn't work. And the worst part is that it could have. Don't get me wrong, I had a great time anyway and I'm glad I made it home in time to see it because seeing Raul in a musical is one of my happiest states. But those feeling can exist at the same time, and objectively, seeing what happened to that show was very disappointing.
Personally, I like that the first page of this thread says that a LEAP OF FAITH performance would take time away from other shows performing, then suggests a longer performance for FOLLIES. You know, another show that has been closed for months.
I know, I know, you'll argue FOLLIES was good and LEAP OF FAITH is, well, not... but let's be real about what the Tonys are around to promote, shall we?
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joined:3/3/10
Posted: 5/31/12 at 12:48pm