Its funny that Virginia Woolf has a smaller weekly gross than Anarchist with 4 actors but that goes on, while Anarchist get the plug pulled with two actors. I don't get it.
The Anarchist probably had a terrible advance, and then lost any chance of potentially growing its advance with its horrible reviews and word of mouth. The producers decided to cut their losses.
Virginia Woolf may have better advances, it may cost less due to having four actors that aren't big names, it has critical pedigree and award potential.
I read in another thread that Debra Winger was out for a performance. Who goes on for her/Patti when either ladies are absent? from RC in Austin, Texas (a blue lake in a sea of red).
Quick question: is The Anarchist still offering rush? I am thinking of going on Wednesday for the matinee, but I no longer see it listed on the Playbill list of rush policies. Also, has anyone rushed recently, or at all? If so, how was it? I assume I'll have no trouble getting a ticket.... unless they're only offering a limited number of student rush tickets!
Quick question for those who saw the show. Do you think, as Feingold suggests, that the play would have been more effective if done in a more intimate setting than Broadway? Could the small theaters of off-off Broadway make this into something interesting? Why or why not?
Patti LuPone as SOME selling power; otherwise this two person show would not have grossed 300,000 plus every week. Compare these grosses to other plays and even Scandalous. They are not bad grosses. In fact, with 300,00) plus per week, They are more than Virginia Woolf. If I were the producer, I would give the play a chance to run--their nut can't be that big with only 2 actors in the cast
She just doesn't have the selling power of a Pacino or a Streep.
I caught this tonight and my thoughts pretty much echo what everyone else said. It's a really, really interesting premise but...that's really about it. Everything that happened in this show could and should have been one thirty minute scene in a larger, more fleshed out play. I usually enjoy Mamet's plays (though his recent works have ranged from uninspired to just flat out bad) but this ranks close to the bottom of his catalogue. All I kept thinking was "who the hell speaks like this...?" He seems to use big words just for the sake of using big words and his verbiage is so over-wrought and too flashy for its own good. If he made the language in the show more concise, then maybe he could have spent more time developing the themes, characters, relationship, and general "plot." Jordan hit the nail on the head when he said this plays like a high school playwriting class project.
LuPone is very solid, at times almost mesmerizing in a part that is so wildly underdeveloped. But Winger seems to be phoning it in and in over her head. She stumbled on her lines and the one or two times she stepped out of her monotone line delivery to put any sort of urgency or power behind her line readings, she was almost embarrassingly bad.
It was one of those shows that you forget you saw as you're watching it. It practically evaporates before your eyes.
I saw DEAD ACCOUNTS this weekend as well and have decided someone needs to have an intervention with Mamet and Rebeck. They both seem to come out with at least one (bad) new show a season instead of taking the time to develop and polish one piece, so that it's actually ... good and worthy of being produced on Broadway. Granted, Mamet is infinitely more talented than Rebeck, but I digress.
It's really depressing to think that Grace has been the best new play of the season so far (not counting The Performers which shuttered so quickly and The Other Place which just began last night). It's been a rough fall for new material.
This entire season has been an overall disappointment to me, thus far. The only Broadway play I saw that I believe is truly worth rushing to see is a revival that is barely filling the house to 60% weekly (...VIRGINIA WOOLF?) and my favorite musical thus far is a limited engagement for the holidays (A CHRISTMAS STORY).
Other than that...blech. Hopefully the spring is better!
I could never trash Mamet. Was too good for too long and not just plays. For example, he easily gave Paul Newman and Don Ameche their best late career film roles. But truth is based on the premise of this play the only way I would have purchased a ticket for it was if the two leads were Kate Winslet and Cate Blanchett and it included an extended prison shower scene.
I can almost guarentee you that the Virginia Woolfe cast isn't getting near the salary/perks as Lupone and Winger. Patti is notorious for demanding her "comforts" during a run. Things like an apartment in the city, car services, possible gross points, etc on top of a star salary really add up. Don't get me wrong, she's not the most demanding diva ever and all of these things are fairly common-place, but Tracy/Amy ain't getting near the levels of Lupone.
She may very well now, but I know it was in her contract for "Gypsy" that they show paid for a two bedroom furnished apartment for nights she doesn't want to commute back to Connecticut. It was talked about in an article that came out the week it closed. I'll see if I can find it later tonight.
It is a sad, sad day when GRACE is the current best new play. Though I think THE OTHER PLACE will make it topple. God, GRACE was excruciating. I might have even preferred THE ANARCHIST to it, believe it or not...
If only Durang's new play (hands down best new play of the season so far) would transfer...
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joined:11/14/12
Posted: 12/9/12 at 01:06pm