The Playgoer: Too Many Plays?

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Monday, February 25, 2008

Too Many Plays?

"I don't think the market can support so many plays."

-Bob Boyett, producer of many of this season's high profile dramas on Broadway.

He oughta know. As Variety's Gordon Cox illustrates, the abundance of dramatic fare in commercial productions ended up crowding the market, leaving solid critics' darlings like The Homecoming and even The Seafarer irretrievably in the red, it appears.

Other highlights?

Jeffrey Richards--another last-of-the-drama-lovers producer--argues: "Plays were in a good position, because there was no musical that really took hold of the public's imagination this fall."

On the other hand, Manny Azenburg says it's apples and oranges since, "we have two different audiences."

At least two.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

God, what a depressing way to hear them talk. Sure, they're commercial enterprises competing with each other for butts in the seats, but I'd still like to think that MORE good plays makes MORE people want to see MORE of them. (Expensive, I know!) Still, sad to imagine that a producer's wet dream is his show running at full capacity -- because there's hardly anything else around to compete.