Shameless Plug - Toronto Fringe Theatre
I love that something that came from the Toronto Fringe is now doing well enough to be talking about profits in the MILLIONS of dollars. The Drowsy Chaperone (which I thought was not the best musical I've seen but still very fun and entertaining) recouped its $8 Million initial investment. I loved this statement from Playbill.com "The milestone should give creators and producers of fresh musicals some hope: The Drowsy Chaperone is an original, out-of-the-blue show penned by Broadway neophytes and featuring performers who, for the most part, don't have a high profile outside of the theatre community. It also boasts that unusual title and is not based on an already-existing property, like a novel or film."
Hell ya! Enough of these Jukebox musicals (Ring of Fire = TANKED, Lennon = TANKED, The Times Are A Changin' = TANKED etc. etc. etc... okay. so Jersey Boys is like the biggest hit on Broadway right now but apparently it actually pulls together a story together though I'm still wary of seeing it, and Mamma Mia was awesome but mainly because of the Abba cornyness of it all), and now that they are making musicals out of movies including LOTR (which was not as terrible as people said and has potential but still not great), Legally Blonde, Batman and Dirty Dancing, and with High Fidelity seemingly like its going to be a big loser, let's go and applaud something fresh and new: like Spring Awakening (I know, I'm now obsessed and going to be really pushy about it until you all see it and it becomes a big hit!). (On the other hand, The Full Monty and Billy Elliot The Musical were really quite good).
So as I've mentioned before, The Toronto Fringe seems to be doing pretty well in NY, with The Drowsy Chaperone and now Evil Dead The Musical (okay, it's based on movies but it's a spoof of horror flicks in musical format, how can you NOT love it?)! Plus recent shows like Boygroove, Top Gun the Musical and AutoShow seem like shows that can move beyond the fringe for an afterlife (Boygroove already made a return to Toronto in a permanent theatre).
Of course, apparently one of the co-writers on The Drowsy Chaperone is now miserable at his success... ah... the artsy brooding types, and to think I'm trying to be one of them.
6 comments:
Okay, you have to spill the beans. Which co-writer is miserable with his success? Don McKellar? Bob Martin? Greg Morrison? It's apparently not Lisa Lambert.
I'm actually not sure exactly but I overheard all this at a party where Don and Greg were there. (So I'm guessing it's not Bob either since he's still performing in the show). I think it was Greg they were pointing about though in this discussion but don't quote me on that. (Then again, didn't Don always look a little miserable?)
Yes, Don can certainly brood with the best of them. So this was other people talking about Don and Greg, not Don or Greg talking about themselves?
It was from someone else just after one of the two passed through the conversation (the "bird" knew them it seems based on how friendly they were) then one joined the other. It was then when the "bird" mentioned it to us. I think it's probably cause of the lost of poor artsy CDN street cred that writers seem to yearn so much!
Gee, it's been a long long time since Don had any poor artsy street cred, and I didn't know Greg ever had any.
Was this in New York?
Maybe they just don't like "the bird" ;-)
haha, who knows. but no, this was back in TO back in the late summer actually. didn't seem like they didn't like the "bird" but who knows about these things. Either way, totally great TDC is a big success and now a few other Fringe shows seem to be getting life beyond it too!
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