More important to give a great performance at the Tonys than to win?

[passing strange]

Posted: 6/25/19 at 8:06pm

What do you think? Beetlejuice has sen the biggest increase in grosses even though it didn't take home any Tonys. Meanwhile, The Cher Show just announced that it is closing. Hmmmm...

[HogansHero]

Posted: 6/25/19 at 8:13pm

uh, The Cher Show did not win at the Tonys. It was not nominated. If you are referring to Block's win, as has been rehearsed here innumerable times, the only win that sells tix is the best show award. 

[Jeffrey Karasarides]

Posted: 6/25/19 at 8:15pm

I don’t know if the producers of the Tony telecast actually tried, but what a missed opportunity it was that the real Cher wasn’t a part of the performance from The Cher Show. That probably would've been helpful in giving the musical a boost at the box office. I guess even giving it a major Tony Award still was not enough to help.

[passing strange]

Posted: 6/25/19 at 8:20pm

True!  That would have been attention grabbing.  It might have helped.  Something about Beetlejuice's performance really connected with the audience.  It's great to see that at least.

[HogansHero]

Posted: 6/25/19 at 9:25pm

if it was a missed opportunity it landed on the show's producers (coincidentally, Cher), not the Tony award producers. I'm not sure why her appearance (obviously she had no intention of doing that) would have boosted sales for the show. Are you suggesting that they do some kind of bait and switch? The only thing that would have boosted sales would have been if Cher had been in the show, which would defeat the purpose of the show (as well as being something she had no intention of doing in any event).

This artless enterprise did better than any reasonable person could have expected, but it was always DOA.

[Chowd95]

Posted: 6/25/19 at 11:11pm

I think it's more important to win. The amount of people that watch the Tony's isn't huge. To be able to have "Winner of (insert # here) Tony's) above the marquee has to make a difference in what people decide to see when they're in New York and also helps boost interest when advertising for tours.

[Chowd95]

Posted: 6/25/19 at 11:11pm

Dbl post

Updated On: 6/25/19 at 11:11 PM

[bear88]

Posted: 6/26/19 at 3:28am

I've got a related question.

Does it matter if a show gives a great performance at the Tony Awards telecast? We all assess the performances as if they make a difference, and in the days of YouTube, it's more common for people to see the clips for months afterward. But I suspect most of the people watching are just repeat viewers. Maybe Beetlejuice helped itself with its performance this year by reminding viewers the show exists. (Alex Brightman was funny, although the song itself was very unmemorable.) 

Is there any history of a show that doesn't win Best Musical boosting its box office on a sustained basis because of a well-received Tony performance?

[AADA81]

Posted: 6/26/19 at 5:06am

'Beetlejuice' was a known property before Broadway, so it may just be that the Tony performance brought attention to the fact that it's now a musical playing in New York.  Name recognition + awareness of show = a bump in ticket sales.  I certainly don't think the Tony performance was anything special and the song was totally forgettable, but a known quantity is a known quantity.  It's why this particular property was developed in the first place.

[copskid949]

Posted: 6/26/19 at 7:50am

AADA81 said: "'Beetlejuice' was a known property before Broadway, so it may just be that the Tony performance brought attention to the fact that it's now a musical playing in New York. Name recognition + awareness of show = a bump in ticket sales. I certainly don't think the Tony performance was anything special and the song was totally forgettable, but a known quantity is a known quantity. It's why this particular property was developed in the first place."

Not to mention the losers, geeks, and whatevers are trading their SQUIPs for a new type of strange and unusual. The BMC stans are for sure going to contribute a part of that boost.

[Broadway61004]

Posted: 6/26/19 at 8:12am

Beetlejuice is also new (as in, only opened in April) whereas Cher has been running since the fall (and a lot of the touristy crowd already had a chance to see it over the holidays or spring break). So the Tonys may have helped Beetlejuice in the immediate future by giving attention to something a lot of people hadn't had a chance to see yet. But realistically, most of the people that would see The Cher Show have either already seen it or have already decided to wait for the tour.

[Mike Barrett]

Posted: 6/26/19 at 10:17am

As someone who is a child of parents who are of the "tourist" consumer group, the awards don't necessarily mean anything if they have interest in a show. For example, if they had interest in The Cher Show, its because of The Cher show. They don't care if it didn't win an award, its just something they're interested in. However when they see a show that does have the "Best musical" label on it, it almost always catches their attention. They had not even heard of Hadestown but once they saw all the tony wins and nominations, they looked into buying tickets. We watched The Tony's in full as well and they enjoyed almost all performances, but none of them they were like "GET ME THE COMPUTER, WE MUST SEE THIS" kind of deal. So while this situation is not like everyone's, the win really does put you ahead of others in terms of competing for sales. 

[Lot666]

Posted: 6/27/19 at 10:04am

passing strange said: "Beetlejuice has sen the biggest increase in grosses even though it didn't take home any Tonys. Meanwhile, The Cher Show just announced that it is closing."

Of the musicals that performed during the Tonys, I have only seen Hadestown and The Prom. The only performance that made me at all interested in seeing the respective show was Beetlejuice. Oddly, I wasn't particularly motivated by Alex Brightman; in fact, I found him borderline irritating. Rather, it was the performance of the ensemble with the umbrellas that got my attention. Their part in the song reminded me of "The Mob Song" from Beauty and the Beast.