Who knows where he is getting $2 million from. It may be a real figure repeated by a snitch affiliated with the producers or it may be a wild estimate. The beauty of Riedel is that he is a gossip columnist so he can say almost anything as long as it isn't against the law.
If his figure that they are bleeding 1/4 of a million dolloars a week is right, then running costs are at about 500K. That's a lot of money to make sure they can keep running.
And then there are the costs of performing at the Tony awards -- which I've heard is pretty expensive.
To BroadwayBen's question, it's actually a little less horrifying if they raised an extra $2 million. Baffling -- that anyone with any sense whatsoever would loan them money in their present state -- but less horrifying than if they have $2 million in unspent money from the capitalization that they're willing to throw away over the next 6 weeks. If I was an investor and found out that they were knowingly going to throw away the remaining 16% of capitalization, I'd be absolutely livid. If they take a loan, I'd still be upset because it would likely delay my ever seeing a penny back from subsidiary rights. But that's hypothetical money (and not likely to be much given the length of the Broadway run). If they have that much capitalization funds left over, that's real money they're throwing out the window.
It's hard to believe that they're raising the two million to stay open instead of just raising money to record it and hopefully make some money back on the amateur rights. Seems like it could be a popular regional title just because of Menken's name.
Getting nominated actually hurt them in the long run... they are going to lose more money by trying to stay open until the awards. I do not see the point in staying open considering they a) won't win and b)performing will most likely not bring in an audience.
Didn't the producer Chase Mishkin put an additional $2 million of her own money into URBAN COWBOY despite the negative reviews in hopes of a Best Musical nomination Tony? It closed a week after the Tony nominations came out where there was little enthusiasm for the show.
Some of these producers are extremely wealthy and sometimes fall in love with their shows and their casts and have no problem writing a big check to keep it open.
The producers have been offering Leap of Faith tickets for $4.00 (yes, my decimal is in the right place) to students, friends, families, etc. since they day after opening, and that was before the nomination came out. Anything to get people in the seats.
And its not like there are any pull quotes to advertise with.
LEAP has been pulling in less than 20% of potential grosses for 4 consequtive weeks. I don't see how anything could save it. That money might be better invested in new shows - lots of them.
At what point does it become useless and they just give up? Honestly, when you're the biggest joke on Broadway and your grosses/average ticket price is what is, when do you just close up shop and save yourself the humiliation?
They should have done with Riedel said - been happy with the nomination, closed, and moved on. What do they have to gain from this? They're bleeding money as it is!
I think the nominating committee would have looked like they had a bit of integrity if they had just reduced the category to three nominations. Leap of Faith, while it may not be the joke that Spider-Man, Bonnie and Clyde, Ghost, are, has no redeeming qualities at all.
There would have been no shame in admitting there were only three productions worth nominating for an award, even if "Best" is merely a relative term. "Best" ought to include some meaning of "good," not just "least bad."
At least both Ghost and Spider-Man have something visually appealing to them and/or have done something well in other places, despite have their flaws and things, but Leap of Faith is a disaster on so many levels that how can one really say it's more worthy of nomination than the previously mentioned two? I get the nomination committee wanted to avoid giving Spider-Man the gratification of being nominated for Best Musical, but Ghost could have easily been the fourth nominee if for no other reason than to give it some face time and help appeal it to the masses. When all is said and done, when Newsies or Once collects the award, Leap of Faith will once again come at a huge loss, so really - it's a ticking time bomb.
I just think those proud investors should suck it up and realize they put their money in a turkey of a show and cut their losses. What is keeping the show open going to prove? You can bleed money for weeks and weeks, get nominated for Best Musical only due to the lack of good material, and still close at a loss? Because, you know, that makes about as much sense as the show itself.
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joined:7/28/07
Posted: 5/2/12 at 12:51pm