The lights on Broadway were glowing a bit brighter this week after its 2010 numbers were announced.
Bigger revenues. Higher attendance. The Great White Way must be doing something right.
Or is it?
The top money makers have been around a long, long time. Wicked. The Lion King. Jersey Boys. The Phantom of the Holy-Crap-People-Are-Still-Going-To-See-The Opera.
It’s not to say that many of these productions aren’t wonderful. I would see Wicked once a week if I had tickets. (I would see Phantom if it were deemed the appropriate punishment for a truly, evil deed committed.)
But I sometimes feel like the audiences visiting New York City exhibit the same caution towards their theater ticket purchase as they do what street to walk down in Times Square.
Always taking the safe route, the tried and true, and — more and more so — Disney-approved.
So by the time the Tony Awards roll around in June, many of the shows nominated will have already closed due to low audience turnout.
Case in point: Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson.
Bloody was a smash hit Off-Broadway and made the leap to the Great White Way earlier this year. Critics loved it. Audiences? They went to Wicked and Lion King, which I saw in previews in 1994. That’s 1994.
Come on, people. You’ve seen the movie. You probably own the movie. Your kid lost their stuffed Simba before they started college.
Bloody was funny and irreverent and semi-educational. And, yes, just edgy enough to remind you all…
You’re in New York City.
Video this
Have you watched America’s Funniest Home Videos lately?
Show’s still got game.
I caught part of the Christmas special tonight. It’s probably the first time I’ve watched the program in 10 years and — darn it — the clips of kids and cats and dogs and grandmas caught in compromising circumstances while celebrating their holidays made me laugh aloud.
Embarrassing, but true.
AFV also kept the holiday show in the family by hosting the special at Disneyland’s Winter Wonderland. So all the lights and Disney characters and Santa himself added a certain something-something.
Tonight was a good reminder for me, too.
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Posted in Celebrities, Commentary, Entertainment, Family, Holiday, Humor, Television, TV
Tagged AFV, America's Funniest Videos, celebrities, Christmas special, comedy, commentary, Dancing with the Stars, Disney, Disneyland Winter Wonderland, entertainment, family, Holiday, holiday celebrations, Humor, life, pratfalls, precocious kids, showmanship, Television, Tom Bergeron, TV, video clips