Wednesday, May 13, 2009

Digging Deeper...

At the risk of going overboard and not to seem like a loon on this, but...well, there's this. At A Producer's Perspective, Ken Davenport helpfully posts the B'way grosses for the week of 5/10. Two things jump out at me (and probably you, too):

1. Out of sixteen plays currently running on B'way, Joe Turner's Come and Gone at LCT ranks 8th. Accent on Youth? 12th.

2. That translates, cash-wise, into $52K a week more. And, at $235K, it's bringing in more than both of the other non-profit B'way plays.

And Joe Turner isn't exactly a star fest. So...there's that.

2 comments:

Adam said...

You noticed that too.

Here's the thing, if you showed a person who knows little to nothing about theatre the awards, praises and grosses of Ruined versus Accent on Youth and then asked:

"Which one of these should be on a high profile, visible, stage?"

The answer would be obvious.

Then if you showed this person the stated mission of MTC and asked the question again, the answer would be even more obvious.

But here's the deal, there is nobody of influence with MTC (black or white) willing to insist that Ruined be given the props it merits, not because it's a great "black" play but because it's a great play.

There is nobody willing to insist that Ruined be treated like every other blockbuster that falls into their lap.

If that isn't institution racism, what is it? Blatant stupidity? Maybe. But probably a mixture of both.

Tony Adams said...

It's probably worth remembering that it's a co-production with the Goodman who also had it on the second stage and send a lot of boulders to broadway this season as well.

MTC's not the only one in the boat. They (Which I think makes it even worse.)