Which makes the 10 years of sold out performances even more amazing.
<green>Wicked, of course. ;)

Actually, Starrs, in most recent months, Wicked has hit the high 90% capacity mark! (Hey, Starrs, what do expect to hear from an anti-Wicked person!) But, hey, Wicked's statistics are still pretty damned impressive.

PS: The Lion King is even more remarkable at around 16 years of capacity or near-capacity attendance..

"Of course, someone could argue that The Book of Mormon would undoubtedly attract more people if its theater was as large! But, then you might say that's besides the point!"

No, I wouldn't say that's besides the point at all. Of course the total number of seats has much to do with it. By the same token if Spiderman were in a smaller theatre and was selling out fully, it would still be in trouble. It just can't raise enough income to pay its costs.

Poor Spider Man can't seem to be getting any breaks these days. Now we learn that its balloon may not be allowed to fly in the Macy's Parade tomorrow if the predicted wind gusts become a reality.

That's OK, Howard, half the time Spiderman is unable to fly in the show too, so it seems appropriate.

Add us to the list of those who loved A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Marriage. We thought it a sheer delight from beginning to end. Don't miss it! And, if you want to save money on tickets, playbill.com has a discount offer that's good through mid-February. (Note: The offer is NOT available on broadwaybox.com.)

After reading this thread the other day, I ordered discounted tickets to A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder. Just got back from the show, liked it a lot. Sparkling dialogue and clever lyrics, lots of great singing, and a terrific performance by Jefferson Mays as eight different characters.

Very well received by the audience. There were still seats available. Hope it finds the audience it deserves.

Mothers and Sons with Tyne Daly IS coming to Broadway with previews beginning Feb 23rd.

My biggest decision is whether to bite the bullet and purchase full price presale tickets now or gamble on a discount in a few weeks or so. Most open-ended plays do get discounted.

Centralparkgirl, yes it is. If you look back in the Broadway posts to something like June you'll see where I raved about that show which premiered at the Bucks County Playhouse and predicted then it would be on Broadway this next season.

Don't get me wrong. The play could use some work since that premier and it remains to be seen how successful it might be on Broadway, and hopefully it is getting some editing. I sat in on an audience feedback with Terrence McNally where much of the audience pointed out some bothersome and confusing issues -- hopefully those are now fixed. But Tyne Daly's performance alone is worth the price of admission. Honestly though, I'd be very surprised if discounts aren't soon available especially for previews. This is not the type of show that will sell out in advance -- I feel pretty certain about that.

Oh, also the production co-starred Bobby Steggert, who unfortunately wasn't going to do the Broadway run due to his major role in Big Fish, but this week it's been unofficially announced he will do Mothers and Sons, as Big Fish is closing.

NP - Yes. I remember what you wrote. That's why I posted the announcement. Good to hear about Bobby Steggert. I had only read about Tyne Daly. I looked up two reviews last night from New Hope. One was absolutely stellar and one was so-so. I still really want to see it with her. I agree that there will be discounted tickets and am going to wait. $137 ticket for a 90 minute play is crazy.

I recently saw And Away We Go by Terrence McNally and far from loved it. It needs a lot of work.

cpg, I agree with Patrick about waiting for discount offers. I think the chances are very good there'll be offers.

For those of you who have seen or are interested in seeing A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder, you might be happy to learn that Kind Hearts and Coronets is being show on TCM (Turner Classic Movies) tonight (8 p.m. eastern time). Both are based on the same book.

Yesterday I saw After Midnight. It's a terrific "review" of CottonClub like classics. Amazing dance, particularly some of the best tap I've seen since Bring in da Noise, Bring in da Funk. And American Idol Fantasia is really an amazing featured soloist with such classics as "I can't Give You Anything But Love" and "Stormy Weather" (or as she sings in "Schtormy Weather".
I'm usually not a big fan of reviews or jukebox musicals (those featuring older songs rather than a score written for it) but this one I really loved.

HI Neo, I just bought a ticket to After Midnight this eve for March, before finding this thread. booked a ticket for a show on my birthday in March. How was Dule Hill? I didn't get to see him in Bring in Da Noise, Bring in Da Funk, but I am a BIG fan of Psych, and they sometimes work his singing and tap skills into a storyline.

Also want to recommend "A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder". Saw it over Thanksgiving weekend. Really no takeaway song, & 1sounds a LOT like "I Want to be a Producer" from The Producers. BUT I think I laughed from the first scene to the last. And the sets are very clever. Walter Kerr Theatre. I sat in a back Mezzanine row, and I could see every facial expression.

Glad to hear you are all enjoying A Gentleman's Guide. Saw a good off Broadway one woman show last night called Love Linda about Cole Porter's wife Linda. It's at the York theater and is very good.

wow, ninasdream, you must have great eyes. I could never see actual expressions from the back row of the mezzanine even in a smaller theatre like Gentleman's Guide.

Dule Hill was great. In fact the entire production and cast are just wonderful. Note that k.d. Lang is taking over for Fantasia in January. These are not actual characters, but rather songs as if presented by a guest artist at the Cotton Club, so the singer could easily be white instead of black. Just kind of funny to think of k.d.Lang replacing Fantasia -- it will certainly become far different. I'm even assuming rather than those gorgeous costumes Fantasia wears, we'll be seeing something more like a tuxedo. Just a guess.

OMG!!!

I'm going!

Thanks Neo!

As the year winds up, I was thinking what a good year it was for my wife and me theater-wise. It's not often in recent years that five of the shows we saw were truly outstanding. Listed in chronological order, they were The Assembled Parties, Matilda, Buyer & Cellar, The Glass Menagerie and The Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder. The first one has closed, the other are still running and I highly recommend all four. As an incentive, discount tickets are available for all but Matilda currently.

But Matilda has been available at TKTS often. I got a half price ticket center orchestra -- actually way less than half price as that should be premium pricing!
Yes, it's been a good year for theatre.

Patrick, I suppose that's good and bad news for Matilda.......good for people who want to see it, but not so good for the backers of the show!
Of course, with the busiest Broadway season coming up, I assume that Matilda (and many other shows) will not have tickets available at TKTS during the holiday period.
And once again, I remind theatergoers to check BOTH broadwaybox.com AND playbill.com for offers, as sometimes the discount is available on one of the sites but not the other.

I just bought discounted tickets for "Gentlemen's Guide" in January. Glad to hear everyone like it so much. Ours are mezzanine also, not quite the back row but close, so Ninasdream, I'm glad to hear you could see well from back there.

Now to confer with my mom and decide what else we will see that weekend. Probably will try for Opera tickets. Maybe we can fit in a Sunday matinee as well....

We sat in the mid-mezzanine for Gentleman's Guide and the seats were fine.

Neo & China cat- I know I sound nutty, but I could see really well. Of course, the show is so over-the-top and the gestures are exaggerated, that went a long way. Did either of you see The Drowsy Chaperone? I liken it to that in terms of silliness and fun.

Neo -Thanks for the reply on Dule Hill and the cast. I was actually going to go last weekend, but saw KD Lang was coming on board, so I waited for her. I have been a big fan of her voice ever since I heard "Full Moon Full of Love" on her first LP. I hadn't heard such a lush voice in a long time Thought she'd be the next Patsy Kline. Was consequently caught offguard by her androgenous persona, & path she chose on bucking the music machine. Anyway...

How long do you have to wait on TKTS lines nowadays? Like on a non-holiday? I have a bad knee and can't really stand for long, like an hour might get tricky. I was thinking about seeing Matilda. I actually went into the box office and was asking about tickets for a future date, ready to buy when the man at the window turned to a coworker and begain chatting about an incident with a child earlier that week. When I couldn't get his attention after 5 minutes, I just left. I'm from the city and still found that outrageous. Maybe I'll just try TKTS.

If you go to TKTS around 5 or 6 p.m. or later, there's usually little or no line. Sometimes you luck in at that time or later when unsold tickets are sent over there as curtain time gets closer. At other times, however, you may have missed out on tickets that were available earlier that day. It's often just the luck of the draw.
One thing for sure, however, is that if you go earlier (like around 2 or 3 for an evening performance or 10:30-11:30 for a matinee) you're likely to have to wait in line for a while.

I didn't mean to imply that seats in the back of the mezzanine for Gentleman's Guide wouldn't be good. But I honestly can't imagine anyone -- no matter how good their eyes are -- being able to see "every facial expression". Even a raised eyebrow or a curled lip? That truly is amazing!

Howard - thanks, exactly what I was looking for, I haven't used tickets since they moved to new location. SO it's been a while!
Neo - I think the campimess helped telegraph it all. But maybe it's like how much French I think I spoke on my last trip to Paris, part reality, part rosy gloss-imbued memory trick!

My husband and I managed some very cheap tickets to "Peter and the Starcatcher", which is off-Broadway, three weeks ago. It was very enjoyable, and I'd see it again if I had the chance. It sounds like it is closing soon, though.

We also saw "Waiting for Godot" from the front row. Seeing some of what went on on stage that "up close and personal" was sometimes a bit hard to take, LOL, but we were a little off to the side and the sight lines were actually very good. Patrick Stewart was fun to watch, but it was Ian McKellen who really amazed me.

I just returned from some stunning off off Broadway. Finian's Rainbow and Flahooley at the Harlem Repertory Theatre. Will return with a longer post but for now, see it if you can before the 12th.

http://www.harlemrepertorytheatre.co...nt_season.html

I'm just back from seeing Motown and Gentleman's Guide last weekend, both of which I loved.

Ninasdream, I understand what you meant when you said you could see every expression. Of course, you can't really...but the cast did such a good job of projecting, and playing even to the upper part of the theater, that it did feel like you were closer than you really were. In particular, Bryce Pinkham who plays Monty Navarro makes the best faces, and he is so expressive you can really see them from far away.

I thought Gentleman's guide was one of the funniest things I've seen and I definitely recommend it. The sets are very clever, the death scenes are hilarious. the whole ice skating bit had me in stitches. Also, the various attempts to kill the great aunt, culminating in the use of an axe...you don't even see those, and its funny.

I liked Motown too, it was fun and well done. Was this show Berry Gordy's rebuttal to Dreamgirls though? I kept thinking it was...as if he was trying to say "I did it because I loved the music, the artists were family...i'm really not a money grubbing, controlling, soul sucking SOB like they made me out to be, i swear!" Even so, it was a lot of fun, and the music and dancing were great. I should ignore what little plot there was.

I hope to catch this play: Tracy Letts will be starring in "The Realistic Joneses" by Will Eno with Michael C. Hall, Toni Collette, and Marisa Tomei. Previews are set to begin in mid-March and opening April 6th, but theater is not yet announced.

And beginning April 1, the wonderful Estelle Parsons (along with Stephen Spinella) in Velocity of Autumn at The Booth. I'd go anywhere to listen to Estelle Parsons read the phone book.
Discounts available till June 8, using code VADML1 on Broadwayoffers.com (telecharge). "Wickedly funny and touching".

Partner sat next to Marsha Norman at Jason Robert Brown's Bridges of Madison County...they both seemed thrilled with the production. Opens Feb 20. TDF tix were available.

On Off Off Broadway - I just saw the Olmsted piece at the Gilded Age festival. Great. It plays 2 more times this week but it needs a longer life.

http://metropolitanplayhouse.org/gildedstage

And the current run of shows at the Harlem Repertory Theatre have been extended through second week in February. Finian's Rainbow and Flahooley were gems.

http://thestarryeye.typepad.com/expl...y-theatre.html

And way off Broadway - movie Palace not theatre - The United Palace of Cultural Arts will be showing West Side Story next month.

http://thestarryeye.typepad.com/expl...f-culture.html

ekscrunchy, I'm hoping Marsha Norman and your partner are among the majority, but the early blogs I'm reading are suggesting that Bridges. . . is pretty dull. Particularly people are talking about how slow the second act is how it "just doesn't work" -- particularly for those who know the book or the movie. The one positive I'm hearing over and over though is Kelli O'Hara may have the best voice on Broadway, and apparently her songs are really beautiful (if not memorable).

China Cat - wasn't that ice skating scene a riot? Glad you enjoyed it, and thank you for corroborating that the facila expressions are so exaggerated, that you feel you are seeing it close-up! I feel vindicated!
CHgogal - thanks for the word on "The Realistic Joneses - what a cast!
Neo - I love Estelle Parsons voice and her wonderfully expressive face, and her range from straight man to zany. I will look for that one.

Gee, ninasdream, no need to feel vindicated -- I assume you are referring to my questioning your statement before that "I sat in a back Mezzanine row, and I could see every facial expression."

It may be a minor point, but I never would have questioned your later statements about the exaggeration and telegraphing so that "you feel you are seeing it close up". Yes, I totally agree with that and certainly always would have, but it has little to do with what you first said about actually SEEING every facial expression". The point is that they physically show so much with their exaggerated body language that you really don't need to see their actual expressions.

Speaking of Estelle Parsons, did anyone else see her do August: Osage County on Broadway? There's another wonderful performance that perhaps made me appreciate Meryl Streep's performance of the same role just a little bit less than I might have otherwise.

I did see Estelle Parson's every facial expression on Broadway - from a front row seat at Grace and Glory. That was when I fell in love with sitting up (ultra) close, even when I might miss something else going during the performance.

We saw Estelle Parson in the role in Toronto - when she came flying down the stairs at 81 it was an extraordinary sight.

(didn't like the play though)

Hey Patrick, yes I saw Estelle Parsons in August: Osage County. I remember agonizing over whether I wanted to go see that play because it was 3 hours long. And then I was so happy I did, because it was soooo good. I haven;t seen Meryl Streep in the movie yet, I think I feel like you...I'll appreciate it a little less.

Mark me on the other side of this discussion. We saw Estelle Parsons in the show on Broadway, and we still marveled (as usual) at Meryl Streep's interpretation in the movie.