Word: landesman
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...past: a Jerome Robbins retrospective; a blues-and-dance collage with no new songs, Black and Blue, from the creators of Tango Argentino; and a Duke Ellington score, Queenie Pie, left unfinished at his death in 1974, that has been touted for Broadway for three seasons. Says Rocco Landesman, a producer who succeeded with Big River and Into the Woods: "With a musical there are 40 ways for things to go wrong and only one for them to go right, which is for everything to come together...
...Stephen King's 1974 novel about a tormented teenager with psychic powers became a best seller, then a multiple Oscar nominee as a 1976 movie. But onstage it set records of a different sort: losing more than $7 million made it Broadway's biggest failure ever. Said President Rocco Landesman of Jujamcyn Theaters, which invested $500,000 and provided a house for the show: "This is the biggest flop in the world history of the theater, going all the way back to Aristophanes...
...after surveying the prospects, Kurz, who has prospered by importing Cats into his home country, flew back to Europe without telling Landesman or many of his other collaborators that he had ordered a closing notice to be put up at the theater. According to investors, Kurz thereby saved an estimated $150,000 to $175,000, the difference between another week's operating costs and the projected box-office income. He was really prompted, however, by what usually determines the fate of unfavorably reviewed shows: he had run out of money. To have any hope of turning things around, he needed...
...these costs, Carrie barely had carfare home after its Broadway opening night. There was no contingency plan, just a hope against hope for generosity from the critics. When that failed, Gore, Librettist Lawrence Cohen and Lyricist Dean Pitchford started shopping for emergency investors to create an instant reserve fund. Landesman pondered stepping in with more cash from Jujamcyn but in the end decided not to underwrite even one additional week's losses so the search for investors could go on. Explains Landesman: "I would have put up $500,000, but I didn't see the rest of the $2 million...
...after the premiere of their first collaboration, Sunday in the Park. Through three workshop productions, a regional tryout at the Old Globe Theater in San Diego and five weeks of Broadway previews, they kept making fundamental changes almost daily, even in the basic plot. Quips Woods Co-Producer Rocco Landesman: "Opening night is a formality to these guys. I wouldn't be surprised if they put in new stuff the week it closes." Indeed, Sondheim has persuaded his Follies collaborators to gather in London in January to revise the show yet again...