Daddy's Home: My Return to the BC/EFA Flea Market

Today, after four years, I was able to return to the Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS Flea Market. This event was pretty much an annual holy day for me before I went to college and was happy that this year's event wasn't rained out.

Each year, my primary focus is supplementing my Playbill collection. Some people collect stamps, some people collect coins, I collect Playbills. It's something I've done since I saw my first show on Broadway (1994 revival of Grease). For me, a Playbill is the fundamental record of a production. Reading any Playbill tells you so much about the history of this art form.

This year, I ended up purchasing 107 Playbills. Here are some highlights of some of my favorite finds:

1. 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue - Being that this was Alan Jay Lerner's last show, I've been searching for this one for a while. This piece was meant to be a celebration of the bicentennial, but never really amounted to anything desireable. At the same time, any Leonard Bernstein score is worth a listen!
2. Bobbi Boland - This play, starring Farah Fawcett, lasted about 5 days of previews before the producers shut down the production. This playbill has a stub for the closing night!
3. Assassins (Playwrights Horizons) - For some reason, I never acquired this one until now!
4. Bells Are Ringing - 1958 - Original cast with Judy Holliday. A wonderful show that needs to be produced with more regularity.
5. Best Little Whorehouse Goes Public - You have to have pity for any musical sequel. This show lasted 16 performances.
6. Celebration - I have a soft spot for this musical that just doesn't work.
7. Destry Rides Again - Always interested in this Harold Rome musical from 1959 that was staged by Michael Kidd.
8. Do Re Mi - Original cast with Phil Silvers
9. Follies - For some reason I never had a Playbill for the Original Broadway production!
   
10. Goodtime Charley - One of many Grossman/Hackady scores.
11. The Happy Time - An underrated Kander/Ebb score
12. How Now Dow Jones - Interesting musical from 1968
13. I Can Get It For You Wholesale - I recently read this musical and would love to see a great book writer take a stab at updating it.
14. Kean - 1961 musical starring Alfred Drake that deals with actor Edmund Kean.
15. King David - This concert musical, written by Alan Menken and Tim Rice, opened the New Amsterdam Theater in 1997.
16. Oh, Calcutta! - Another show I couldn't believe I didn't have. With its racy content, I'm suprised there hasn't been a production of this by a daring theatre company.
17. On A Clear Day You Can See Forever - A show that absolutely needs a revival. The Lerner/Lane contains some of the most gorgeous music you'll ever hear.
18. One Two Three Four Five - I had never heard of this musical until today! Opening in December 1988, the musical was written by Maury Yeston and Larry Gelbart. My new quest is to find out what became of this musical!
19. A Party With Betty Comden and Adolph Green - This concert is classic Comden/Green.
20. The Red Shoes - This musical version of the classic story boasts a score by Jule Styne and Marsha Norman. The show was an $8 million flop that ran 5 performances.
21. Sail Away - Elaine Stritch starred in this classic Noel Coward musical.
22. Stop the World, I Want to Get Off - Although many would consider Anthony Newley's vision of musical theatre dated, I think that with the right director, this musical could be extremely relevant.
23. Sweeney Todd - Although I've had other Playbills from this production, I was happy to have one from previews!
24. Take Me Along - This adaptation of O'Neill's Ah Wilderness! boasts a Bob Merril score.
25. Two By Two - This musical, with such brilliant minds (Richard Rodgers, Peter Stone, Martin Charnin), never amounted to very much. In fact, star Danny Kaye was forced to continue performing in the show from a wheelchair after he broke his leg!
26. The Unsinkable Molly Brown - Always wants to learn more about this musical, written by The Music Man's Meredith Wilson.
27. Via Galactica - This musical, which lasted 7 performances, featured a score by Galt MacDermot (Hair).
28. Welcome To The Club - Here's another musical I'd never heard of (Michael Mooney to the rescue). Featuring a score by Cy Coleman (here co-writing lyrics for the first time), this musical opened in 1989 and lasted 12 performances.
29. Encores Playbills - The Apple Tree, The Boys From Syracuse, Carnival, Chicago, Golden Boy, House of Flowers, & No Strings.

Last but certainly not least, I also bought a Glory Days T-Shirt! Until I see a production of this musical, I will not believe that this show was an artistic failure, only a victim of it's late entry into the Broadway season.

All in all, it was a wonderful day and best of all, all of the proceeds went to Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS.

Let me know what you think of my purchases and let me know, if you were there, if you grabbed anything of note!

Avenue Q Moves Up to 50th Street

Since the last time I posted, an amazing thing happened that I must comment on!

The producers of Avenue Q (Kevin McCollum, Robyn Goodman, Jeffrey Seller, The Vineyard Theatre and The New Group) announced that the Broadway production would transfer to Off-Broadway's New World Stages. If you haven't read about this yet, click here.

There are many reasons why I'm excited by this. First of all, Avenue Q is a wonderful musical that deserves to been seen by more audiences, even though it ran on Broadway for six years. I'm also so impressed that the producers didn't buy into the "Broadway or Bust" mindset. They made their money, but still think this production needs a further life and made it happen.

That being said, what I'm most impressed with is the producers courage to make this transfer happen for the right reasons. They still believed that they could sell this show, but filling a Broadway theater for another few years might be a tougher task. Now, once they transfer, they have a new target number: 499. Selling a house of 500 seats is very manageable when you transfer a Tony award winning musical.

As excited as I am about this transfer, I would be even more excited if this became a small trend. As everyone knows, it is so hard for a show on Broadway to recoup its initial investment. What if there was a business model where a new show could open ob Broadway later in the season, make most of its money back in a post Tony Award summer, and then transfer soon after to a smaller commercial Off-Broadway space? Now of course, there are many wrinkles in this scenario. It could take a long time to recoup certain shows and there are less and less commercial Off-Broadway spaces each year. I leave this suggestion in the hands of those who could figure out a fiscal way to do this.

Among other things, a model like this could help small musicals succeed on Broadway and be profitable. In the meantime, I will happily make my way to New World Stages to see Avenue Q return to Off-Broadway.