Broadway bares its claws
It’s not going to be easy-going for GREASE:
‘GREASE’ & DESIST By MICHAEL RIEDEL – Theater – New York Post Online Edition
THE folks involved in “Grease” have been brag ging for a week now about ticket sales – $9 million and counting for a revival that doesn’t open until July.
What they haven’t been talking about is a little misfire that happened last Monday, the day after the final installment of “You’re the One That I Want. . .”
The phones at Ticketmaster were, I’m told, ringing off the hook because a lot of viewers who bought tickets to “Grease” weren’t happy with the actors chosen to play Danny and Sandy [...]
“There was a bit of a frenzy because a lot of people wanted Austin and Ashley to win,” says a source. “They wanted their money back.” [...]
The “Grease” team is also acutely aware that the Broadway community despised “You’re the One That I Want.” The only insider I know who was able to stomach every episode was writer and performer Seth Rudetsky. And that, I hope, is only because Playbill.com paid him to write a column about it every week.The rest of Broadway was put off by the cheesy production values, poorly staged musical numbers and cookie-cutter nobodies who auditioned to play Danny and Sandy.
Click through to read about how much the producer and writer are hated. Kathleen Marshall is still safe, it would seem.
Hopefully, this will teach reality TV wannabes a valuable lesson — America goes more for the underdog and the personal story than they do the talent. Not that Max is bad, but Austin is so much stronger but without the cute kid/underdog story to back him up.
I don’t see the big deal with the Sandies, though.