What`s in a name? If it`s Shakespearean and the title of a play, it can be box-office poison.
In the case of Richard Nelson`s ”Two Shakespearean Actors,” which closed Sunday at the Cort Theater after 33 previews and 29 performances, there is much speculation in the theater industry as to whether its title contributed to its demise, since the play received nine favorable, four mixed and only three negative reviews.
”It sounds like a high school course,” said Jack Viertel, the creative director of Jujamcyn Theaters. Judging from sales at the TKTS half-price ticket booth for the play in the weeks before its official opening on Jan. 16, it would seem that assessment is accurate.
One theater executive said the play, set against the 1849 Astor Place theater riots, sold relatively few tickets during its previews, including the traditionally high-volume Christmas week. The executive said that in the same weeks, the only other non-musical Broadway play that was at TKTS consistently, ”Park Your Car in Harvard Yard,” outsold ”Two Shakespearean Actors”
4-1.
The reason, he said, is that given the choice, people will buy anything but Shakespeare. After the reviews of ”Two Shakespearean Actors” came out on Jan. 17, sales increased, but not enough to ensure the play`s run.
Another problem with the title was the word ”two,” which implied that there were only two actors in the cast when there are 27-an unusually large and expensive number for a Broadway play.
”Shakespeare is death at the box office,” said Bernard Gersten, the executive producer of Lincoln Center Theater, which produced the play. ”When I produced the musical version of `Two Gentlemen of Verona,` we wrote `by William Shakespeare` in tiny type at the bottom of the ad.
”At the half-price ticket booth, people don`t know any more about a show than its title unless it`s really been around a long time, so the low numbers aren`t surprising. We had discussed the title with Richard Nelson, but he said that he wanted to keep it.”
Last season, Paul Rudnick`s ”I Hate Hamlet,” a Broadway comedy about John Barrymore returning from the dead, had a similar double whammy-a Shakespearean play in its title and the word ”hate,” which everyone said had negative connotations. ”I thought the title was wonderful because everyone does hate Hamlet secretly,” said Viertel of Jujamcyn, which co-produced the play.
Rudnick said: ”You just can`t underestimate America`s real terror of the classics. Richard Nelson`s play would have probably done better as either `No Shakespearean Actors` or `Two Shakespearean Actors Are Dead.` ”
James B. Freydberg, a co-producer of ”I Hate Hamlet,” said: ”When a show hits, the title doesn`t matter. When a show doesn`t work, then everyone looks at the title.” Gersten agreed. ”The worst title ever for a musical was `Hair.` After it became a hit, it was a great title.”
– What do they do at ”Catskills on Broadway” when someone gets sick?
The show features four headliners doing shtick as only they can: Freddie Roman, Dick Capri, Marilyn Michaels and Mal Z. Lawrence, so just any understudy won`t do.
When Michaels recently got the flu, she was replaced briefly by Julie Budd. Remember when Julie Budd was going to be the next Barbra Streisand?
The men who are waiting in the wings conjure similar memories of weekends at Grossinger`s: Corbett Monica, Vic Arnel and Lenny Rush.
”If I was burning up with fever, I`d still be there,” said Lawrence, the comic who has the coveted closing spot in the show. ”Remember Wally Pipp? He was a first baseman who took one day off. Lou Gehrig took his place. That spot is mine. It`s like a parking spot. You`d have to tow me.”
Lawrence opened his spot recently by saying, ”What an honor it is to be here on a Wednesday night at the height of the off season.” But really, folks, he said that nothing beats Broadway.
”People have more respect here than in Atlantic City or Vegas,” he said. ”Probably because there`s no smoke, they`re all facing the same way, and they`re actually paying to see you. In the Catskills the show is thrown in with the room rate.”
