Popular Plays - Audience Appeal - your recent best
Printed From: Community Theater Green Room
Category: Producing Theater
Forum Name: Play Suggestions
Forum Discription: Need help finding a show that's right for your theater? Ask here.
URL: http://www.communitytheater.org/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=3848
Printed Date: 5/16/24 at 10:45pm
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Topic: Popular Plays - Audience Appeal - your recent best
Posted By: SpenceKenzer
Subject: Popular Plays - Audience Appeal - your recent best
Date Posted: 2/25/09 at 5:47pm
As with most CT's we're always looking for plays that will be popular and will put lots of bums in seats.
I'd be curious to hear what play(s) have been the most popular and best attended for YOUR CT.
- Limit yourself to about the last 5 years or so only.
- You can list just 1 play, but list no more than 5 plays total.
- List them IN ORDER, with the most popular & well-attended one at the top of the list.
- Please provide the play's correct & current title, the names of the playwright(s), the type/genre of play it is, and if possible the name of the play publisher which carries it.
I'll go first. Each of these plays had the best attendance at one of the four weeknights we perform (Wed. thru Sat.)
FRIDAY
Dad's Christmas Miracle by Pat Cook, a comedy, The Dramatic Publishing Company of Woodstock, Illinois
SATURDAY
The Shipbuilder by Ken Mitchell, a historical drama, {publisher uncertain}
THURSDAY
The Foursome by Norm Foster, a comedy, Playwrights' Guild of Canada
WEDNESDAY (2-way tie)
Arsenic and Old Lace by Joseph Kesselring, a comedy, Dramatists Play Service, Inc.
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead by Tom Stoppard, a comic drama, Samuel French, Inc.
So... what are your CT's most popular & successful plays in the last 5 years?
OH BY THE WAY: Please don't list musicals. Our CT currently does only NON-musical plays.
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Saludos, my dahlinks, and you know who you are ... !
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Replies:
Posted By: janetk
Date Posted: 2/26/09 at 10:45am
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Well right now we are performing Kitchen Witches - playwright Caroline Smith (Samuel French). We were basically sold out before we open. We did 8 shows - 3 weekends. Very funny show with a small cast.
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Posted By: MartyW
Date Posted: 2/26/09 at 11:48am
Best in "sales" this year has been "The Queen of Bingo"... and "A Charles Dickens Christmas Carol, a Traveling Travesty in Two Tumultous act"
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Marty W
"Till next we trod the boards.."
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Posted By: jayzehr
Date Posted: 2/26/09 at 2:39pm
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"Dearly Departed" did huge numbers for us.
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Posted By: pdavis69
Date Posted: 2/26/09 at 2:41pm
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One of the most popular we have done in recent years has been Escanaba in Da Moonlight by Jeff Daniels. We ran it as an experimental show as it was a bit off our regular show list. It has repeatedly been one of the show most requested for a revival at the playhouse.
(Sorry if this was not in the requested format.)
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Patrick L. Davis
Fort Findlay Playhouse
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Posted By: Kathy S
Date Posted: 2/27/09 at 1:11am
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Our biggest drawing shows have been our musicals (Guys and Dolls, Forum and Oklahoma) and some of the real well known comedies (Steele Magnolias, The Odd Couple) -- and over the last couple years Leading Ladies, Dearly Departed, Dearly Beloved and Christmas Belles.
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Posted By: GoldCanyonLady
Date Posted: 2/27/09 at 10:20am
1. Curious Savage by John Patrick---Audience loved it ---Dramatists Play Service.
2. A Bad Year for Tomatoes by John Patrick---funny show and lots of fun. Dramatists Play Service.
3. Busybody by Jack Popplewell. Funny murder mystery. Samuel French.
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Barb Hofmeister,
MountainBrook Village Players, Gold Canyon, Arizona.
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Posted By: Dough Boy
Date Posted: 3/02/09 at 12:49pm
1. Dearly Departed....Dramatists
2. Buddy, The Buddy Holly Story...get license at http://www.buddythemusical.com/
3. Messiah on the Frigidaire...Samuel French
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Posted By: Ogreking4
Date Posted: 3/24/09 at 12:35pm
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Our most recent successes include "The Wizard of Oz" (the musical), "Funny Money" (Ray Cooney), and "Squirrel Lake" (Brian Mitchell).
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Posted By: Cravens
Date Posted: 4/07/09 at 5:19pm
Noises Off, Once Upon a Mattress, Dearly Departed, Fiddler on the Roof and Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat(musicals do very well in our market)
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Tracy
www.longmonttheatre.org
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Posted By: MercyTech
Date Posted: 4/07/09 at 7:17pm
We just sold out Seussical, a musical by
http://www.mtishows.com/show_detail.asp?showid=000229# - Lynn Ahrens
and
http://www.mtishows.com/show_detail.asp?showid=000229# - Stephen Flaherty
and had to add a Matinee after the opening night buzz.
http://www.mtishows.com/show_detail.asp?showid=000229
Hound of the Baskervilles F. Andrew Leslie, from the novel by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Dramatists Play Service
Hounds was a big house each night, and it included all of the people who knew the dog we used (a huge St. Bernard/Great Dane mix).
Inspecting Carol, by Daniel Sullivan, just a lot of fun, and again, the houses got bigger with the buzz.
Tim
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Posted By: bernster74
Date Posted: 4/22/09 at 11:01pm
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Barefoot in the Park did wonderful numbers for us and we did a show on Valentine's Day and sold out.
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Posted By: gaftpres
Date Posted: 4/22/09 at 11:10pm
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Grease-sell out every night
Escanaba in the Moonlight-sell out every night... we are in Michigan, that may have helped with that one.
Nunsense II-very entertaining not a sell out every night, but the last week it was a sell out due to word of mouth.
The Diary of Anne Frank-newly adapted by Wendy Kesselman very good show, love the new version.
A Streetcar Named Desire- definately a well known show.
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Old volunteers never die, they just get recycled!
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Posted By: pdavis69
Date Posted: 4/23/09 at 8:53am
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Gaftpres,
We did Escanaba about five years ago as part of our second stage offering. To this day it is still the single most talked about show in recent history. We keep talking about a comeback, but the Jimmer is holding out on us.
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Patrick L. Davis
Fort Findlay Playhouse
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Posted By: John Luzaich
Date Posted: 4/24/09 at 11:43am
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The original poster here requested up to 5-shows, but no musicals, so here's a few that sold well for us.
M*A*S*H
Rumors - Neil Simon (comedy)
Lend Me a Tenor - Ken Ludwig (comedy/farce)
Inspecting Carol - Daniel Sullivan & Seattle Rep (Holiday comedy)
Steel Magnolias
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John
cfct@cfu.net
http://www.osterregent.org
http://www.facebook.com/osterregent
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Posted By: VPA1
Date Posted: 4/24/09 at 10:07pm
You ought to consider musicals... however:
Anne of Green Gables (3 weeks out from opening and this show is already selling gangbusters)
Little Women
Everybody Loves Opal
A Bad Year for Tomatoes
(anything by John Patrick!)
Sherlock Holmes and the Hound of the Baskervilles
Run for Your Wife!
You really want to put bums in seats, emphasize shows that feature women. Nooooo kidding.
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