“A lot of money is being made on ‘Phantom’ and ‘Wicked,’ but it may never reach the profit margin of ‘The Fantasticks’ because they are such big and expensive productions whose costs eat up profits,” Mr. Googe said. “ ‘Wicked’ could run as long as ‘The Fantasticks’ and pay its investors back handsomely, but it’s hard to imagine a rate of return ever again like this. Inexpensive, popular shows like ‘The Fantasticks,’ ‘Stomp’ and ‘Nunsense’ have proved to be unexpectedly good investments.”
- As if we needed more proof that today's big-ass Broadway spectacles don't benefit anyone, except of course the estimable hair-care industry, and midtown singing coaches named Bobby who specialize in "belt" AND "superbelt" techniques, oh yes, and whatever planet's warlords got the small creepy human-like child in "Billy Elliot" to smile so freakishly in gala photos that the sheer force of weird ACTUALLY SUCKS OUT YOUR EYEBALLS INTO YOUR COMPUTER FSCHOOMP FSCHOOMP ow ow.
- "Mr. Googe" is funny.
"If $1,600 a year hardly seems like much of a windfall, several of the original investors said in interviews that their “Fantasticks” money went a longer way in, say, 1970, by which time profits from the show were steadily increasing. That year the New York City subway fare was 30 cents; the average ticket price to a Broadway show was $8; the best suit at Brooks Brothers cost about $200; a Harvard undergraduate education cost $4,070; and the median American income was $8,734."
- As opposed to nowadays, when these figures have simply shifted: the subway fare is $4,070 (one way), the average ticket price to a Broadway show is $8,734 (visibility extra), and the Ivy League education should cost 30 cents. Haha! Joke! Just kidding, of course!* I can't speak for the Brooks Brothers suit.
2. The Internet is for corn
Ha ha! Get it? Because this has to do with salsa. I'll be here all week.
I bring this up only because it's amazing what you can find by Googling "salsa terms" (which, long story, I searched for purposes of a song lyric). Behold! "Understand the Different Types of Salsa: Page 1: Salsa Terms from A to C." Inclusive?
3. And finally, my morning Google Ad:
"Do you think you're ugly?: It might not be true."
Thanks for the boost. I "might" leave the house without a bag over my head now.
* It should be 25 cents.
1 comment:
Inflation is terrible. When I was born, the subway fare was a dime, and when I left New York in 1968, it was *gasp* 20¢, and "The Fantastiks" was still running at the Sullivan Street Playhouse, where I had the honor of seeing it, because it was easy to walk to, because I lived on the corner of Prince and Sullivan street, right over a drugstore which was once listed by Time magazine as a Mafia hangout, and... wait, where was I going with... Ooh! A squirrel!
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