The Box Office Effects of Casting Celebrities As Replacement Actors on Broadway
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San Jose State University SJSU ScholarWorks Master's Theses Master's Theses and Graduate Research 2009 The box office effects of casting celebrities as replacement actors on Broadway Douglas Santana San Jose State University Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/etd_theses Recommended Citation Santana, Douglas, "The box office effects of casting celebrities as replacement actors on Broadway" (2009). Master's Theses. 3669. DOI: https://doi.org/10.31979/etd.ae9w-b6mw https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/etd_theses/3669 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Master's Theses and Graduate Research at SJSU ScholarWorks. It has been accepted for inclusion in Master's Theses by an authorized administrator of SJSU ScholarWorks. For more information, please contact [email protected]. THE BOX OFFICE EFFECTS OF CASTING CELEBRITIES AS REPLACEMENT ACTORS ON BROADWAY A Thesis Presented to The Faculty of the Department of Television, Radio, Film, Theatre San Jose State University In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Master of Arts by Douglas Santana May 2009 UMI Number: 1470981 INFORMATION TO USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. Broken or indistinct print, colored or poor quality illustrations and photographs, print bleed-through, substandard margins, and improper alignment can adversely affect reproduction. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if unauthorized copyright material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. UMI UMI Microform 1470981 Copyright 2009 by ProQuest LLC All rights reserved. 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Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 ©2009 Douglas Santana ALL RIGHTS RESERVED SAN JOSE STATE UNIVERSITY The Undersigned Thesis Committee Approves the Thesis Titled THE BOX OFFICE EFFECTS OF CASTING CELEBRITIES AS REPLACEMENT ACTORS ON BROADWAY by Douglas Santana APPROVED FOR THE DEPARTMENT OF TELEVISION, RADIO, FILM, THEATRE V\ (^JcM^t ck VyxjL^J sfiq/t)^ Dr. David Kahn, Department of Television, Radio, Film, Theatre Date A m*l Dr. Ethel Walker, Department of Television, Radio, Film, Theatre Date ^S= V/^fOf Professor Buddy Butler, Department of Television, Radio, Film, Theatre Date APPROVED FOR THE UNIVERSITY \ l/ttvi/j \y^ fjvft Associate Dean Office of Graduate Studies and Research Date ABSTRACT THE BOX OFFICE EFFECTS OF CASTING CELEBRITIES AS REPLACEMENT ACTORS ON BROADWAY by Douglas Santana This thesis addresses the commercialization of Broadway theater through the casting of celebrities from another medium. The celebrities are brought in as replacement actors for trained theatrical performers with the intention of extending a production's longevity. Twelve Broadway musicals that have opened since 1994 are examined through a series of case studies to determine the effectiveness of this casting technique through analysis of box office gross proceeds, theater capacity, and overall ranking of theater capacity compared to weekly competition. Case studies include Grease, Beauty and the Beast, Smokey Joe's Cafe, Rent, Chicago, Jekyll and Hyde, Cabaret, Annie Get Your Gun, Aida, Hairspray, Monty Python's Spamalot, and The Color Purple. The research explains the financial success of this trend and the potential benefits for producers, actors, and theater professionals. TABLE OF CONTENTS I. Introduction 1 II. "Grease Is the Word" For Celebrity on Broadway 18 III. Beauty and the Beast 29 IV. Smokey Joe's Cafe 38 V. Rent 50 VI. Chicago 60 VII. Jekyll and Hyde 84 VIII. Cabaret 92 IX. Annie Get Your Gun 105 X.Aida 112 XI. Hairspray 120 XII. Monty Python's Spamalot 136 XIII. The Color Purple 144 XIV. Conclusion: Legally Blonde Taps Into Reality 150 Works Cited 162 v LIST OF FIGURES Figure Page 1. Beauty and the Beast (July 20, 1997-July 12, 1998) 36 2. Beauty and the Beast (July 19, 1998-July 11, 1999) 37 3 Smokey Joe's Cafe (Aug. 23, 1998-Aug. 15, 1999) 48 4. Smokey Joe's Cafe (Aug. 22, 1999-Jan. 16, 2000) 49 5. Rent (Jan. 6-Dec. 29, 2002) 56 6. Renf (Apr. 4, 2004-Mar. 27, 2005) 57 7. Rent (Jan. 7-Dec. 30, 2007) 58 8. Rent (Jan. 6-Sept. 6, 2008) 59 9. C/7/cago (July 19-Dec. 27, 1998) 79 10. Chicago (May 20, 2001 -Mar. 3,2002) 80 11. Chicago (Mar. 5-Dec. 28, 2003) 81 12. Chicago (Aug. 7, 2005-Oct. 22, 2006) 82 13. Chicago (Oct. 29, 2006-Dec. 30, 2007) 83 14. Jekyll and Hyde (Jan. 16, 2000-Jan. 7, 2001) 91 15. Cabaret (Jan. 13, 2002-Jan. 5, 2003) 103 16. Cabaref (Jan. 12, 2003-Jan. 4, 2004) 104 17. Annie Get Your Gun (Jan. 23, 2000-Jan. 14,2001) 110 18. Annie Get Your Gun (Jan. 21-Sept. 2, 2001) 111 19. Aida (Jan. 5-Dec. 28, 2003) 118 20. Aida (Jan. 4-Sept. 5,2004) 119 vi 21. Hairspray (Jan. 8-Dec. 31, 2006) 133 22. Hairspray (Jan. 7-Dec. 30, 2007) 134 23. Hairspray (Jan. 6, 2008-Jan. 4, 2009) 135 24. Monty Python's Spamalot (Jan. 6, 2008-Jan. 11,2009) 143 25. The Color Purple (Jan. 7, 2007-Feb. 24, 2008) 149 vn 1 Chapter I Introduction The presence of celebrities from outside the theater community has been a part of Broadway's history for decades. In June 1980, musician David Bowie performed the title role of John Merrick on Broadway in The Elephant Man with impressive box office results. Importing Bowie into an established Broadway show that had been running for over a year, replacing a theatrically trained, Tony Award winner and original cast member Phillip Anglim was something that had not been seen before. Although Bowie had no theatre experience, producers took the chance that he could pull off the physically demanding role of Merrick while giving The Elephant Man a needed boost at the box office. Their gamble, according to the New York Times, paid off financially. "The play has been selling out ever since Mr. Bowie's glittering name went up on the marquee" (Lawson C2). Bowie's six month run proved to be the foundation for a celebrity-casting trend that would be used again in the world of musical theatre in 1981 by Joseph Papp and the New York Shakespeare Festival on the Broadway transfer of The Pirates of Penzance. A wide list of celebrities who made their names in other entertainment media appeared in this production. These included vocalists Maureen McGovern and Peter Noone, film actor Treat Williams, and television star Pam Dawber. In 1983, The Partridge Family television star David Cassidy took over the title role in Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat for 26 weeks from March 7, 1983, to September 2 4, 1983. After this date, the practice of casting celebrities in hopes of catching box office gold went dormant for nearly a decade. In May 1992, producers of the Tony Award winning musical, The Will Rogers Follies, attempted to breathe new life into their production after losing their original star, Keith Carradine. They cast a pair of country music stars Mac Davis and Larry Gatlin to finish the run. Also joining the cast was socialite and tabloid celebrity Mrs. Donald Trump (Maria Maples) in the role of Ziegfield's Favorite. Each of these celebrities, with no theater training or previous Broadway experience, performed in the show for more than six months in an attempt to reclaim the $7.5 million investment by its producers. According to Bruce Weber of the New York Times," 'Will Rogers' is likely to close, this year or early next, without recouping the $7.5 million it cost to put on. In fact, it hasn't even come close: one major investor estimated recently that after two years he had gotten back not quite 60 percent of his money" (sic) ("Tougher Odds," par. 3). While the producers for all the shows mentioned above used untrained celebrities from another medium in extended runs of over 20 weeks to give their shows a lift in ticket sales, none of them took this strategy to the level that would soon be implemented by producers Fran and Barry Weissler, in their 1994 revival of Grease. Fran and Barry Weissler took untrained celebrities from another medium, cycled them into the show in limited engagements of 20 weeks or less, and built mass marketing campaigns around their celebrity image and name. This new marketing and casting technique, referred to by Eric Grode as "the 3 revolving-door" (sic) (par. 1), required two essential ingredients: a Broadway musical and a celebrity. The first question this paper will explore is what makes a person a celebrity and how, in turn, does this make them marketable to an audience? In order to celebrate a person, a wide range of people across a considerable population must recognize their accomplishments. Michael Newbury, in his article "Celebrity Watching," noted that the continued development of mass media in the 1920s led to the creation of the first modern celebrity, Eddie Cantor. Newbury contended that "the production of celebrity requires an elaborate organization of media behind it," (276) allowing the celebrity's name and what they are famous for to reach the masses through radio, television, print and motion pictures. Not included in Newbury's criteria was the entertainment medium of theater, and it begs the question, how does the theater community participate in the exploitation of celebrity in modern society? The term celebrity may have been best defined by Daniel Boorstin when he wrote, "The celebrity is a person who is well-known for his well-knowness" (57).