The cast of Broadway’s Hair is ditching NYC on Oct. 11 to perform at the National Equality March in D.C. Is that as big a deal as the press is making it out to be?
Yes, if you’re the type who cares about the business of Broadway.
When it comes to the grand stage, there are a number of ways Broadway types can take a stand.
There’s the personal plea, the way Cheyenne Jackson promotes amfAR. There’s the the industry wide tactic, the way Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS fundraises. And now with Hair, the full cast way: Leaving behind up to $150,000 in Sunday matinee ticket sales to hop on a bus to join Cleve Jones & Co. for a little swaggering by the White House.
How about we take this to the next level?
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That’s big bucks when you consider Hair operates in an industry that saw more than a dozen shows close in the last year because of financial pitfalls. But then Hair producer Oskar Eustis and general manager Joey Parnes got on board with star Gavin Creel’s (pictured, left) idea to head to D.C. and, as the New York Times has us believing, all of Hair‘s other producers joined the cause. (If you’re unfamiliar, a single Broadway show can have dozens of producers, who all hold a financial interest in the show, which means there’s lot of convincing to do when it comes to ditching revenues. But then Hair decided to add a special Monday performance to make up lost dollars.)
It’s a fantastic sentiment, and a phenomenal move by members of an industry so committed to the gays. (Broadway employs half of our kind, after all.) But to be sure, having the cast of Hair at the National Equality March will not drum up the type of publicity that, say, having the cast of ABC’s Desperate Housewives would.
Mike
Are you fucking high, you bitter bitter, cunty queens? This story made the NYT. The producers are taking a huge financial kick in the ass. IT’s gotten attention.
Jesus, no wander people call this site the Fox news of gay media.
Michael
As someone who works in the theatre biz, YES, this IS a big deal. Not sure if I’ll be following Queerty much longer if you continue to rag on the people who DO support us. Get over yourselves.
what
“Broadway employs half of our kind”
NOT AT ALL.
Half of Broadway maybe gay, but less than 1% of “our kind” is employed by Broadway. Hopefully you can understand the difference in the sentence structure and its implications.
Rocco
Not to belittle the whole thing. I think its great that they’re going. But the Monday night performance was scheduled all along to make up for the missed Sunday show. Nobody is losing any money and nobody is taking any financial hits. If anything, Hair’s presence at the rally is huge publicity for the show as they’ll be the only Broadway show performing there. AND the Monday night show will be great for bringing in people who can’t normally see the show (i.e. other Broadway people).
I love love love that they’re going, but don’t think Broadway producers are suffering for the cause.
Ben
@Mike: Did we just read the same story? Because the story I read talked about how it WAS A BIG DEAL that Hair is going to D.C. The only *maybe* negative comment was about how they won’t generate much publicity for the march, but that’s true, they won’t.
KJ
I guess I missed the part about Queerty disparaging the effort.
Gavin Creel has a “sophomore” album in the wings; I shall buy it.
scott ny'er
@Ben: Yep. I’m with you.
I’m not a fan of Queerty sometimes. Y’know, the TERRIBLE redesign of this site. The constant plugging of Davey Wavey. The money-grubbing no thumbnails of the hot guys posts, etc. BUT, really, Queerty was just stating what was going down and actually praised HAIR a little.
Reading comprehension. Time to go back to school guys.
Jon B
@scott ny’er: Amen on the redesign of the site. It’s miz. I still go to http://www.queerty.com/page/1 everytime, because I refuse to use that new one.
As for Hair going to DC, and closing shop for Sunday, it’s big. Sure, a monday night show may make up some of the money, but it won’t make up half of it, afterall, Sunday is one of the biggest shows of the week for Broadway, and Monday night Broadway is closed down, so people won’t expect to have the option. Furthermore, the actors are giving up their day off and will be doing 16 shows in a row.
IAmHeAsYouAreHe
I don’t know… the tone of the article follows the slightly unnerving vendetta of Queerty against the National Equality March. I’m still not sure how I feel about the march strategically, but I just hold a lot of respect for anyone that is actually out there doing something.
Andrew
Hair going to the March is no more important or significant than any person going to this silly March. If anyone actually believes that any one of our elected officials may consider changing their mind about gays and lesbians because a bunch of Broadway actors went to the Capitol – you’re probably going too. That’s the problem here.
This March (and its Organizers) have never demonstrated any tangible result of getting a group of people together so they can shout at empty buildings. I can’t see why having “actors” shout at those same empty buildings changes anything. In fact, it just makes it sillier. The media will report the “low turnout.”
I think Queerty has been objectively “critical” of the March. It is the organizers that have failed – miserably. If “results” were valued, the March never would have been announced.
Josh
@IAmHeAsYouAreHe: “I’m still not sure how I feel about the march strategically, but I just hold a lot of respect for anyone that is actually out there doing something.”
Even if you knew they were wasting their time?
IAmHeAsYouAreHe
@Josh: I wouldn’t call any social move a waste of time just because it doesn’t produce the hoped-for end result. I still hold respect for those who try. However, I do think we should constructively criticize those efforts that could use improvement.
I participated in the No on 8 campaign in a low level working phone banks and working at polling places. Clearly the campaign’s strategies had several weak features, but even in retrospect I wouldn’t say that I wasted my time.
David's Pants
Wait… we’re supposed to get excited because the cast of a Broadway Show took a day off to be with Cleve? Really? Why would anyone care about that?
I’m sure the members of HAIR are used to playing to a full house, but DC will be empty. Only about 20,000 people are Marching, too. It’s a low-point for LGBT activism.
Please, remember to credit Cleve Jones and David Mixner.
John from England(used to be just John but there are other John's)
@David’s Pants: @Andrew:
Still waiting to see what you guys have done? Have you measured the success? Can we see any data?
If not, hypothetically can we anything that you are thinking of doing or supporting? Why this makes you so much better then the organisers of the march and the people who are going?
John from England(used to be just John but there are other John's)
@Josh:
Why are they wasting their time? Do you not feel any kind of protest to be successful?
Do you think sucess can only be measured by conforming to corporate societies structure? If so, do you therefore rate the current corporate lgbt organisations who I assume are playing it how you and the others like?
In terms of measurement…how successful have they been in comparison to the people who marched against prop 8 in california?
For arguments sake.
I’m the layman/woman. How do you reach me? How do/would/did any of these corporate orgs reach me sucessfully?
And how would me seeing people marching for something they believe me reach me?
Who wins? What’s more important? Or are they all part of the eco-system that we call life? OR is it only one way that works in your world, that I’m sure we’d be the right way the world should function?
dontblamemeivotedforhillary
Queerty is the new Roy Cohn!