![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Please, not a new Argentina
May. 23rd, 2003 10:50 amSo, I went and saw Bloomington Civic Theatre's final dress rehearsal of "Evita" last night. It was fairly solid. Nothing overtly bad, except for the orchestra. The blocking & staging was uninspired and clunky. The leads were bland, with bad diction. The chorus sounded great.
I also found out what they are paying John Command to direct/choreograph for them.
$7000 per show. 4 shows per season. With a special $3000 bonus for "Hello Dolly" because he got his friend Sally Struthers to come in to star in it.
That's $31,000 they are paying him. They're talking about paying their staff. When asked about paying their actors, though, the answer is a definitive "no".
They believe John is giving them "Broadway quality". Um. No. He is not. For example, I would put "Godspell" at least as good as John's shows. And they pay their actors. Of course, that's a semi-pro company. I can guess though that they didn't pay the director $7000!!
They compare John to other, BAD community theatres and say that justifies paying him so much.
They are paying him professional theatre wages. They are charging their audiences professional theatre ticket prices. But they are not providing professional theatre.
I'm appalled.
Oh! And they are going to charge MORE for "Hello Dolly" because it has a "star" in it. I don't know about you, but Sally Struthers is not a selling point for me. I mean, she's not really known for her musical theatre work. Hell, she's not really known for doing ANY work in the last 30 years! She's a cultural joke.
But John is going to bring in Loni Anderson to be in "A Little Night Music" and Sandy Duncan to be in "Damn Yankees". I'm frightened that she'll be Lola. That's frightening. More frightening is what the dances would look like under John's choreography and direction. Yike.
I also found out what they are paying John Command to direct/choreograph for them.
$7000 per show. 4 shows per season. With a special $3000 bonus for "Hello Dolly" because he got his friend Sally Struthers to come in to star in it.
That's $31,000 they are paying him. They're talking about paying their staff. When asked about paying their actors, though, the answer is a definitive "no".
They believe John is giving them "Broadway quality". Um. No. He is not. For example, I would put "Godspell" at least as good as John's shows. And they pay their actors. Of course, that's a semi-pro company. I can guess though that they didn't pay the director $7000!!
They compare John to other, BAD community theatres and say that justifies paying him so much.
They are paying him professional theatre wages. They are charging their audiences professional theatre ticket prices. But they are not providing professional theatre.
I'm appalled.
Oh! And they are going to charge MORE for "Hello Dolly" because it has a "star" in it. I don't know about you, but Sally Struthers is not a selling point for me. I mean, she's not really known for her musical theatre work. Hell, she's not really known for doing ANY work in the last 30 years! She's a cultural joke.
But John is going to bring in Loni Anderson to be in "A Little Night Music" and Sandy Duncan to be in "Damn Yankees". I'm frightened that she'll be Lola. That's frightening. More frightening is what the dances would look like under John's choreography and direction. Yike.
