In Audiences on Broadway, Fewer Guys Among the Dolls

NYT ^ | 3/29/2014 | PATRICK HEALY

[Borges]

More men are steering clear of Broadway, and not even this spring’s ultimate bro show — “Rocky,” the new musical about the beloved boxing underdog — has found a way to fill seats with them.

While men have been hanging back for years, their current scarcity, at a time when overall Broadway attendance is down, is particularly stark. Only 32 percent of audience members last year were men, or 3.7 million, compared with 42 percent (or 4.2 million) in 1980.

This season is not providing any relief. Yankees fans skipped the baseball-themed “Bronx Bombers,” which flopped fast. John Grisham guys passed on the adaptation of “A Time to Kill,” which closed after seven weeks. Among musicals, “Big Fish” was all about dads, and “First Date” sold shot glasses to underscore its dude appeal, yet both shows were strikingly poor sellers.

Women drive Broadway sales, though successful shows often depend on them to wrangle their husbands or boyfriends.

[Forward the Light Brigade]

Give people good shows not all full of Gay Propaganda and filthy words and maybe they will buy a ticket? Maybe-— John F. Kennedy—the Musical, or Obama the Comedy of errors—the Musical? or Pearl Harbor, the Musical? Or Jefferson Davis—The Musical?

[glorgau]

and of the 32% how many were gay?

[Rummyfan]

Last show I saw on Broadway was The Phantom of the Opera in 2002. It was a fantastic show but we paid dearly, over $100 a ticket. Then, after the show The Phantom made an appeal for donations for AIDS relief and support for theater people suffering from same. After spending over $400 for the tickets, I was kinda pissed.

[SAJ]

Not since the Puccini estate reasserted their copyrights.

Get it?

[Organic Panic]

[wbill]

Patton: The Musical?

"I'm gonna wash that Kraut right outta my hair!"

"Give my Regards to Rommel"

"Happiness is a warm gun barrel..."

"The Hills are Alive with the sound of Shelling......"

I should probably stop. :-)

[Vermont Lt]

50 something white male here.

I went to my first broadway show in years this past November.

I would do it again except the tickets cost $300, the train was $160 and dinner was another $100.

I had fun, but not THAT much fun.

[bicyclerepair]

Why pay good money and travel to see singing homos when you can just turn on the tv?

[mdmathis6]

{What’s next, “Patton: The Musical”?}

Yeah... imagine a rollicking theme marching song called...”Holding’em by the nose”(’we’ll kick’em in the ass’)(with actors dressed as soldiers singing and doing a massive kickline on stage at the end.)

Come to think of it...the above just might make a great marching song!

[mdmathis6]

some lines from my latest five minute proffering on Patton

HOLDIN’ ‘EM BY THE NOSE(and kicking’em in the ass)
The General’s sternest order
is always to advance...
and soon, the Berlin High Command
will weep and crap their pants...

Oh there’s no one like our general George
who has’em on the run
thru storms of lead and piles of dead
he makes it seem like fun..,

So strike the colors, it’s time to go...
no time for leave or pass...
for we’re holding the Nazi’s by the nose
and kicking them in the ass...!

[dfwgator]

Or “I Shoveled S-— in Louisiana.”

[Scoutmaster]

To me, it was all downhill after Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (although that requires the inquiry: which version?).

And I don't want to hear anyone murmur Evita, Cats, or Phantom of the Opera.

[Scoutmaster]

I've been to quite a few Broadway shows because a client wanted to go; much of my Broadway knowledge is forced knowledge.

I had a tradition of taking my daughters once a year. They would accompany me on a business trip. I don't take my daughters to Broadway shows any longer. The tickets are too expensive.

[RichInOC]

I’m hoping Mel Brooks makes a stage musical out of “Blazing Saddles” before God gives him the hook. That said, they maybe need to try doing more original material.

And “A Time To Kill”, the musical? Really? Nothing against the cast and playwright, but the concept itself just sounds dire.

[Pollster1]

I like an occasional Broadway play, or I used to. Now the women are less attractive, the men are more overtly gay (including the multiple mandatory gay characters0, and the themes are farther to the left. I’d guess that the vast majority of men at these plays are gay men, and when you limit your male audience to 1.5% of all men (plus those few who only go to please/impress a loose liberal woman), your sales are going to suffer.

[RichInOC]

Compared to some of the stuff they’re rolling out these days, those three are starting to sound like Golden Age stuff.

[Scoutmaster]

I contemplated refuting your statement by singing "Popular" from Wicked. I took my daughters to see Wicked and my youngest demanded Popular on the CD player every time she got in the car for the next year.

Then I remembered that Wicked is eleven years old.

Great. Just great. I finally pushed it to the back of my brain and now "Popular' will return as an earwurm for the next month.

[Some Fat Guy in L.A.]

Who wants to pay big bucks to watch a bunch of faggots dance around pretending to fight?

[MoochPooch]

I can only speak for myself, but the political hard left and radical LGBT dominance of the stage and screen is a big factor with me not attending plays and theater. Actors, actress, producers, and directors are quick to publicly demean and belittle Ideas, beliefs, and institutions that are important or even dear to me. It is now not enough for them to believe in or support something they must denounce, condemn and silence anything other total belief in their orthodoxy.

Amen to that. I find almost all the entertainment these days unwatchably left-leaning. Everything is a polemic for either gay rights or feminism.

I am not a prude; nor am I averse to adult situations. It's the sanctioning of deviance that gets to me, and the hostility toward any tradition or authority.

[Borges]

Umm it’s theater...everything is pretend.