The Cost (to the Theatre)
Slam reviews do real damage, are unnecessary, and only serve the clicks of an online publication.
Of course it’s hard to quantify and measure emotional, mental, and psychological damage. It’s also hard to measure all the reputational damage that results in lost jobs, lost productions, lost commissions, etc. But here are examples of the fiscal damage, insofar as it is measurable, when just one major review is negative.
We want to ensure that our methods are transparent. We do not have real numbers or statistics because theaters do not keep such records. The figures below are averages from published Broadway and regional weekly and monthly salaries. They are also numbers given to us by artistic and managing directors who will remain anonymous.
Regional Theatre
If an extension is cancelled due to low ticket sales (a direct correlation of a bad review)
- Actors lose an average of $600 a week
- Stage Managers lose $600 a week
- Playwrights and Directors lose royalties for those extension weeks which can be $1k a week
- Theatre Companies can lose thousands in income ($40-60K difference in ticket sales after a bad review for a mid-size LORT company for example).
- Playwrights can lose subsequent productions of the play or commissions for new work
- Producers, cast, directors and writers can lose the chance at second or third productions, co-productions, Broadway transfers or tours
- Actors, directors, designers can lose subsequent work at other theaters
- Artists can use the chance at securing representation in the form of agents and managers
Broadway/NYC:
- Broadway shows that close months before schedule costing Broadway talent
- Actors lose an average of $2400 a week
- Stage Managers: $2045 a week
- Writers, Lyricists, Composers lose thousands of royalties every week
- Productions lose options for Broadway transfers and tours, which would also benefit all the artists involved
- A closed show also loses valuable exposure that can result in the loss of lucrative TV and movie projects, launching entire careers for actors, writers and directors.
While we do not have firm statistics and numbers, it can’t come as a surprise that bad reviews from major papers do real damage to all the people involved in those productions. We encourage proper study of these trends to understand the nuances, including why some shows survive bad reviews (Wicked, Mama Mia, Les Mis) and some do not. Our experience is that musicals are more resilient than plays, revivals are more resilient than new plays, productions with major Hollywood talent are more resilient than those without, etc.