Star Wars Battle For Broadway Is On

We’ve always been baffled as to why and how a New York Post report based on the word of a ticket broker who couldn’t sell a block of tickets in July for a show that hadn’t even begun marketing (and hadn’t yet sold tickets to the public) was allowed to be spun into the death knell for Katie Holmes in Arthur Miller’s All My Sons. Spun it was, and months later the producers have finally responded. With $3.5 million in advanced sales announced for All My Sons, Katie Holmes’ turn in Miller’s All My Sons isn’t the commercial failure as we’d been led to believe. Holmes doesn’t quite outsell Harry Potter star Daniel Radcliffe in Equus, but it is a solid advance for a non-musical production.  Likely it beats advance ticket sales for other recent Arthur Miller productions on Broadway.

Sure Katie Holmes is the tabloid name (by association with Tom Cruise), but it is still Arthur Miller’s play and his ideas. If we can separate the star from the chaff, the fact that All My Sons has a high profile production is reason enough to give the show an objective look. Whatever you think of Holmes, there are notable actors in the cast, including solid stage actors like Christian Camargo who will also appear as Hamlet with Theatre For A New Audience this spring. John Lithgow, Dianne Wiest, and Patrick Wilson also are on hand. All we are saying, is give Miller a chance.

The advance of $3.5 million doesn’t reflect the quality of the production as the show hasn’t opened yet. It does suggest that reports of the show being a commercial bomb are off-base. As for its critical reception, we will see. It’s always foolish to try to predict the response of the Broadway critics. In the end, the show might not work after all…but anything is possible. It might even out-draw Equus. Photo by Andrew Eccles

-Broadway Magazine, Broadway.tv

Tags: All My Sons, Christian Camargo, Daniel Radcliffe, Dianne Wiest, Equus, Harry Potter, John Lithgow, Katie Holmes, Patrick Wilson, Tom Cruise

This entry was posted on Saturday, September 13th, 2008 at 7:10 am and is filed under Broadway Blog, Broadway Information, Broadway Magazine, Broadway News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.