Despite the glamour, Broadway is a risky business.

 

Many shows close early due to poor reviews, weak storytelling, misaligned marketing, or simply bad timing. While dazzling visuals, top-tier talent, and recognizable titles might generate hype, they cannot save a show that lacks substance or fails to connect with its target audience.

 

In Stage Money, Donahue and Patterson explains that “Marketing can help a show succeed, but the show must have a quality that makes people happy they bought tickets and excited to tell all their friends. Promotion alone won’t make a show a success” (Donahue & Patterson, 2020, p. 121).

 

Visual appeal and star power cannot make up for a show that lacks heart or coherence.  Marketing, therefore, is only a singular part of the equation. If the core of the show, its story, characters, or emotional resonance, is weak or poorly timed, there is no amount of advertising that can salvage it.

 

Joe Allen’s Restaurant in Midtown famously displays posters from Broadway flops with visually-appealing branding, reinforcing the fact that visual appeal and big budgets are not guarantees of success.