There\u2019s more than one way to skin \u201cCats.\u201d <\/p>\n
The man behind the Box and \u201cSleep No More\u201d says he\u2019d like to take over the shuttering \u201cCats: The Jellicle Ball\u201d \u2014 because he says that, despite Andrew Lloyd Webber\u2019s dire warnings that Broadway is doomed<\/a>, there\u2019s plenty of viable ways to put on a big-time production in New York.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI love that show. I would so take that on\u2026 Broadway economics make it hard to find a new audience, and Broadway\u2019s business structure is predicated on failing,\u201d Randy Weiner, who\u2019s currently producing Webber\u2019s \u201cPhantom of the Opera\u201d as the immersive \u201cMasquerade\u201d off-Broadway tells Page Six.<\/p>\n \u201cCats: The Jellicle Ball\u201d will be closing on Aug. 8. ABC via Getty Images<\/p>\n Randy Weiner, pictured with his wife, Broadway director, Diane Paulus. WireImage<\/p>\n Andrew Lloyd Webber warned Broadway can\u2019t survive on established hits alone. Getty Images<\/p>\n Several shows are \u201cwaiting in the wings to take over the venue\u201d after a show\u2019s evicted, he said.<\/p>\n The announcement of the abrupt closing of \u201cJellicle Ball\u201d sent waves through the theatre community this month \u2013 especially since it garnered so much buzz and took home three Tony Awards<\/a> in June. Webber responded to the news with a desperate plea on social media for \u201ctheatre owners, unions, and producers to come together urgently\u201d to end what he claimed is a crisis that destroyed \u201cJellicle.\u201d<\/p>\n He stressed that the Great White Way can\u2019t survive by relying on staging sure-fire, proven hits alone. \u201cBroadway is in dire danger of rivaling Hollywood\u2019s empty soundstages with increasingly dark theatres,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n \u201cI know [Webber] sincerely wants to change the system,\u201d Weiner told us, \u201cI know that because\u2026he gave his most precious possession \u2014 the most successful show in the world \u2014\u00a0 to me to explore, doing it in a completely artistic different way.\u201d He added that \u201cMasquerade\u201d has been a success, in part, because the production is also the proprietor of the building and the bar within it. (Many have blamed Broadway\u2019s struggles on the ever-rising rents that Times Square owners charge).<\/p>\n \u201cAndrew gave me \u2018Phantom\u2019 to try something new creatively and with [a different] business model,\u201d he said. Weiner believes \u201cCats\u201d \u2013 and other original Broadway shows \u2013 could live on if it followed a similar model. <\/p>\n \u201cCats: The Jellicle Ball\u201d won three Tony Awards in June. Bruce Glikas\/Getty Images<\/p>\n Weiner is the producer of \u201cPhantom of the Opera: Masquerade.\u201d James Messerschmidt<\/p>\n Weiner said he would do anything to help \u201cThe Jellicle Ball.\u201d Eugene Gologursky<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m one guy. I\u2019m not an industry, but I would do anything to help them. I love that show. I would build a whole club for it. I would get the bar, dancing afterwards and support this thing,\u201d Weiner who\u2019s seen the show on and off-Broadway said.\u00a0 \u201cA bunch of those performers were in my club called the Stranger,\u201d he added referring to the former W. 57th St. nightclub The Post described as an \u201cunhinged.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n Webber\u2019s \u201cJellicle Ball\u201d will close its doors on Aug. 8., after four months on Broadway.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There\u2019s more than one way to skin \u201cCats.\u201d The man behind the Box and \u201cSleep No More\u201d says…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":787334,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57],"tags":[188419,21540,1067,236,88,186,35509,174987,334954,1247],"class_list":["post-787333","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-andrew-lloyd-webber","tag-broadway","tag-cats","tag-celebrities","tag-entertainment","tag-exclusive","tag-new-york-city-society","tag-off-broadway","tag-phantom-of-the-opera","tag-society"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/787333","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=787333"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/787333\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/787334"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=787333"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=787333"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=787333"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}