Left wing activist Michael Moore thought his Broadway show would churn out an army of people to fight Trump and the Republicans. It was New York after all. Plenty of liberals to make this one-man show a success, right? Wrong. Heck, even The New York Times described the experience as “a bit like being stuck at Thanksgiving dinner with a garrulous, self-regarding, time-sucking uncle. Gotta love him — but maybe let’s turn on the television.” Mediaite’s Larry O’Connor had more about the reviews about this show and and its dismal sales:
According to Broadway World’s reporting of the weekly gross receipts for the run of the limited engagement production,”The Terms of My Surrender” is in a downward spiral with numbers consistently at less than half of the show’s potential.
People in the Broadway industry are taking note of the paltry sales and whispers are already circulating that the numbers for the week ending September 10th will put the show in the sub-$275,000 range which is… really, really bad.
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So most theatregoers are left-wing, anti-capitalist agitators who think Republicans are racist war-mongers? Last time I checked Times Square, most of the theatregoers I saw were families visiting New York from red states that routinely choose politicians Moore abhors. They also gladly see incredibly entertaining and non-political shows such as Phantom of the Opera, Chicago, Les Miserables... you know, all the shows that have run for decades and broken world-wide box office records.
Which brings us to the reason Mr. Moore’s exercise in narcissism is hemorrhaging money and playing to more-than-half-empty houses.
When you open a show in New York in Summer you’re going to need the tourists to buy your tickets. Moore’s core ticket-buyers are enjoying themselves in the Hamptons or Martha’s Vineyard or Lake Como… and they never pay for their tickets, anyway. Moore is trying to sell tickets each night to people he openly hates and mocks whenever given the chance. Why would anyone shell out a hundreds of dollars for that kind of treatment?
Theatregoers want to be entertained, enlightened, moved and inspired. They do not want to be ridiculed and insulted. And that’s exactly what Moore has done his entire career.
Moore does admit some things about 2016 election that make him less insufferable if only for a very brief moment. He did not buy that notion that racism or sexism played a role in Hillary Clinton’s defeat, adding that millions of people who voted for Trump also voted for Obama. He slammed the Democrats for not having a message, a leader, or an agenda that resonates with the country. At the same time, he wants to get rid of the Electoral College and thinks the Democrats “won” the election, but adds that he feels Trump is on his way to a second term. We’ll see what happens, but it looks like his attempt to spur political activism just led to people tuning out his drunken uncle antics.
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