The M. Butterfly Effect

When my client first asked me what I thought about his becoming a producer on the upcoming revival of M. Butterfly, I was less than enthusiastic. My initial thought was that this was just another star driven limited run that had little chance of success.In my defense, this season has been brutal on star driven limited runs. Sally Field, Glenn Close, Alison Janney, John Benjamin Hickey – none of them lit a fire under the butts of ticket buyers. At first blush, then, my skepticism seemed warranted.But wait, said the client, this show is different. It’s not limited run, Clive Owen has signed on for at least 6 months. And the show is Julie Taymor’s return to Broadway.Suddenly, I understood the attraction. This was going to be an EVENT. At a time in our industry when straight plays, even award winning ones, struggle to find audiences and play to half empty houses, the producers of M. Butterfly are gambling that they can run a straight play successfully in an open-ended run, and are pulling out all the stops to make that happen.I know that I sound like a broken record in an iTunes world, but I miss the days when straight plays could turn a profit on Broadway. I fell in love with theatre because of the straight plays. I remember Frank Langella in Dracula, Tim Curry in Amadeus, Amanda Plummer in Agnes of God. Yes, The Curious Incident made a huge impact and a star, but that’s the exception these days. Lately, not even a Tony Award is enough to give a straight play a shot at success. Industry insiders often comment that soon the only place you will be able to see a straight play will be at a not-for-profit theatre. In a limited run.So there are a lot of reasons I am excited about this M. Butterfly revival. Let’s hope it starts a trend – that there will be an M. Butterfly Effect on Broadway.