Gwyneth Paltrow’s musical ‘Head Over Heels’ is on thin ice

Broadway producer Gwyneth Paltrow skipped Thursday night time’s opening of her present, “Head Over Heels,” the Go-Go’s musical, on the Hudson Theatre. Phrase is she stayed in Montauk, making marriage ceremony plans with fiancé Brad Falchuk. However she would possibly need to head again quickly earlier than “Head Over Heels” posts its closing discover, making it the primary catastrophe of the brand new season. The $10 million present has a paltry advance of lower than $1 million and is promoting about $35,000 in tickets a day. Solely rave evaluations will preserve it afloat. However don’t look to The Publish, the place reviewer Johnny Oleksinski says “Head Over Heels” reduces its catchy pop music to “a aspect of spinach.” Round Broadway, predictions of doom and gloom are in every single place. “The numbers aren’t sustainable,” a manufacturing supply says. “There’s simply no real interest in this present.” The Ambassador Theatre Group, which owns the Hudson, is already on the lookout for a brand new present to interchange it, so the theater received’t sit empty. However Christine Russell, the present’s lead producer, says she’s not giving up but. “I don’t dispute something you’ve heard, and I want our numbers have been stronger,” she informed me. “However we at all times knew this might be a word-of-mouth present. The suggestions we’re getting from audiences is that the present is sensible and humorous and related, and it confirms the eagerness we’ve had for ‘Head Over Heels’ from the start.” Ardour is all properly and good, however it’s cash that you must preserve a struggling present going till — and if — phrase of mouth kicks in and ticket gross sales take off. Does Russell have the cash? “Now we have been dedicated from Day 1 to this present,” she says. “And we’re nonetheless dedicated. We use the Go-Go’s catalog, however this is an unique musical. And I can say that the suggestions we’ve had from audiences is encouraging.” “Head Over Heels” is primarily based on “Arcadia,” a 16th-century prose poem by Philip Sidney. He was a pleasant man, I’m informed, however the one individuals who learn his poems as we speak are getting graduate levels in English literature at Oxford. And therein might lie the issue: This is a present that goals to be arty however desires to promote tickets to Go-Go’s followers who, I guarantee you, aren’t getting graduate levels in English literature at Oxford. The present has loads of intercourse — straight, homosexual and in any other case — in addition to cross-dressing. It additionally options the primary transgender lady ever to originate a principal position on a Broadway stage: Peppermint, of “RuPaul’s Drag Race.” However with its high-brow English poetical roots and thees and thous, it additionally seems like Shakespeare within the Park or one thing you’d see at London’s Nationwide Theatre. “We’ve by no means been ready to determine learn how to promote this present,” says a manufacturing supply. “Perhaps we should always have bought the intercourse.” We’ll see how issues play out for “Head Over Heels.” If it wants cash to combat for survival, Paltrow has it. Her way of life Web page Goop is price $250 million. Or she may be part of the forged. I noticed her years in the past in “As You Like It” on the Williamstown Theatre Competition. She performed Rosalind and cross-dressed very properly. You may hear Michael Riedel weekdays on “Len Berman and Michael Riedel within the Morning” on radio 710 WOR. Share this: https://nypost.com/2018/07/26/gwyneth-paltrows-musical-head-over-heels-is-on-thin-ice/ The post Gwyneth Paltrow’s musical ‘Head Over Heels’ is on thin ice appeared first on My style by Kartia.