Faced with Q-miliation, mogul Steve Wynn apparently has been bad-mouthing "Mamma Mia," but Michael Riedel at the New York Post (via blogger Richard Abowitz) has done some sleuthing regarding just how successful "Mamma Mia" is (and continues to be). Riedel comments:
People involved in "Mamma Mia!" think Wynn is trashing their show because he tried — and failed — to get it himself. He offered Judy Craymer, its producer, several million dollars for the exclusive North American rights. He wanted "Mamma Mia!" to forgo a U.S. tour, bypass Broadway and head straight to Vegas.
Craymer turned him down, a decision that has made her one of the richest women in England. The Broadway production and the U.S. tour have made tens of millions of dollars. All that plus the Vegas profits.
What Craymer understood instinctively — and what Wynn is now, only after his "Q" black eye, just beginning to grasp — is that for a show to be successful in Vegas, it must have a high profile. It must, says Wynn, "arrive in Vegas late in its life." "Mamma Mia!" criss-crossed the country and ran on Broadway for a year before playing Mandalay Bay. It was already a famous show by the time it got there.
The lesson theater people are drawing from the failure of "Q" and the success of "Mamma Mia!" is that the Vegas audience only buys what it knows and likes. When you're in Vegas, you take your chances with the slot machines, not with the price of theater tickets.
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