Box Office Chit Chat

I popped by The Shaftesbury's box office this afternoon (tee hee, I used 'pop' and 'shaft' and 'box' in the same sentence) to get tickets for Hairspray. We have out-of-towners in next week who've never seen it, and I'm itching to see if the West End holds up to the original.

I was a little surprised that best available was in the balcony (erm, Royal Cirlcle), row J. If I remember from Bat Boy, it's not a huge house, so those seats should be fine.

I asked the girl in the booth (who could easily be playing one of the Dynamites) how sales had been. It's not been reviewed yet (press night is tomorrow ), but I've heard good buzz.

"The phones have been ringing off the hook," she said.

"That's great. Especially since you're in the doomed theatre."

(The Shaftesbury, like Broadway's Helen Hayes isn't known for having the most successful shows ... hang in there Xanadu!)

She immediately shhh-ed me, like I'd said the name of the Scottish play or something, lowered her head conspiratorially and whispered, "we think the curse has moved on."

I asked how she was sure.

"Have you been to the Novello lately? Desperately Seeking Susan is, well, desperate."

"Yeah, so I heard, but I have no desire to see it." says me. "And The Drowsy Chaperone didn't do well there either."

She agreed and said that was a shame, because she really liked Chaperone.

"Ahhh, you should have seen it in New York."

"The trouble is," she confided, "that audiences won't go see something in this city unless they know some name from a soap opera or some ridiculous reality program. They don't care what the story is or how good the show is."

Which prompted me to ask her how she thought Rent: Remixed would do. She just shook her head and said, "Oh no."

"I heard that the director got fired the week before it opened, but his name's still on it 'cause of his association with Kylie."

"Oooh. I've got friends in it, I'll call and find out," she said, finishing my transaction. "I have no idea what they're thinking. Re'MIX'ing (that's how she said it) a perfectly good show."

I hope she's there next week when I see the show. Or maybe I'll just go chat her up on my way to or from work ... before she gets her own show.