August Wilson Lives

And always will, as long as plays are performed. The revival of "Seven Guitars" has opened to very warm notices. (Personally, I can't stop raving about the $15 tickets underwritten by Time Warner -- I hope it gets them buckets of good publicity and they and other conglomerates decide subsidizing theater is good business.) The New York Times raves, the New york Daily News has the best headline (Magnificent "Seven"), the NY Post applauds and Variety is the only one with any reservations at all. Of course, getting a reservation is nigh on impossible. The play's run is sold out. Unfortunately, the economics of Broadway are so out of whack this show might not have a future run. In an ideal world it would transfer to a nice-sized Off Broadway house with the current cast and play for a year or so. But the upside of Off Broadway is so low and the costs so high that it doesn't make sense to take hits even to the largest Off Bway house possible -- you gotta go to Bway to make money and get press and maybe win a Tony. And that would probably be a bad idea for this show. Can't anything have a successful run Off Bway anymore?