Show Strives to Live Down Web-Driven Rumor Mill
When Bobby Steggert exits the stage door at the Neil Simon Theater after a performance of “Ragtime,” autograph-seeking fans don’t simply praise his work as the character Mother’s Younger Brother, the budding anarchist in this musical revival. Some also say, in sympathetic tones, how sorry they are that “Ragtime” is closing.
But no closing notice has ever been posted for “Ragtime.” The producers say no investors have insisted on shuttering the show, which has been slow to catch on. Advertising has not stopped. A marketing strategy for January is in place. And yet even admirers of this production of “Ragtime” are treating gossip about the show’s future as hard fact.
Broadway works in strange ways, made even stranger by the Internet. On the most widely read theater blogs, people can anonymously post rumors and then watch the gossip turn viral, as it did on the All That Chat blog on talkinbroadway.com earlier this month, when various people claimed they had insider knowledge that “Ragtime” was closing imminently. And as for modern-day Luddites, they routinely share gossip and predict ruin over post-performance drinks at Broadway watering holes.
All of which means that the 28-year-old Mr. Steggert, whose critically praised performance has career breakout potential, is now regularly fielding questions and e-mail messages from friends and others about whether the reports of the show’s death are greatly exaggerated or all too true.
“We can’t ignore it entirely - we’re all aware of losing our weekly paycheck and insurance, but it’s also caused us to be even more ultra-supportive of each other’s performances,” Mr. Steggert said. “For myself, I try to view my career as a succession of blessings, and when it comes to ‘Ragtime,’ it would still be a blessing, even if we did close in January.”
The specter over “Ragtime” has required some adjustment, Mr. Steggert said. He is the only actor and artist in his family, and they did not teach Broadway Gossip 101 at his Maryland high school (where he was valedictorian) or at the New York University Tisch School of the Arts, from which he graduated in 2003. And while everyone gossips at least a little, he says he cannot understand why some people push rumors like the recent Internet postings that said “Ragtime” producers had told the cast to prepare to close. It simply never happened, Mr. Steggert said.
“Fortunately, the character I play is someone who is fighting, and I’ve used it to inspire me to keep fighting,” said Mr. Steggert, who has a particularly memorable moment in Act II when he condemns his brother-in-law for complacency in the face of racial injustice. Ben Brantley, reviewing “Ragtime” for The New York Times, said Mr. Steggert “provides a hot center of real pain” in the musical.
The rumors about “Ragtime,” which opened on Nov. 15 to mixed reviews, began in earnest early this month, as poor ticket sales failed to cover performance costs, let alone chip away at the producers’ original $8 million investment in the show. Over the last two weeks, though, “Ragtime” has increased its weekly gross by 11 percent from that weak start. That said, the lead producers of “Ragtime” are veteran Broadway businessmen, and they say they will not keep the show running if there is clearly no audience for it.
Kevin McCollum, a lead producer, said that while he did not see a conspiracy to damage his show specifically with rumors, he believed that they were driven in large part by real estate competition.
“It comes from the fact that there are only about 40 Broadway theaters, and every producer needs or wants a theater, so when a show doesn’t knock it out of the park immediately - from our show to ‘Fela!’ to ‘Finian’s Rainbow’ to ‘Superior Donuts’ - there’s a great deal of chatter about which one is the limping gazelle,” he said.
“Compounding this is the fact that the methods of sharing and delivering hearsay have never been so frictionless,” he added. “There are far more outlets for rumors today, and it’s much easier to write a story about bad news than good news.”
Whether audiences are reacting well to a given performance and whether word of mouth around town on a show is positive are far better barometers of a production’s fate than Web scuttlebutt, said David Richenthal, a lead producer of “Finian’s Rainbow.” His show has also been uneven at the box office and the subject of rumors, including one that it will close on Jan. 3, after the Broadway holiday rush ends. Mr. Richenthal denied that would happen.
“When a show gets unanimous raves and nightly standing ovations, like ‘Finian’s Rainbow,’ it is worth ignoring the rumor mill while continuing to build an audience,” he said.
David Cote, a theater critic at Time Out New York magazine and a timeoutnewyork.com blogger, said in an interview that the challenges for “Ragtime” - “medium name recognition, medium buzz and there’s too much competition” from other shows - have energized the musical’s most vocal supporters to condemn rumors about closing notices and, paradoxically, draw all the more attention to them.
“I think part of the online worry buzz is stoked by the fact that ‘Ragtime”s supporters are more ardent, embattled and likely to go on chat boards or post on blogs trying to drum up support for their show,” Mr. Cote said, “but that has a backlash effect. It only highlights the fact that the show has niche support.”
“ ‘South Pacific’ fans were never wringing their hands about whether their little show would survive,” he continued. “It cultivates a sense of failure before the actual financial flop.”
No matter what the outcome at the box office, “Ragtime” has been a hit for Mr. Steggert thus far. He was contacted about considering the role of Younger Brother during development for the revival in 2007, after years of playing sweet innocents or cute teenagers in plays, on the ABC soap “All My Children” and in the musical “110 in the Shade” (as a brother of Audra McDonald’s character). The chance to play an angry young man was a refreshing change, and that satisfaction remains.
“The rumors put us all into a space of fear and reluctance, but in a way it also inspired us to work even harder onstage,” he said, “to commit even further to telling the story that we believe in.”
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