TOMMY in Germany

[btm805@btrtx9.hrz.uni-bayreuth.de (B. Gramlich)]

Scott, Re:

> Another reason is that Offenbach, where TOMMY is playing, is a suburb of
> Frankfurt, and is not a major metropolitan area.  Tourists in NYC and London
> will often go see a show in the course of sightseeing.  I doubt if any shows
> in Offenbach have many walk-up ticket buyers.

Hm, very good point.  Indeed, if I went to Offenbach, I would do so only for
seeing Tommy.  But if the show were at Berlin, Cologne, Dresden, Hamburg,
Heidelberg, Munich, etc., I would stay there for a weekend or so for
sightseeing (though I know all of these cities quite well, with exception of
Hamburg.)

> TOMMY nearly closed late last year, but the government subsidized the
> production, which allowed them to stay open a few more months.  Apparently,
> the hope was/is to make Offenbach a cultural center.

I can neither confirm nor refute this because I didn't care much about the
German Tommy.  (I'm sorry to say so, since it seems like you are involved with 
the Broadway Tommy...)  However, I was wondering about the enormous advertising
campaign for the Offenbach performances - placards on nearly every public wall
in Germany.  There really must have been more money behind that event than just
the nearly $100 tickets...

Anyway, this reminds me of what happened to me last year when I was buying my
tickets for one of the (later to be cancelled) Daltrey/Entwistle shows:  As I
approached the counter of my local ticket office, I spotted there a huge stack
of visiting-card-sized invitations titled "The Who's TOMMY at Offenbach".
Well, I didn't care for them but asked for tickets for the Fuerth concert of
The Who.  Guess what the clerk answered?  "The Who?  Never heard of them.  I'll
have to ask my computer..."  Boy, I could hardly hold back my urge to cram her
bloody mouth with the whole stack of Tommy cards... :-)

Cheers,

Bernd