December 10, 2002

Italian Opera With Hollywood Heart Looks Like a Broadway Hit

By 3 p.m. yesterday producers were reporting sales of more than $500,000, which suggested that they would probably register close to $1 million by day's end, a solid indication that an Italian-language opera can succeed on Broadway, at least in a $6.5 million production that relies on the skills of Mr. Luhrmann, who directed this year's Academy Award nominee ''Moulin Rouge.''

The show's appeal was evident at the Broadway Theater, on Broadway at 53rd Street, where a line of ticket buyers snaked across the lobby most of the afternoon, and at the Hudson Hotel, on West 58th Street, where cleanup crews were still scrubbing away the detritus from the show's red-carpet cast party. Online fans were already debating the show's Tony Award eligibility: would it be classified as a new musical or as a musical revival? (There is no best opera category.)

All of which left its creator and its backers cautiously optimistic that they had Broadway's third recent musical hit on their hands, after ''Hairspray'' and ''Movin' Out.''

''The truth is, I honestly feel deep relief,'' Mr. Luhrmann said in a telephone interview. ''I have taken a whole lot of people down a road where they could have been incinerated.''

While ''La Bohème'' is off to a strong start, its sales are not quite in the same league as those of blockbuster musicals like ''The Producers,'' which sold $2.8 million in tickets the day after its April 2001 opening, or ''Hairspray,'' this season's breakout hit, which sold $1.8 million the day after opening.

But the early figures were impressive considering several of the inherent obstacles in selling ''La Bohème,'' an opera performed in Italian by a young, international cast of unknowns. (The show does have English titles.)

The show received nearly critical unanimous raves, including one from Ben Brantley in The New York Times, who described it as a ''rapturous reimaging'' of Puccini's tragic tale.

But Broadway professionals cautioned that while initial indications for the show were good, it would be several weeks before it was clear whether the show had gained credibility with the public, or would attract a much more limited audience as a snob hit.

''For a show to achieve a really extended run, they have to capture street cred,'' said Jed Bernstein, president of the League of American Theaters and Producers, ''which means when the show is mentioned to the typical harried Wall Street professional, somewhere in their minds they go, 'Oh yeah, I hear that's pretty good.' ''

To that end, the producers of ''La Bohème'' have already been active on the airwaves, using television commercials directed by Mr. Luhrmann himself and purposefully reminiscent of ''Moulin Rouge.'' Many Broadway producers avoid paying for television time until well after opening, when weakening sales make such costly marketing necessary.

Mr. Luhrmann said in the weeks leading up to the show's Broadway debut that he was aiming for a younger, cooler audience than Broadway is accustomed to.

''This production cannot survive on a traditional Broadway audience alone,'' he said. ''It has become more than a Broadway show. It has to become culture. I think about characters on 'Sex and the City' saying, 'Let's go see 'La Bohème.' ''

The show is currently selling tickets through March 30 but will certainly extend its run. The advance ticket revenue before the opening was about $3 million.

''Movin' Out,'' which opened to good reviews last month, now has $8.5 million in advance sales.

Both shows should add energy to a rebounding Broadway, where attendance is up by about 5 percent over the same time last year, while gross sales have jumped by 15 percent.

One audience that Mr. Luhrmann, who also directed the films ''Romeo and Juliet'' and ''Strictly Ballroom,'' has tapped into is Hollywood. Several Hollywood moguls backed the show in concrete ways, with cash investments from the Miramax Films founders Bob and Harvey Weinstein and from Fox Searchlight Films.

Perhaps indicative of their clout or maybe Mr. Luhrmann's sheer popularity, the opening night crowd included actors like Cameron Diaz and Leonardo DiCaprio -- both in Miramax's big-budget Christmas release ''Gangs of New York'' -- as well as Hugh Grant, Sandra Bullock and James Gandolfini, the ''Sopranos'' actor who skipped the broadcast of his own season finale to go to the opera.

The most joyous ''La Bohème'' producers may have been Jeffrey Seller and Kevin McCollum, who have risked part of the fortune they made on the hit musical ''Rent,'' which is based on, you guessed it, ''La Bohème.''

''Both are romantic visions of what it's like to be young, poor, in love and an artist,'' Mr. Seller said. ''That's who we were, or who we wanted to be. And that's what makes it so powerful.''