Perhaps the lesson is that culture cannot be confected for commercial or promotional purposes.
Editorial
EDITORIAL:
Many a live theatre production fails. It is a hard business, creatively and financially. There is no shame in failure and there ought to be no cheap shots at the musical City of 100 Lovers staged at Sky City Theatre which has suspended its run after failing to attract
good audiences. The production was an unabashed promotional exercise for Auckland. The title was a loose translation of Tamaki Makaurau.
It hoped to appeal to Aucklanders as well as visitors, banking on the possibility citizens would find a dramatisation of the attractions, history and culture around them as enjoyable as tourists might.
Not many did. At least, not enough to spread the word after the show opened in October.
The $8 million production, privately financed, needed to make an early splash if it was to pay its way, playing six days a week in a 700-seat theatre in a season that was to last to August.
