CHAPTER FORTY NINE

FORTY NINE
In one of those fluke occurrences that are
bound to happen in an existence like mine, tragedy
struck the show again; though this time it was less
direct. Ben Cody’s parents were found robbed and
murdered in their Winnebago, parked outside the Wal
Mart in East Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania. Yes. Those
two, I’m afraid. Of course, Ben had to take time off to
deal with his family tragedy.

Word spread that the show was cursed, which
sold even more tickets. The theatrical blogosphere
went crazy nitpicking the history of the east of
Broadway curse. There was a lot of back and forth
about the curse being limited to failing shows and
whether or not these murders could be added or
attributed to the legend. Oh, the absurdity of it all.
David Belasco’s ghost was brought up in several
different contexts.
In the end, no definitive answer was arrived
at. One could say the same thing about bloggers that
George Bernard Shaw said about economists: lay them
all end to end and they will not reach a conclusion.
Patti followed all this for me and gave me
reports over champagne and midnight oysters at
Elaine’s. Yahoo ran a story about the show and the
curse, and it went viral on the internet, and before
opening night, before any of the mainstream reviews were in print or aired, the show was sold out for six months in advance, all in a matter half a week.
The night of the last press preview I got another call from Terri Coyle. I was fifteen minutes into my wakefulness when the call came in.
“Gus, do we want to go ahead with this ad supplement about the curse? Everything is ready to go. I’m just concerned you might find it tacky, so soon after what’s happened to Ben’s parents.”
“You didn’t put their deaths into the supplement, did you?”
“Of course not. Please, don’t even suggest such a thing. It’s insulting, Gus.”
“My apologies. Look, what happened with Ben’s parents was a tragic occurrence that had nothing to do with our show. It didn’t even happen in New York. It’s a tragic coincidence is all. So my answer is yes I do want to proceed with the supplement. However, there’s so much free coverage right now that we might want to consider delaying its release.”
“You have to let me know right away. Time Out is awaiting word from us.”
I made a snap decision.
“Hold off on the supplement for six weeks. All this should have quieted down by then. Right now we don’t need it. It almost seems redundant. Everybody’s talking about the east of Broadway curse already.”
“It will seem less tacky then, too.”
“Does it seem tacky now?”
“Gus, the supplement is tasteful and a brilliant piece of advertising promotion, if I do say myself. However, you know as well as I do that timing is everything in this business, and doubly so with something like this.”
“Redundant and less tacky – then holding off is a no-brainer.”
“You’re the boss, but yes, waiting does seem like a no brainer.”
“Remind me again before you send it to Time Out, would you please?”
“Will do. That’s it from this end then. Anything else you want to tell me?”
“Hopefully we’ll have some good press quotes. That would help.”
“Gus, you’ve got a hit on your hands. Relax.”
“I feel terrible for Ben Cody,” I said.