(AllHipHop News) A post-racial America may still be an illusion. During a recent interview, Saul Williams explained why the Tupac-inspired Broadway musical Holler If Your Hear Me recently closed and explained how its failure is connected to Iggy Azaela’s success.
Williams starred in the musical which was forced to shut down this past Sunday (July 20th) after only two months and 55 performances. In a statement from producer of Holler If Ya Hear Me Eric L. Gold, “financial burdens of Broadway” caused the play to have to be discontinued. Rolling Stone reported that two weeks before the musical ended, ticket sales were less than 17% of the projected sales expectation. Williams laughed off the excuse of financial burdens causing the play to stop in a recent interview with Rolling Stone stating “everyone knows you can’t come to Broadway with short money”. Following that statement, Williams explains a “deeper sociological reasoning” behind the play’s failure:
I think it’s something deeper. There is no disconnect between this and Iggy Azalea, an Australian girl rapping with a southern accent, being Number One on the charts. It’s all related to where we are right now as a culture and within the culture of the arts.
Williams also recalls instances during the play’s run when members of discount Broadway ticketing company TKTS would give bad reviews to interested pedestrians. Williams states that one of the producers of the play asked one of the TKTS employees about Holler If Ya Hear Me:
One of our producers came in really angry because he had spoken to one of the TKTS people [who man Broadway ticket-selling booths] — not saying she was a producer — and asked them, “What about Holler? Should I see that?” And the response of the person who is supposed to guide tourists to plays was like, “It’s a bit of a downer. It’s not necessarily as fun as” whatever other play they mentioned. Then she approached another one and that person was like, “Oh, it got really bad reviews.” We started a street team at the last minute to counter those TKTS people who are really supposed to be promoting everything on Broadway.
Check out the full interview here.