With the opening of “The Story of a Family” last night, all three parts of Horton Foote’s sprawling “Orphans’ Home Cycle” are now up and running at the Signature. If you want to catch up, you can find my review of part 1, “The Story of a Childhood” here, and the one of part 2, “The Story of a Marriage,” here.
Each installment runs about three hours and is made up of a trio of one-act plays (so two intermissions per performance). Unlike the similarly long “The Norman Conquests,” which consisted of three distinct plays that could be seen in any order, you really must see “The Orphans’ Home Cycle” in chronological sequence to make the most of it. Like that other show, though, you can catch marathon performances at some weekends. Visit the Signature site for more info.
This brings me to the rumor that a transfer to Broadway is being looked at, to which I say: Sure, go ahead if you want to take a bath. Unlike the aforementioned “Norman Conquests,” where you could get away with seeing just one show (not optimal but possible), “The Orphans’ Home Cycle” needs to be taken as a whole — I’m just not sure the individual parts are strong enough on their own. And do we think tourists, who buy two thirds of Broadway tickets, are going to attend three separate plays taking up nine hours of their valuable time in town?
It’s understandable for the cycle’s team to want their show to be seen by as many people as possible, and right now it’s scheduled to run at the Signature only until May 8. If ticket sales are good, they should extend until “Angels in America” start in the fall. What then? What about trying to move to another off house like, I don’t know, the underused Little Schubert almost across the street? You could get local crowds and the more culturally inclined visitors.
But staying off Broadway may not be financially viable either. It’s a sad state of affair that pay is so much lower off than on Broadway, but that’s a can of worms so gigantic and so full of wriggling little beasties that I can’t even bring myself to get near it right now.