Best Buy, the electronics retailer, cut its fiscal 2009 earnings outlook on
Wednesday and said it was being hammered by the worst retail
environment in its 42-year history.

“Rapid, seismic changes
in consumer behavior have created the most difficult climate we’ve ever
seen,” the chief executive, Bradbury H. Anderson, said in a statement.

It may seem like running a big business and running a Broadway show are as different as HD and Blue-ray, but they are not.

As a Producer, it’s your job to not only look at today’s numbers, but also at tomorrow’s, next week’s, and next year’s and then . . . adjust accordingly.

Shows and theaters in NYC and around the country should be cutting their gross projections right about now, and making expense cuts to keep their heads above the water, because the tide is rolling in.

The tall kids (the hits) will be fine, but in storms like this, the average-sized kids, who would normally be able to withstand the waves, are going to get pulled under.

Simply put and without the water:  we’re looking at losing the middle of our market.

Just like the electronics industry is losing theirs.