January is always a dark time for Broadway, and over a quarter of the shows on Broadway closed this past weekend.
A few more will be dropping their final curtains in the next two or three weeks. Let us take a moment to pay our respects to the fallen shows of January 2015.
Once ceased to fall slowly, closing on its 1168th performance (84th longest-running Broadway show ever). Once is an adaptation of the musical movie of the same name, and closes as a resounding success. The show swept the Tony Awards in a very weak 2012, stealing Best Musical away from Newsies, and outlasting both Newsies and Spider-Man in that season. It made its money back that August, and closes having earned $110 million and having been seen by over a million people. Once currently has a U.S. tour, and will play in the West End until March. Current hit It’s Only a Play will transfer to the Jacobs Theatre, minus most of its star-studded cast.
Pippin has no more magic to do, closing after 709 performances. A revival of Stephen Schwartz’s 1970s musical, Pippin walked away triumphant at the 2013 Tonys as Best Revival, along with Tonys for its director, and both lead and supporting actress. For a while, it packed the Music Box Theater to the brim, setting house records and making a million dollars a week. It made its money back by the end of 2013. However, cast changes were not kind to the show. Now, with an unknown singer from The Voice playing Pippin, the once mighty show had its theater two-thirds full and pulled $400,000 a week. As of closing, Pippin had been seen by 650,000 people, and grossed $68 million. Pippin is also going on tour, and will be replaced by a revival of The Heidi Chronicles.
Less of a success story is Cinderella, which turned into a pumpkin after 769 performances. Cinderella had the bad luck to open during the same season as similarly-targeted Annie and Matilda, and never fully filled the gargantuan Broadway Theatre ever since the latter opened. At the Tonys, Cinderella was beaten as Best Revival by Pippin, and walked away with one lonely statuette for Costume Design. The musical never made back its $13 million capitalization, despite grossing $88 million and being seen by over a million people. It tried to sell tickets with stunt casting, booking the likes of Carly Rae Jepsen and Nene Leakes. That strategy backfired spectacularly, with the theater sometimes less than half full and average ticket prices in the $70 range. Cinderella has been touring, and will be replaced at the Broadway Theater by the musical version of Dr. Zhivago.
The final countdown has reached zero for Rock of Ages, the eighties jukebox musical from 2009 that just wouldn’t quit for 2312 performances (29th longest running Broadway show ever). Rock of Ages received no Tonys, and was derided by theater insiders. However, the rockers had the last laugh, grossing $128 million from almost a million and a half viewers, breaking even in 2012, and far outlasting the more lauded shows of the season like Next to Normal and Billy Elliot. Rock of Ages played the Helen Hayes Theatre, which is so small it barely qualifies as Broadway. There is talk of Rock of Ages just transferring to a slightly smaller off-Broadway theater, perhaps New World Stages a la Avenue Q. The Helen Hayes, meanwhile, will be renovated by its new owners.
January 4 was also a bloodbath for many new shows this season, who just failed to find an audience. No show is mourned more than the revival of Side Show, which opened in October. It received rave reviews and was beloved by the few people who did see it. The problem was that only 73,000 people saw it. Side Show closes with less than $5 million grossed, with the revival lasting exactly as long as the original production did in 1997. There is a chance Side Show will be vindicated at the Tonys this year. The St. James Theatre will next welcome the comedy Something Rotten.
Roundabout’s star-studded revival of The Real Thing from October ended its limited run. The starpower of Maggie Gyllenhaal, Ewan McGregor, and Cynthia Nixon coaxed 75,000 theatergoers to part with $6 million; I bitterly regret being counted among that number. The American Airlines will next present a revival of On the Twentieth Century with Kristin Chenoweth, which will hopefully go over better.
This Is Our Youth, in which three young stars have been angsting since August, never quite found an audience. The theatre was usually around 60% full, and in the end 112,000 people paid $7 million to see it. The angsty youths will be replaced by a cheery old-timer, namely Larry David’s comedy Fish in the Dark.
The only success story of the season that’s closing is the Illusionists, a touring magic show that stopped in NYC for a month and a half. They made their money back in three weeks, and in the end were seen by 76,000 people for $8 million. Next up in the Marquis Theatre is The Heart of Robin Hood.
There will be a continuation of the carnage on January 18, when Motown will close. Motown opened in 2013 and was ignored by the Tonys, but proved to be a popular choice among theater-goers. It has already been seen by over a million people during its run, and will close with a gross of $114 million. Motown is doing well, but the show needs heavy revising. The revising will occur on their national tour and in the West End this year, and Motown aims to return to Broadway in summer 2016. In the meantime, the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre will host Finding Neverland.
Lastly, The Last Ship will sail away on January 24. Despite being composed by Sting, the show has not found an audience since October. Things got so bad, Sting had to step in and star in the show as well. When his run ends, the show will sink again, so the producers decided to cut their losses.
What shows are you saddest to see close? How many did you get a chance to see?