A round-up of news on Broadway including more casting for Cabaret, more success for Merrily We Roll Along, the sad news that Here Lies Love is closing, plus Spamalot, Harmony and more!
Here Lies Love to close
Multi-million dollar production Here Lies Love is set to close early on Broadway.
The immersive musical by David Byrne and Fatboy Slim at the Broadway Theatre is closing on 26 November 2023, only four months after it opened, and will have played 33 previews and 149 regular performances.
The show has cost $22 million to produce, mainly because the whole of the Broadway Theatre had a serious renovation to create the immersive auditorium for the show, featuring a huge dance floor.
Last week the show filled 79% of seats, grossing $768,244.
The producers issued a lengthy – and interesting – statement about the closure, that said much about Broadway as an industry, including: “When we started this journey to bring this bold and original work to Broadway, we asked ourselves: Can anyone produce on Broadway in a new way? Is there a new path forward? What does the template look like? Will audiences want something radically new? Who will those audiences be? We have learned a great deal about the answers to those questions. Yes, new ways can work. Artistic excellence can be achieved. But the reality is, succeeding on Broadway means not only producing excellent work with artistic merit––it also means creating the audience for it. And how much time it takes to find and grow new audiences is out of sync with the tight timeframes for audience-building and awareness.”
The production starred Lea Salonga when it first opened, who is now over in the West End starring in Stephen Sondheim’s Old Friends at the Gielgud Theatre.
The configuration of the immersive space at the Broadway Theatre is not dis-similar to the current auditorium configuration over at London’s Bridge Theatre for Nick Hytner’s award-winning and crowd-pleasing revival of Guys & Dolls. Quick – get that London hit over to New York ASAP!
Merrily We Roll Along sells out
The Maria Friedman production of Merrily We Roll Along, produced by her sister, London-based producer Sonia Friedman, is continuing to dominate the Broadway box-office.
Last week it was the only show to reach 100% capacity, selling out the week at the Hudson Theatre, and with an average ticket price of $234.40!
The acclaimed revival of Sondheim’s musical took $1,811,423 last week at the box office, making it a runaway smash hit. The show stars Daniel Radcliffe, Jonathan Groff and Lindsay Mendez.
Cabaret on Broadway casting
More casting has been announced for Rebecca Frecknall’s Broadway transfer of Cabaret.
Joining Eddie Redmayne as The Emcee, Gayle Rankin as Sally Bowles, and Ato Blankson-Wood as Cliff, will be Tony Award winner Bebe Neuwirth (Chicago) as Fraulein Schneider, and Steven Skybell (Fiddler on the Roof) as Herr Schultz.
The show starts it’s run at the August Wilson Theatre – AKA the Kit Kat Club New York – on 1 April 2024. The August Wilson – now owned by ATG – is being gutted and completely remodelled for the show, as was London’s Playhouse Theatre.
Cabaret continues to play in London, now starring Jake Shears and Rebecca Lucy Taylor.
New Shows: Spamalot and Barry Manilow’s Harmony
The Broadway revival of Spamalot is now playing in New York. The Eric Idle and John Du Prez musical is running at the St. James Theatre and stars Taran Killam, Ethan Slater, Michael Urie, Christopher Fitzgerald, James Monroe Iglehart, Leslie Rodriguez Kritzer, Jimmy Smagula and Nik Walker.
The show played to 90% capacity in its first week of previews – which is a good sign! It officially opens on Broadway on 16 November.
Also new to the Great White Way is Barry Manilow and Bruce Sussman musical Harmony at the Barrymore Theatre, directed and choreographed by British creative Warren Carlyle.
A dream of Manilow’s to have a musical playing on Broadway, the show formerly opens next week, on 13 November.
Barry Manilow is also going to take London by storm next year, with Manilow set to bring his one-man show – titled “The Last Last UK Concerts“! – to the London Palladium from 23 May to 9 June 2024.
Boy George in Moulin Rouge! on Broadway
Our very own Boy George is set to play Broadway again next year, starring as Harold Zidler in Moulin Rouge! The Musical.
Boy George will play Zidler from 6 February to 12 May 2024 at Broadway’s Al Hirschfeld Theatre.
His last foray on the Broadway stage was way back in 2003 when he appeared in his own musical, Taboo. Taboo is also due a revival, and there has been much chatter – including from Boy George himself – about a UK revival.
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