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Broadway’s Rough Road Ahead
The second-act rendition of “Let’s Hang On,” in “Jersey Boys,” might be
Broadway’s anthem at the moment. Nearly every show had its audience shrink last
week, with 14 productions experiencing more than a 10 percent drop in ticket
sales. So musicals and plays are trying to hang on until the holidays bring an
influx of cheer-seeking visitors to New York, looking to be entertained. After
the new year they will try to hang on again, through January and February,
traditionally two of the industry’s slowest months.
“Jersey Boys” itself, the winner of the 2006 Tony
Award for best musical, has so far proved hardy, along with a handful of
other musicals, which include “Wicked,” “Mamma Mia!” and “South Pacific.” The
long-running granddads on Broadway — “Chicago,” “Phantom of the Opera” and “The
Lion King” — are also managing to keep at least three-quarters of their seats
full (sometimes with the help of discounted tickets).
But that is not the case for other award-winning hits. Three musicals,
“Hairspray,” “Monty Python’s Spamalot,” and “Spring Awakening,” have already
announced that they are closing in January.
A handful of others have been struggling to fill seats. This past week — with
Halloween falling on a Friday night and the New York City marathon on Sunday — had an
unusually large dip in attendance. Jason Robert Brown’s musical about adolescent
angst, “13,” and “A Tale of Two Cities,” which was ravaged by critics, filled
fewer than half of their seats for the week that ended on Sunday. On Tuesday
night, citing the economy, the producers of "A Tale of Two Cities" announced
that the musical would close on Nov. 16.
“August: Osage County,” this year’s Tony winner for best play; the musical
spoof “Alfred
Hitchcock’s The 39 Steps”; the British farce “Boeing-Boeing”; and the
long-running musical “Avenue Q” did not rise much above the 50 percent mark,
with the last two shows losing more than 17 percent of their audiences from the
previous week.
Disney’s “Mary Poppins” and “The Little Mermaid,” meanwhile, hovered around
60 percent of their capacity, although such family musicals are expected to pick
up during the holiday season, and Disney’s deep pockets mean that it has more of
a cushion to keep shows afloat. (Mel
Brooks’ “Young Frankenstein” has declined to make its numbers available for
more than a year now.)
Straight plays traditionally tend to have a tougher time than musicals. A
couple of limited engagements, like the Royal Court Theater’s production of “The
Seagull” with Kristin
Scott Thomas (finishing on Dec. 21), and “All My Sons,” with Katie
Holmes, John
Lithgow, Patrick
Wilson and Dianne
Wiest (closing on Jan. 11), are still doing brisk business. But while
“Sons,” a star-laden Arthur
Miller production, is playing to nearly sold-out crowds, “Equus,” with Daniel
Radcliffe and Richard Griffiths (which closes in early February), barely
made it past the 60 percent mark last week.
The distressing figures bolstered the Broadway Cassandras who have been
predicting that there will be dark theaters come spring. A couple of new
musicals, including “9 to 5: The Musical” and “Blithe Spirit,” have already
booked theaters. And Jane
Fonda is returning to Broadway in the winter of 2009 to appear in Moisés
Kaufman’s “33 Variations,” a drama about Beethoven’s
obsessive reworking of a rather pedestrian waltz that came to be known as the
Diabelli Variations. Ms. Fonda will play a contemporary musicologist who is
suffering from a terminal illness and trying to unlock the mystery behind
Beethoven’s obsession.
Other theaters designed for straight plays may have more trouble getting
bookings. “It’s reasonable to assume there’ll be a few empty theaters in the
spring,” said Emanuel Azenberg, a veteran Broadway producer who is planning to
revive Neil
Simon’s “Brighton Beach Memoirs” and “Broadway Bound” next fall.
Sometimes producers and theater owners turn to short-run shows when there’s
no long-term prospect in sight. Like holiday guests, limited engagements often
make themselves at home on and around Broadway in November and December. Two
nonholiday solo shows that have been in the works for a while include “Liza’s at
the Palace,” with Liza
Minnelli, set for a run in December, before “West Side Story” moves into the
Palace Theater in February. Then Will
Ferrell’s “You’re Welcome America: A Final Night with George
W. Bush” begins previews at the Cort Theater in January.
Mr. Ferrell’s show is a perfect fit for the season. It runs during Broadway’s
deadest period (January through mid-March), it has a built-in audience fan base,
and it’s cheap to stage.
“One-person shows are a producer’s dream if they work,” said Rocco
Landesman, president of Jujamcyn Theaters, which owns five Broadway
theaters. “They’re very seductive. It’s cheaper, and if you can fill the house,
you can make a lot of money.”
But he warned that limited engagements are not a viable long-term business
model. “A short run is preferable to no run,” he explained, “but you have to be
concerned about the landscape when you have to keep filling in gaps because you
have dark time.” Jujamcyn has no short runs or solo shows planned at the moment,
Mr. Landesman said. The company’s St. James Theater is currently home to
“Gypsy,” starring Patti
LuPone. Last week the theater was about 60 percent full, but Mr. Landesman
said he expected the show to stay put at least through the end of Ms. LuPone’s
contract in March.
Gerald
Schoenfeld, chairman of the Shubert Organization, the largest landlord on
Broadway, agreed that short runs were an uncertain stop-gap measure between the
opening of one show and another’s closing.
“They’re good if they fit, they’re good if they have a sure-fire star,” like
Billy
Crystal, who won a Tony in 2005 in the newly minted special theatrical event
category, Mr. Schoenfeld said, but otherwise, “it’s an uncertain
proposition.”
“39 Steps” is scheduled to move out of the Cort to make room for Mr. Ferrell
and into the Helen
Hayes on Jan. 20, where the holiday run of “Slava’s Snowshow” is soon to
take up residence.
At the Nederlander-owned Marquis Theater, “The Soul of Shaolin,” a martial
arts extravaganza from China, will move in on Jan. 13 for a brief run, after “Irving
Berlin’s White Christmas,” based on the 1954 classic film, moves out.
“Shaolin” was performed at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. It will stay at the
Marquis until Jan. 31. “Shaolin” is part of a new partnership between the
Nederlanders and the Eastern Shanghai Cultural Film and Television Group that is
called China on Broadway. The idea is to produce theatrical projects that can
play on Broadway and travel around the world.
At the moment Mr. Landesman and Mr. Schoenfeld, at least publicly, are
striking an optimistic tone. “Right now it’s clogged,” Mr. Schoenfeld said of
Broadway. “There’s no shortage of shows.” Indeed, there are more shows than
there are available theaters.
“I feel pretty good,” Mr. Landesman said. “We’re always worried that could
change and possibly change quickly. But right now, I’m cautiously optimistic,
and I’m hopeful we’ll ride this out.”
Hopefully, it will not last long, but I have a feeling that Broadway will survive. It is just a shame for the shows that will be hurting because of it.
AJ