Did you like Sketchy Details on Facebook yet? The 50th person to like the page gets any item they want, up to $20 in value, from the Etsy store. Exclusive content and easier commenting at the click of this link. There's a strange thing that happens on Broadway. Since there are a limited number of official Broadway theaters, productions planning to come in during a season might go through a few different options of houses before they're locked into a contract. Two big closings are allowing for an interesting set of adjustments to which show goes where.
First, The Addams Family will be closing 31 December. The show has struggled since it's out of town try-out in Chicago. Jerry Zaks was brought in as a consultant to fix the show. He was left with a lot of strange and disparate elements he tried to tie together. Even with a new opening number and a tighter rein on Jackie Hoffman's ad-libbing as Grandma Addams, it still didn't work. The critics ravaged the show and it survived on name recognition (both for stars Nathan Lane and Bebe Neuwirth (replaced by Roger Rees and Brooke Shields) and the macabre cartoon family) and family appeal. The national tour kicks off in New Orleans with five new songs, a new book, and the elimination of the fabulous squid puppet. Team cephalopod for life. Playbill has a great article on what, exactly, went wrong with this production. It's a must-read for theater fans.
Next, Tony-award winning juggernaut Billy Elliot announced a closing date of 8 January 2012. This is surprising for a really simple reason. Unlike The Addams Family, which couldn't take the financial hit of instituting the new book and songs on Broadway, Billy Elliot changed its book a few weeks ago. They cut out a lot of the questionable language to open the show up for younger audiences, families, and school groups. Obviously the ploy was too little, too late. Billy Elliot will end its run after a little more than three years.
A show closing on Broadway is rarely a surprise. What does become much more interesting is the strategizing that new productions can look at when big houses open up at the same time. The Lunt-Fontaine has already been booked to host Broadway transfer of Ghost, based on the film of the same name. Hopefully, the house isn't so large that the effects so key to the production suffer.
But what will become of the Imperial Theater? The current Broadway revival of Follies was set to be a limited engagement because the upcoming revival of Evita was going to takeover the Marquis Theatre. The closing date was pushed back to 22 January 2012. Rumor has it, however, that Evita might try to take over the Imperial Theater. It could be a good match for that show if everything lines up. That either means that Follies could try to extend with replacement actors (if I'm not mistaken, some of the leading actors have jobs lined up, like concert tours and other productions, shortly after the new closing date) or the Marquis Theatre could host another show coming in.
What else is coming in? Jesus Christ Superstar has been confirmed for the Neil Simon Theater in March. End of the Rainbow, the new Judy Garland bio-show that played to raves in London, is coming in March to an unnamed theater. Rebecca, a musical based on the Hitchcock film of the same name, has also announced a March bow but no theater.
The musical adaptation of Little Miss Sunshine recently did an industry workshop after its critically acclaimed run in California over the summer with a new cast, including Sherie Rene Scott and Raul Esparza. No run has been announced, but the kind of workshop they did is usually designed to get financing in place. Then you have shows like Love Never Dies (based on the Sydney production, not the London production) and Newsies that are threatening to take Broadway at any moment. There are others.
And what of possible transfers of other productions from Off-Broadway? Lysistrata Jones is transferring to Broadway based on a well-received run in a tiny little converted theater space Off-Broadway. Could the upcoming revival of Carrie earn good enough reviews to take a similar risk? And then there's the popular strategy of "rush it to Broadway because there are empty theaters" that happens every few years. What producers are going to try and jump on an empty Broadway house in the hopes of gaining an audience through Tony nominations?
I know not everyone gets off on the rumors about this kind of thing. I just find them exciting. It's like getting the Toys'R'Us Dream Book as a kid. You see all these things you could have. You want that one and that one and that one. You make your list up for Santa Claus and hope he brings you everything. You know that you won't get the unicorn and the new Nintendo and the RC monster truck, but that doesn't hamper your joy when you're first inundated with all these possible new toys. That's how I view this part of a Broadway season. Christmas is coming by the end of April and I'm already hoping for everything I've ever wanted.
UPDATE: Funny Girl takes the Imperial in April.
Thoughts? Sound off below.