PARADE also closed before it was nominated, which still frustrates me. Had it remained open a few more months leading up to the nominations, I think it most certainly would have won Best Musical.
Ed_Mottershead is correct, and HALLELUJAH, BABY! WON Best Musical -- the only one to do so after having closed (as far as I know). LOVE THAT SCORE -- My favorite overture of all time.
PARADE was also a regional theatre production, albeit, Lincoln Center Theatre, which often translates their limited run engagements to open ended productions, but the musical simply played out its original limited run engagement and closed. Honestly, that original production wasn't especially well reviewed or attended, I don't think there is really a strong reason to believe extending the run would have helped its chances at winning Best Musical. Its a pretty un-commercial show...
Wow. I'll admit that I'm kind of disappointed if only because I'm a Menken fan and will miss the joy that even a mediocre score of his would bring on a recording.
Of course these days pretty much everything gets recorded so hopefully this will too.
I'm guessing no one is friends with Alanis Morissette for this one... Jane Eyre about a decade ago got 5 nominations and days later announced they would be closing sometime in mid-May, but Alanis bought a ton of tickets (hundreds) and donated them to charity groups that kept the show open through the Tony Telecast.
I think the question is has a show ever closed AFTER being nominated for Best Musical but before the awards were handed out. Closed shows have been nominated and even performed (Side Show, e.g.) But, if Leap of Faith doesn't perform, I'm sure Memphis will take the spot to fulfill NPH's promise from last year's Tony show.
As has been stated here too many times to even count, if a recording happens it has to be paid for by the PRODUCERS. No label will fund a recording, nor would they have under any circumstances. Since the producers have just dropped a significant amount of dough, it depends whether they'd like to drop another $250,000 to 300,000 dollars. The ONLY other way it can happen is if Mr. Menken puts forth the dough and I don't think that's something he'd do - but who knows.
Um, no recordings are not 500,000 to 700,000. The ONLY recordings that have come anywhere near 500,000 are ones from the days when there were bidding wars occasionally and an advance on top of the recording costs was involved. And I believe the last time THAT happened was Big - oops.
OK, this is probably very naive logic, but is it possible, is there any chance that they had enough money to limp along until the Tonys, but by closing now they can put that money towards a cast recording and the Tony performance?
LEAP OF FAITH: 24 previews and 20 performances: 44 total BONNIE & CLYDE: 33 previews and 36 performances: 69 total LYSISTRATA JONES: 34 previews and 30 performances: 64 total
Who knew that we would have three massive flop musicals this season?? I mean, even another massive flop - BABY IT'S YOU - ran longer than these three combined!
You could tell just by reading this thread that humbugfoto really liked this show and was really pulling for it to succeed. Here's hoping that he/she gets his/her wish fulfilled of a Broadway Cast Recording. Sorry to hear it's closing.
^I hope the money they raised to stay open goes toward a cast album. Obviously, if they want the show to have a regional life it's far better off with a reference recording.