Most Unexpected Closing Announcement- Page 4

[fromthecity]

Posted: 10/23/08 at 11:09pm

I think you'd have to be totally delusional to not have seen the imminent closing of Spring Awakening. After six-ish shows have gone before it, any look at its grosses would have told you it was a heartbeat away.

I'm a huge fan of the show, but I'm not an idiot. I think too many people let their love for a show equal the possibility for it to run ten years.

[BroadwayConcierge]

Posted: 8/21/16 at 11:50am

Randomly came across this thread and I thought it'd be interesting to bring it back for shows over the last eight years. Shuffle Along definitely takes the cake in recent history.

[Call_me_jorge]

Posted: 8/21/16 at 12:26pm

Mary Poppins was shocking. I wasn't shocked, but I was really saddened by the Matilda announcement.

[Demitri2]

Posted: 8/21/16 at 1:30pm

Why did NEWSIES close? IIRC it was still making a profit towards the end of its run. Did it have to do with the theatre no longer being available and if so the cost of moving the set to another theatre being too costly?

 

As far as someone asking about the 42ND STREET revival, I recall reading that although it ran almost four years and still lost money was because it rarely met its weekly nut due to how expensive it was to run. There once was a musical, THE YEARLING, that was so poorly capitalized that even if it sold out every performance it only could've realized a profit of 5K a week. But with its poorly received reviews it was never an issue since it closed after three performances.

Updated On: 8/21/16 at 01:30 PM

[gypsy101]

Posted: 8/21/16 at 3:59pm

agree on Shuffle Along's announcement which was only made more shocking since I was attending Shuffle Along when its closing was announced (and read about it at intermission).

[@z5]

Posted: 8/21/16 at 4:29pm

Definitely Shuffle Along is the most memorable unexpected closing announcement. American Psycho was also fairly surprising- the grosses didn't look too bad i didn't think.

[Shaunthedog]

Posted: 8/21/16 at 4:37pm

Was Tarzan any good? I heard the critics hated it.

WithoutATrace said: "After I had seen Glory Days, I had predicted it was going to be another Home Sweet Homer, so its closing announcement was not a shock to me.

https://forum.broadwayworld.com/readmessage.cfm?boardid=1&boardname=bway&thread=965287#3546454


The one I was most shocked about was probably Tarzan."

 

[quizking101]

Posted: 8/21/16 at 4:41pm

Shuffle Along for sure, mostly in the way of how they worded it, making it not so subtly sound like it was Audra's fault

[BroadwayConcierge]

Posted: 8/21/16 at 4:44pm

I also have to recall Hedwig. Everybody seemed so sure there would be at least one more Hedwig after Taye Diggs, and especially that Taye would finish out his scheduled run. No one saw that early of a closing coming (goddamn it, Taye Diggs).

Updated On: 8/21/16 at 04:44 PM

[aj88]

Posted: 8/21/16 at 7:46pm

I, too, was at the performance of Shuffle Along when it was announced to the press that the show would be closing.

Some shows closing did surprise me a little perhaps but that one just seemed so sudden and sad. I wasn't a HUGE fan of the show as some but it had a very talented cast and deserved a longer run.

[songanddanceman2]

Posted: 8/21/16 at 8:50pm

American Psycho, the grosses did not look that bad at all.

[acekatherineplumber2]

Posted: 8/21/16 at 9:07pm

Newsies and Shuffle Along were the most surprising, I think.

[ACL2006]

Posted: 8/21/16 at 9:11pm

Disney opted to close MARY POPPINS & BEAUTY & THE BEAST for other shows moving into those theaters(ALADDIN & THE LITTLE MERMAID). NEWSIES closed as that set was also going to be used on the upcoming tour.

[Call_me_jorge]

Posted: 8/21/16 at 9:14pm

Mary Poppins should have at least been given a nine month advance

[ACL2006]

Posted: 8/21/16 at 9:18pm

agree that POPPINS closed too early. They closed March 3, 2013 & ALADDIN wasn't arriving until February 2014. POPPINS could have(& should have) run until mid-December.

[jomilo21]

Posted: 8/21/16 at 9:47pm

ACL2006 said: "agree that POPPINS closed too early. They closed March 3, 2013 & ALADDIN wasn't arriving until February 2014. POPPINS could have(& should have) run until mid-December."

Didn't they renovate the New Amsterdam Theater between that time? I think Disney seems to be the common thread here- they have this thing about quiting while they are ahead. They close their shows when they are on top. They can do that because unlike other producers, they ALWAYS have a new show in the pipe coming. 

[MadonnaMusical]

Posted: 8/21/16 at 9:56pm

Anyone who reads the weekly analysis shouldn't be shocked by a lot of the ones mentioned above. I'm shocked when big hits that are still selling in the 70-80% announce a close. I was shocked at Billy Elliot and I was shocked at In The Heights closing. I thought Billy would run for 7 years and I thought In the Heights would run for 5. I also thought Matilda would run for 5... So I was a little shocked at that... Though I had been hearing rumors so I wasn't completely shocked by it.

 

[10086sunset]

Posted: 8/21/16 at 10:29pm

Billy Elliott did come as quite the shock...

Updated On: 8/21/16 at 10:29 PM

[whatdoesntkillme]

Posted: 8/21/16 at 11:04pm

Newsies was also never meant to be a long-running Broadway hit. It was written just to have in the Disney catalog to sell to schools, community theatres, etc., and the PaperMill production was done simply to create awareness/hype for the show, since most kids then weren't very familiar with the film. Then it became such a huge hit that they took it to Broadway for a limited run, and it ended up turning into an open run. I think since Disney never intended it to be the next Lion King, they wanted to close while it was still successful, take it across the country (with the Broadway set, as mentioned previously), and then use all that hype to sell the licensing rights.

[whatdoesntkillme]

Posted: 8/21/16 at 11:04pm

Newsies was also never meant to be a long-running Broadway hit. It was written just to have in the Disney catalog to sell to schools, community theatres, etc., and the PaperMill production was done simply to create awareness/hype for the show, since most kids then weren't very familiar with the film. Then it became such a huge hit that they took it to Broadway for a limited run, and it ended up turning into an open run. I think since Disney never intended it to be the next Lion King, they wanted to close while it was still successful, take it across the country (with the Broadway set, as mentioned previously), and then use all that hype to sell the licensing rights.

[Valentina3]

Posted: 8/21/16 at 11:15pm

gypsy101 said: "agree on Shuffle Along's announcement which was only made more shocking since I was attending Shuffle Along when its closing was announced (and read about it at intermission)"

I was in the audience for that performance too, but I didn't read the closing announcement until next morning. When I read that producers had gotten the cast together right before the show, I was crushed. It became clear why so many cast members were crying during the finale. I was crying too, but was waa also moved by the fact that cast still got affected by the plot.

[After Eight]

Posted: 8/22/16 at 9:44am

I guess Wildcat was the most unexpected for me. It was supposed to go on hiatus for the summer and then reopen. I remember the day I opened the paper to read that it wouldn't reopen. I was shocked, and very, very sad. I so loved Lucy. Other unexpected closings that left me sad indeed were  The Gay Life, Sail Away, Hot Spot, Jennie... Then there were so many shows that producers closed after a week or less without even giving them a chance to find an audience. I enjoyed a great many of them. So unfortunate.