Just when you thought the hemorrhaging of Broadway shows had reached its peak with the closing announcements of Matilda and Jersey Boys, the bloodletting picked up more momentum. Joining Matilda in its January 1st exodus will be the musical Shakespearean farce Something Rotten! (final performance count: 742).
Then, on the 15th of January—the same day Jersey Boys is set to leave the Great White Way—this year’s Tony-winning new play, The Humans, will be clearing out of the Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre to make room for the new musical Come From Away, which begins previews on February 18th. However, don’t rule out The Humans (it moved from the Helen Hayes to the Schoenfeld last January) altogether. A flicker of hope suggests they might be on the lookout for a new home.
With Broadway producers upping the mortality rate on so many highly popular shows over the next several months—Fiddler on the Roof is another musical set to close, in this case after its New Year’s Eve performance—I’m crossing my fingers the next crop of shows live up to the excellence of the ones heading out the door.