Broadway Rewind 12/4/2009

Here’s a look back at this week’s biggest Broadway news!

Welcome to Broadway! This week Broadway will welcome David Mamet’s Race, which opens Sunday (December 6)! Click on the name of the show to check out the official show site!

Attendance. Some good and some bad news at the Broadway box offices for the week ending 11/29. A Steady Rain, Billy Elliott, Jersey Boys, The Lion King, and Wicked all sold out this week, breaking several Broadway records in the process. Wicked grossed a total of $2,086,135 for its eight performances during Thanksgiving week, the first time that any Broadway show has grossed over $2 million in a single week. Billy Elliott set a record at the Imperial Theater for Thanksgiving week, grossing $1,574,502 (the previous record was held by The Boy from Oz with a gross of $1,489,354). Finally, The Lion King set a box office record at the Minskoff Theater, grossing $1,692,957 and breaking its previous record of $1,691,705 set in December 2007. Unfortunately, not all shows were so fortunate. While the big-name musicals fared well, the newer, lesser-known, celebrity-free shows saw some pretty poor turnouts. According to the New York Times, of the 34 plays and musicals currently on Broadway, 11 productions played to houses that were less than 2/3 full. Oleanna had the week’s lowest earnings and capacity, filling only 32% of its seats and grossing only $129,778.

Movin’ out. The Broadway run of David Mamet’s Oleanna announced this week that it will close even earlier than expected, pushing its final performance up to December 6 from the previously announced January 3. The play, which stars Bill Pullman and Julia Stiles, will have played 15 previews and 65 performances. The Roundabout Theatre Company also announced this week that the final Broadway performance of its revival of Bye Bye Birdie will be January 24, at which point the musical will have played 40 previews and 117 performances. The production had previously announced an extension through April 25, but will now close when the leading actors’ contracts end.

Shows currently scheduled to close before the end of January include:
A Steady Rain (December 6)
Hamlet (December 6)
Oleanna (December 6)
The Royal Family (December 13)
Irving Berlin’s White Christmas (January 3)
Shrek the Musical (January 3)
Superior Donuts (January 3)
In the Next Room (or the vibrator play) (January 10)
The 39 Steps (January 10)
Wishful Drinking (January 17)
Bye Bye Birdie (January 24)

Finally, while it has not yet posted a closing notice, rumors abound (precipitated by the Post’s Michael Riedel) that the revival of Ragtime may not survive the winter. Riedel cites that the show lacks star power and may just not have caught on due to a poor marketing scheme. Officially, the producers have stated on numerous occasions that “there are no plans to close at this time,” though others close to the show are hinting otherwise. I desperately hope that these rumors prove to be untrue, read below for why this is the case (for real, this time). And then go buy tickets to Ragtime!

Broadway cast albums get Grammy noms! Congratulations to Ain’t Misbehavin’, Hair, 9 to 5 The Musical, Shrek the Musical, and West Side Story, whose cast albums were nominated for a Grammy on Wednesday in the Best Musical Show Album category! Do I think Hair has that one in the bag? Yes. Though I suppose we’ll have to tune in and see on January 31!

Broadway casts more big names. So if you’ve had enough time to get over the fact that Ashlee Simpson-Wentz has actually joined the cast of Chicago, check out some less troublesome casting announcements that were made this week! Academy Award winner Christopher Walken will join Sam Rockwell, Zoe Kazan, and Anthony Mackie in Martin McDonagh’s new play A Behanding in Spokane, which will play Broadway’s Gerald Schoenfeld Theater for a 16-week engagement beginning February 15 (will officially open March 4). It was also confirmed this week that five-time Emmy winner Kelsey Grammer will make his Broadway musical debut in the upcoming revival of La Cage, which begins previews on April 6 (opens April 18).

Alright, let’s talk about Ragtime. GO SEE IT!!! I can’t say this enough. This show is incredible. (But bring tissues, it’s a tear-inducer for sure!)

A brief synopsis (from TheaterMania): In Doctorow’s breathtakingly ingenious plot, three families - segregated de facto as Ragtime kicks off - begin to interact when Mother, a well-to-do New Rochelle matron impulsively takes in a young Negro woman, Sarah, and her newborn baby, who are being sought by Sarah’s lover, a pianist named Coalhouse Walker. Through other bright, immediately believable coincidences, they cross paths on Derek McLane’s remarkably adaptable three-tiered set with recent Jewish immigrant Tateh, who eventually builds cutting silhouettes into a movie-making fortune, as well as such real0life figures as Henry Ford, Booker T. Washington, J.P. Morgan, Emma Goldman, Evelyn Nesbit, and Harry Houdini. Adapted from E.L. Doctorow’s best-selling novel, ragtime music is used as a brilliant metaphor for the seismic change that came over this country at the start of the last century when the artificial barriers separating various masses huddled on these shores began to crack.

Now, I’m sure you’ve all seen the "Rent Filmed Live on Broadway" DVD, and are familiar with the length of applause that greeted the actors as they came on stage for the opening number of the final performance. Would you believe that the same lengthy applause delayed the start of the Ragtime preview I attended a couple of weeks ago? The show was greeted with such enthusiasm that I am so surprised to hear that ticket sales are not going particularly well. Not only was the reaction emphatic at the opening of the show, but the audience gave the performance a standing ovation DURING the final number - they didn’t even wait for the curtain call! The score, the lyrics, and the book are absolutely phenomenal (though occasionally a bit sappy…but I like that kind of thing), and though the leads have incredibly large shoes to fill, they do a fantastic job. I was going to review more in depth, but instead I’m going to re-direct you to Gabrielle Giocomo’s blog since she wrote about her recent experience seeing the show (check out her post HERE)!

Noah Weisberg, previously of Broadway’s South Pacific wrote on Twitter a couple weeks ago, “Just saw Ragtime. That is one of the finest productions I have seen. Of any show.” So go see Ragtime. Seriously. And if you’re not in New York and cannot get here to see it, buy the original cast album. You won’t regret it.

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Alright folks, that’s was happened on Broadway this week! Check back next week for another week in review!