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Why are so many shows CLOSING early? | The New York, New York and Ain't Too Proud closures explained
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What would like a sad and funereal version of the New York, New York theme sound like? Baa baa, baa, baa, baaaa. Start spreading the news. Oh my God. Hey. Welcome back to my theater themed YouTube channel. My name is Mickey Jo and I am obsessed with all things theatre. I'm also a theater pundit, commentator and critic living here on YouTube and I review and talk about shows internationally. So today I'm gonna talk about two huge closing notices that have recently left the theater community. Shoot Atlantic. We are talking about the early closings of two big musicals, Ain't Too Proud, here in the West End at the Prince Edward Theatre and New York, New York on Broadway at the St. James. If for whatever reason, this is your first time hearing any of this news, I'm going to be letting you know all of the details about these show closings, exactly when they're going to be concluding performances. But this also invites a lot of other questions. Why exactly are these shows closing? Is it coming as a big surprise that these shows are concluding their runs early? What might be going into those theatres next, if anything? And what does this mean for the industry, both globally and in each of these two countries? I'm going to attempt to answer all of those questions in today's new video. Now, if you enjoy this one, make sure to subscribe to my theatre themed YouTube channel. I talk about the theatre news very regularly. I give you opinion videos and lots of reviews as well of all the shows that I get to go and see. Make sure you're subscribed if that sounds like something you'd like to watch on YouTube. Am I off center right now? There we go. There we go. That was going to annoy me. So let's talk about why Ain't Too Proud and New York, New York closing early. So let me read you the actual announcements about both of these. We're going to start with New York, New York. And I feel less bad about the joke I made at the beginning of this video because even the Playbill article begins, start spreading the news. They're leaving today. Well, not today, but the Broadway musical New York, New York is leaving abruptly. This is such a thing on Broadway. Pay attention to the differences between these closings. So they have announced and they announced on July 23rd that the show was going to close on July 30th. That's right. The show made the announcement just a week before the closing date. And when it closes, New York, New York will have played 33 preview performances and 110 regular performances. All being well, you are seeing this video on the 26th. So New York, New York will be closing in just a few short days. But that's madness to me that they just made this announcement. I mean, the writing had been on the wall for this show. I'll explain more of why that is in just a moment, but it's really shocking to me that they made the announcement. Oh, by the way, the show is closing in just a week. We have some statements from lead producers Sonja Friedman and Tom Kadai, who said, we would like to thank the extraordinarily gifted and committed performers who have been a dream to work with alongside all of the friends, John Kander, David Thompson, Sharon Washington, Lin Manuel Miranda. Those are the creatives in the show, the sublime orchestra, the unwaveringly dedicated creative production and administrative teams, the backstage staff and technicians, all of whom were led by the visionary Susan Stroman. And of course, we will be forever grateful to our fiercely committed and passionate co producing and investing community who enabled us all to bring this show to life. Sorry, you lost a lot of money. They didn't say that last part. I did. Playbill also notes here at the end. In terms of the ongoing life of this show beyond this initial production, New York, New York is going to embark on a national tour in 2025, which is intriguing to me. Are people going to buy tickets to this because of like a, like an enthusiasm for, for New York? I can't travel there, but I'll go see this musical that's a love letter to this city because the film itself is not hugely well known enough to be like a commercial draw in that name alone. I don't know. I guess people who want that kind of a more classic musical vibe, like an American Paris style of a show, maybe it will do well. I don't know. It's not a slam dunk commercial tour to me. So since I've started talking about it, let's address why New York, New York is closing. First of all, this was a really expensive show to put together. It was one of the most expensive in recent years. The New York Times reported that the capitalization for this show, which is how much it cost to put the whole thing together, was $25 million. That's before you take into account the show's high weekly running costs, because of a fairly extensive cast, because of a very complicated and extensive set, because of being in an enormous theatre like the St. James is. So this show was always up against an awful lot in order to be financially successful, which on Broadway is determined by does it recoup its initial investment, does it make back $25 million? And the thing that left me puzzled from the beginning was when you have that expensive a show before casting was announced, we were all assuming, oh, this cost them $25 million to put together. This cast is going to have some names. And then even though they cast some brilliant rising star talents in the leading roles, Colton Ryan, who I think was great in this show. Ana Uzeli, who I think delivered one of the most show stopping performances on Broadway in the last season, they were both fantastic and brilliantly cast. They were not the names I was. They are not going to generate ticket sales in the same way that a Hugh Jackman and a Sutton Foster combination did for the Music Man. I'm not saying those two performers should have been in New York, New York, but was I expecting a bigger box office name? Perhaps? Again, this is nothing about Colton and Anna's abundant talent, but it is a reality of the industry. An unfortunate one, but a true one. Now back to the show itself. So New York, New York is based on a classic film starring Robert De Niro and Liza Minnelli. It's a fairly liberal adaptation that takes a lot of liberties with the source material. And that film itself is best known as being the film which the song appeared. New York, New York has much more instant name recognition for the song that is still played after sports matches, that people can still sing. People know the Frank Sinatra version, people know Liza's performance. But people don't necessarily know the film broadly. Not enough for that to be a huge draw for people to go and see the show. The film will have its fans and people will go and see it based on their love for the film. But it's not like a Back to the Future which just opened on Broadway and will be attracting a lot of fans of that franchise to go and see the show. So given that the show cost this much money, didn't have a hugely viable commercial title and didn't cast huge box office names, it really needed to be an absolute critical masterpiece in order to run with expensive running costs in a big theater. It needed to pull in a lot of audience members and it needed great reviews. Sadly, it did not get great reviews. Now, I saw this show in previews before it was frozen, so I didn't review it. I wasn't attending in a position in order to review it and it would have been inappropriate for me to do so because that's not the etiquette on Broadway, which is absolutely fine. But I didn't find myself particularly disagreeing with the negative reviews that came out. I think a lot of the show looked fantastic, sounded fantastic, and it gave you lush, romantic vibes. But there was an awful lot missing. It lacked substance, and it was a very long show to lack that much substance. I don't know how. It had 3,000 characters on stage and none of them really felt like they had a tremendous amount of depth. You had these woefully underused supporting cast members. Janet decal, who sadly, I think, was miscast as an older latina character. You had Emily skinner, who was criminally underused in another supporting role. The entire plot encircled this will they, won't they? Back and forth with colton, Ryan and ana uzeli's character's relationship. And it had some great songs, but for the most part, the best songs were the ones that we already knew. The world goes round and New York, New York. That came right at the end of the show. And unfortunately, not everyone who saw this show stayed until the end of the show. So with the show opening right at the end of the 2022-2023 season, it gets its mixed to negative reviews, most of which are pretty critical technically about the production, but some of which wax romantically about New York and the concept of the city and how they conjure it on the stage and how charming that is, but that it still doesn't make it a great show. The last thing this production can hope for is that it gets awards for whatever reason, does well at the Tonys, really. And in the run up to this, they were getting nominated for a lot of stuff. And some people were surprised to see those bad reviews and still see a lot of nominations. And they took from this, oh, someone must be wrong here. And yet I completely understand both of those things. I agree with the negative reviews. However, if you look at the individual aspects of this show, the choreography is great. I agree with the direction not being nominated for a Tony. The design elements, all of them, great. Costumes, lighting, sound, the stage, my God, the set design, beautiful. Absolutely beautiful. The set pieces that came on from the sides, the backdrop, the lighting effects in this show, there were a couple of, like, coup de theatre theatre moments. One of which had to do with a big set reveal. One of which had to do with a big lighting reveal. I think sound on this show was maybe one of the most challenging tasks of the entire Broadway season of all the shows that I saw from that season. And I think maybe they did the best job. I think Colton was fantastic, deserved his nomination. I think Anna Uzeli should have had a nomination, but unfortunately the show did not win a vast number of those Tonys and it did not win Best Musical, which is probably what it needed in order to guarantee that it would stay open for longer. Ultimately, without the right Tony Awards, without the right reviews and without the right names to pull in people to the box office, the show was always going to close. So this hasn't come as a massive surprise. And pundits have been speculating about this closing notice coming for a few weeks now, especially when looking at the running costs. Interestingly, because of the fabric of Tony voters, a handful of shows all announced national tours around the time of the Tony Awards and around the end of the season, one of those being New York, New York. I'm curious if we will ever actually see this national tour because a lot of people said this was not necessarily a show that was going to tour well or easily. Was this more of a political move in order to try and assert the show's sort of endurance? Are we ever going to see this national tour? I hope so, because it would be nice for any show to get a future life beyond its first Broadway production. If it gives the creatives a chance to tinker with the show a little bit more and rework the material, I think there could be a great show here. I just don't think they found it with this production. We've seen other musicals before. Something like Addams Family, off the Top of My Head has reworked its material for a national tour and then that's become the updated version of the show. Shrek as well, I believe. Very different shows to New York, New York, but it doesn't mean the concept can't work. Meanwhile, let's voyage across the Atlantic and talk about Ain't Too Proud, which is also closing here in the West End. Now, this one definitely shocked a lot of people, I think, just because other than the recent announcements of, like, Bleak Expectations and Aspects of Love, it's been a while since we've had like a shock closing announcement. But here we go. I'm still on Playbill, just like me, they report worldwide. Ain't Too Proud, the life and times of the Temptations, which officially opened at London's Prince Edward Theatre April 20 following previews that began March 31, will play its final performance in the West End September 17. So you'll notice from this, even though these two shows announced very close together that they were going to be closing, Ain't Too Proud is running for a lot longer before it's closing. They both announced towards the end of July and New York, New York was like, bye, we're gone in a week. Ain't Too Proud is going to run through the summer and close mid September. Now there's a disparity here for a few reasons. Often you'll see this in the West End that closing notices will be posted a little bit in advance of the actual closing date. It's to give people an encouragement to buy tickets to try and sell out those last few months, saying this is now your last chance. They rework all the marketing. It goes from being look at all our five star reviews to please come see us while you still have time. But not only that, the running costs are higher in New York, the ticket prices are higher in New York. Everything is a lot higher stakes. And as soon as something isn't making money, they have a tendency to want to shut it down very quickly. Now if we look back to Ain't Too Proud's lifetime on Broadway. It opened on Broadway March 21, 2019. It ran up to the pandemic, obviously. Everything then shut down. But it reopened, played its final performance at Broadway's Imperial Theatre on January 16, 2022. So already it has not had the same kind of a life in the West End as it had on Broadway. And this is not necessarily unexpected because I don't think we have the same kind of recognition of the Temptations in their music here in London. There is in the US but that's not the only reason. There are a few more factors that go into this as well. I will say in the West End, the reasons why a show tends to close are a little bit different. Broadway audiences and London audiences and those prospective ticket buyers are very different breeds of people. In London right now, by and large, the shows that we are seeing succeed, especially in bigger venues, are huge commercial titles. Not only do they have stars attached to them with name recognition, but the shows themselves have name recognition. It's a Mrs. Doubtfire the Musical. It's a Back to the Future. The musical Pretty Woman did a lot better over here than it did on Broadway. That's because audiences in London are very keen to go and see something with some level of guaranteed enjoyment. They want to know to a certain extent that they're going to have a nice time. Fewer people are taking risks and gambling on shows, which is a shame, but I can't criticize people making those decisions amidst a cost of living crisis. It's harder for people to afford theatre tickets, especially families, especially large groups. Back on Broadway Meanwhile, the tickets are even more expensive and that motivates people, I think, to really pay attention to quality. People travel to New York to see a show. Shows in the West End are a little more incidental to people's travel. So a lot of people who might be watching these videos, you may travel to London to see shows because you're musical theatre fans, but a lot of people come to London for the royalty and the history and for it being London town and whatever those kind of vibes mean to other people that aren't from here. But a show might be an incidental treat as part of that visit and not the main reason for their people go to New York for the world leading theatre and if they're spending upwards of hundreds of dollars per ticket to see a show, they want to see something of quality. That's why the best musical winner at the Tony Awards every year gets a huge bump at the box office. That's why reviews matter more. Ultimately, people are less inclined to make their own decisions about what it is they know they're going to enjoy and more inclined to trust critics and to trust awards. They want to go and see something that is great. I see people constantly posting on social media, I'm going to New York, what's good right now? And they are really receptive to hearing what other people have to say about the quality of Broadway shows. Now for Ain't Too Proud, I think there are a few things that we have to look at to really understand why this show has failed to set the box office alight. Disappointingly, because I do think it's a decent show. I do think it's a quality show and I do think that there is an audience for this show if they would just get themselves to the Prince Edward and go and see it. I think there are shows just as good or not even as good as this one in a similar genre that are running more successfully. But the thing with Ain't Too Proud is it is yet another jukebox musical and it's a biopic jukebox musical, one that uses the songs of a particular group, the Temptations, in order to tell the story of their career. It does the same thing as Jersey Boys. It does the same thing as Tina, the Tina Turner musical, both of which are currently running right now in London. That's before we even take into account the other jukebox musicals that aren't biopic shows like Mamma Mia, which is still running in London, like We Will Rock youk, which is having a hugely successful summer in London. Right now, all I keep hearing is that that production is doing very, very well financially. All of which leaves relatively little space for Ain't Too Proud. Have I forgotten any other jukebox shows? Are there any others? If I have, you'll let me know in the comments section. But the news about Ain't Too Proud coming to the Prince Edward Theatre came shortly after the early closure of the Drifter's Girl at the Garrick. And this is what had made me skeptical about how successful Ain't Too Proud was going to be right from the off. Because the Drifter's Girl was a musical about the Drifters. It starred Beverly Knight and a really talented cast. But similarly, I don't know if this was a group that had huge widespread popularity and appeal with a UK audience. Cut to Ain't Too Proud, which is a similar kind of a show, but with a big difference, which is they didn't have one big star name like the Drifter's Girl did. The Drifter's Girl starred Beverly Knight and a lot of people would buy tickets just to see Beverly Knight in this show. She's a very popular, very well known performer. She is a name that means something outside of the musical theatre world. And while Ain't Too Proud had a brilliantly talented cast, they didn't have that one name who was going to pull in audience members all by themself? As we were coming back from the pandemic, I remember being told by a producer the shows that were selling really well in London were Disney, which caters to a family audience. They wanted days out, they wanted to go back into the world, caters to international tourists. Also you can see the Lion King without needing to worry about a language barrier. And jukebox musicals for non regular theater goers, they already know that they love the music and they go and see a show on that basis. And that may have been true at the time, but I'm beginning to wonder if the jukebox musical market might be becoming a little bit saturated. Audiences who want this kind of a show can go and see a Jersey Boys can go and see Atina. They have other options before they arrive at the Prince Edward Theatre to see Ain't Too Proud. Also, do we think Ain't Too Proud is a title that people will gravitate to as much as We Will Rock youk as much as Mamma Mia. As much as a Tina that tells you exactly what it is. We know that Tina is the Tina Turner musical and Jersey Boys has this much more long standing reputation. Ain't Too Proud is newer. It doesn't have that iconic imagery. People outside of the theatre sphere don't necessarily know what the show is about. Equally, I just don't think those songs have as much resonance with a British audience as the Jersey Boys songs do. But there is another component of this, and I would be lax if I didn't mention it because there is a racial element to all of this as well. When we look at shows like the Drifter's Girl and like Motown and like Ain't Too Proud, these are all shows with either an entirely or a predominantly black cast telling stories about real black artists. Which first of all makes it harder to place stars among this cast in the casting process because it is harder as a black performer, as a black artist, singer, musician, whatever, to reach celebrity status in the uk. It is much easier historically to do that as a white performer. Beverly Knight has achieved an awful lot in this industry by gaining the name recognition that she has. I'm being very honest right now and it seems as though with looking at these jukebox musicals, with Tina being an obvious exception to this, that majority white audiences are a little bit more reluctant to buy tickets to majority black performed shows. That is something I think the West End needs to take a very serious, serious and very considered look at. Oh my God. Hey. I'm literally editing the video you're watching right now. But I just wanted to add something else in here subsequently because I don't think I did a great job of really justifying the fairly controversial point I just made. But we're seeing it happen right now with the musical Estranged Loop, Tony Award winning, Pulitzer Prize winning, not selling nearly as well as it ought to in London. This is another entirely black cast that is not being supported by white audiences. It's incredibly frustrating to see, but it's difficult not to draw a conclusion from that, especially when we've seen award winning theatre acclaimed theatre, LGBT theater that features white performers more heavily supported by audiences. Both in that genre and with jukebox musicals, we are seeing the same unfortunate and uncomfortable disparity. We can also look at things like was the Prince Edward Theatre just too big for this show? MJ the Musical is going to be coming into the Prince Edward next year in early 2024. Likely. I think that will probably do a lot better because the Michael Jackson songbook has a decent amount more pull now with New York, New York. I was able to share a lot of financial figures with you. We don't have that same kind of information about Ain't Too Proud, because in the West End, people are a lot more furtive about the costs involved. This is starting to change just a little bit. But we do not publicly reveal grosses on a weekly basis, so we don't know what kind of business the show was doing. However, if you were paying attention to Ain't Too Proud, it was becoming clear that they were adding more and more offers for the show. There was the opportunity to get tickets at lower and lower prices, which, as great as it is, if you want to see that show for a more affordable ticket price, it never means anything good for longevity of the show, because they wouldn't be doing that if they didn't have to. Not when they're discounting the Entire Auditorium to sub £50 prices across performances. So, briefly, I want to talk about what this might mean for the industry. We know, and I keep saying these videos. It is still a challenging time to produce theatre. There are still a handful of reasons that audiences might be reluctant to buy a ticket to go and see these shows. There is a cost of living crisis here in the uk. Ticket prices are expensive for a lot of people. Like I said, for families, this represents a huge investment. Equally, ticket prices are very expensive on Broadway. And in both of these cities there is a wealth of tremendous theater to choose from. So where you have a show that doesn't quite rise to the top, critically, they may not end up getting chosen. What I think this does mean is that we're going to see the most success from hugely commercial titles, film adaptations that have come to stage, especially in the West End, where these productions really thrive, less so on Broadway, because audiences do turn their noses up at the concept just a little bit. Hence why Doubtfire, hence why Pretty Woman didn't run there as long. Star casting is certainly here to stay. I think that could be a lesson learned from both of these shows, that we are still in a position where you need not only for the show to have a marketable title, but for it to have really marketable performers in the cast. If I was to be cautiously optimistic, maybe audiences are more interested in original scores right now. I don't think that's the biggest component of either of these closures. And New York, New York does have a partly original score. It has revisited songs and some new material added to that as well. But neither of them are wholly original scores. Both of them have narratives that are set in the past, specifically New York. New York feels very classic. What Ain't Too Proud does structurally. Doesn't feel particularly boundary pushing. Maybe people really are Just excited for new and exciting theater. Equally, unfortunately, we have to ask the question, what does this mean for these theatres? New York, New York is going to be gone very soon at the St James. This is a big theater and the owners of this theatre are going to want for it to have a new tenant. So up until recently, all the talk on Broadway has been, where is Cabaret going to go? We now know that Cabaret is going to the August Wilson Theatre after Funny Girl closes. But the St. James will certainly be eyeing up a new tenant and it will not want to be dark for very long. It's worth saying that theaters remain darker for longer on Broadway. As soon as there is any kind of an opening in the West End, shows will jump straight in. Because it doesn't cost as much for a show to capitalise and open in a West End theater, something that's played regionally, something that's been touring. It's a lot easier for them to add a West End stop to their schedule or for a show that closed in the West End previously, to plan a little bit of a limited West End return and fill a gap. It's a lot easier and you see that a lot more often in the West End than on Broadway. On Broadway, if you have this small gap between two scheduled shows, then producers and investors are going to look at it and calculate that that's not an opportunity for them to recoup their investment. So it's simply not going to happen. That's why you have theaters that stay darker for longer. That being said, I think we could see something very exciting at the St. James. This is a big theatre, it's a lovely theatre. It's had a history of some really exciting shows in the past. I'm thinking a big musical maybe. I've heard a little bit of chatter about the current London production of Guys and Dolls, the semi immersive version currently playing at the Bridge, possibly going to New York. I don't know. Given that that production isn't even really strictly in the West End right now, and from what I understand isn't going to be eligible for any Olivier Awards this year, it would be surprising if it went straight to a Broadway theater and that was its first awards winning opportunity. But it wouldn't surprise me so much because I've heard for a little while now that that production is definitely eyeing a New York venture now, because the appeal of that production is the way that it's staged with this semi immersive element, with audiences getting to move around on the flat floor, around these moving Stages, go watch my review of that production if you want to know more about what it's like. They would have to do some significant work to the St. James Theatre. Kind of like what's just happened at the Broadway Theatre for the new musical Here Lies Love. So I will be very intrigued if that does actually come to fruition. Oh my God. Hey, it's me again. There's one other rumour that I've heard. I have no reason to believe that this is true or not, but I'm pretty sure it was the St. James that I heard being talked about for a potential fast track transfer of the recent Kennedy center revival of Spamalot that had a bunch of exciting names attached to it like Leslie Kritzer and Alex Brightman, James Monroe Iglehart. Potentially we could see that. That would be fun at St. James. I'd love Spamalot to go to the St. James, but just another one. I would. I would be loath not to tell you about the gossip that I had somewhere lingering in my head. Ultimately, not being in New York, I don't feel like I have as much insight as to what those shows might be. If you have any theories, please share them in the comment section down below. What do you think could be the next musical that we will see at the St. James? Back in the West End, however, I have some more thoughts about what could go to the Prince Edward. Now this is one of London's bigger theatres. Mary Poppins was here up until Ain't Too Proud took over and we always knew Ain't Too Proud was going to be a limited run because MJ was going to open next year. We didn't know Ain't Too Proud was going to end at run early and this now gives a decent amount of time. There is at least a three month window here for a new show to play a limited run and it's a three month window over a Christmas period. It's a very popular time. I don't think they'll want to play too far into January. I don't remember off the top of my head when MJ is coming in, but no one wants to play too much of January if they can help it, because that is a much more challenging time for getting people to buy tickets. Nobody has any money after Christmas. It's cold, it's bleak, no one wants to do it. December, however, people are throwing money all around and everyone wants to go to the theatre. But this being such a big space raises a lot of questions. Newsies is about to close at the Troubadour Theatre in Wembley park, another semi immersive staging here in London. Could this be eyeing a little bit of a limited West End run ahead of possibly a tour? I don't know. These are some of the rumours that I have been hearing. Could we see the return of something that toured earlier this year, something like the Cher show? There was speculation at the time that this show wasn't coming to London first because they didn't actually have the rights to a West End run, only regional performances. Could that have changed in the intervening time? The show's Twitter account is still very active, so I'm very curious if we're actually going to see a return of the Cher show here in the uk or could we see a very quick transfer of an acclaimed production currently playing at the National Theatre? The play Dear England, written by James Graham, currently playing at the national, has me getting a staggeringly good response. It's had great reviews, it's had incredible word of mouth. It's a play based on real events and based on Gareth Southgate, the English football team manager, and James Graham really is one of the most exceptional contemporary British playwrights. I've been so excited to see this show, but I've been really bad at booking stuff at the National Theatre this year, so if it did transfer to the Prince Edward, that would be super exciting. And we've seen recently that these acclaimed National Theatre productions can have a surprising amount of pull. Something like the Lehman Trilogy at the Gillian Lin did substantially well in a very big theater and sold more than some popular musicals have been able to there, but it would also be the first time that the Prince Edward had housed a play in decades, so I would be fascinated if that actually turns out to be true. For now, we will all have to wait and see, but I hope you have enjoyed today's video. I hope that that has helped explain a few things. If you have any thoughts, any questions, any corrections about today's video, feel free to comment them all down below. Thank you for watching this one. I hope you've enjoyed if you did, make sure to subscribe to my theatre themed YouTube channel for many more stagey videos coming very soon. If you are local to or visiting the UK prior to September 17, make sure to go and see Ain't Too Proud at the Prince Edward Theatre. Go and See New York, New York for its last few performances on Broadway. And please remember to support the shows that you love. Take a risk on great theatre so that we don't see other fantastic productions ending up in this same unfortunate position. I hope that everyone is staying safe and that you have a stagey day. For 10 more seconds, I'm Mickey Jo Theatre. Oh, my God. Hey, thanks for watching. Have a stagey day. Subscribe.