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Mickey Jo
Now, obviously, this breaking Broadway news is hugely disappointing for everyone working on the show as well as all of its fans. And of course, this is the last thing that goes into making decisions like this. But a small part of me is charmed that Death Becomes her will be closing on Broadway at the very end of Pride Month, seeing as the show itself, as they've been telling us from the beginning, is is only for the gays. Too soon? Too soon? Was it too soon? It's probably too soon. Oh my God.
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Mickey Jo
Welcome back to my theatre themed YouTube channel. Or hello to those of you listening to this theatre news update on podcast platforms. My name is Mickey Jo and I am obsessed with all things theatre. I am an independent theatre critic, pundit and content creator here on social media and today I was about to sit down and review a show that I just saw in the West End when I was pre empted by breaking Broadway news. News that had been rumoured for some time, but has now been unfortunately confirmed, that is that Death Becomes her will conclude its run at the L? Fontan Theater in New York ahead of it's worth pointing out an extensive US Tour and a possible West End future realities which of course cushion the blow of a closing announcement. It's also, for the majority of shows, a part of their natural life cycle. Nothing theatrically is really intended to live forever, unlike in the show itself. Wink, wink, nudge nudge, siem pre Viva. And it's certainly not the only closing announcement that we're going to see in the coming weeks. But I do think that this one is worth talking about, because the reasons behind this musical concluding its Broadway run after this many months are myriad. It's very complicated. We're going to have a conversation about why this is happening, about what this tells us about the state of Broadway right now, about the shows that are succeeding, about the competition that it's been facing, and about the challenging necessity of recasting a show, why it matters, and how to get it right. Finally, as the industry continues to move forwards, and with the utmost respect to everyone working in and around Death Becomes her on Broadway, we are going to talk about the future of this show, the possibility of it heading to London, as well as the potential next tenant at the Luntfontanne Theatre on Broadway. Now, in addition to the details about the closing announcement from the show's press release, I will be sharing with you my thoughts and my insights. But I would also love to know yours. Let me know in the comments why you think Death Becomes her is closing on Broadway, and if you have any other questions. Plus, to try and make this a slightly more positive conversation, if you've had the chance to see the show already, why not share your favorite memory of it for me, I think that was actually the night I saw it during a Blizzard in January 2025 and both of the opening principal understudies were on. Let me know yours in the comments. In the meantime, let's talk about why the show is sadly closing. So let me tell you what has been shared in the press release. The headline news is this Death Becomes her will conclude Broadway run on June 28th. Like I said, the very end of Pride Month national tour launches September 12, 2026, which I believe had already been announced. They're just reminding you of it. And this is something that they tend to do in the PR game in the theater industry is whenever there is bad news to be announced, they like to try and cushion that with good news. Death Becomes her the Tony Award winning and Grammy Award nominated musical concludes its joyous and savagely funny broad Tickets on sale through June 20, 2026. The most nominated production of the 20242025 Broadway season celebrates over 650 performances and 900,000 tickets sold on Broadway. Oh so close to a million. I mean, if you define 100,000 away as so close. Interesting. On most nominated production of the 20242025 Broadway season, I tend not to pay too much attention to those kinds of statistics because often it's just an indicator of which show managed to be eligible in the most categories or had the kind fit into enough different acting categories. It's also a statement of success, of course, but per the show's own dialogue, nobody visits the nominees. And though the show won for Paul Tazwell's costume design, none of the acting performances won Tony awards in the show itself did not win Best New Musical. And if it had, would it have run for any longer? Not necessarily, because I think often the shows that are maintained and sustained by a Best New Musical Tony Award win are the ones that needed that in order to communicate their brand. A show like maybe Happy Ending tells an audience around the country, this is a show of real quality. In spite of the fact you didn't necessarily know what it was. Death Becomes Her. You already knew what that was. It is a campy purple musical based on a campy iconic film from the early 1990s. The news continues. Death Becomes her multi year North American Tour launches in September 2026. Can't wait to find out the leading ladies who will be taking that around the country. That's going to be a fun time. Additional international productions to be announced soon. Exclamation point. And I'm hoping that that's true because I have been burned before by these press releases. I think it was the show job on Broadway announced like a slew of European productions and unless I've missed the news of all of them, particularly one in the uk, it would seem that that may not have actually been the case. Also shocked when it closed on Broadway, set a very particular timeline for its London arrival, which did not end up being the case. Eventually it made its way here and hopefully Death Becomes her will as well. More on that later. We have some press quotes here from the show's positive opening night reviews back when it opened last season. This is not a musical that has been sunk on Broadway by the critics. This honestly a success story, but a measured one and one that tells us a lot about the current state of New York theatre. Here we go. Broadway's drop dead hilarious musical comedy produced by Universal Theatrical Group, who have deep pockets and based on the Universal Pictures 1992 film, will conclude its acclaimed and savagely funny Broadway run on Sunday, June 28, 2026 After 20 months, over 650 performances and 900,000 tickets sold at the Luntfontanne Theatre. We do have a quote here from Low Cunningham, svp, Head of Creative and Strategy at Universal Theatrical Group. On behalf of the producers they Bringing Death Becomes her to Broadway has been an incredible joy and we are immensely proud of every artist, musician, crew member and individual who helped make this show what it is. Night after night, it has been a thrill to watch audiences come together to laugh, celebrate and embrace the wildly entertaining spirit of this production. We are deeply proud of what this show has brought into the world and we are excited for its life to continue as it tours across the US and beyond in the years ahead. Oh, and beyond. I mean, that could mean Canada, but I'm willing to be excited nonetheless. And the multi year North American tour launches this September at Playhouse Square Square in Cleveland, Ohio. The official route of the first year of the North American Tour is as follows and we have all of the tour dates here and it's going all over the country. We already have dates for the first year through early September 2027, by which point it will have ended up in Sacramento, California. It's also going to Arizona, San Diego, to Texas, to Denver, to San Francisco, to Houston, to Tulsa, to oh my God. Too many places. Too many places. You didn't click on this video to listen to me read out some tour dates, but you can look them up and see if Death Becomes her is visiting a the theater near you in the United States. I hope to see this tour at some point. That would be very fun. They remind us next that Death Becomes her was the most nominated show of the 2024-2025 season with 34 total nominations, including 12 Outer Critics Circle Award nominations, five Drama Desk Award nominations, four Drama League Award nominations two Chita Rivera Award nominations, 10 Tony Award nominations and one Grammy nomination for Best Musical Theater album. It also, as they go on to say, became a viral sensation on social media following the release of the original Broadway cast recording, which has been streamed over 34 million times in North America and 16 million times elsewhere worldwide. A clip of Tony nominee Jennifer Simard performing the album's 16th track, Hit Me, went viral on TikTok, peeking at number two on the TikTok viral chart. There's a TikTok chart. There's Top of the Pops for TikTok. What's happening? I did not know this. That's the clip, if you haven't heard it, of Jennifer Simard saying that was rude and number 13 on the TikTok 50 chart with, okay, lots of numbers about how much it was used on social media, which is interesting in and of itself. I don't think we have any other specific statements here about the closing. It goes on to tell you more about the show, about the cast, about the creatives, about the plot, and if you want to know more about the musical, you can check out my review from when it opened on Broadway. They also remind you about the availability of tickets through the show's closing performance. Certainly, I think that's going to be a very fun and campy final show. But circling back to that comment about social media virality, I do think that's very interesting to consider, because whenever there have been conversations at places like BroadwayCon or just in the industry about the use of social media to help Broadway shows, and new musicals in particular, gain traction and find an audience and build an audience, certainly it's undeniable that the musical theatre Internet has become very aware of Death Becomes her. And those viral social media moments, those TikTok sound bites, have helped. It wasn't just that that was rude. They've had a fair few, but not unlike Beetlejuice, that came before it. And this isn't the first time I've linked those two shows tonally. It doesn't necessarily seem to have boosted the show's box office enough to sustain it for multiple years. The length of the show's actual run on Broadway got a little lost there in all of those details and statistics, but it will have amounted to, I think, just over 20 months, the first performance having taken place in late October 2024. One important thing to note before I move on is that Death Becomes her, it seems, will not have recouped its initial capitalization budget during this Broadway run. And with interesting timing earlier today, it was announced that just in time at the Circle in the Square Theatre, a comparatively smaller show that has had consistently great box office numbers only just recoups their investment. That is also a show which it seems has managed to stick the landing when it comes to high profile recasting. And that is troubling in and of itself because a show that has been this successful and managed to gain social media notoriety and got a whole bunch of Tony Award nominations and is based on this recognizable, well known IP on ought to have, in my opinion, run longer. And I dare say a lot of fans will be completely shocked by this announcement because it didn't necessarily seem as though this was a show that was struggling. Why then is it closing as early as it is? Well, here are some potential answers to that.
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Mickey Jo
Question. Now I have so many thoughts about why Death Becomes her hasn't been able to run for longer on Broadway, and we are currently seeing a climate in which a lot of shows are struggling. And back when Hamilton opened, there was this sensation of a rising tide lifting all boats and people were flying in to come and see Hamilton. And while they were in town, they would see other shows. People were talking about Broadway. People were paying attention to New York musical theater. It was beneficial to other new shows in its wake. And I don't know if having a sort of a quiet season last season was fantastic for new musicals. So many great shows, not just Death Becomes her. And maybe Happy Ending, which won the Tony, but also Operation Mincemeat, Buena Vista Social Club, Real Women have Curves, Dead Outlaw, fantastic shows, almost too many. This season is comparatively quieter with four nominees for best new musical. And I don't know if there is just less conversation being created around Broadway, but a lot of newly opened productions are sort of slowly finding their feet at the box office. Not as many shows this season are opening with a real bang. Also, and I'm sure this has occurred to you already, we do still need to be having a conversation about reduced tourism to New York and to the United States for obvious reasons, but also the times in which we live being increasingly financially challenging and people already living within the United States perhaps being less able to fly to New York and buy tickets to go see a Broadway show. Hopefully they will have the chance to see the tour when it plays at a theater near them. But these factors are affecting all of Broadway right now. And what's happened with Death Becomes her specifically is quite interesting because anecdotally the sensation has been of a show simply steadily running out of steam and not trying all that hard to rekindle that initial opening energy. And I'm going to talk about some other factors, but I think the biggest central problem for Death Becomes her on Broadway has been challenges around recasting. And honestly, I had my fears when the show was first opening in a very busy year, a very busy season, plenty of new musicals. It was opening the other side of the holiday period. And after a lot of rumored very starry names being attached to workshop versions of the show, it was opening on Broadway with Megan Hilty and Jennifer Simard, both of them fantastic talents, but not huge star household names. What the show did, though, was very bold and there was some great early marketing that told audiences, these are stars. We are opening this show with two leading ladies who are huge stars, and you better believe us because you're going to find out. And they then brought performances to that stage that instantly convinced New York Theatre and the rest of the world by extension, that they were massive stars worthy of adoration and award nominations. Alongside them was another Broadway veteran, Christopher Zieber. And Destiny's Child alum Michelle Williams, who you can tell by looking at when she's been in and out of the show over the last few months, is having a very positive effect on the box office and its buoyancy. And so the show managed to establish itself pretty well on Broadway. As the first anniversary of its opening was looming, people were beginning to have conversations about which other leading ladies could potentially go into these roles. And names were thrown around, like Jessica Vosk, currently starring in Beaches. People spoke about like the Jane Krakowski's and Megan Mulallys of this world and how exciting it would be to see other actresses in these great parts. Because not that often do fantastic roles come around newly written for diva leading ladies in their 40s or their 50s. Although I will say the Wicked leading lady alumni are having a bit of a moment right now on Broadway and could do very well at this year's Tony Awards. And I wonder if Wicked is partially responsible for that, for generating so much talent and launching so many brilliant stars that the show simply had to be written around them. Anyway, it was announced that Megan Hilty, who originated the role of Madeline Ashton, would be the first to depart the show, but that it wouldn't be a full cast change. And I certainly don't want to suggest that anyone ought to be pushed out of a job or a secure contract. Jennifer Simard has been paying her dues in musical theatre for so much of her career and deserved for this moment in the spotlight to go on as long as she wanted it to. However, generally speaking, I think a full principal cast change at the very least is more effective than a partial one because it's easier to market and build enthusiasm around a new pairing of leading ladies. This new duo is coming into the show. Hadestown has kind of figured that out at this point on Broadway because they were doing a thing of like Partial. The original principal cast members were all leaving at different times, different people were coming, coming in, and now I think they end up with much more meaningful chemistry between their principal cast members because they do full rotations at a time and it means they're all in rehearsals together rather than one new performer being rehearsed in with Swings and resident and associate directors and then joining the cast on stage. Instead, they get to find and build relationships during those rehearsals, and it's just a better way of doing business. Six the Musical learned this a long time ago. Show Cabaret at the Kit Kat Club has been doing this the entire time. We're going to bring in a new Sally Bowles and a new mc, and that's always going to be the moment and the announcement. And don't get me wrong, it was very exciting when Tony Award nominee Betsy Wolf was announced to be replacing Megan Hilty on Broadway. Betsy is a fantastic talent who has been in a bunch of Broadway shows. I am very regretful I didn't have the chance to see her in Death Becomes Her. I'm sure she was terrific, but you also have to wonder why during the show's entire run there hasn't been any kind of an attempt to stunt cast. And I chatted with the actress Laura Benanti when she was bringing her show to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe last summer. And it's coming back, by the way. Laura Bernanti, Nobody cares. And I asked her if she'd been planning to return to Broadway. I said there are a couple of great roles in Death Becomes her, and she said that they were like fiendishly difficult. Like the material was incredibly challenging. And I wonder if that's what has precluded them from being able to effectively stunt cast for Madeline or for Helen. I mean, even the Michelle Williams material, it's really high, the stuff that she's belting. And there's an art to a good stunt cast, one that I think and Juliet is doing very well, one that Titanique is doing a little bit more conspicuously. But it remains peculiar that Death Becomes her, for all intents and purposes, didn't really seem to try. I also think given that a decent chunk of the demographic of Death Becomes her is a gay audience, you need only look to the success of Omari and the audience members who are having to go back and back and back to that show because they keep putting iconic stars in it. Also interesting that a Jane Krakowski would choose to do an O Mary on Broadway rather than a Death Becomes her, because I imagine there is a lot more freedom and the opportunity to be more playful and silly in O Mary rather than in a very rigid, very technically challenging musical comedy, one that leading lady Megan Hilty already had to step away from for a little bit because of how challenging and grueling it was. And you know, much as it feels like a missed opportunity to try and sustain the run of the show, it also feels like a missed opportunity from a fan's perspective for all of the brilliant talents who could have gone into Death Becomes her on Broadway that we may now never get to see. Unless of course, they want to take it on tour around the country, which is not beyond the realms of possibility. And feel free to do some fan casting for the tour in the comments down below. Now, obviously the immediate, if incomplete, answer to the question why is Death Becomes her closing on Broadway is because it's incredibly expensive to run and they are not making money. The opportunity to make a lot of money is not on the horizon. Ticket sales have slowed down, fewer people are buying tickets. Behind that is a question, I think, about the audience that they have been curating and in terms of which shows Death Becomes her is in competition with, I think you have to look to the other leading lady star vehicles. Beaches at the Majestic is not doing fantastic business, but people are very excited to go and see Jessica Vosk on stage. That enthusiasm could also have been utilized by Death Becomes her if the show had stayed open and she had gone into it after Beaches possibly closes in the next few weeks. Not to be cynical, but it feels like that's probably an inevitability. On the other side of 45th street, we have to think about Marla Mandel in Titanique, which is also playing to that same kind of campy fun night out market. Have a fun night out with the ladies, with the gays. Of course, very much catering to the gay audience and hell, even the Lost Boys is invoking a little bit of that cinematic nostalgia. At the same time, I do think it's less a case of a bunch of new shows kind of poaching. Death becomes her of sort audience and more that audience being quite finite to begin with. I've said before, and I'll say it again, that it is challenging to market a female led show to a broad audience. We have seen with suffs, we've seen with liberation. They just don't necessarily show up. Admittedly, Death Becomes her is not like branding itself with feminism and the Wickeds and the Sixes of this world haven't had that same issue. Of course, we also have to ask the question that is always asked whenever a show closes on Broadway. Is it because of the next thing that's coming into that.
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Mickey Jo
Theater. Now Like I said before, we had been hearing rumors about Death becomes Her closing on Broadway. I hadn't anticipated that the closing date would be the end of June. This is not the kind of time when you usually see shows closing, especially a year on and beyond their own Tony's season. Usually if you see shows closing in late June, early July, it's because they opened back in March or April and failed to win any Tony Awards at the start of the month. Otherwise, a lot of shows these days tend to hit the road in late December or early January, and often a part of that is because a stop clause will have been enacted by the theater owners as a result of the show's box office declining. It's part of their agree that the theater owners can essentially evict them with a notice period so that they can then free up the building for a new show to come in and make more money. However, that feels very unlikely to happen in the months of July or August. Especially these days, we don't tend to see big new musicals the likes of which would be opening at the Luntfontanne Theatre opening in that time frame. It's possible that we could get something as soon as September or October, perhaps perhaps a full opening. And in the case of the show that I am Hearing may be attached to the Luntfontanne Theatre. This is all speculation and rumors. Nothing is as of yet confirmed and I haven't heard this from particularly close to the production sources. It would make more sense to my mind if they opened later in the year, not during the summer. It would also mean that 46th street would become slightly themed to a particular composer, I will say that much. And that may happen in the fall, it may happen in the spring, it may not happen at all. But with this particular example, I don't think the arrival of the next show is what is forcing Death Becomes her to close on June 28th. Specifically, I do want to talk a little bit, as promised, about the possibility of this show coming to London. And I made the Beetlejuice comparison before because I think tonally we've been walking our way towards this style of sort of campy and irreverent and slightly gothic comedy based on cinema from decades back. The Addams Family Being a show that Broadway wasn't necessarily ready for, but has now been licensed hugely around the world, Beetlejuice began to win audiences over and has had mixed financial success. Death Becomes her, it seemed then, was really embraced by audiences that were ready for this kind of material. But not unlike Beetlejuice, there was an outpouring of love for it online that ultimately didn't translate into ongoing box office success. Death Becomes her managed a decent, healthy run, but to my mind and all things considered, not as long as it ought to have. Now, as I tell you, this Beetlejuice is readying for for its first preview performance at the Prince Edward Theatre in London, opening later this month. Stay tuned for a full review from me. That'll be the first time I review Beetlejuice in full here on social media. And what was puzzling about the announcement of its West End run was that it is finite. It's only playing for around a year in London, and there was speculation at the time that Death Becomes her would be following it into the venue immediately afterwards. However, I have since heard that that may have changed. It may have delayed Death Becomes her may be pushed back, and I think that's going to be the next transfer that we keep hearing about, but that we have to wait a really long time for. As with Mean Girls, as with Beetlejuice, and if waiting a long time means the right stars are ready to do the show in London, and there have been some very exciting names rumoured to be attached to the production, then I am willing to wait for it. As they say in Hamilton, for now though I think that is everything that there is to say about Death becomes her closing on Broadway. If there are any factors or angles on this that I haven't considered, feel free to share them in the comments down below. If you have any other questions about this, this or other Broadway industry realities right now, feel free to share those and I or somebody else will be able to answer. In the meantime, thank you for listening to my thoughts. I hope you've enjoyed if you would like to hear more about the theatre industry on Broadway and around the world, make sure to subscribe right here on YouTube or follow me on podcast platforms. My thoughts, as always, are with the cast, the crew, everyone working inside and beyond the Luntfontanne Theatre who will be affected by the closure of Death becomes her. And as always, 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.
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Podcast: MickeyJoTheatre
Host: MickeyJoTheatre
Episode Date: May 18, 2026
Topic: Exploring in depth the closure of "Death Becomes Her" on Broadway, analyzing its performance, industry trends, casting issues, audience dynamics, and considering its future—including the US Tour and a potential West End transfer.
Mickey Jo reacts to breaking Broadway news: the much-discussed closure of "Death Becomes Her" at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre. This episode unpacks not only the official reasoning and PR spin but dives into deeper factors—state of Broadway post-pandemic, box office realities, casting strategy, and the challenges facing female-led, camp musicals. The chat is a blend of industry insight, personal opinion, and theater gossip, aiming to clarify the real reasons behind the show's curtain call.
On Timing and Pride Month:
"A small part of me is charmed that Death Becomes Her will be closing on Broadway at the very end of Pride Month, seeing as the show itself...is only for the gays. Too soon? Too soon? Was it too soon? It's probably too soon. Oh my God." — Mickey Jo (02:35)
On The Illusion of “Nominations as Success”:
“Per the show's own dialogue, nobody visits the nominees.” — Mickey Jo (06:40)
On Social Media vs. Box Office:
"There was an outpouring of love for it online that ultimately didn’t translate into ongoing box office success. Death Becomes Her managed a decent, healthy run, but to my mind…not as long as it ought to have." — Mickey Jo (26:38)
On Recasting Strategy:
"Generally speaking, I think a full principal cast change at the very least is more effective than a partial one because it's easier to market and build enthusiasm around a new pairing of leading ladies." — Mickey Jo (15:42)
On Show’s Financial Reality:
"The immediate, if incomplete, answer to the question why is Death Becomes Her closing on Broadway is because it's incredibly expensive to run and they are not making money. The opportunity to make a lot of money is not on the horizon." — Mickey Jo (21:17)
On the Finite Audience:
"It is challenging to market a female led show to a broad audience....they just don't necessarily show up." — Mickey Jo (22:27)
Mickey Jo gives a respectful, nuanced breakdown of why "Death Becomes Her" is closing earlier than fans might expect, resisting simplistic answers. While social media buzz and award nods helped launch a hot start, the show couldn’t fill houses long enough to recoup. Key issues: a finite, specialized audience, a miscalculation in recasting strategy, high costs, competitive landscape, and a Broadway still reckoning with post-pandemic economics.
The episode ends with hope for the show’s future on tour and (eventually) in London, and with a salute to the hardworking cast and crew:
“My thoughts, as always, are with the cast, the crew, everyone working inside and beyond the LuntFontanne Theatre who will be affected by the closure of Death Becomes Her. And as always, I hope that everyone is staying safe and that you have a stagey day.” — Mickey Jo (29:00)
For additional analysis, casting speculation, or to share your own Death Becomes Her memories, Mickey Jo encourages listeners to comment on the YouTube channel or via podcast platforms.
End of Summary