Frontmezzjunkies reports: A bittersweet summer of Broadway closings raises uncomfortable questions about what the economics of the theatre can sustain

By Ross

Broadway has a peculiar way of making a great theatrical season feel temporary. Just when the marquees seem full of productions worth talking about, closing notices begin appearing, and suddenly the question is not simply what is succeeding, but what can actually afford to stay. This summer has brought a particularly frustrating collection of farewells, with several productions that earned strong reviews, enthusiastic audiences, awards, or all three, discovering that those things do not necessarily add up to a sustainable Broadway run.

The most painful example for me is Cats: The Jellicle Ball, which earned rave reviews, strong attendance, and multiple Tony Awards, yet will still play its final performance on August 8. Even Andrew Lloyd Webber has publicly sounded the alarm about Broadway’s current financial climate, calling it a crisis and warning that acclaimed productions are finding it increasingly difficult to survive. When a production as celebrated and well attended as Cats cannot make the Broadway mathematics work, the closing feels like more than the loss of one musical. It becomes another uncomfortable sign of how difficult it has become for ambitious theatre to simply remain on the stage.

The too-long list of farewells continues to grow from there. The Tony Award-winning revival of Ragtime, fresh from being named Best Revival of a Musical, will play its final performance on August 16. Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman, led by Nathan Lane and Laurie Metcalf, concludes August 9 after becoming Broadway’s most decorated revival of the season. Tracee Ellis Ross will also complete her limited engagement in Every Brilliant Thing, bringing to a close one of this summer’s most intimate theatrical experiences.

Then there is Moulin Rouge!, which has spent years dazzling audiences with its extravagant celebration of Truth, Beauty, Freedom, and Love. Its Broadway journey comes to an end on August 30, although fans are being offered one final gift. Aaron Tveit, who was just on the Broadway stage in the recently closed Chess (another sad loss), will return to the role of Christian for the production’s final weeks, stepping back into the performance that earned him a Tony Award. There is something wonderfully fitting about that. If the windmill is finally coming down, it deserves one last spectacular rotation and celebration.

Even Titaníque, which improbably sailed from an Off-Broadway basement to international success before conquering Broadway, has announced it will dock for the final time on September 20. Its journey shows what can happen when audiences are given the chance to embrace something delightfully original.

What makes this summer’s closing notices so frustrating is that several of these productions were not disappearing because audiences had rejected them. They were finding audiences, earning attention, winning awards, and still struggling to make the Broadway numbers work. That is a particularly difficult reality to watch from the audience side of the curtain. Gratitude is certainly present in our hearts. These productions happened, they found their audiences, and they gave us something worth talking about and loving. But there is also genuine frustration in knowing that strong attendance and critical recognition can still fail to provide enough wind for a production to keep sailing.