Tuesday Tidbits- "Night Music" set to close

After nearly six weeks of rumors regarding replacement casts, producers announced today that the first Broadway revival of Stephen Sondheim's A Little Night Music will close it's doors on June 20, the same day that stars Catherine Zeta-Jones and Angela Landsbury's contracts are set to end. At it's closing, the show will have played 20 previews and 217 performances.

The show received tepid reviews (including one from this guy), but played to near capacity crowds throughout it's six month run at the Walter Kerr Theater. Certainly, the pairing of Jones and Landsbury was one of the most inspired casting decisions of the season and helped to overcome a rather bland directing job by Trevor Nunn, whose pacing of the first act was so slow that the show might as well have been moving backwards.

Over the last month, Gwyneth Paltrow, Blythe Danner, and Debbie Reynolds were all rumored to be replacements. In the end, none of it materialized, forcing producers to pull the plug earlier than they would have hoped on their reported $4.8 million dollar production.

Many Sondheim fans have been clamoring for a revival of Merrily We Roll Along. How long until someone loses money on that production?

Director Julie Taymor was honored with a lifetime achievement award today at a luncheon sponsored by the New Dramatists. Taymor's body of work includes the stage adaptation of Disney's The Lion King. She also glued a unibrow on Salma Hayak in the 2002 film Frida that nobody saw, despite getting nominated for a lot of awards. Perhaps one day she will best be remembered for singlehandedly setting $60 million dollars on fire in the soon to be disastrous Spiderman musical.

Taymor was hard at work defending the project today, saying "The audience won't get rooked, so they shouldn't be complaining. They'll pay about the same for this show as they would for a two actor, one set show."

Note to Ms. Taymor-- The audiences aren't complaining yet. You still haven't delivered a show for them to hate. The people who should be complaining are the investors and everyone at Hello Entertainment who have invested the gross national product of Malaysia into a show that will never recoup unless you charge five times the ticket price of that two actor show you mentioned.

Spiderman is still allegedly opening this fall.

Spiderman: Turn off the Lights... Please!

Spiderman's road to Broadway has not been an easy one. The show, originally scheduled to open earlier this year, was delayed due to money problems. The production team had already blown through the initial $20 million investment before rehearsals even began. Director Julie Taymor's special effects heavy production would have reportedly cost close to a million dollars a week to produce, making recoupment close to impossible.

At that point, I called Spiderman's producers the most irresponsible in the history of American Theater. What producer in their right mind could so badly mismanage such a huge investment?? Little did I know back in February that the worst was yet to come. New producers were brought in, and the production expense has now tripled to over $60 million dollars. This despite the fact that there is no cast in place or renovations completed at the Hilton Theater. Potential investors are being solicited, at the low cost of ELEVEN MILLION DOLLARS! What exactly does one get for that investment? Will Bono come play your kid's Bar Mitzvah?? Will Julie Taymor come dance in your living room while wearing wildlife headpieces left over from The Lion King?? Exactly what would possess even the most starstruck investor to pony up that kind of cash to a production team that has already proven that they are incapable of managing a multi million dollar budget??

The sad news is that some idiot is out there writing an 8 figure check because they feel Spiderman is the most important project in the world. Yet, imagine what that kind of money could do to save arts education programs across America. Did you know that right now, here in cash strapped California, the Los Angeles Unified School District will be cutting arts education by 50% next school year, at a savings of $14 million dollars? You want to find an artistic endeavor worth saving??? Help the LA schools... not Julie Taymor. Maybe your generous contribution will help cultivate the education of the next generation of Broadway actors and producers. I bet they would be a whole lot smarter than some of today's theater decision makers

Tuesday Tidbits- A "Little" Problem for "Night Music"??

If you and I were to put together a list of 10 musicals to revive that were certain to pack houses, we likely wouldn't have included "A Little Night Music". In fact, I doubt it would have made a top 25 list. However, through some very savvy and inspired casting decisions, the shows producers have done big business despite mixed reviews. The team of Catherine Zeta-Jones and Angela Landsbury have overcome a rather shoddy directing job by Trevor Nunn, and have provided a formidable 1-2 punch at the box office. However, their contracts are up in June, and neither one is staying on with the production.

This creates a precarious situation for the future of the show, which probably needs around another 5 or 6 months of big houses to get closer to recouping. The production is good, but not strong enough to without a big name on the marquee. How do you replace an Oscar winner and multiple Tony winner?

According to reports yesterday on PerezHilton.com, the producers are negotiating with the real life mother/daughter team of Gwyneth Paltrow and Blythe Danner. It's certainly an interesting idea, especially if Gwyneth's role in the upcoming "Iron Man 2" revives a career that hasn't included a commercial, mass appeal project since 2002. It would seem to all hinge on whether people still care about Gwyneth? Or is she perceived as the "woman who is married to that guy from Coldplay"? Time will tell

In Other News:

What happens when the budget for your "Spiderman" musical matches the budget of the film franchise? You end up with a dark theater with lots of posters and no stars. Alan Cumming has officially dropped out of the show to take a role on an ABC TV Series. Spiderman is allegedly still opening next February at the Hilton Theater.

-Tony nominee J. Robert Spencer has announced that he is leaving "Next to Normal" in May. Perhaps this is wishful thinking on my part, but this seems like a perfect time for the amazing Brian D'arcy James to return to the show. He originated the role of Dan in both the Arena Stage and Off Broadway incarnations of the show, before leaving to play the title role in Shrek.

By the way, does Mr. James still kick himself over that decision? I'm in the minority of people who loved Shrek, and loved his performance in particular. Still though, one show went on to win a Tony Awards and a Pulitzer... the other lost the gross national product of Tanzania for it's investors.