NEW YORK – The producers of “Lestat” decided last week that the show, after 39 regular performances and 33 previews, would close after today's matinee. As closing announcements go, it was a resounding one, since “Lestat” – which is said to have cost more than $12 million – was the Broadway debut of Warner Brothers and involved creative best-sellers like Elton John, Bernie Taupin and Anne Rice.
But the news of the demise of “Lestat” is only the latest in a two-week tally of theater closings that caps one of the most profitable Broadway seasons in history.
Last Saturday night, “Festen,” the family drama based on the Danish film and featuring Ali MacGraw in her Broadway debut, closed after 49 regular performances and 20 previews.
“Barefoot in the Park,” the critically hammered Neil Simon revival, closed last Sunday, as did “The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial,” the Herman Wouk revival starring David Schwimmer, after 17 regular performances and 27 previews. Only a week before, Lisa Kron's play “Well” called it quits.
The series of closings followed May 17 announcement of the Tony nominations, on which some shows, like “Caine Mutiny,” were banking. That play did not get a best-revival nod, though Zeljko Ivanek was nominated for best actor in a play.
“Once we didn't get the nomination, and given that we're not doing the kind of business we hoped we would be doing, it made sense,” said Jeffrey Richards, one of the play's producers.
After the highest-grossing Broadway season to date, in which finding an available theater was like finding a parking place in midtown Manhattan, this week's closings are among the first in a general darkening of Broadway theater houses over the summer.
“The screaming and yelling that all the theaters are booked will not be heard in the fall,” said Emanuel Azenberg, a producer of “The Odd Couple,” which ends its limited run on June 4. “The straight plays are going away.”
Though some musicals are straining at the box office, almost all of the plays on Broadway are scheduled to depart this summer. Barring another unplanned closing, “Three Days of Rain” with Julia Roberts will be the next show to close, on June 18. The end comes for “Awake and Sing!,” the Lincoln Center Theater's revival of the Clifford Odets play, on June 25, and “Doubt,” after about a year and a half, on July 2. “Shining City” goes dark on July 16, “Faith Healer” on Aug. 13 and “The History Boys” on Sept. 3.
All of these plays are limited engagements, and one or more could extend their runs. “The Lieutenant of Inishmore,” Martin McDonagh's terrorist comedy, is the only remaining straight play with an open-ended run. But it has had trouble filling seats.
Several of the resulting gaps along Broadway will not be filled by other plays, as musicals like “A Chorus Line” and “Les Miserables” line up to take over empty theaters next season.
That is where “Lestat,” as it goes, comes in. Its closing frees the Nederlander-owned Palace, one of the few available theaters intended for big musicals. And according to several producers around Broadway, the battle for the Palace has already started.
