[Jon - Thenardier]

is it just me or does there seem to be a closing notice nearly every day at the moment for broadway or London. I didn't realise that the theatre was being hit that hard by the current economic crisis. Will there end up being lots of dark theatres early next year? thoughts?

[Glinda172xxx]

I just cant believe it...it is a blood bath. That is now 5 major musicals that have either closed (xanadu, legally blonde-yes i shead tears) or have posted closing notices (spring awakening, spamalot and hairspray-have brought FORWARD their closing date!) in the last month. the nes musical 13 by Jason robert brown statistics arent good either. I am going to NY in april and i am wondering if there will be anything left to see. It makes me wonder how new musicals such as imagine this and 9 to 5 are going to survive. It's a travesty and i feel sorry for all the unemployed and up and coming actors and actresses who have now got to find employment. what is going on..? I have a feeling it is going to keep snowballing.

[Misplaced]

I gather the audiences for Spring Awakening have been dropping off pretty severely over the last few months, so I don't think this is so surprising. Also the case that in an economic crunch, if you are looking for a once-a-year family trip to the musicals (as Matthew Winn is wont to point out, correctly I think), SA is not likely to be top of your list. It's not exactly family-friendly. (I mean, would you want to take your 12- and 13-year old kids to see it?)

[Matthew Winn]

Shows do close. It's the nature of theatre. It baffles me that people keep on going on about what shows they'd like to see opening and at the same time expect everything that's currently running to keep going forever. For any show to open - and for anyone on the creative side of theatre to find work - a show must close.

I see organised closures as a sign of health in the theatre. (It's obviously a different matter for a show that closes within days, leaving an empty theatre with nobody to occupy it.) A closure creates employment opportunities: a new show employs many more people than one that's already up and running, especially on the design and construction side. During the planning and rehearsal stage a new show doesn't even need a theatre, so for a while the closure of a show results in the simultaneous employment of two sets of people: those on the departing show plus those preparing the incoming show. Providing a show announces its closure well in advance, the positive aspects of a closure far outweigh the negative ones.

As for the current situation, this isn't a time to take risks. If a show is hovering around its break-even point then it's likely to fall below it in the near future and in the current climate there's little chance of audiences picking up. In those circumstances it's best to opt for a controlled winding down of the show rather than try to keep going and create a financial emergency that requires shutting up shop in a matter of days. I would expect a slight rise in the number of closures as shows that are teetering on the brink make the decision to accept the inevitable. I'd also expect the proportion of crowd-pleasers over new and unknown shows to rise as audiences become even less willing than usual to spend money on shows they may not like. But the thing about theatre is that it cheers you up, and people need cheering up.

[josh]

I'm really sad about this. I saw it in New York a few months ago and loved it...much more sophisticated than a lot of the crap which is still open there! Ah well, at least we have the production here to look forward to...