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It’s a grim annual ritual: Tony Award nominations come out and snubbed shows start dropping like flies. Yesterday it was Living on Love, the Renée Fleming vehicle that received less than loving responses, struggled at the box office, and then gave up after garnering zero nods. Living on Love goes cold this Sunday.
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The Heidi Chronicles opted for pre-emptive action: After failing to draw audiences to this Wendy Wasserstein revival—despite casting Mad Men star Elisabeth Moss—producers announced a premature end last week. It also shutters after Sunday’s matinee.
So who’s next? All eyes are on Doctor Zhivago, which got some of the nastiest notices of the season (including this pan from yours truly). The show looks expensive to keep going on what must be terrible word of mouth, and it too was completely ignored by Tony nominators. Last week the box office take was $485K—probably shy of the behemoth’s weekly “nut” (the basic cost of running it). But with 50 producers (is that a record?) there might be cash sloshing around to burn. But how long?
Hand to God (five nominations) and It Shoulda Been You (zero nominations) each filled 73% of the house last week. The Visit was at 72% capacity. Each is praying to do better business in coming months, either from June Tony wins or an uptick in word of mouth.
Otherwise, most of the nominated shows are doing well at the box office: The King and I, Something Rotten!, An American in Paris and Fun Home are playing to full or near-full capacity. Wolf Hall: Parts One & Two, on the other hand, only filled 60% of the house and took home $734K. Which goes to show that you could probably score cheap seats if you tried.