“Even though New York City is getting stronger every day and ticket sales are slowly improving, theater-going tourists and, especially for our show, family audiences haven’t returned as early as we did. planned,” Kevin McCollum, the show’s producer, said in a statement. Thusday. “Unfortunately, it’s not possible to run the show without those sales, especially when capitalizing on the Broadway economy three times over.”
Other Broadway productions also struggled in this new landscape. A much-loved revival of “For Girls of Color Who Have Considered Suicide / When the Rainbow Is Enough,” which had struggled at the box office, announced last week that it would close on the 22nd May, just a month after opening and three months ahead of schedule. But on Thursday, after receiving seven Tony Award nominations and a social media campaign to sponsor female-identifying people of color with a gifted pair of tickets, he announced he would now play two more weeks, until to June 5.
Last week “Mrs. Doubtfire” grossed $477,132, and audiences were only 69% full. Still, the show is moving forward with a British commitment, who McCollum says is set to play for a month from September 2 in Manchester, England; a US tour is also set to begin in October 2023.
In development for years and capitalized for $17 million, the production had only managed three preview performances as of March 2020 when Broadway closed. After a 19-month hiatus, “Mrs. Doubtfire” resumed previews last October and opened Dec. 5, backed by a nearly $10 million grant from the Small Business Administration. It opened to lukewarm reviews — and a pan in the New York Times – just as Omicron started to spike cases again.
Then, in a stark example of the financial damage caused by the pandemic shutdown, McCollum decided to shut down production for several months, saying he saw no other way to save it. The musical temporarily closed on January 10 and had planned to reopen on March 14, but later postponed its reopening to April 14. The closure cost 115 people their jobs during that time.
