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Looking Back and Moving Forward! Shows That Closed in 2015
By: BWW Special Coverage Jan. 01, 2016
Happy New Year, BroadwayWorld! As we eagerly anticipate the amazing musicals and plays coming up in 2016, we're taking a moment to look back at the significant Broadway closings of 2015.
From the scintillating Kit Kat Club in CABARET to the cold realities of DOCTOR ZHIVAGO, the hilarity of HONEYMOON IN VEGAS and the sexy stilettos of HEDWIG AND THE ANGRY INCH, to the diverging paths of IF/THEN, and the epic, long-running icons MAMMA MIA! and ROCK OF AGES, this has been quite the season.
AMAZING GRACE
Performances Began: June 25, 2015
Closing Night: October 25, 2015
Played: 24 previews, 114 regular performances
AMAZING GRACE featured music and lyrics by Christopher Smith and a book by Christopher Smith and Arthur Giron, directed by Gabriel Barre (Andrew Lippa's The Wild Party) and choreographed by Tony Award winner Christopher Gattelli (Newsies). The cast included Tony Award nominee Josh Young, Erin Mackey, Tony Award nominee Tom Hewitt, Tony Award winner Chuck Cooper, Chris Hoch, Stanley Bahorek, Harriett D. Foy, Laiona Michelle,Rachael Ferrera and Elizabeth Ward Land.
AMAZING GRACE is a new original musical based on the awe-inspiring true story behind the world's most beloved song. A captivating tale of romance, rebellion and redemption, this radiant production follows one man whose incredible journey ignited a historic wave of change.
John Newton (Tony Award nominee Josh Young), a willful and musically talented young Englishman, faces a future as uncertain as the turning tide. Coming of age as Britain sits atop an international empire of slavery, he finds himself torn between following in the footsteps of his father - a slave trader - or embracing the more compassionate views of his childhood sweetheart (Erin Mackey). Accompanied by his slave, Thomas (Tony Award winner Chuck Cooper), John embarks on a perilous voyage on the high seas. When that journey finds John in his darkest hour, a transformative moment of self-reckoning inspires a blazing anthem of hope that will finally guide him home.
CABARET
Performances Began: March 21, 2014
Closing Night: March 29, 2015
Played: 35 previews, 388 regular performances
Roundabout Theatre Company's revival of Cabaret by Joe Masteroff, John Kander and Fred Ebb, featuring three-time Academy Award nominee Michelle Williams for the first time on Broadway as Sally Bowles, and Alan Cumming, reprising his Tony Award-winning role as the Emcee, ran at the newly transformed Kit Kat Klub at Studio 54. Emma Stone and and Sienna Miller also played 'Sally' later in the run.
Academy Award winner Sam Mendes (director) and Academy Award nominee Rob Marshall (co-director/choreographer) recreated their Tony-nominated direction and choreography from the 1998 Tony Award-winning production. CABARET features book by Joe Masteroff, music by John Kander and lyrics by Fred Ebb and is based on the play by John Van Druten and stories by Christopher Isherwood.
CINDERELLA
Performances Began: January 25, 2013
Closing Night: January 3, 2015
Played: 41 previews, 770 regular performances
Cinderella has music by Richard Rodgers, lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II, a new book by Douglas Carter Beane and original book by Oscar Hammerstein II. The musical was directed by Mark Brokaw, with Josh Rhodes as choreographer, music adaptation, supervision and arrangements by David Chase, and orchestrations by Danny Troob.
The musical featured Laura Osnes as Cinderella, Santino Fontana as The Prince and Tony winner Victoria Clark as Fairy Godmother Marie, with Carly Rae Jepsen and Keke Palmer stepping into Cinderella's glass slipper later in the run, and Harriet Harris, Fran Drescher, NeNe Leakes, and Sherri Shepherd as Madame.
With its fresh, new take on the beloved tale of a young woman who is transformed from a chambermaid into a princess, this hilarious and romantic Cinderella combines the story's classic elements - glass slippers, pumpkin, a beautiful ball and more - with some surprise twists. More than just a pretty face with the right shoe size, the Cinderella of the Rodgers & Hammerstein musical now on Broadway is a surprisingly contemporary figure living in a fairytale setting: a spirited young woman with savvy and soul, eager to develop a world view, she doesn't let her rags or her gowns trip her up in her quest for kindness, compassion and forgiveness. She not only fights for her own dreams, but makes the prince, who falls in love with her, open his eyes to the world around him and realize his dreams, too.
DOCTOR ZHIVAGO
Performances Began: March 27, 2015
Closing Night: May 10, 2015
Played: 26 previews, 23 regular performances
DOCTOR ZHIVAGO, based on Boris Pasternak's Nobel Prize-winning 20th-century epic Russian masterpiece, was directed by two-time Tony Award winner Des McAnuff (Jersey Boys), with a book by Academy Award nominee Michael Weller (Ragtime), music by two-time Grammy Award winner and Tony Award nominee Lucy Simon (The Secret Garden), lyrics by Tony Award nominee Michael Korie(Grey Gardens) and Emmy Award nominee Amy Powers (Ella Enchanted), and choreography by Tony Award nominee Kelly Devine (Rocky).
DOCTOR ZHIVAGO starred Tam Mutu (Donmar Warehouse's City of Angels) making his Broadway debut as the passionate Doctor and poet Yurii Zhivago, Kelli Barrett (Wicked) as the alluring Lara Guishar, Tony Award nominee Tom Hewitt (Rocky Horror Show) as the cynical bourgeois magistrate Viktor Komarovsky, Paul Alexander Nolan (Jesus Chris Superstar) as political radical Pasha Antipov, and Lora Lee Gayer as Tonia Gromeko, Zhivago's devoted wife.
DOCTOR ZHIVAGO is an epic romance, revolving around the search for love during the final days of Czarist Russia, the First World War and the chaos of the Russian revolution. Raised as an aristocrat, Zhivago is a political idealist, physician and poet whose life is tossed by the tides of history as he is torn between a life with his devoted wife, Tonia Gromeko and the passionate and mysterious Lara Guishar. Zhivago however, is not alone in his yearnings for Lara, and must compete with both revolutionaries and aristocracy alike to win the heart of the woman he cannot live without. Doctor Zhivago celebrates the strength of love and art, in the face of political oppression and revolution.
GIGI
Performances Began: March 19, 2015
Closing Night: June 21, 2015
Played: 20 previews, 86 performances
Gigi, with book and lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner and music by Frederick Loewe and based on the novel by Colette, featured a new book adaptation by Heidi Thomas (BBC/PBS's "Call the Midwife") and was choreographed by Emmy Award-winner Joshua Bergasse (On the Town, "Smash") and directed by Eric Schaeffer (Follies, Million Dollar Quartet).
Gigi starred Vanessa Hudgens in the title role, Tony Award-winner Victoria Clark (The Light in the Piazza, Sister Act, Rodgers + Hammerstein's Cinderella) as Mamita, Corey Cott (Newsies) as Gaston Lachaille, three-time Tony Award-nominee Dee Hoty (The Will Rogers Follies, The Best Little Whorehouse Goes Public, Footloose) as Aunt Alicia, two-time Tony Award-nominee Howard McGillin (The Mystery of Edwin Drood, Anything Goes) as Honoré Lachaille and Steffanie Leigh (Mary Poppins) as Liane d'Exelmans.
Gigi includes such numbers as "Thank Heaven for Little Girls," "I Remember It Well" "The Night They Invented Champagne" and the Oscar-winning title song, "Gigi". Gigi also won the Tony Award for Best Score in 1974, and the new production included four of the songs that the team of Lerner & Loewe wrote for the stage version, including "Paris is Paris Again," "I Never Want to Go Home Again," "The Contract," and "In this Wide, Wide World".
HEDWIG AND THE ANGRY INCH
Performances Began: March 29, 2014
Closing Night: September 13, 2015
Played: 22 previews, 506 regular performances
The Broadway production of the John Cameron Mitchell-Stephen Trask musical opened to great acclaim, box office success and Tony wins with original star Neil Patrick Harris in 2014. Andrew Rannells, Michael C. Hall, Mitchell himself, Darren Criss and Taye Diggs also stepped into Hedwig's shoes on the Great White Way throughout the run.
HEDWIG AND THE ANGRY INCH, with book by John Cameron Mitchell and music and lyrics by Stephen Trask, directed by Michael Mayer, follows "internationally ignored song stylist" Hedwig Robinson, who brings her fourth-wall-smashing rock and roll saga to New York to set the record straight about her life, her loves, and the botched operation that left her with that "angry inch."
HONEYMOON IN VEGAS
Performances Began: November 18, 2014
Closing Night: April 5, 2015
Honeymoon in Vegas, the new musical comedy with book by Blazing Saddles and Fletch writer Andrew Bergman and score by three-time Tony Award-winner Jason Robert Brown, featured Tony Award nominee Rob McClure, Brynn O'Malley, Emmy and Golden Globe nominee Tony Danza, David Josefsberg, Nancy Opel, Matthew Saldivar, Matt Allen, Tracee Beazer, Grady McLeod Bowman, Barry Busby, Leslie Donna Flesner, Gaelen Gilliland, Albert Guerzon, Sean Allan Krill, Raymond J. Lee, George Merrick, Jessica Naimy,Zachary Prince,Catherine Ricafort, Jonalyn Saxer, Brendon Stimson, Erica Sweany, Cary Tedder, and Katie Webber.
Honeymoon in Vegas tells the story of Jack Singer (Rob McClure), a regular guy with an extreme fear of marriage, who finally gets up the nerve to ask his girlfriend Betsy (Brynn O'Malley) to marry him. But when they head to Las Vegas to get hitched, smooth talking gambler Tommy Korman (Tony Danza), looking for a second chance at love, falls head over heels for Betsy. What happens next is anybody's bet!
IF/THEN
Performances Began: March 3, 2014
Closing Night: March 22, 2015
Played: 29 previews, 401 regular performances
Starring Tony Award-winner Idina Menzel, If/Then is an original Broadway musical written by Tom Kitt (music) and Brian Yorkey (book and lyrics), and directed by Michael Greif, the creative team behind the Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award-winning musical, Next to Normal.
In addition to Ms. Menzel, the company of If/Then featured LaChanze (Tony Award-winner for The Color Purple), Anthony Rapp (original cast of Rent), James Snyder (Cry-Baby), Jerry Dixon (tick, tick...Boom!, Once On This Island), Jenn Colella (Chaplin, High Fidelity), Jason Tam (A Chorus Line, Lysistrata Jones), Tamika Lawrence (Matilda), and Jackie Burns (Wicked).
IF/THEN is a contemporary new musical that follows two distinct storylines in the life of Elizabeth, a city planner who moves back to New York to restart her life in this city of infinite possibilities. When her carefully designed plans collide with the whims of fate, Elizabeth's life splits into two parallel paths. If/Then follows both stories simultaneously as this modern woman faces the intersection of choice and chance.
IT SHOULDA BEEN YOU
Performances Began: March 17, 2015
Closing Night: August 9, 2015
Played: 31 previews, 135 regular performances
It Shoulda Been You, a new musical comedy directed by David Hyde Pierce in his Broadway directorial debut, featured an original book & lyrics by Brian Hargrove and music by Barbara Anselmi.
The cast of It Shoulda Been You included Tony Award-winner Tyne Daly, Tony Award-winner Harriet Harris, Sierra Boggess, Lisa Howard, David Burtka, Tony Award nominee Montego Glover, Chip Zien, Josh Grisetti, Adam Heller,Michael X. Martin, Anne L. Nathan, Nick Spangler, and Edward Hibbert, along with Farah Alvin, Gina Farrell, Aaron Finley, and Mitch Greenberg.
In the hilarious and heartwarming new musical It Shoulda Been You, it's a culture clash for the ages when two families from wildly different backgrounds come together to celebrate a wedding. As if the union wasn't complicated enough, the bride's ex-boyfriend arrives, bringing the wedding to a screeching halt and throwing both families into hysterical chaos. Plots are hatched, promises broken, secrets exposed - and the bride's resourceful sister is left to turn an unmitigated disaster into happily ever after.
IT'S ONLY A PLAY
Performances Began: August 28, 2014
Closing Night: June 7, 2015
The star-studded Broadway production of the backstage comedy It's Only A Play, by four-time Tony Award winner Terrence McNally, originally featured Academy Award winner F. Murray Abraham, Tony Award winner Matthew Broderick, Emmy and Tony Award winner Stockard Channing, international film sensation Rupert Grint, Tony Award winner Nathan Lane, Emmy Award winner Megan Mullally, and newcomer Micah Stock. Three-time Tony Award winner Jack O'Brien was director.
In It's Only A Play, it's opening night of Peter Austin's (Matthew Broderick) new play as he anxiously awaits to see if his show is a hit. With his career on the line, he shares his big First Night with his best friend, a television star (Nathan Lane), his fledgling producer (Megan Mullally), his erratic leading lady (Stockard Channing), his wunderkind director (Rupert Grint), an infamous drama critic (F. Murray Abraham), and a fresh-off-the-bus coat check attendant (Micah Stock) on his first night in Manhattan. It's alternately raucous, ridiculous and tender - and proves that sometimes the biggest laughs happen offstage.
THE LAST SHIP
Performances Began: September 28, 2014
Closing Night: January 24, 2015
Played: 29 previews, 105 regular performances
THE LAST SHIP featured music and lyrics by Sting, the 16-time Grammy Award winning musician, with a book by John Logan and Brian Yorkey, choreography by Steven Hoggett and was directed by Joe Mantello, with musical direction, orchestrations and arrangements by Emmy Award-winner Rob Mathes.
The musical's original Broadway cast featured Michael Esper, Rachel Tucker, Jimmy Nail, Fred Applegate, Aaron Lazar, Sally Ann Triplett and Collin Kelly-Sordelet. On December 9, 2014, Sting, who composed The Last Ship's score, joined the cast in the role of Jackie White.
THE LAST SHIP is the unforgettable story of passion and hope about a shipbuilding community that rallies to preserve its way of life by building one last ship meant to sail the world, and of a woman who must choose between the two men she loves.
MAMMA MIA!
Performances Began: October 5, 2001
Closing Night: September 12, 2015
Played: 5,773 performances
Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus' global smash hit musical MAMMA MIA!, inspired by the songs of ABBA, is one of the most successful musicals of all time anywhere in the world, the eighth longest running show in Broadway history and one of only five musicals to have run for more ten years on Broadway. MAMMA MIA! is written by Catherine Johnson and directed by Phyllida Lloyd and choreographed by Anthony Van Laast.
The most current Broadway company of MAMMA MIA! starred Judy McLane ("Donna Sheridan"), Elena Ricardo ("Sophie Sheridan"), Mary Callanan ("Rosie), Alison Ewing (Tanya"), Victor Wallace ("Sam Carmichael"), Paul DeBoy ("Harry Bright"), John Hemphill ("Bill Austin") and Jon Jorgenson ("Sky") and features Thomasina E. Gross ("Lisa"), Traci Victoria ("Ali"), Neil Starkenberg ("Pepper"), Taurean Everett ("Eddie") and Deanna Aguinaga.
Inspired by the story-telling magic of ABBA's timeless songs and directed by Phyllida Lloyd, MAMMA MIA! is Judy Craymer's vision of writer Catherine Johnson's sunny, funny tale of family and friendship unfolding on a tiny Greek island. On the eve of her wedding, a daughter's quest to discover the identity of her father brings 3 men from her mother's past back to the island they had last visited 20 years ago. Songs including "Dancing Queen," "The Winner Takes It All," "Money, Money, Money" and "Take a Chance on Me" are all featured in this feel-good night of fun and laughter.
ONCE
Performances Began: February 28, 2012
Closing Night: January 4, 2015
Played: 22 previews, 1,167 regular performances
ONCE features a book by award-winning Irish playwright & screenwriter, Enda Walsh (Penelope, Hunger, The New Electric Ballroom), the Academy Award-winning music and lyrics of Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová, direction by the acclaimed John Tiffany (The Glass Menagerie, Black Watch), movement by Steven Hoggett (The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night- Time, Black Watch, American Idiot) and music supervision and orchestrations by Martin Lowe (Mamma Mia!).
Featuring an impressive ensemble of actor/musicians who play their own instruments onstage, ONCE tells the enchanting tale of a Dublin street musician who's about to give up on his dream when a beautiful young woman takes a sudden interest in his haunting love songs. As the chemistry between them grows, his music soars to powerful new heights... but their unlikely connection turns out to be deeper and more complex than your everyday romance. Emotionally captivating and theatrically breathtaking, Once draws you in from the very first note and never lets go. It's an unforgettable story about going for your dreams and the power of music to connect us all.
ON THE TOWN
Performances Began: September 20, 2014
Closing Night: September 6, 2015
Played: 28 previews, 368 regular performances
Directed by John Rando (Tony Award winner for URINETOWN) and choreographed by Joshua Bergasse (Emmy Award winner for SMASH), On The Town featured eye-popping sets (by Beowulf Boritt), gorgeous costumes (by Jess Goldstein), book & lyrics by Betty Comden and Adolph Green, and a score by one of America's greatest composers, Leonard Bernstein, performed by the largest orchestra on Broadway. The show was based on an idea by Jerome Robbins.
ON THE TOWN starred Tony Yazbeck (Gypsy, A Chorus Line), Jay Armstrong Johnson (The New York Philharmonic's Sweeney Todd, Hands On A Hardbody, Hair), and Clyde Alves (Bullets Over Broadway, Nice Work If You Can Get It) as the sailors on 24-hour shore leave who take on the Big Apple; Megan Fairchild (and later Misty Copeland, American Ballet Theatre), Alysha Umphress (American Idiot) and Elizabeth Stanley (Company) as the women who steal their hearts; and Jackie Hoffman (Hairspray, Xanadu) in the role of "Madame Dilly".
Join three sailors with only 24 hour shore leave in New York as they are swept off their feet by three beautiful New York women for one amazing night On The Town!
PIPPIN
Performances Began: March 23, 2013
Closing Night: January 4, 2015
Played: 37 previews, 709 performances
Broadway's high-flying, death-defying Tony Award winning hit musical Pippin features a book by Roger O. Hirson and music and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz, Pippin was directed by Tony Award winner Diane Paulus and featured choreography in the style of Bob Fosse by Tony Award nominee Chet Walker and circus creations by Gypsy Snider of the Montreal-based circus company Les 7 doigts de la main (also known as 7 Fingers).
The cast included Matthew James Thomas as Pippin, Tony and Olivier Award nominee Patina Miller as Leading Player, Tony Award nominee Terrence Mann as Charles, Tony Award nominee Charlotte d'Amboise as Fastrada, Rachel Bay Jones as Catherine and Tony Award winner Andrea Martin as Berthe.
PIPPIN tells the story of a young prince on a death-defying journey to find meaning in his existence. Will he choose a happy but simple life? Or will he risk everything for a singular flash of glory? The show is noted for many Broadway standards including "Corner of the Sky," "Magic To Do," "Glory," "No Time at All," "Morning Glow," and "Love Song." The original production of Pippin, directed by Bob Fosse, premiered on Broadway in 1972. It won five Tony Awards and five Drama Desk Awards, and ran for close to 2000 performances before closing in 1977.
ROCK OF AGES
Performances Began: March 17, 2009
Closing Night: January 18, 2015
Played: 22 previews, 2,328 regular performances
The five-time Tony Award-nominated Rock of Ages closed as the 27th longest running show in Broadway history.
The music that ignited a generation heated up Broadway in the five-time Tony Award-nominated musical Rock of Ages. The hilarious, tongue-in-cheek love story erupts into Broadway's Best Party, all to the sounds of such feel-good, sing-out-loud songs as "I Wanna Know What Love Is", "Every Rose Has Its Thorn," "Wanted Dead Or Alive," "Here I Go Again", "Don't Stop Believin" and more.
SIDE SHOW
Performances Began: October 28, 2014
Closing Night: January 4, 2015
The completely reimagined revival of Side Show was directed by Bill Condon and included new music by multiple Grammy Award winner and Academy Award, Golden Globe, and Tony Award nominee Henry Krieger (Dreamgirls), with book and lyrics by Tony Award nominee Bill Russell and additional book material by Bill Condon, and choreography by Tony and Olivier Award nominee Anthony Van Laast (Mamma Mia).
The cast of Side Show featured Erin Davie and Emily Padgett, in the leading roles of Violet and Daisy Hilton, as well as Matthew Hydzik as Buddy Foster, Robert Joy as Sir, Ryan Silverman as Terry Connor, and David St. Louis as Jake.
Side Show is inspired by the remarkable true story of the Hilton twins, Daisy and Violet, who were legends in their time and the highest paid performers on the vaudeville circuit. Side Showis their heartwarming search for first love and acceptance amidst the spectacle of fame and scrutiny under the spotlight.
THE VISIT
Performances Began: March 26, 2015
Closing Night: June 14, 2015
The original Broadway version of Kander and Ebb's Tony-nominated musical THE VISIT, helmed by Tony Award-winning director John Doyle and choreographed by Tony Award-nominee Graciela Daniele, was led by Tony Award-Winners Chita Rivera as Claire Zachannassian and Roger Rees as Anton Schell. Rees passed away this year at the age of 71.
The Broadway cast also featured George Abud as Karl, Jason Danieley as Frederich Kuhn, Matthew Deming as Louis Perch, Diana Dimarzio as Annie Dummermut, Tony Award-nominee David Garrison as Peter Dummermut, Rick Holmes as Father Josef, Tom Nelis as Rudi, Chris Newcomer as Jacob Chicken, Mary Beth Peil as Matilde Schell, Aaron Ramey as Otto Hahnke, Elena Shadow as Ottilie, Timothy Shew as Hans Nusselin, with John Riddle andMichelle Veintimilla.
In her juiciest role yet, Chita Rivera is Claire Zachannassian, the world's wealthiest woman, who returns home to Anton Schell (Roger Rees) who captured her heart then shattered her dreams. What she does next shocks the town and makes for the most thrilling and intriguing musical in years. From the team that brought you "Cabaret", "Chicago", "Kiss of the Spider Woman", this tale of romance, seduction and BETRAYALproves that the best revenge is revenge.
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