(Owen Myers’s article appeared in the Guardian, 7/14; Photo: Andrew Lloyd Webber at the New York premiere of the film Cats in New York, 2019.)
The legendary composer warned theaters could soon meet the same fate as Hollywood’s ‘empty soundstages’
“Broadway is more than a street or a collection of buildings. It is an idea – and one of the greatest cultural ideas America has given us,” the composer wrote in a lengthy X thread on Tuesday morning.
“That idea is now in dire danger. I beg everyone with the power to protect it: come together before it is too late.”
Yesterday, it was announced that despite receiving three Tony awards this year, Lloyd Webber’s Cats: The Jellicle Ball would close after just five months on Broadway, with its final performance slated for 8 August.
The show cost a reported $18m to create, but failed to recoup despite audience popularity and about $1m in weekly grosses due to the high costs of running a musical in New York’s theater district.
In a four star review, the Guardian praised the “revolutionary verve” of The Jellicle Ball, adding that it was “a mighty testament to what is possible when producers look past the traditional scope of Broadway and bring in fresh talent to widen the aperture of commercial theater’s gaze”.
“The painful truth is that, with things as they are, bringing almost any new show to Broadway makes little financial sense,” said Lloyd Webber.
“The costs are immense. Creators, writers and directors are often forced to accept minimal royalties simply to get work staged.”
Since the Covid-19 pandemic, 46 musicals have opened on Broadway per a New York Times report last year, with a total cost of about $800m to bring to the stage. New musicals such as Tammy Faye, Boop! and Smash opened with big budgets and huge fanfare, but were all cancelled within four months of opening.
