Closings

A few unfortunate closings announced in recent days:

The New York Times reports that Spring Awakening will be ending its run in January. It will have run over two years and made back its investment, which is no small feat, but I am among many who hoped that something that audacious and exciting would stay around for a little longer. I saw it over the summer, and was highly impressed. While the play has definite flaws (many with the lyrics), the staging and production are simply dynamite. I've never seen a show so exceptionally good at expressing the itchy, squirmy, inappropriate energy of being 15, while somehow not being as irritating as actual 15-year-olds are. It's an electrifying, brilliant production, and you should really see it before it closes in New York--or at least when it visits Chicago in August of 2009.

Recent days have also seen the announcements of the January closings of Monty Python's Spamalot and Hairspray after lengthy runs. I hope that they are replaced with productions of equal success!

Closer to home, Kris Vire and others have announced the shocking early closing of the Chicago run of Forbidden Broadway. It's particularly strange given the show's great success in its previous engagement here last year and the rave reviews of this year's edition. Apparently a combination of soft grosses, insufficient marketing, and a poor economic environment have caused the producers to bolt. It runs one more week, through November 2nd, so get your tickets now!