Donny Osmond has joined the New York cast of Beauty and the Beast, which is now entering its 700th year on Broadway. He's playing Gaston, and I imagine he's pretty good in the role…though not enough to make me go see him. But he'll sell some tickets to someone, which is what it's all about. I thought it was a pretty good show the three times I saw it…which were all, of course, sans Donny.
In the meantime, a rumor is circulating that The Producers will soon close…and the reported grosses would seem to bear that out. For the week ending September 17, the show played at 54.5% capacity, which was the lowest of all the Broadway houses. By contrast, Mamma Mia — which has been around almost as long — is filling 96.7% of its seats. I'm guessing The Producers is moving the bulk of its tickets via the TKTS half-price booth so its grosses are even worse than they might appear. This is a far cry from not-so-long-ago when Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick were in the show and people were paying hundreds of dollars over face value for tix.
But I find it hard to believe that The Producers will just give up without a fight. It's been quite some time since they had anyone in the cast with any sort of "name" beyond West 44th Street. I would think that before they closed the thing, they'd try bringing in a Jason Alexander or a John Goodman or any of a few dozen other stars who might make it into an event again. That's the idea behind Donny Osmond in Beauty and the Beast, after all. The only reason I can think of why the producers of The Producers might not try some stunt booking is because there's a huge deal in place to open the show soon at the Paris Hotel in Las Vegas. That production still doesn't have an announced cast or opening date. Perhaps they'll try to make it happen by using performers from New York…but that seems unlikely to me.
In the meantime, the Disney-backed stage musical of Mary Poppins, which is doing so well in London, will open in New York on October 14. I don't know anyone who saw it who didn't dislike it, in part because it strayed so much (and so fruitlessly) from the film. Over at the show's official website, you can watch a video preview that I guess is made up of scenes from the U.K. production. It seems calculated to look like they just brought the movie to life…so either the show has changed or they're engaging in some misleading advertising. Look on the left menu for the link to the video.
And while you're over there, you might want to visit the Beauty and the Beast website and see a peppy 30 second video ad for that show. Without Donny.