The current production of Gypsy on Broadway — the one I reviewed here, the one starring Patti Lupone, will now close January 11, rather than the previously announced March 1. They're doing this because my pal Len Wein is going to be back there in February and wanted to see it.
This may make January one of the "closingest" months in Broadway history. Spamalot's closing. Young Frankenstein's closing. Hairspray is closing. Spring Awakening is closing. Boeing-Boeing is closing. There are others.
A sign of the bad economy? Maybe, maybe not. Some of those shows had run their course. January and February are usually weak months at the box office in New York and a marginal show has to decide whether to try and ride out those months or close before them. The folks behind Gypsy probably figured Ms. Lupone's star power and reviews could carry them through the winter, then looked at ticket sales and decided, "Maybe not."
This will leave Broadway Gypsyless for a while but never fear…another revival of Guys and Dolls opens March 1, the day Lupone's show was originally going to close. It's like a tag team with those shows…like there's a law that at all times, a revival of one or the other must be playing within twenty blocks of the TKTS booth. Frankly, I think it would be easier to just merge the shows…work out a scenario where Baby June bets Sky Masterson that he can't take her sister to Cuba and get her a job in a strip club. They could feature songs like, "All I Need is a Bushel and a Peck" and "Sit Down, You're Rockin' Some People." Call it Guys and Gypsies. It's a surefire hit, I'm telling you.