Billy Crystal's Broadway show Mr. Saturday Night will close September 4 after playing 28 previews and 116 performances. That sounds to me like a lot less than its makers and backers were expecting. Mr. Crystal is in Stephen Colbert's guest chair tonight so it will be interesting to hear what he has to say about it. The New York Times reports…
The show has generally been staged just seven times a week — one fewer than the industry standard of eight — and its box office grosses have been middling, and dropping this summer. During the week that ended July 10 — the most recent for which data is available — the show grossed $542,696 for a six-performance week, playing to houses that were 61 percent full, according to the Broadway League.
And they add that the show was capitalized for $10 million and has not broken even.
I would guess that Billy Crystal is enough of a star name that if he was willing to tour with the show and do a week here and a week there, he would pack theaters in many cities. Then again, he might be able to do that more profitably with a one-man show. So let's hear what the man says tonight. I wish I'd been able to see the play. A lot of my friends did and loved it.