The Broadway adaptation of A Tale of Two Cities, which opened on September 18th, has announced that it is closing on November 16th. At that time it will have performed 33 previews and 68 regular performances.
A Tale of Two Cities employs 18 pit musicians. As reported previously, this announcement follows closing notices from 5 other Broadway shows: Xanadu, Legally Blonde, Hairspray, Spamalot, Spring Awakening. The combination of these show closings results in the loss of 87 full-time musician positions on Broadway. At least 2 other musicals, Harry Connick Jr.’s Nice Work If You Can Get It and the revival of Godspell have been postponed indefinitely.
An estimated $16 million was spent on the mounting of A Tale of Two Cities, which played at the coveted Al Hirschfield Theater (previously home to Curtains, The Wedding Singer and Wonderful Town among many others). Audience capacity last week was at only 44% and producers sited a weak economy for the closing notice.
A national tour of A Tale of Two Cities is said to be planned for the future.
Update: Broadway.com reports that the revival of Hair will be replacing Tale of Two Cities at the Al Hirschfield Theater. No word yet on how many musicians will be employed in the pit of Hair.
David J. Hahn
David J. Hahn is a Broadway conductor and keyboard player. He co-founded MusicianWages.com with Cameron Mizell in 2008. Visit his new project, Songwriter.fm and sign up for his songwriting newsletter.
