It wasn’t such a great week on Broadway for “Hello, Dolly!” Bette Midler took the week off and grosses fell by 11 percent. The week’s take fell to $913K from $2.3 million the week before. Capacity was down 11 percent.
All this points to why the whole main cast is leaving when Midler goes on January 14th. The show is being re-budgeted to real world box office when Bernadette Peters and Victor Garber take over. It also shows that this has really been Bette Midler on Broadway and not just a Broadway musical.
None of this should reflect poorly on Donna Murphy, who’s done yeoman service when Midler is off. But “Dolly!” is “Dolly!” and without a superstar like Midler, it’s going to chug along like a regular revival. Will the new team be able to keep the weekly grosses over $1 million? If they can’t we’ll see closing notices befoe winter 2018 is over.
Meanwhile producer Scott Rudin is closing one of his two other shows currently on the boards–“A Doll’s House Pt. 2.” And “1984” should shutter soon after.
