This has been a rough season on Broadway.
Now, among the many shows closing is Billy Crystal’s wonderful “Mr. Saturday Night.” The final performance will come on Labor Day weekend.
“Mr. Saturday Night” had a lot of Tony nominations but no wins. Without the Tony imprimatur, the musical based on Crystal’s 1994 movie fell apart at the box office. Two weeks ago ticket sales were only at 61% of capacity. When last week’s numbers are published tomorrow, it could be lower.
In just three weeks, total box office has fallen by $300,000 to just $542,696. In its short run, “Mr. Saturday Night” never rose above $848K.
Besides attendance, the other issue with “Mr. Saturday Night” is that it’s dependent on Crystal being there for 8 shows a week. He’s 74, and has had COVID at least once. If he misses a show, the whole production has to shut down. No one comes to see an understudy. And Billy may have just said, That’s enough.
“Mr. Saturday Night” still has 7 weeks left. Please go see it, it’s so much fun and Billy and David Paymer and the whole cast are terrific. We’ll be sad to see them go.
