Grace McLean and Carole Carmello at the Broadway opening of Bad Cinderella at the Imperial Theatre, New York on March 23. Photo: Nina Westervelt/Variety
Andrew Lloyd Webber's 43-year run on Broadway comes to an end after it was announced that his show Bad Cinderella would close in just four months.
The production suffered from bad reviews and reviews. sluggish ticket sales.
Its closure was announced on social media with the message: «All good things must come to an end.»
The final show will take place on June 4th. , marking the first time since Evita opened in 1979 that Lord Lloyd-Webber did not stage a production on Broadway.
The Phantom of the Opera, which closed in April after 35 years and nearly 14,000 performances, became longest running show in Broadway history.
Jeff Fenholt as Jesus in the original production of Jesus Christ Superstar, which became a hit on Broadway in 1971. Photo: John Olson //Time Life Pictures /Getty Images
Bad Cinderella is a feminist retelling of the classic fairy tale, with music by Lord Lloyd Webber and a story by Emerald Fennell.
The action takes place in the town of Belleville, where all the inhabitants are surgically enhanced beauties, but Cinderella insists on wearing ugly clothes.
The show originally opened in the West End in the summer of 2021, where it was called Cinderella, but it closed last June and transferred to Broadway this March.
British critics have been relatively kind, but reviews in The US has been harsh.
«I thought it would be fun»
The New York Times called it «surprisingly vulgar, embellished and dumb», while Variety called it «a convoluted and tactless reimagining of a familiar tale in search of a coherent point vision, as if it were a foot in glass shoes.
Fennell, whose work features the BBC comedy-drama series Fleabag, has come up with a reimagining of Cinderella for a modern audience.
» I just loosened my hair a little. I don't have much left, but what I had I let down,» said Lord Lloyd-Webber, adding that «Bad Cinderella» is «not exactly a normal option.» Photo: Jeff J. Mitchell/Getty Images Europe
“She had an idea to do something like an alternative Cinderella and I liked the idea and I thought it would be fun.
“I just loosened my hair a little. I don't have much left, but what I had I let down,» said Lord Lloyd-Webber, adding that it was «not a normal look» at history.
When launching «Bad Cinderella,» he joked that he wouldn't leave Broadway «until I get kicked out.»
Andrew Lloyd Webber's greatest hits «Phantom» cost $1 million a week
He also recently spoke of his sadness over the closure of The Phantom of the Opera.
In an article for the New York Times, Lord Lloyd-Webber said: “I owe everything to my love of Broadway and its glorious legacy of musicals. So everything I wrote comes from my childhood dream that I would get to the Great White Way.
“The 35-year-old Broadway run of Phantom has come to an end. It is a personal loss to see the completion of this wonderful creation, Hal Prince's last production on Broadway, with his nearly 30-piece orchestra and one of the greatest sets the theater has ever seen.
Writing for the New York Times, Lord Lloyd-Webber said, «The Phantom's 35-year Broadway run has come to an end. It is a personal loss to see the completion of this wonderful creation.» Photo: Nina Westervelt/Variety
“The irony is that last season was the best season ever. Perhaps it will grow back.”
Phantom production cost nearly $1 million a week.
Lord Lloyd-Webber added: «I don't really know the answer to the constantly daunting problems of making Broadway musicals.
«But I know that all of us who believe that Broadway should break our heads if we care what future it will have.”
Phantom continues to play in the West End.
A revival of Lord Lloyd-Webber's Aspects of Love, starring Danielle de Niese and Michael Ball, opens later this month at the Lyric Theater.
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