Broadway Journal

‘CABARET’ INVESTOR SUES ATG AMID EARLY CLOSING

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EXCLUSIVE: An investor in the failed $24 million Broadway revival of Cabaret has sued its lead producers, accusing them of fraud. Separately, the producers announced today that the musical will close Sept. 21, four weeks earlier than planned, after just 17 months of regular performances at the August Wilson Theater.

While grossing more than $88 million since it began previews in April 2024, the company presenting the revival of the dark musical by John Kander, Fred Ebb and Joe Masteroff hasn’t returned any money to investors, resulting in a total loss to-date. Backers were “induced to invest cash into multi-layered structures designed to conceal revenues, divert payments, and facilitate self-dealing among insiders,” Atlanta-based entertainment lawyer James Lorenzo Walker Jr. said in his Sept. 4 complaint in New York Supreme Court.Continue Reading

INSIDE BROADWAY’S $1 MILLION NUT CASES

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Water for Elephants, the circus-themed new musical, will be under pressure to make a big splash when it arrives on Broadway.

Scheduled to open March 21, 2024, at the Imperial Theatre, it will need to sell at least $960,000 of tickets each week to cover operating expenses, according to an internal budget prepared over the summer and reviewed by Broadway Journal. (The sales here refer to “gross gross,” the weekly figure that the trade association the Broadway League makes public, which includes credit card commissions and other fees the production doesn’t keep.)

Joining the million dollar club at the Broadway box office used to be a matter of prestige. Today, it’s often a requirement for a show’s survival.Continue Reading

EDDIE REDMAYNE-LED ‘CABARET’ WILL TRANSFER TO BROADWAY IN 2024 (EXCLUSIVE)

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Ambassador Theatre Group and Underbelly Productions plan to transfer their hit West End revival of Cabaret  to Broadway, two people familiar with the production said.

Eddie Redmayne has committed to reprise his performance as the louche Weimar-era nightclub emcee — a role made famous by Joel Grey in the 1966 Hal Prince-directed musical and in the 1972 Bob Fosse-helmed movie, and more recently by Alan Cumming in two Roundabout Theatre Co. revivals. Rebecca Frecknall is slated to direct the production, which is to begin previews in March 2024 ahead of an April opening.Continue Reading

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