Broadway Blues

In the last 48 hours, 2 BIG Broadway musicals have received their notice for closing - Tuck, Everlasting and American Psycho.  Now, I understand that Broadway is a business just like television and movies are.  In television and movies, they live and die by ratings.  If the TV show you're watching isn't being watched by millions of other people or if the critics aren't talking about it, chances are it's getting cancelled.  

But I don't understand cancelling musicals in this context.  It just doesn't make sense to me. First of all, both of these shows just opened in the last month.  That's a grand total of about 35 performances. On top of those 35 performances, the work and practice that's gone into making these musicals into something big had to have taken months if not years of planning.  All that time, and the powers that be only give them 35 performances to get their footing?  How is that possible?

Neither of these shows were on my must see list.  The story of Tuck Everlasting would surely elicit tears, so that put it on the avoid list.  But American Psycho was on the to see side for a bit until I saw some clips that made it seem all too odd for me.  But lots of reviewers have loved it so what do I know? I suppose what I really want to know is what makes shows like Phantom of the Opera or The Lion King last for years - Phantom's hitting 20 years - while others get only a month or two?  Surely, The Lion King isn't selling out every day and rolling in the dough, right?

And as another point of contention, who are these masterful powers that be that decide to cancel the shows in the first place?  Television networks are in charge of programming, but who's in charge of Broadway? Surely it can't be the creative team that have put so much time and energy into the product that their cancelling.  It's just so mysterious!

While it's always terrible and oh so confusing to see something close so quickly , I'm sure that the actors and creators will move on to bigger and even better things. And I suppose the upside to the closing is that there are now 2 giant theatres just waiting for something new to come in and blow their roofs off.  Let's hope those shows get a little more than 35 performances to strut their stuff!