Bumpy Broadway

[millie_dillmount]

Posted: 7/30/04 at 10:59am

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Bumpy B'way: 'Dracula' Delayed, 'Little Shop' Shuts, 'Syncopation' Scrapped

By Leonard Jacobs
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< Summertime, and the livin' ain't easy on Broadway. In less than a week, one new musical announced its second postponement of previews, an already-running tuner set its closing date, and a third show, one of a handful of plays slated for the new season, fell out of sync with its funders and put off a Broadway berth indefinitely.

"Dracula, the Musical," which was to have begun previews Wed., July 28, will begin a day later, on Thurs., July 29. The reason? A burst water pipe backstage -- not a vein, thank you -- at the 97-year-old Belasco Theatre. Single-day or even multiday delays aren't rare for new Broadway plays and musicals, but this was the second time the show halted; an earlier delay had been announced due to technical difficulties. The musical, by composer Frank Wildhorn and book writer-lyricist Christopher Hampton, stars Tom Hewitt as the Transylvanian bloodsucker and Melissa Errico as his comely victim.

"Little Shop of Horrors," another tuner about a bloodsucker -- in this case a sassy, singing plant -- announced it would close Sun., Aug. 22. The show logged over 2,000 Off-Broadway performances during the 1980s, but tepid reviews for its Jerry Zaks-directed Broadway debut made it a difficult sell. Even the recent cast addition of New Kids on the Block heartthrob Joey Fatone failed to stanch the bleeding.

Finally, writer Allan Knee will not have two shows on Broadway next season as expected. Knee, who wrote the book to the musical "Little Women" (replacing "Little Shop" at the Virginia Theatre), also penned "Syncopation," a play to star Neve Campbell and Michael Hayden. Funding for the show, which first ran at Long Wharf Theatre back in 1999, fell through.


Actually, the reason I posted this was because of paragraph #3...Joey was NSYNC, not New Kids on the Block...