Chicago Spelling Bee to Close!

[teddyp2]

Posted: 1/18/07 at 10:53am

The Chicago Tribune reported this morning that Spelling Bee will close at the Drury Lane on March 25th.

[liotte]

Posted: 1/18/07 at 11:32am

Sad to hear, I would have liked to be able to see it again out there!

[Brokenlizard14]

Posted: 1/18/07 at 11:50am

That's awful. I absolutely adore this cast. I'm gonna have to try to see it one last time.

Posted: 1/18/07 at 12:41pm

Weird-- I thought it was still making money. The Tribune says that nothing is planned for that theater. Could this be an attempt to drum up demand (and ticket sales) during the doldrums of the year?

If it does close in March, It will have run a year and turned a profit, according to the Trib.

[DRSisLove]

Posted: 1/18/07 at 1:00pm

Now if it would only close on Broadway...

[JamesMacon]

Posted: 1/18/07 at 1:10pm

This is really sad. I would have loved to see the Chicago cast too.

[Fosse76]

Posted: 1/18/07 at 1:12pm

Not a bad run considering Drury Lane's awful location in the city. It could have probably run much longer if there were a similar venue in the loop. Perhaps it will drum up more business now, and this is a very healthy run for the show, especially since they didn't even expect Wicked to run more than a year.

[chinkie azn jai]

Posted: 1/18/07 at 1:13pm

Awwww, that's really too bad. I kinda guessed it wasn't doing too well because I kept getting a lot of emails about discounts and special offers for it. I guess I have to go back one more time before it closes.

[Kringas]

Posted: 1/18/07 at 1:28pm

I've been dragging ass about getting around to seeing this. I suppose I'd better get on the ball.

[fxy2003cmu]

Posted: 1/18/07 at 1:30pm

That's insanely sad! The cast is soooo talented and it's such a fun show. I had kind of guessed it wasn't flourishing like they wanted it to because the last two times a friend and I lottoed the show we were the only ones there! If you haven't seen it yet, definitely get to it before the show closes!

[Jon]

Posted: 1/18/07 at 1:30pm

It will have run a year - not too bad.

[SueleenGay]

Posted: 1/18/07 at 1:41pm

I don't think it was a bad location at all. The show was mediocre, glad I saw it, but nothing I would ever want to sit through again. Still it is sad to think the theatre will be dark. I hope it isn't for long.

[Fosse76]

Posted: 1/18/07 at 1:47pm

The theatre is on a no-traffic street behind Water Tower Place. Tourists (and even locals) don't have any reason to walk down that street. And I would hardly call Spelling Bee mediocre, not with shows like Jersey Boys and The Lion King running around.

[SueleenGay]

Posted: 1/18/07 at 1:59pm

The theatre is located right off the Mag Mile, a tourist mecca. Even though the entrance to the theatre is on a smaller side street, there is plenty of traffic and a rather obvious marquee. I don't think the closing of this show has anything to do with the location of the theatre.
And it is my opinion that the show IS mediocre. I have a few friends who are not huge musical buffs that went and thought "Eh, kinda cute, but not that great." And would not recommend it to others.

Posted: 1/18/07 at 3:25pm

I've never thought of it as a bad location- sure the theater is actually on a side street, but it's part of Water Tower place, a HUGE tourist attraction. It right off Michigan avenue and a blcok from the Hancock. While the loop is a theatre mecca right now, Michigan avenue is where the tourists are.

[liotte]

Posted: 1/18/07 at 3:58pm

DRSisLove, why would you say such a thing?

[Fosse76]

Posted: 1/18/07 at 4:02pm

It's on a nop-traffic street. Tourists would have absolutely no reason (other then to actually go to that theatre) to be on that street. And the fact that it is technicaaly the same building as Water Tower Place is irrelevant...You'd have no idea that it was there. DisneyQuest closed because it too was not on a visible tourist street...it was hidden away on a side street with only local traffic. Spelling Bee definitely needed a more visible location. That said, it did extremely well in Chicago. The only thing keeping it afloat in New York is the fact that it costs next to nothing to keep going is opting not to boot it yet.

[ElFantasma14]

Posted: 1/18/07 at 4:06pm

Wow, not a good start for Spelling Bee this year. Boston production ran a little over two months, Chicago closing, and New York is making much of a gross anymore. Too bad

[Fosse76]

Posted: 1/18/07 at 4:21pm

Well, the Chicago production will have run a year when it closes, matching Cats, Show Boat, Les Mis and Miss Saigon. It did extremely well. It's not doing as well in New York. The few times I have seen the show it was well below half capacity. As I said above, the only reason it hasn't closed is its really low running costs still make it profitable (it already paid off its investment so everything over break-even is profit).

[liotte]

Posted: 1/18/07 at 4:50pm

Bee in NY is still doing pretty well, not going anywhere soon.

They are also getting set for an open ended production in LA this summer, and the tour is going strong.

[GilmoreGirlO2]

Posted: 1/18/07 at 5:00pm

Very sad to hear, but I must congratulate everyone involved on such an excellent run! I absolutely loved the production and the cast was fantastic. A year-long run is great and I'm happy Chicago got this wonderful production for as long as we did. :)

[Fosse76]

Posted: 1/18/07 at 5:29pm

"Bee in NY is still doing pretty well, not going anywhere soon."

Actually, it's not doing that well. If attendance doesn't significantly improve after the rough period (it wasn't doing that great before the winter slowdown) I don't see it lasting past the summer.

[chinkie azn jai]

Posted: 1/18/07 at 5:38pm

I agree about the location being a problem. My mom and I had to ask the info desk in the mall where exactly the theatre entrance was. It being in the same building as Water Tower Place has no effect on it because you have to go outside of the mall and the fact that it's next to a parking garage on a side street doesn't help either. If memory serves me right, the parking garage actually blocks the marquee of the theatre if you are looking down the street from Michigan Avenue.

[StephanietheStar]

Posted: 1/18/07 at 7:58pm

*tear*

[singtopher]

Posted: 1/18/07 at 8:13pm

This is sad. It was such a great cast.