Days of Wine and Roses to Close Early — Page 3

Right now, this makes Broadway 1 for 6 for new musicals. From this season, only "Back to The Future" is still running. These five have opened and closed/announced closing: Once Upon a One More Time, Here Lies Love, How to Dance..., Harmony, and now Wine and Roses.

And there's 8 new musicals still to open: Outsiders, Notebook, Suffs, Gatsby, Elephants, Lempika, Heart of Rock and Roll, and Hell's Kitchen.

What a season! Has there ever been anything like this before?

The greatest, most sucessful musicals in Broadway history have often been 'unconventional' in subject matter. That is different from "non commercial."

Would u consider Kimberly to be commercial? I wouldn’t and they’ve been a success.

My view is that there are big things on broadway, small things on broadway, commercial, non commercial. Something’s are a hit and some things aren’t. I don’t think this show flopping means no show like it can ever succeed on broadway.

I chose this show for my birthday evening of the 4 shows we are seeing: Merrily, DOWAR, Notebook, Outsiders preview. I have never seen Brian or Kelli in a musical on Broadway, so I'm super excited to see this and it has been my most anticipated, even with some of the criticisms I've read. I absolutely loved Brian in The Ferryman. Given the mixed notes on the music for this, is it better to go in with the expectation that this is more of a play with some musical numbers vs going in and expecting to be wowed by a new musical?

It is a musical, but don't go in expecting Jerry Herman like power ballads.

With some trepidation, I recommended the musical to my daughter when she was in New York City on a quick weekend trip in late January. (I never saw it.) She liked the show, but primarily for O’Hara and James. Very impressed with them.

I have been surprised just how badly it seemed to do from the outset in its Broadway run. I guess everyone who wanted to see the musical caught it off-Broadway last year.

bwaylvsong1 said: "There are several reasons I think this show isn’t sellingwell:

-I haven’t seen ANY advertising for this show outside of theatre-oriented spaces.

-Kelli and Brian are not well-known to the general public.

-I haven’t heard much of the score, but I can’t imagine that Guettel wrote catchy music that a typical theatregoer would enjoy. When I saw Piazza, I was in tears from the beauty of the music, while those around me were saying that it “wasn’t their cup of tea”.

-The source material is not well-known. The title of the show doesn’t give any indication of what the show is about other than that it probably has something to do with love.

-There is so much theatre going on now, that even those who actively want to see it (including myself) prioritized other shows and now won’t be able to."

If we believe the statistics that baby boomers still make up a large portion of theatre goers, then the source material is incredibly well known to the people who buy full price tickets. They just didn't come.

Ke3 said: "bwaylvsong1 said: "There are several reasons I think this show isn’t sellingwell:

-I haven’t seen ANY advertising for this show outside of theatre-oriented spaces.

-Kelli and Brian are not well-known to the general public.

-I haven’t heard much of the score, but I can’t imagine that Guettel wrote catchy music that a typical theatregoer would enjoy. When I saw Piazza, I was in tears from the beauty of the music, while those around me were saying that it “wasn’t their cup of tea”.

-The source material is not well-known. The title of the show doesn’t give any indication of what the show is about other than that it probably has something to do with love.

-There is so much theatre going on now, that even those who actively want to see it (including myself) prioritized other shows and now won’t be able to."

If we believe the statistics that baby boomers still make up a large portion of theatre goers, then the source material is incredibly well known to the people who buy full price tickets. They just didn't come."

That’s interesting- my mother and most of her friends and family are baby boomers… several of them who are very interested in theatre asked me if I knew anything about the show and what it was about. Perhaps the title sounded familiar but wasn’t something they specifically recalled.

ETA: I see the movie came out in 1962- makes sense that they wouldn’t remember an adult-oriented movie that came out when they were children but might have heard its name.

Updated On: 3/8/24 at 08:25 AM

Still sad about this. Had plans to see it in April a few weeks before closing. Was putting off listening to the cast recording until I saw it, but I guess I don’t have to now.

They took a risk with this one.

Given how reactionary Broadway is, this should be applauded.

I think they should've advertised it as more disturbing too.

Like just make the poster look chaotic and intriguing and troubling. Their faces blurred. Just give some insight into the dark nature. Advertise it as a dark show.

They would've sold more tickets had people thought "Oh wow! A dark Guettel musical? I'm in."

So sad. Lately, quality show and commercial success doesn’t correlate. It’s been trending this way for a while and bad news for the industry. I’ve started going to amazing off (and way-off!) Broadway shows as I’m tired of spending ridiculous money to feel nothing upon leaving the theater. Live performances can be transformative when done well but leave you feeling empty when they’re all spectacle and no substance. Don’t have high hopes for most of what’s coming out this season.