Broadway Musical About Betty Boop Is Fourth to Close Post-Tonys
'Boop! The Musical,' based on the iconic flapper from early animated shorts, announced on Wednesday that it would close July 13 after failing to find sufficient audience to defray its running costs on Broadway.
The show is the fourth new musical to post a closing notice in the 17 days since the Tony Awards, following 'Smash,' 'Real Women Have Curves' and 'Dead Outlaw.'
'Boop!' had a disappointing Tonys season — it was not nominated for best musical, and its request to perform on the awards show was rebuffed. It was nominated for best lead actress (Jasmine Amy Rogers), best choreography (Jerry Mitchell) and best costume design (Gregg Barnes) but won no awards.
The show's weekly grosses, consistently too low, ticked upward last week, but remain well below its running costs. During the week that ended June 22, 'Boop!' grossed $602,017, and 19 percent of the seats went unsold.
The musical began previews March 11 and opened on April 5 at the Broadhurst Theater. At the time of its closing, it will have played 25 previews and 112 regular performances.
Set primarily in New York City, the musical imagines that Betty Boop, an actress in films of the 1920s, time travels to present-day Manhattan seeking a greater sense of her self; in the city she finds friendship, love and clarity.
The musical, led by the veteran producer Bill Haber, had been in development for more than a quarter century, with shifting creative teams, and had a pre-Broadway production in Chicago in 2023. The version that finally made it to Broadway has a book by Bob Martin, music by David Foster, and lyrics by Susan Birkenhead; it is directed as well as choreographed by Mitchell.
Reviews were mostly positive. But in The New York Times, the critic Jesse Green was unenthusiastic, praising Rogers's performance and other elements of the show, but questioning its rationale, saying that 'a well-crafted, charmingly performed, highly professional production that nobody asked for' is 'disappointing,' and that 'one feels at all times the heavy hooves of a marketing imperative."
'Boop!' was capitalized for up to $26 million, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. That money — the amount it cost to finance the show's development — has not been recouped.
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