“Boop! The Musical” is the latest show to close on Broadway after leaving the Tony Awards without any hardware.
The show, which fictionalizes the life of Betty Boop, will conclude its run on July 13. At that time, the show will have played 25 previews and 112 regular performances.
It’s the fourth musical in just over two weeks to post a closing notice, joining “Smash,” “Real Women Have Curves” and “Dead Outlaw.” The Tony Awards are a huge marketing tool for theater, and it’s not unusual for productions to shutter if they don’t receive any love during Broadway’s biggest night “Cabaret at the Kit Kat Club,” which opened last season, also recently announced it would dim its marquee lights after 14 months on Broadway due to soft ticket sales.
“Boop! The Musical,” too, struggled to sell enough tickets to offset its high operating costs. Grosses stalled at $602,017 over the past week with the theater at 81% capacity. The splashy musical was capitalized for up to $26 million, according to the New York Times, and hasn’t yet recouped its investment.
“Boop! The Musical” earned high praise for the performance of Jasmine Amy Rogers as the title character, but the show itself garnered mixed reviews. It failed to score a Tony nomination for best musical but was recognized in the categories of lead actress (Rogers), choreography and costume design.
In Variety’s review, Frank Rizzo singled out the show’s “upbeat score, terrific dance numbers, and delightful designs,” writing that “sometimes that’s enough, at least for live mainstream entertainment with girl-empowerment themes, aimed at family-centric markets and with great merchandizing potential.” But he concluded that “other times, it just feels like a knockoff.”