McCollum’s move, which causes the production to stop paying salaries and most other expenses, is a new Broadway response to the Omicron wave, but has a parallel in London, where Andrew Lloyd Webber’s new “Cinderella” musical for at least seven years. weeks. (It is scheduled to reopen on February 9)
“Mrs. Doubtfire,” like all Broadway shows, has been battered by the coronavirus pandemic. The production, years in development and capitalized at $17 million, had only had three preview performances in March 2020 when Broadway shut down; it was closed for 19 months before resuming previews in October and then opening in December, supported by a nearly $10 million grant from the Small Business Administration.
The show opened to lukewarm reviews — and a pan in DailyExpertNews — but sales were nonetheless promising, McCollum said, until the Omicron variant, detected just days before its opening in New York, spiked cases of caused coronavirus. (The Broadway League has stopped reporting show-by-show box offices, making it difficult to accurately track a production’s ups and downs.)
As coronavirus cases spread among Broadway workers, “Mrs. Doubtfire” had to cancel 11 performances during the normally lucrative holiday season, continuing to pay the employees while all box office revenue was lost. And then, McCollum said, the show, like many others, had to deal with a large number of consumers canceling their tickets at the last minute due to safety concerns, confusion about what was still open and difficulty complying with vaccination rules. . (“Mrs. Doubtfire” is a family-friendly show, so it’s mostly influenced by evolving childhood vaccine mandates.)
“You’re asking me to plant a sapling in a hurricane,” McCollum said.
As long as “Mrs. Doubtfire” is open, the cost is about $700,000 a week whether the performances actually take place or not, because employees are paid even if a performance is canceled. And the cost has risen recently due to the increased amount of testing , along with additional costs associated with keeping a show going when employees test positive.