If you thought there was a fervor for tickets to “It’s Only a Play” on Broadway with Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick, it’s going to get worse when this news spreads. The show cannot go on past January 4th after all. Despite its staggering box office success, the party in Megan Mullaly’s New York penthouse will come to an end after all.
The reason is that Nathan Lane starts rehearsals the next day for a February 5th opening at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. He’s starring with Brian Dennehy in a reunion of their 2012 Goodman Theater production of Eugene O’Neill’s “The Iceman Cometh.” That production runs February 5th-March 15th and was announced last December. It just somehow escaped everyone’s attention. But now BAM has put out a press release, tickets are on sale.
“It’s Only a Play” averages $1.3 million a week, which is like a big musical, not a “straight play.” It could go on for ages. But the audience wants to see Lane and Broderick. While the rest of the cast is superb, that’s a marketing reality. It’s what kept “The Producers” from for playing on and on for years.
Maybe the Terrence McNally play could come back next fall. It’s doubtful that Lane will want to return to it right after the O’Neill. But now I’m afraid people may go to extremes to get tickets before January 4th. What a dilemma. Everyone should have it.
