The pop-rock Broadway musical about the epic battle of the Blue and the Gray posted closing notices Tuesday. The $8 million show--backed by a huge marketing blitz, double-CD album and hype to spare (Civil War made for three concurrent Broadway musicals for wunderkind composer Frank Wildhorn)--is due to close Sunday after just 61 regular performances.
For those keeping score at home, the real Civil War ran from April 12, 1861 (the Confederates fire on Fort Sumter), to April 9, 1865 (General Lee surrenders at Appomattox). The stage's Civil War ran from April 22, 1999 (critics blast kitschy show), to June 13, 1999 (Wildhorn's troops surrender at the St. James Theatre).
The show's fate was sealed Sunday when it was shut out of the Tony Awards. (Fosse and the already-closed Parade dominated the best new musical categories.)
The Tonys often signal the beginning of the end for borderline shows that desperately need award-show hardware to entice potential ticket buyers. Thus, joining The Civil War on the gangplank this weekend are Tennessee Williams' Not About Nightingales and The Lonesome West, two nominated plays that also went home empty-handed.
Of course, sometimes not even Tonys can stave off an eviction notice. The revival of You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown, playing mostly to the kiddie matinee crowd, also will shutter on Sunday, after 150 performances, despite taking two awards for performers Kristin Chenoweth (as Charles Schultz's Sally) and Roger Bart (as Snoopy).
Other shows going home soon: the thriller Night Must Fall, set to close with star Matthew Broderick's June 27 exit; and the year-old The Sound of Music revival, currently starring Richard Chamberlain, to be silenced at the end of the month.
Notably not on the goners list (yet?): It Ain't Nothin' But the Blues, the musical that saw its scheduled Tony number unceremoniously cut from Sunday's CBS telecast, prompting producers to ring up Jeffrey Katzenberg's lawyer. In a move viewed as a make-good on the network's part, the show's performers finally will get their shot at a national TV audience tonight, warbling "Members Only" (the axed song) on Late Show with David Letterman.
(In The New York Times, Letterman's producers took credit for the invite--"David Michael Letterman has always been a champion of hte American theater.")
With the demise of The Civil War, critics will have one less Frank Wildhorn show to kick around. Actually, with his equally maligned The Scarlet Pimpernel on hiatus in preparation of a scaled-down restaging, there are two less Frank Wildhorn shows to kick around. At least on Broadway.
The would-be American Andrew Lloyd Webber, who also concocted the still-running Jekyll and Hyde, may see The Civil War rise again--in a national tour set to kick off in Cincinnati in January.