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Curtains for "Aida"
Elton John's epic Broadway love triangle has been broken.
Aida, the musical retelling of Verdi's classic opera written by John and his Lion King cohort Tim Rice, will be closing its doors Sept. 5 after 1,852 performances.
The show, a story of a Nubian princess, her forbidden love and her backstabbing best friend cavorting in ancient Egypt, had a moderately successful run on Broadway for four and a half years, but producers decided to shutter the project because it wasn't making the kind of cash they had hoped.
To be fair, Aida had a relatively bumpy start--the production was overhauled several times before it opened, Elton John stormed out of a preview because he thought it stunk, and the show received fairly scathing reviews from New York critics.
But Aida did manage to pull in about $150 million since its debut--netting more than $12 million in profits. Also, original star Heather Headley won a Tony for her efforts, and producers were able to lure some big-name pop singers to take on the lead role, including Toni Braxton, Destiny's Child crooner Michelle Williams and R&B star Deborah Cox, who is performing now.
And while it is the first Disney musical to close on Broadway (The Lion King and Beauty and the Beast are still going strong), Disney execs say they are still pleased with Aida's performance and swear there are no hard feelings.
"It defied all expectations," Thomas Schumacher, president of Disney's theatrical division, told the New York Times. "Is it a home run like Lion King or Beauty? No. Is it a double or triple? Sure."
Though September will mark the end of Aida on the Great White Way, the show hasn't been completely scrapped. The musical has productions playing in Germany and Japan, and Schumacher said an international tour will begin in 2005.
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