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Based on the Nicholas Sparks book of the same name, The Notebook sees a man retelling the story of his and his wife’s relationship after her Alzheimers has forced her to forget who he is and the challenges they had to face to be together. Directed by Michael Greif and Schele Williams, with music and lyrics by Ingrid Michaelson, and a book by Bekah Brunstetter, the show has been hailed by critics as one of the best new shows on Broadway this season, receiving stunning reviews from Entertainment Weekly, USA Today, and the Chicago Tribune.
Despite being nominated for three Tony Awards—Best Actor in a Musical (Dorian Harewood), Best Actress in a Musical (Maryann Plunket), and Best Book of a Musical (Bekah Brunstetter)—the show has recently announced that it will close on December 15, 2024, after a Broadway run of only nine months. While the show is scheduled to begin touring in September 2025, the Broadway closure spells possible bad news for a plethora of other shows.
The Notebook’s lowest and highest grosses occurred back to back, grossing their lowest ($364,678) the week of February 5th, and grossing their highest ($1,013,563) the week of February 11th. After this initial spike, however, the show has seen a steady decline in both grosses and attendance, grosses dipping as low as $530,382, the lowest the show has seen since previews, only spiking up after the show's closure was announced.
Other Broadway shows of the 2023-2024 season that didn’t receive many Tonys (if any at all) have seen similar trends. Water For Elephants, which opened only 6 days after The Notebook, and garnered 7 Tony nominations, faces the same fear of eviction. Water For Elephants grossed its lowest amount its first week ($344,493), however, it didn’t gross its highest until 5 weeks into the production’s run ($1,149,418), when it then saw a relative decline in grosses and ticket sales until the week of September 1st, which contained Grant Gustin’s (The Flash, Glee) last performance. While Water For Elephants has recently announced a national tour to occur in 2025, no rumblings of a possible Broadway closing have been heard as of yet, a hopeful sign for the cast, crew, and fans of the production.
The 2023-2024 Broadway season saw the opening of 39 productions, only 7 of which have yet to announce a closing date or close. While many were limited runs (meaning their closing was prescheduled), many shows, such as The Heart of Rock and Roll and The Who’s Tommy announced closings, having only played 2 and 4 months respectively.
This trend of fast-closing Broadway shows poses a large danger to not only actors, technicians, and anyone else who makes a living on Broadway, but also the art of theater itself and its presence in our modern culture and community. The more often these shows close quicker than planned, the more difficult it is for producers to recoup the investments made into shows, making many less likely to pursue similar endeavors in the future. Without the backing of producers, Broadway shows become practically impossible, limiting the creation of new art and the cultivation of live performances.
The concept of empty theaters and shrinking funding for the arts is a frightening notion, but there are ways to help! If you have the financial means to do so, attending a show (whether on or off Broadway), buying merchandise, interacting with the cast and the show on social media, and listening to a show’s soundtracks, are all good ways to ensure that artists and the arts themselves are funded and feel appreciated and wanted. Awards and nominations, while a huge help to ticket sales, do not encapsulate the true meaning of these performances, and there is so much more work that goes into these productions than any one statute can articulate. These shows are pieces of art created to comfort and connect with their audiences, and no award can replicate the feeling of knowing the art one has created has touched someone.
While all good things must come to an end, consistently interacting with creatives and their work ensures that we continue to see plays and musicals funded, performed, and shared both locally and on Broadway, ensuring future generations the right to access art the same way we do now.