All things must come to an end.
There are a lot of reasons behind a show’s final curtain. Many times, the show was a limited engagement with an ending date that was set way in advance of its first rehearsal. Other shows, like “The Phantom of the Opera” have open-ended runs that span several decades. And then there are those heartbreakers of the business, flops.
This autumn into early winter, the curtain will fall on several Broadway and Off-Broadway shows for the last time. But rest assured, those stages won’t stay dark for long. As long as there are audiences, there will always be new shows.
Final Curtains
Sunday, April 7
Spamalot
Broadway: St. James Theater
The laugh-a-minute musical version of “Monty Python and the Holy Grail” will hurl its last giant cow, rabbit, shrubbery after a limited engagement on Broadway.
Sunday April 14
Brooklyn Laundry
Off-Broadway: City Center Stage 1
Cecily Strong from TV’s “Saturday Night Live” helms this comedy by the playwright of “Doubt” and screenwriter of “Moonstruck.”
Corruption
Off-Broadway: Mitzi Newhouse Theater
The2011 phone hacking scandal that engulfed Rupert Murdoch’s media empire in 2011 plays out live on stage with Dylan Baker
Dead Outlaw
Off-Broadway: Audible Theater
David Yazbek’s musical follow up to “Tootsie” tells the story of a failed bank robber who unwittingly had a successful showbiz career– after his death.
Sunday, April 21
Doubt
Broadway: Todd Haimes Theater
This first major Broadway revival of John Patrick Shanley’s 2005 Pulitzer Prize-winning drama is helmed by Liev Schreiber.
Five: The Parody Musical
Off Broadway: Theater 555
The six wives of Henry VIII are swapped out for Ivana, Marla, Melania, Ivanka, and Stormie in this musical sendup of Broadway’s “SIX.”
Sunday, April 28
Teeth
Off Broadway: Playwright Horizons
This highly unusual critical hit of the season, featuring an evangelical teenage girl with a set of teeth in a highly unlikely place, takes its final bite.
Kimberly Akimbo
Broadway: The Booth Theater
This hilariously funny and heartbreaking musical story about growing up and growing old (in no particular order) won five 2023 Tony Awards and every other accolade last season..
May 5
Sweeney Todd
Broadway: Lunt Fontanne Theater
Tony Award-winners Sutton Foster and Aaron Tveit close up shop in this acclaimed revival of Stephen Sondheim’s classic tale of revenge and accidental cannibalism.
Philadelphia, Here I Come!
Broadway: Irish Rep
Brian Friel’s comedy about an Irish immigrant who comes to America for fame and fortune.
May 12
Oh, Mary!
Off Broadway: Lucille Lortel Theater
Cole Escola (TV’s “Difficult People”) stars as Mary Todd Lincoln in the sold-out run of the best-reviewed comedy of the season.
May 27
Sleep No More
Off Broadway: McKittrick Hotel
After 13 years and multiple extensions, this thrilling multi-level choose-you-own-path treatment of Shakespeare’s “MacBeth” checks out of the McKittrick Hotel after.
