Broadway's 'Grey Gardens' gets weeded out

NEW YORK — "Grey Gardens," one of the most critically acclaimed musicals to open on Broadway in the last year, will close on July 29 after just nine months, its producers announced Thursday. On track to lose its entire $5 million investment, the show is the latest casualty of a season that was great for art but brutal for investors.

So far, they've lost more than $60 million, and the figure is still climbing, according to estimates from several producers watching the red ink stain the Great White Way.

Leading the flops was the $10 million-plus "The Pirate Queen." "High Fidelity" lost about $9 million and "The Times They Are A-Changin"' lost almost $8 million, people involved with those shows said.

None, however, was greeted as warmly as "Grey Gardens," about Jackie Kennedy's eccentric relatives. After failing to recoup any of their money, producers decided last week to close rather than underwrite the high cost of replacing Tony Award winner Mary Louise Wilson, who was scheduled to leave at the end of the month. They were pessimistic about the quirky, plot-heavy show's ability to attract summer crowds.

"It's not really a tourist show," Edwin Schloss, a money manager and "Grey Gardens" producer, said in an interview Wednesday.

While overall Broadway attendance was up 2.6 percent from a year ago, the season was especially hard on musicals, which account for $4 out of every $5 spent on Broadway. Moreoever, attendance for plays fell 23 percent to 1.48 million, the lowest since at least 1984-85.

Of 35 productions that opened in the 12 months ending on May 27, just four earned back their investors' money: "The Vertical Hour" and revivals of "A Moon for the Misbegotten," "Butley" and "A Chorus Line," the only one still running.

Despite mostly unfavorable reviews, "Moon for the Misbegotten" investors earned a 20 percent profit on their $2.4 million, according to Ben Sprecher, a producer of the Eugene O'Neill drama. "Butley," which cost roughly $2 million, broke even.

The previous season produced bigger hits. "The Color Purple" and "The Drowsy Chaperone," both from 2005-06, long ago made their backers whole and are in profit. "Jersey Boys" has paid out more than 100 percent in profit, said producer Joseph Grano, a former Wall Street executive. "The Odd Couple," "The History Boys," "Three Days of Rain" and "Sweeney Todd" — all from the previous season — closed in the black.