Celebrity Autobiography, the Broadway specialty production in which bold-face names read the read the published memoirs of other bold-facers to more or less comic effect, will play its final performance at the Shubert Theatre on Sunday, June 21, about two months earlier than previously expected.
The show has been struggling to find an audience after opening to poor reviews, or, at many publications, no reviews at all.
Celebrity Autobiography began performances on Saturday, May 16, with an opening night on Monday, May 18. At the time of its closing, the show will have played 3 preview performances and 40 regular performances. When it opened the production was selling tickets through Sunday, August 16.
The producers say they will announce future plans for Celebrity Autobiography soon.
The production’s weekly grosses have been unsustainable through the run, maxing out at $74,437 for the week ending June 7. That figure reflects an attendance of 3,300, just 37% of the Shubert’s capacity. The average paid admission was an anemic $22.56.
On various audience chat sites, many attendees complained that the material was well-worn from previous international and regional stagings of the show going back years and had not been updated for Broadway. One extended segment focused on the musty romantic entanglements of Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, Eddie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds, hardly fresh stuff.
The Broadway production has not announced a recoupment of its capitalization, or the amount of that capitalization.
The final list of rotating cast members who will have appeared in Celebrity Autobiography include Caroline Aaron, Brooke Adams, Pamela Adlon, Scott Adsit, Lewis Black, Matthew Broderick, Danny Burstein, Mario Cantone, Bonnie Comley, Katie Couric, Mikey Day, Frank DiLella, Tate Donovan, Alexander Dreymon, Gina Gershon, Mickey Gooch Jr., Kathy Griffin, Jeff Hiller, Jackie Hoffman, Christopher Jackson, Gayle King, Leslie Rodriguez Kritzer, Stewart F. Lane, Robert Sean Leonard, Ralph Macchio, Ben Mankiewicz, Andrea Martin, Eric McCormack, Bobby Moynihan, Eugene Pack, Dayle Reyfel, Phil Rosenthal, Daphne Rubin-Vega, Tony Shalhoub, Molly Shannon, Kenan Thompson, Nia Vardalos, Bruce Vilanch, Kate Walsh, Allison Williams, and Rita Wilson.
Celebrity Autobiography is produced on Broadway by Rita Wilson, Eric Falkenstein and Douglas Denoff and the show’s original producer Angelo Fraboni, along with EP Productions, Peter Martin, Willette Klausner, Ken Schur, Mickey Gooch Jr., Danielle Druz, Ben Frimmer, Bruce Robert Harris, Leah Lane, David Moore-Strictly Business Entertainment, Roni Jacobson/Jeffrey Bank, Mark F. Kaplan, Jordan Scott Gilbert, Playhouse Capital/Beth Rudin DeWoody, Alexander “Sandy” Marshall & Susan Palmer Marshall/The Broadway Investors Club, Catherine Adler, Chris Bolan, Robert Zimmerman, Barry Kohn, Meister Leonard Addiss Hirschhorn/Jamie deRoy, Matt Finkelstein, Michael Cuomo/Vic Cairl, Julianne Hoffenberg, and Tisha Fein.
Scenic design and costume design are by Derek McLane, lighting design by Ed McCarthy, and sound design by Palmer Hefferan.
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I saw it this past weekend and enjoyed it. definitely dated and not for everyone, but for theater-goers of a certain age, a fun time. 37% is absolutely abyssmal.