With plays and musicals folding left and right, Broadway stars impart wisdom they gained when it happened to them.
Credit…Zohar Lazar
- Aug. 8, 2019
On Broadway, summer is an unforgiving season: that time, post-Tony Awards, when shows fold in large numbers. With a half-dozen closures coming right up — some productions that failed to catch on, others that enjoyed long or commercially successful runs — that means a lot of jobs vanishing, too. For people who work in the industry, endings are part of theater’s cycle of life, a hazard to navigate.
Now, we’re not monsters. We’re not going to ask anyone who is about to be out of work to look on the bright side. But we did ask seven Broadway actors — all in current hits, but all with outright flops in their past — to tell us: What’s the best thing that ever happened to you because a show closed early? Their answers were a mix of practical savvy, glass-half-full gratitude and epiphanic philosophy.
Here are edited and condensed excerpts from those conversations.
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Credit…Sara Krulwich/The New York Times
Patrick Page
Currently playing Hades in “Hadestown”
Mr. Page played Rufus R. Buckley in “A Time to Kill” (2013)
For me, it’s always been a job that I didn’t expect that I then really, really love. When “A Time to Kill” closed, that made me available for “Casa Valentina.” At the stage door of “Casa Valentina,” frequently people would say, “I loved ‘A Time to Kill.’ I was sorry that that closed so early,” and I said, “If it hadn’t closed so early, you wouldn’t be seeing me in this.” It has to be a deep, core fundamental belief that whatever it is you are not doing, you’re not doing for a reason — that something awaits you. You have to have that somewhere inside you, or you simply couldn’t take the number of nos that you’re going to get. You have to understand that the nos are clearing the way.
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Credit…Sara Krulwich/The New York Times
Jenn Colella
Currently playing Beverley, Annette and others in “Come From Away”
Ms. Colella played Sissy in “Urban Cowboy” (2003)
The first time it happened to me was “Urban Cowboy.” We had a meeting onstage the day after opening night, telling us we were going to close, and I didn’t even know that was a possibility. Those moments have definitely become a blessing in my life, and I don’t use that word often. What it’s helped me remember is that it’s all a crapshoot — theater. All of the variables that have to be in place for it to be a success, it’s like an alchemy that has to happen. It’s rare that it does, and it’s a reminder to be grateful for each and every moment. So now, every rehearsal, every time I walk into my stage door, I say thank you three times. Because I know that it’s just for now. It’s fleeting.
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Credit…Matthew Murphy
Jahi Kearse
Currently playing Berry Gordy and a member of the ensemble in “Ain’t Too Proud”
Mr. Kearse played Nunn in “Holler If Ya Hear Me” (2014)
Coming into “Holler If Ya Hear Me,” my hopes were through the roof. I could not see how it would not be a success. It was Tupac. So when it went down the way that it did, it was a sobering experience. We closed very, very rapidly. I was sad because I felt maybe the Broadway community wasn’t ready for that kind of show. It was a very African-American story. It was not pretty. It was gritty. What it made me realize was that I had to be as aggressive in finding the kind of work that I wanted to be a part of as I was when I didn’t have an agent. I’m willing to have a show close early if I can also go to sleep at night knowing that I’m proud of it.
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Credit…Sara Krulwich/The New York Times
Kerry Butler
Currently playing Barbara in “Beetlejuice”
Ms. Butler played Marianne in “Disaster!” (2016)
When “Disaster!” closed, I called up Disney, who I’d worked with before. They told me that they were just starting up this festival of the arts in Epcot. It sounds crazy, but it is actually one of the highlights of my career that I got to perform in Epcot, in Disney World. I got to bring my kids with me, my parents. I got to take my kids on a Disney cruise through Europe, whereas otherwise I would have been doing eight shows a week and not seeing them that much. It’s sad to lose the consistency of having a normal job. It’s really sad when it closes, but at the same time, I have my own family. I get my nights back.
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Credit…Sara Krulwich/The New York Times
Patti Murin
Currently playing Anna in “Frozen”
Ms. Murin played Lysistrata Jones in “Lysistrata Jones” (2011)
It was one of those shows that I just loved so much and I had been involved with for two years already. I couldn’t talk about it for about a year, because it was so upsetting; it just opened and closed so fast. The timing of it was actually pretty good, because it closed the first week of January, and it dumped out right into pilot season. Enough people had come to see it — casting people and people from networks — that I was a pilot-season contender. And then I landed a pilot for CBS. Gosh, it was so much fun just to be out in Los Angeles, going to this totally different medium. And, you know, if “Lysistrata Jones” had been going on, I wouldn’t have been able to do any of that stuff. The show didn’t get picked up. This would’ve been a great story if it had been. [Laughs]
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Credit…Deen van Meer
Michael James Scott
Currently playing the Genie in “Aladdin”
Mr. Scott played a member of the ensemble in “The Pirate Queen” (2007)
No one goes into the making of a show thinking that it’s going to be a flop. Because we closed early, I was able to go into “Tarzan” really quick — and actually, P.S., they were also about to close, which I didn’t know. But I did the show, and I got into the Disney Theatrical family, which has led me ultimately to currently being the Genie in “Aladdin.” That’s the nature of this business — the uncertainty. Overnight, things can change in a fantastic way or in a really scary way. That’s where you separate the adults from the little ones: at that moment when you have to believe in yourself. Because the minute you start not believing, no one else is going to believe it for you.
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Credit…Sara Krulwich/The New York Times
Mandy Gonzalez
Currently playing Angelica Schuyler in “Hamilton”
Ms. Gonzalez played Sarah in “Dance of the Vampires” (2002)
I was at the very start of my career. That was my first original musical. Michael Crawford made sure it said, “And introducing Mandy Gonzalez.” It’s devastating when you get to a pinnacle of your life and your career and people are like, “No. You suck. Like, literally, not just as a vampire.” It makes you re-evaluate everything. You can let this failure kind of define you. I think I learned through that experience that it’s because I fail that I succeed, because I keep going. I’m rooting for everybody that’s a part of a production that’s a bomb, because you know how much it hurts and how hard it is to keep going. And some people are so afraid of failure that they don’t try.