“Boop! The Musical,” Broadway’s cheery and family-friendly Betty Boop musical, will play its final performance on Sunday, July 13 after struggling at the box office since its official opening in early April. It is the fourth new musical to close since the Tony Awards, following “Smash,” “Real Women Have Curves,” and “Dead Outlaw.” Another new musical, “Redwood,” closed shortly after the announcement of the Tony nominations.
“Boop!” came to Broadway following more than two decades of development, including multiple songwriters who came and went such as Jason Robert Brown, David Lindsay-Abaire, and Andrew Lippa. Although the reviews were mixed, newcomer Jasmine Amy Rogers won raves for her performance as Betty Boop.
Directed and choreographed with maximum showbiz sheen by Jerry Mitchell, the production begins as a sleek black-and-white cartoon world brought to life with an Art Deco set, tuxedoed ensemble, projections styled after the original Max Fleischer shorts, and Betty’s dog Pudgy, portrayed as a marionette. Betty is then yanked into contemporary New York City, emerging at Comic-Con, no less.
Although it is unclear whether it will embark on a national tour, “Boop!” ought to be a popular title among school and amateur theater groups in the near future.
Immersive ‘Phantom’ spinoff sells out previews
The first six weeks of preview performances of “Masquerade,” the new immersive version of “The Phantom of the Opera,” sold out within three hours of release on Monday. Tickets for additional dates will go on sale on Wednesday, July 9 for those who have signed “The Ledger” in advance at masqueradenyc.com.
While details about “Masquerade” still remain murky–including the extent to which it will follow or stray from the original Broadway musical–it has now been confirmed that it will be directed by Diane Paulus (whose many Broadway credits include “Waitress,” “Jagged Little Pill,” “Pippin,” and “Hair”) and the cast will include Hugh Panaro (who played the Phantom in the original Broadway production two decades ago), Telly Leung (“Godspell”), Anna Zavelson (“The Notebook”), and Kyle Scatliffe (“Les Miz”). The production will also feature a chandelier comprised of over 30,000 crystals.
Taraji Henson and Cedric the Entertainer to lead ‘Joe Turner’s Come and Gone’
Taraji P. Henson (“Empire,” “Hidden Figures”) and Cedric the Entertainer (“The Neighborhood”) will lead a new Broadway revival of August Wilson’s “Joe Turner’s Come and Gone,” which will play Broadway next spring. Debbie Allen, who staged an all-Black production of “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” in 2008, will direct. Among the 10 plays in Wilson’s decade-by-decade Pittsburgh Cycle, “Joe Turner’s Come and Gone” is set in 1911 at a boarding house occupied by direct descendants of freed slaves, many of whom have migrated north in search of jobs. It was last revived on Broadway in 2009 with Ernie Hudson, LaTanya Richardson Jackson, and Danai Gurira.
Metropolitan Opera to bring back free summer screenings
The Metropolitan Opera’s Summer HD Festival will return from August 22 to September 1 with free screenings at Lincoln Center Plaza of performances from the 2024-2025 season including “Aida,” “Les Contes d’Hoffmann,” “Salome,” and “Tosca.” It will also include a screening of the film “Maestro” starring Bradley Cooper as Leonard Bernstein.
