Three shows are closing on Broadway today. One is Disney’s long-running production of the stage musical version of Mary Poppins. This has been a mainstay for Broadway theatergoers with kids looking for family-friendly entertainment since it opened in 2006. But the show has been on discounts for most of its run, and presumably finally ran out of steam. Mary Poppins‘ exit will make room for Disney’s latest musical adaptation, Aladdin, which will come to the New Amsterdam Theatre in 2014.
Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, the Broadway revival of the Edward Albee classic, is closing after more than five months on Broadway. Starring August: Osage County playwright Tracy Letts and Amy Morton (who actually starred in August on Broadway), the Steppenwolf Theatre Company production enjoyed critical acclaim and a positive audience reception.
The third show to close today is The Other Place, an intimate drama about a brilliant woman and her mental health challenges. The play’s previous Off-Broadway run garnered many accolades for leading lady Laurie Metcalf’s performance, prompting this limited Broadway engagement produced by the Manhattan Theatre Club at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre.
Mary Poppins will be flying away from Broadway’s New Amsterdam Theatre this March, but the theater won’t be empty for long. Disney’s Aladdin will take over the space in 2014, though exact dates have yet to be announced. The stage version of Aladdin will expand the 1992 film from a slim 90 minutes to a full two-act format. The musical will feature songs from the movie by Alan Menken, Howard Ashman, and Tim Rice, but there will also be new lyrics and a new book by Chad Beguelin (Elf, The Wedding Singer). Some of the new material was originally developed for the movie, but didn’t make the cut.