Amour is the first musical casualty of the new theatre season. The charming musical — featuring music by pop composer Michel Legrand — will close after the matinee performance on Nov. 3.
The musical began previews Sept. 21 and officially opened to mixed reviews on Oct. 20. The show will have played 31 previews and 17 regular performances. A spokesperson for the show said that Tony voters were invited to the production, so it is possible the musical could receive one or more Tony nominations later this season. There has been no discussion about an original Broadway cast recording.
Set problems had canceled two early previews — Sept. 24 and 25 — although by the intimate musical's opening, all was functioning well with Scott Pask's Parisian scenery. The 90-minute intermissionless musical co-stars Melissa Errico and Malcolm Gets with a supporting cast that includes Norm Lewis, John Cunningham, Christopher Fitzgerald, Bill Nolte, Nora Mae Lyng, Lewis Cleale and Sarah Litzsinger.
Variety reports that box-office receipts fell $99,739 dollars for the week of Oct. 21-28, taking in only $154,408, nearly $125,000 short of its running costs. The previous week's tally was $254,147.
* A translation of the hit French tuner Le Passe Muraille, the American version is produced by The Shubert Organization, Jean Doumanian Productions Inc. and USA Ostar Theatricals. Featuring music by award winning composer Legrand, the musical has been translated by Jeremy Sams. Original French lyrics were written by Didier van Cauwelaert.
Tony winner James Lapine, who helmed Broadway's Dirty Blonde, Passion, Sunday in the Park with George and both the current and original productions of Into the Woods, is the musical's director. The remainder of the creative team comprises Jane Comfort (choreography), Scott Pask (scenic design), Dona Granata (costume design), Jules Fisher and Peggy Eisenhauer (lighting design), Dan Moses Schreier (sound design), Tom Watson (hair and wig design), Todd Ellison (musical direction and vocal arrangements) and Michel Legrand (orchestrations). Jim Steinmeyer, who has created illusions for Doug Henning and David Copperfield, is responsible for the musical's illusion designs.
Based on a French short story by Marcel Ayme, Amour is set in post World War II Paris and concerns the life of Dutilleul, a civil servant who discovers he has the ability to walk through walls. The French version, Le Passe Muraille, won the Prix Moliere for Best Musical in 1997, the equivalent of the Tony Award.
The Music Box Theatre is located at 239 W. 45th Street. Tickets are available through Telecharge at (212) 239-6200 or on-line at www.telecharge.com.
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Melissa Errico, who recently played Dot in the Kennedy Center production of Sunday in the Park with George, starred on Broadway opposite Richard Chamberlain in My Fair Lady and made a splash in the City Center Encores! production of One Touch of Venus. She also headlined the short-lived musical High Society and was a series regular on CBS TV's "Central Park West."
Malcolm Gets received an Obie Award and a Drama Desk nomination for his work in the revival of Stephen Sondheim's Merrily We Roll Along. His other stage credits include roles in Hello Again, The Molière Comedies, Two Gentlemen of Verona, Juno, Martin Guerre, A New Brain and the City Center Encores! staging of The Boys From Syracuse. Gets also starred on the NBC series "Caroline in the City."
Norm Lewis has starred on Broadway in Side Show, Miss Saigon and The Who's Tommy. He appeared in the national tour of Once On This Island and was also a part of the recent Dreamgirls benefit concert. John Cunnigham starred as Captain E.J. Smith in Maury Yeston's Tony-winning Titanic musical. His numerous Broadway credits include The Sisters Rosensweig, Six Degrees of Separation, Anna Karenina, Cabaret, Zorba, Company, 1776, The Good Doctor and California Suite.
Christopher Fitzgerald was a part of the Second Stage's production of Saturday Night; his other Off-Broadway credits feature roles in Wise Guys, Corpus Christi and The Cripple of Inishmaan. Bill Nolte made his Broadway debut in Cats and has also appeared on The Great White Way in Me and My Girl, The Secret Garden, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, King David and 1776.
Nora Mae Lyng was a member of the original company of Forbidden Broadway. She starred in the previous Broadway revival of Cabaret as well as the National Actors Theatre's production of Three Men On a Horse. Lyng's other stage credits include the Broadway companies ofLes Misérables and My Favorite Year as well as the national tour of Into the Woods.
Lewis Cleale starred as Joe Gillis opposite Petula Clark's Norma Desmond in the national tour of Andrew Lloyd Webber's Sunset Boulevard. He starred in the Broadway revival of Once Upon a Mattress and the City Center Encores! production of Call Me Madam; Off-Broadway Cleale appeared in William Finn's A New Brain.
Sarah Litzsinger, who is currently starring as Belle in the Broadway company of Beauty and the Beast, starred as the Narrator in the Donny Osmond national tour of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.
Michel Legrand has composed over 200 film and television scores, including "Lady Sings the Blues," "Wuthering Heights" and "Ice Station Zebra." He has won three Academy Awards, five Grammys and an Emmy nomination, some of his best-known songs include several collaborations with Alan and Marilyn Bergman: "What Are You Doing the Rest of Your Life?," "The Windmills of Your Mind" and "How Do You Keep the Music Playing?" as well as the score to Barbra Streisand's "Yentl."
Jeremy Sams wrote the book for the current London production of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. As a director, his work includes the current Broadway production of Noises Off and the London productions of Schippel the Plumber; Neville's Island; Wild Oats; Marat/Sade; Enter the Guardsman; The Wind in the Willows; Two Pianos Four Hands; Spend, Spend, Spend; and Stephen Sondheim's Passion. His translations include Becket, The Rehearsal, The Miser, Mary Stuart, Les Parents Terribles (on Broadway as Indiscretions) and A Fool and His Money.
