Motown The Musical is going into hiatus.
It’s not the end. It’s a new beginning, the producer’s say.
The successful Broadway musical based on the memoir of Berry Gordy, Motown: The Musical, will play its last performance, for now, on January 18, 2015. At that time, the show will have been on the Great White Way for almost two years and plans to return in 2016.
The producers will be using the “assets” of the show in the West End production which is slated to open next summer. There is also a national tour of the show.
Plans are to bring the show back to Broadway in July 2016, possibly in a smaller house. Producer Kevin McCollum said in a statement:
We are only saying farewell to Broadway for now. We are leaving on a strong note, because we have a plan in place to come back even stronger. We’ve seen that Motown The Musical demonstrably appeals to a wide range of audiences. The passionate response to our show and the Motown catalogue puts us in a great position to arrange a successful return, while at the same time Motown The Musical branches out nationally and internationally.
Motown The Musical opened in New York without the benefit of an out-of-town tryout to immediate and amazing response. We learned a lot from producing the premiere, both on an artistic and practical level. When we launched the first national tour on a full Equity Production Contract, we were able to incorporate changes that present a new, visually and musically vibrant version of the show, equal in quality and excitement to its Broadway counterpart and that clearly appeals to audiences, as we have seen from the great sales figures in Chicago.
By closing in January 2015, we have an opportunity to use the production assets from Broadway for the U.K. production next year. We are pleased to continue our great relationship with the Nederlander Organization for the next chapter of Motown The Musical on Broadway when we will return with a new production, our fourth, in the summer of 2016.
more from vvnmusic.com
