'Whatever the West End costs, add a zero and that's Broadway' – Why so many Broadway shows close early

This weekend the Broadway revival of Cabaret is closing its doors a month early, as its main star Billy Porter has withdrawn with "a serious case of sepsis".

This closure is, of course, completely understandable when a show relies entirely on the big-name clout of its cast. But even without Porter's sickness, the iconic musical – which has managed over four years in London – was still planning on departing the New York stage after just one.

Why? In truth, this production has seemingly been plagued by financial problems since its first curtain call. Immense weekly running costs of $1.5 million (according to the Broadway Report), led to a grossing of $2 million on a good week, and that was mainly riding on the coat-tails of its first star Eddie Redmayne.

In short, the show has been far, far too expensive to run and is now robbed of the only thing Eleanor Lloyd says theatre producers really want: "a graceful exit."

According to Lloyd, a Broadway and West End producer behind the likes of sell-out plays Prima Facie and The Collaboration, the New York theatre scene has become "impossibly expensive".

"It's so much more expensive to produce a play on Broadway. The general rule of thumb is, whatever a show costs to run on the West End, change it to a dollar sign and add a zero, and I think that probably is still a bit off the mark," she said.

"There's many shows in the West End that are commercially successful that just could not work on Broadway. I did a play in London called Shifters and it was a wonderful, profitable show, but its two amazing leads were not Hollywood mega-stars, so that literally wouldn't be possible on Broadway."

"And of course, when there's lots of very, very big film star names, the ticket prices are going to be unbelievably high."

While Lloyd says the West End's processes are far more "frictionless," it's Broadway's rigid processes and union rules that makes it a much harder space to play with, especially for new writing. Plus, the constant reporting of how well a show has performed in the ticket office means "there's no such thing slow build".

Lloyd agreed that maintaining a long-term show is the impossible bit. "You have to feed the beast of content the whole time to make sure that you're in people's minds constantly. But at the end of the day, just because something works on a Friday and Saturday doesn't mean it works on a Monday, Tuesday."

"It's always at risk, and honestly it's like a kind of alchemy to make it work," leading so many shows like Cabaret to fade away ever-so ungracefully.

So, why do Broadway shows close early?

Low ticket sales

At its root, low ticket sales are the cause for almost all early theatre closures. When a show is not billed as limited run, it will play for as long as it can sell enough tickets to sustain itself. So, when that open run closes, it's likely because there were not enough ticket sales to cover the show's running costs.

The Stop Clause

In Broadway, there is a provision known as the Stop Clause, where theatre owners can evict a production early if box office sales fall below a certain threshold for a set period of time, usually two to four consecutive weeks. In both Broadway and the West End, theatres are privately owned, so its up to the theatre producers and companies to convince them their show is worth the space.

Poor critical reception

Reputation and critical reception are still so key to a show's survival. You may be tempted to pay £15 for a bad movie experience, but that's not that same as paying £80 for a bad night at the theatre. The worst example of this was Elton John's Tammy Faye in 2024, which closed after just 24 performances namely due to an onslaught of poor reviews.

All in all, Broadway League found that word-of-mouth personal recommendations are the number one deciding factor for audiences when buying tickets to a show.

Lack of awards

The same problem can be said for awards; in the last two years, several shows have shut down after failing to win Tony Awards, including BOOP! The Musical and Smash.

Interestingly, Cabaret won the Tony for Best Scenic Design in 2024, but received no other recognition for its performances or direction.

Failing to keep up the buzz

It's a challenge to build up hype around a new Broadway show, you need a lot of marketing, social media and just good timing to get people in their seats. But that's nothing to keeping a long-term show running. Alongside the social media and digital part, you need to be clever with pricing.

As Lloyd said: "We don't want to let leave seats behind. We want to charge what we can, when we can in order to keep the place full."

High running costs

As with Cabaret, running costs can between $600,000 and $1.5 million per week and make up everything from venue hire, cast and crew wages, marketing, sets, costumes and more. If sales aren't enough to make up for all that, some producers may decide to cut their losses.

In reality, the majority of shows produced on Broadway do not recoup their initial investment at all. Although many shows do make their money back later on down the line through touring productions, licensing, album sales, and more.

More competition since COVID

"At the moment, there are more shows looking for theatres than there are available theatres, so you need to convince them that your show is the one that they want to take," said Lloyd. While there are 41 Broadway theatres, there are literally hundred of productions in development all trying to go for that golden ticket.

Losing their main star

Losing a big-name star whose presence was key to ticket sales is massive. For instance in Cabaret, Eddie Redmayne's legacy as the show's Emcee was unbreakable. It’s remarkable how many times shows want a big name during a recast, but either can’t find the right fit at the right price or find the new name is less of a draw.

Broadway shows that have closed early in recent years

Redwood (2025)

Starring theatre legend Idina Menzel, Redwood tells the story of one woman’s journey into a redwood forest. It started up in February of this year, but after coming in the midst of a crowded season and receiving no Tony Award nominations, the show closed having played only 127 performances.

The producers Eva Price and Caroline Kaplan said in a statement; "While we had of course hoped for a longer run, we're incredibly grateful to have been able to tell this beautiful story for the time we've been given.

"Redwood has been a labour of love since the very beginning of this process, and we are immensely proud of the incredible work our cast, crew, and creative team have wholeheartedly poured into this production."

Tammy Faye (2024)

Despite only taking place last year, Tammy Faye has quickly risen into the Broadway flop hall of fame. With the creative dream team of music by Elton John, lyrics by Jake Shears of Scissor Sisters and a book by Dear England playwright James Graham, everyone expected this tale of televangelist Tammy Faye Bakker to strike gold.

But, thanks to an incredibly poor reception, the musical opened in November and closed on 8th December 2024 after 29 regular performances and 24 preview.

Bad Cinderella (2023)

Bad Cinderella was another shock as it was attached to the name (and funding) of Andrew Lloyd-Webber. However, the show ran from March to June 2023 with 85 regular performances and 33 previews under its belt, in the process breaking Lloyd Webber's 43-year continuous streak of shows playing on Broadway, which started with Patti LuPone opening in the title role in Evita in 1979.

Here Lies Love (2023)

David Byrne and Fatboy Slim’s Broadway musical Here Lies Love, which depicted the life of former Philippine first lady Imelda Marcos, closed in November 2023 after 33 previews and 149 performances. A Broadway report showed the musical failed to attain enough ticket sales to justify its high weekly operating costs, which required the theatre to extensively renovate its setup for the show's setting.

In a statement, the show’s producers said: “When we started this journey to bring this bold and original work to Broadway, we asked ourselves: Can anyone produce on Broadway in a new way? Is there a new path forward? What does the template look like? Will audiences want something radically new? Who will those audiences be?”

“We have learned a great deal about the answers to those questions. Yes, new ways can work. Artistic excellence can be achieved. But the reality is, succeeding on Broadway means not only producing excellent work with artistic merit – it also means creating the audience for it.

"And how much time it takes to find and grow new audiences is out of sync with the tight timeframes for audience-building and awareness.”

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All our recommendations come from critics at RadioTimes.com, who love to experience the plays we recommend. For our thoughts on some of the West End's latest offerings check out our Great Gatsby review, The Producers review and Till The Stars Come Down review.