Legendary Broadway composer Andrew Lloyd Webber decried the “unsustainable cost” of producing big Broadway stage shows in an open letter posted to Instagram on Saturday.
Webber spoke out after the show Cats: The Jellicle Ball closed prematurely when the production could not put enough audience members in the seats.
The Phantom of the Opera composer wrote that he was “gutted” that the show was closing early and added that he is “immensely proud” of being part of the production. But it was all to no avail, and Webber used his note to worry over the costs of putting on stage shows.
“Maybe the show’s closing just might be remembered as the moment that caused everyone involved with Broadway to come to their senses and address the unsustainable cost of producing and running any new show on The Great White Way, let alone daring new work,” Webber wrote. “My undying thanks to the producers and investors and everyone who believed in Jellicle Cats. I won’t forget you.”
Webber’s original work on Cats debuted on Broadway in 1982 and became a huge hit. He has earned seven Tony Awards and a 2018 Lifetime Achievement award, and his list of hits is daunting. Along with Cats, he is famed for hit shows including Evita, Phantom, Sunset Boulevard, and Jesus Christ Superstar.
But even as costs soar on Broadway, productions have continued to go super woke, a trend which has coincided with audiences dwindling to nothing.
Performing arts groups all across the country are facing a mounting financial crises that have led to layoffs and cancellations of entire seasons as their once-loyal audiences flee in droves and donations disappear.
It doesn’t help that all these organizations continue to push far-left, woke ideals in both their artistic work as well as their public statements, as Breitbart News reported.
Among the non-profit organizations going through financial turmoil are The Public Theater in New York, the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles, the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, and the Lookingglass Theatre in Chicago.
Even New York’s mighty Metropolitan Opera is in trouble, with its supporting guild announcing this week that it is shutting down after nearly a century of operation.
New York’s Public Theater, for instance, has laid off nearly 20 percent of its staff and cutting back on its scheduled programs.
Breitbart News also reported on the Oregon Shakespeare Festival is also facing serious pressures after ultra woke director Nataki Garrett stepped away from the position.
Longtime time ticket holders and other insiders with knowledge of the situation exclusively told Breitbart News that Garrett’s woke sermonizing and aggressive focus on diversity, equity, and inclusion alienated large swaths of the festival’s faithful audience as well as many of its small donors whose contributions collectively helped keep the organization afloat.
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