Motown Recoups $18 Million Investment in Time for Closing Night | Playbill

News Motown Recoups $18 Million Investment in Time for Closing Night Motown The Musical, the Broadway show featuring music from the legendary Motown catalogue, recouped its $18 million investment at the end of 2014, producers announced Jan. 16. The production ends its run at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre Jan. 18.

//assets.playbill.com/editorial/2764653f6fbd20c7936f363217812179-tower5_1408668401.jpg
Josh Tower and Krystal Joy Brown Photo by Monica Simoes

As previously reported, producers Kevin McCollum, Doug Morris and Berry Gordy, the show's book writer, state that the show will return in a Nederlander theatre to be announced in 2016.

It's a rare move for producers to shutter a production that consistently surpasses the million dollar mark at the box office; however, Motown is currently on a lucrative, streamlined national tour (now grossing over $46 million since an April 2014 launch), which was revised after the Broadway production opened March 11, 2013.

It is likely that the 2016 Broadway return will reflect a revised book and structure for the show, potentially with a more streamlined production and cost-effective overhead. The next tenant of the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre is the new musical Finding Neverland, which arrives March 15.

A U.K. production of Motown is planned for this summer, though no theatre has been announced.

Motown has broken the weekly gross box-office record at the Lunt-Fontanne with million dollar-grossing weeks and an average ticket price of $112.72 since the start of performances March 11, 2013. Directed by Charles Randolph-Wright, Motown features arrangements and orchestrations by Tony and Grammy Award nominee Ethan Popp (who also serves as musical supervisor for the orchestra), co-orchestrations and additional arrangements by Tony Award nominee Bryan Crook, dance arrangements by Zane Mark and music direction by Joseph Joubert.

The current cast stars Josh Tower as Berry Gordy, Krystal Joy Brown as Diana Ross, Charl Brown as Smokey Robinson and Bryan Terrell Clark as Marvin Gaye.

Motown features choreography by Patricia Wilcox and Warren Adams, scenic design by David Korins, costume design by Tony Award nominee ESosa, lighting design by Tony Award winner Natasha Katz, sound design by Tony Award® nominee Peter Hylenski and projection design by Daniel Brodie.

Visit MotownTheMusical.com.

 

 
Today’s Most Popular News:
 X

Blocking belongs
on the stage,
not on websites.

Our website is made possible by
displaying online advertisements to our visitors.

Please consider supporting us by
whitelisting playbill.com with your ad blocker.
Thank you!