The Visit, Starring Chita Rivera, Is Getting Ready to Wrap Up Its Broadway Run
(© David Gordon)
It looks like the first show to wrap up its Broadway run in the week after the Tony Awards will be Kander and Ebb's The Visit. The musical will play its final performance at the Lyceum Theatre on June 14, producers announced today.
The show opened April 23 after starting its run March 26 and received five Tony Award nominations, including Best Musical, but went home empty-handed last night. This production originated at the Williamstown Theatre Festival in 2014.
Tony winner John Doyle directs a cast led by two-time Tony winner Chita Rivera, who received a 2015 Tony nomination for her performance. The opening-night cast also featured Tony winner Roger Rees, Jason Danieley, Matthew Deming, Diana Dimarzio, David Garrison, Rick Holmes, Tom Nelis, Chris Newcomer, Aaron Ramey, Timothy Shew, Michelle Veintimilla, George Abud, Mary Beth Peil, Elena Shaddow, and John Riddle. Rees later departed the company due to health issues and was replaced by understudy Nelis.
The Visit, one of the final musicals of the legendary songwriting duo Kander and Ebb, tells the story of Claire Zachanassian , the oft-widowed richest woman in the world. She returns to the hardship-stricken town of her birth, where the locals pray that her wealth will bring them a new lease on life, but the carefully plotted renewal she offers carries a dreadful price. The show is based on the 1956 play by Friedrich Dürrenmatt and features a book by Terrence McNally.
The Visit has been aiming for Broadway since 2000. Originally scheduled for a Broadway opening in 2001 with Angela Lansbury as the star, the production was canceled when Lansbury withdrew. A subsequent 2001 production at Chicago's Goodman Theatre, starring Rivera, aimed for Broadway but was delayed after September 11. Financing issues scuttled a 2003 production off-Broadway at the Public Theater. A 2008 staging took place at Signature Theatre in Washington, D.C, and a Vineyard Theatre benefit concert of the musical occurred in 2011. The 2014 Williamstown production ran from July 31-August 17.
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