So far...

• Young Frankenstein is closing, never to star Cloris Leachman.
• 13 is closing
• American Buffalo opened, then said it was gonna close, then said "maybe I changed my mind, I don't wanna" but then really did.
• Forbidden Broadway (!) and Gypsy are going.
  
• Hairspray and Spamalot and Sale of Two Titties.
  

And new this Spring?

• a safe revival of Guys and Dolls (thank god at least for Oliver Platt)
  
• a partially-safe, partially-Spanish revival of West Side Story
• Mary Louise Parker in "I'll go see anything Mary Louise Parker Is In"
• a musical that was more exciting in Central Park, and wouldn't have lost all of its buzz if they'd only direct-transferred while Bush was still president.
• some Kung Fu
• Vanities, although haven't we been hearing about that for years?
  
• Becket, being performed not by Ian McKellan and Patrick Stewart. At least not on this side of the pond.
  
• Dolly Parton
  
• Will Ferrel

Each year theatre snobs like to talk about "the decline of Broadway". I tend to disagree actually; I was never around "when it was good".
But this year, you can tell the investors all have tighter purse-strings. And it'll continue to stay that way.

So until consumer confidence bounces back, it's Dolly Parton In Manhattan, Kung Fu, and other than that it may become 1999 all over again--that is, lots and lots of safe revivals...

Clive Barnes died.

There used to be these Telecharge Gift Certificates things. They'd have to mail them in or bring them into the box office, but you could give the gift of a Broadway show by giving them. But really, who sends gift certificates in? That's a tad 1988.

Ken Davenport pointed out that (instead of something simple like "numbering the gift certificates for online use") Telecharge is finally making it possible to give gift cards that can be used online:

Valid for any of the following theatres:

1. Al Hirschfeld Theatre ( Hair )
2. Ambassador Theatre ( Chicago )
3. August Wilson Theatre ( Jersey Boys )
4. Belasco Theatre ( American Buffalo )
5. Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre ( 13, a New Musical )
6. Booth Theatre ( Dividing the Estate )
7. Broadhurst Theatre ( Equus / Mary Stuart )
8. Broadway Theatre ( Shrek The Musical )
9. Cort Theatre ( 39 Steps/ You're Welcome America. A Final Night with George W Bush )
10. Ethel Barrymore Theatre ( Speed-the-Plow )
11. Eugene O'Neill Theatre ( Spring Awakening )
12. Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre ( All My Sons )
13. Helen Hayes Theatre ( 39 Steps / Slava's Snowshow )
14. Imperial Theatre ( Billy Elliot )
15. John Golden Theatre ( Avenue Q )
16. Longacre Theatre ( Boeing-Boeing )
17. Lyceum Theatre ( Vanities )
18. Majestic Theatre ( Phantom of the Opera, The )
19. Music Box Theatre ( August: Osage County )
20. Sam S. Shubert Theatre ( Blithe Spirit /Monty Python's Spamalot )
21. St. James Theatre ( Gypsy )
22. Walter Kerr Theatre ( Seagull, The )
23. Winter Garden Theatre ( Mamma Mia! )
24. Off-Broadway's Daryl Roth Theatre (but not Fuerzabruta, which is its current possibly-long-term tennant)
25. Whatever's playing at the Little Shubert, which I'm too lazy to look up.

So my questions to you are:
a) Would you give a telecharge gift certificate to a friend or relative instead of whatever un-creative stupid gift certificates you might give now?
b) Would you still give it to them knowing that when they use it (because of Ticketmaster or other reasons), half of the Broadway shows aren't an option?

Take a look at what the current gift certificates (and future gift cards) won't work on:

1. 9 to 5 ( Marquis Theatre )
2. Accent on Youth ( Samuel J. Friedman Theatre (formerly Biltmore Theatre) )
3. American Plan, The ( Samuel J. Friedman Theatre (formerly Biltmore Theatre) )
4. Grease ( Brooks Atkinson Theatre )
5. Guys and Dolls ( Nederlander Theatre )
6. Hairspray ( Neil Simon Theatre )
7. Hedda Gabler ( American Airlines Theatre )
8. In the Heights ( Richard Rodgers Theatre )
9. Irving Berlin's White Christmas ( Marquis Theatre )
10. Lion King, The ( Minskoff Theatre )
11. Little Mermaid, The ( Lunt-Fontanne Theatre )
12. Liza's at the Palace… ( Palace Theatre )
13. Man For All Seasons, A ( American Airlines Theatre )
14. Mary Poppins ( New Amsterdam Theatre )
15. Pal Joey ( Studio 54 )
16. Philanthropist, The ( American Airlines Theatre )
17. Soul of Shaolin ( Marquis Theatre )
18. South Pacific ( Vivian Beaumont Theater )
19. Waiting for Godot ( Studio 54 )
20. West Side Story ( Palace Theatre )
21. Wicked ( Gershwin Theatre )
22. Young Frankenstein ( Hilton Theatre )

City Opera will no longer serve as the home for the aborning operas based on the film "Brokeback Mountain" and the life of late animator Walt Disney.

Appointed general manager and artistic director Gerard Mortier has departed his position at City Opera, ultimately taking with him the two works which he commissioned as part of his proposed programming, Variety reports.

Mortier hopes that the productions, both of which were to premiere at City Opera in the 2012-2013 season, will find homes elsewhere.

Congrats, City Opera. You were about to produce two possibly hilarious new comedic operas, and you pissed off Mortier and HE'S GONNA JUST TAKE IT WITH HIM SO HA!

What? They weren't comedic operas?

Nah. Silly.

Universal Plans Silver-Screen Adaptation of In the Heights

This is actually one of those Broadway shows that I think could actually become *better* in a movie adapation.

I didn't say will. I said could.

With the right director, Rent should have been better as a movie than as a musical.

So let's see who's directing the film of this one...

Not a politics website. So I'm not going to tell you who to vote for.

If you wanted to hear someone tell you who to vote for, you'd go to a website that was made for that.

I wish the blogs I read about Technology and Theater and DisneyWorld and whathaveyou would stop telling me how to change the world.

Congrats, bloggers. Your "voting" post goes real nicely with your "the current EPCOT Figment is sub-par" post.

You now know what foot tastes like!