'Death Becomes Her' closes on Broadway

Death came for Death Becomes Her on June 28. And for once, the show didn’t have a trick up its sleeve to cheat it. After over 650 performances, the Lunt-Fontanne went dark on one of the most maximalist musical comedies Broadway has produced in years—and one that failed to recoup its $31.5 million price tag. Even immortality has overhead.

I caught the closing performance, and the show was still firing on every cylinder. Marco Pennette’s biting book and Julia Mattison and Noel Carey’s score know exactly what kind of musical it wants to be. And when Betsy Wolfe took over for Megan Hilty as Madeline Ashton in January, the show didn’t skip a beat. A musical that survives a lead replacement without losing its pulse is a musical built to travel.

Room to be this extra

The Lunt-Fontanne Theatre is one of Broadway’s most cavernous, with a deep house that can often feel like you’re sitting across the street. Derek McLane’s scenic design and Paul Tazewell‘s Tony-winning costumes never had that problem. This is a show built at the scale the theatre demands with all the bells and whistles that need real square footage to land. Most touring houses are bigger than their Broadway counterparts. For once, a production isn’t shrinking to fit the road. It’s finally getting stages roomy enough to match its ego.

The cast of "Death Becomes Her." — The cast of “Death Becomes Her.” Photo by Matthew Murphy and Evan Zimmerman.

The math killed this run, not the show. The original production capitalized on a familiar title audiences were familiar with. But the Broadway ecosystem is brutal. The national tour launches in September at Cleveland’s Playhouse Square, betting that recognition can do what good reviews and Tony nominations couldn’t.

Death Becomes Her isn’t dead. It’ll be reincarnated with a better budget and a bigger map. Drink up, America.

See Death Becomes Her on tour.