From "Tuck Everlasting" to "The King and I," shows are closing left and right on Broadway. The theme of most of these closings? Low box office draw and little to no nominations from the Tony's.
Some may want to just blame this all on "Hamilton" since it is the show that is the most talked about on Broadway right now and is arguably the most profitable, but "Hamilton" is only part of the blame. The other ones to blame are those who nominate shows for the Tony Awards.
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The Tony's are the Super Bowl commercials of the theater world. It is just a huge commercial for every show nominated and those who perform. It is what has saved shows like "The Grand Hotel" from closing in the past. It can keep the good shows from closing, but it can also be what makes the good shows close.
If a show is good but has no nominations and a low box office draw, they have no reason to stay on Broadway. Their options are limited: chance getting some coverage and possibly a little more money or count their losses and close the show.
At the same time, this is also a bad thing. Some shows that have major coverage at the Tony's may not be as well put together as those who are barely featured at all, and as a result, the bad shows have a longer run.
This can also have an impact on nominations, as well. When the Sound Design category was removed, some people thought it was justified because of how bad the sound quality of the broadcast had been in the past year. Those same people didn't realize a) TV sound design and stage sound design are two different things and merging them together isn't always going to work out as planned and b) they almost completely ostracized a vital part of the stage community by getting rid of the category.
Say what you will about the Tony's, you cannot deny that it is an important part of theater.
