By Jennifer R Jones | Posted on July 22, 2013 6:19 AM
Christmas Spirit On Broadway Isn't As Bright This Winter, Iconic Shows Like How The Grinch Stole Christmas And Elf Opts For Regional Tours, While A Christmas Story Moves To Madison Square Garden
Christmas Shows Go Off-Broadway for the Holidays
For the last several years, Broadway has embraced the Christmas holiday season with special limited-run shows designed specifically to entice holiday crowds. How the Grinch Stole Christmas, Elf, and A Christmas Story have all provided warm-hearted Christmas-themed cheer to Broadway audiences. However, this winter, it appears that while there will be at least a couple of holiday friendly musicals in New York City, they won't be playing in Broadway theaters. A Christmas Story, which was at Broadway's Lunt-Fontanne Theater last year, will play instead at the Theater at Madison Square Garden, which has been a popular venue for other holiday fare like a musical version of A Christmas Carol. As usual, Radio City Music Hall will have its Radio City Christmas Spectacular featuring the Rockettes.
But neither How the Grinch Stole Christmas (which was on Broadway in 2006 and 2007) nor Elf (which played Broadway's Al Hirschfeld Theatre in 2010 and 2012) currently plan to come to NYC. Instead, both shows will tour large regional theaters around the country. This will be the first time since 2006 that Broadway hasn't featured a limited-run holiday-themed show (unless something changes in the next couple months). The success of several show's from Broadway's spring season means that fewer theaters are available, which may be one reason for the lack of Christmas spirit on the Great White Way this year. Whether or not this is just a blip in the holiday Broadway show trend remains to be seen.
