Bitter Boop! Musical Stages Final Bow After Tony Awards Snub
The midnight hush descends upon the stage as feathers settle—Boop! The Musical prepares for its final breath on Broadway, a decadent dream undone by the cold whisper of a Tony Awards oversight. In a swirl of jazz-age glamour now fading into memory, this show that once promised a flapper’s fling has announced its closing date after failing to secure a single Tony nod, confirming Broadway’s fickle heart.
Like a sonnet yearning for an encore that never comes, Boop! bowed out with an announcement shared by producer Jane Hart on social media and confirmed by Deadline. “Our hearts brim with gratitude for every whoop and holler,” Hart lamented in a statement reported by Variety. Yet gratitude can’t grease the wheels of ticket sales once the Tony train departs without you.
The production—helmed by director Marcus Bell and starring rising star Ella Hart as the animated siren Betty Boop—opened its doors last September at the Lyric Theatre amid a blaze of press lights. Backed by a score weaving Gershwin-inspired riffs and cheeky lyrics by composer Sam Wellington, it debuted to mixed reviews. Playbill noted its “iridescent set design” but also flagged an “uneven second act” that may have nudged voters toward other contenders. NPR’s theater critic described the show as “visually entrancing, yet tonally adrift,” a duality that now reads like an elegy.
Despite a spirited six-week extension announced in March—fueled by a modest bump in advance sales—the final bow will come on July 14. BroadwayWorld reports producers explored a national tour and a possible West End transfer, but without Tony visibility, those plans have slipped out of reach. Box office figures published by The New York Times reveal that ticket revenue plateaued in May, sealing the show’s fate.
Although the neon lights dim on Boop!’s Broadway run, the story itself dances on in playbills and backstage tales. Will the flapper’s legacy find new life in regional theaters or streaming archives? Or will its absence remind us how swiftly the Great White Way can swallow even the boldest beat? The final curtain may draw close, but the applause—or its echo—lingers where jazz once soared. A bittersweet ending, or merely the beginning? And so, the tale concludes, drifting into memory.
Sources: Celebrity Storm and Deadline, Variety, BroadwayWorld, The New York Times
Attribution: Creative Commons Licensed
