It’s been a tough stretch for the New York Yankees. Last year, for the first time in five years, they didn’t make the playoffs, and now a Broadway play about the team has failed to go the distance. “Bronx Bombers”, a decades-spanning look at Yankee legends, will close at Broadway’s Circle in the Square after running less than a month.
Conceived by Fran Kirmser and directed by the playwright, Eric Simonson, “Bronx Bombers”, which opened Feb. 6, follows the great names of the Yanks, from Lou Gehrig to Joe DiMaggio to Derek Jeter. Central to the story are Yogi Berra and his wife, played by real-life married couple Peter Scolari (of "Bosom Buddies" and recent "Lucky Guy" fame) and Tracy Shayne. Keith Nobbs (Billy Martin) and C.J. Wilson (Babe Ruth) are also in the cast. The drama, which premiered at off-Broadway's Primary Stages, marks Simonson's third sports-related Broadway outing, including the aforementioned football bio "Lombardi" (which also played at Circle in the Square), and the B-ball-based "Magic/Bird".
Reviews for the show were mostly negative, with several critics agreeing that the play never builds on its dramatic first scene (an argument between Billy Martin and Reggie Jackson), and gets too surreal and hagiographic in act two, when various Yankee icons return from the dead to field softball questions. Critiquing the show for The Wrap, Robert Hofler summed up his difficulty with the play thusly: “After the endless dream sequence, Simonson takes us to the last game in the old Yankee Stadium. It’s like he’s directing the Passion Play what with all the dry ice foaming and church bells ringing and beatific light streaming.”
Critics also questioned whether there’d be enough Yankee fans to make “Bronx Bombers” a commercial success on The Street. Their answer came quickly, as the show’s grosses have stayed well below $200K throughout its brief run. For example, for the week ending Feb. 16, “BB” grossed 177K – a sizable jump from the prior week – however, still just a quarter of the potential weekly take of $733K. Attendance has been nearing 70 percent, but the average ticket price has stayed below $50 (compared to, say, “Outside Mullingar”, which pulled in an average ducat price of $74 last week).
“Bronx Bombers” also marks the second flop of the season to play at Circle in the Square, as it followed the failed musical, “Soul Doctor”, which opened in late summer and closed two months later.
Other notable baseball plays have included the Tony-winning "Take Me Out", Lee Blessing's look at "Cobb" (i.e., Tigers phenom Ty Cobb), Richard Dresser's "Rounding Third" about little-league coaches, and the musicals "The First" (about Jackie Robinson) and the immortal "Damn Yankees". Of “Bronx Bombers”, producer Tony Ponturo has said in a statement, “Generations of Yankees fans have been part of the winning tradition since their early childhood. Their emotional commitment and passion will be fully realized as they...sit with the players who forged that history.”
