The long-running stage version of Saturday Night Fever at the Apollo and Doug Wright’s I Am My Own Wife at the Duke of York’s Theatre have both announced that they will close.
Saturday Night Fever, which was taking bookings until April 2006, will strut its stuff for the last time on Feb. 18. Meanwhile, I Am My Own Wife, originally booking until Feb. 4, 2006, will close on Dec. 10 of this year.
There were high hopes for Wright’s award-winning Broadway play about the true story of Charlotte von Mahlsdorf, an East German transvestite and celebrated antiques dealer who successfully survived both the Nazi and Communist regimes.
But following mixed reviews the one-man-show starring Jefferson Mays has failed to find an audience in London. For his performance, Mays won a 2004 Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play.
But according to Richard Pulford, Chief Executive of The Society of London Theatre, West End audience figures for the end of October 2005 are 4% up on last year. “We would have expected numbers to be a bit better however,” admits Pulford, who says that considering “the strength of shows” currently in the West End, the figures could be higher. Pulford points to the 7/7 terrorist attacks in London as being the chief inhibitor to more buoyant audience numbers.