As promised by its producers, “Motown: The Musical” will return to Broadway next summer just a year and half after its first New York run.
More surprising is where the show will land: the Nederlander Theater, where “Disaster!,” a parody of 1970s disaster movies, will have opened just a few months earlier.
“Disaster!” affectionately sends up such movies as “The Poseidon Adventure” and “Earthquake” as tragedies strike the occupants of a floating nightclub-casino, who must also fend off musical earworms of the era like “Don’t Cry Out Loud” and “Feelings.”
The musical, which stars Tony Award winners Roger Bart and Faith Prince with a book by Seth Rudetsky and Jack Plotnick, opens on March 8. Last week, as tickets went on sale, the show announced it was a limited run through July 3.
Such limited engagements on Broadway are typically reserved for plays with Hollywood stars, not the more costly musicals that need longer runs to recoup their investments. But short runs can make it easier to nab big names amid their busy schedules, as was the case with “Disaster!” — which played Off Broadway with another cast in 2013 — and perhaps inspire urgency in prospective ticket buyers. More important, shows can also use a short Broadway stint as a branding opportunity, helping plans for national (or even international) tours.
“Broadway and the West End are the launching grounds for musicals, commercially,” said Robert Ahrens, the lead producer for “Disaster!” “By playing on Broadway, that opens the rest of the world for us.”
Of course, Mr. Ahrens is not ruling out a longer stay in New York, even though he said the show could recoup its investment in its planned 21-week run. (He declined to say what it will cost to mount.) “In the event demand is there for the show, we’d love to continue it on another Broadway theater.”
Like “Disaster!,” “Motown” is a jukebox musical, tracing the history of the famed record label founded in Detroit by Berry Gordy and featuring hits like “My Girl” and “I Heard It Through the Grapevine” sung by actors playing the label’s stars
The original Broadway production lasted from March 2013 to January 2015, and more than recouped its $18 million capitalization. The hiatus has allowed the creative team to tweak the show, which is now on tour (including shortening the running time by about 10 minutes), something they couldn’t do the last time “Motown” was in New York. The show is slated to run for 18 weeks this time around.
“Changing a show during a Broadway run is like turning around an aircraft carrier,” said Kevin McCollum, the musical’s lead producer.