NEW YORK – "The Little Mermaid" is set for its final Broadway swim.

The lavish musical based on the Disney animated film will close Aug. 30 after a 20-month run, producer Thomas Schumacher announced Tuesday.

In this theater publicity image released by Disney Theatrical Productions, Chelsea Morgan Stock, left, and Drew Seeley are shown in a scene from Disney’s, ‘The Little Mermaid,’ in New York.
(AP Photo/Disney Theatrical Productions, Joan Marcus)

"As much as it hurts to do, it’s the best thing to do … for the show because it allows ‘Mermaid‘ to its maximize its audiences now during the summer," said Schumacher, president of Disney Theatrical Productions.

A national tour is planned for fall 2010 and it will be followed by overseas productions.

"By the time ‘Mermaid’ closes, it will have done 685 performances," the producer said. "It’s a respectable run, just not what I would have hoped for. … At some point, one has to put one’s ego aside and do what’s best for the production. And certainly in our case for the shareholders who have invested in it. We have to do right by the show."

"The Little Mermaid" has done respectable although not boffo business since opening in January 2008 at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre. Last week, for example, it grossed $863,745, out of a potential gross of nearly $1.3 million.

The whole story,
click image