NYTIX
Midler to Play All 8 Performances in Final Week; Pushes Up Donna Murphy’s Last Bow
POSTED ON DECEMBER 10, 2017 BY SANGRIT MALAY
Throughout the run, Donna Murphy has been Bette Midler’s replacement, playing all Tuesday evening performances since June 13, 2017, allowing Midler to play just 7 performances in a regular week, in addition to filling in for crucial weeks when Midler had to take a prolonged vacation. While the box office certainly took a hit in the Murphy weeks, most notable in the two-week stint from June 27, 2017 to July 9, 2017, Midler’s extravagant popularity more than made up for these lulls, and Murphy’s readiness to play glorified understudy was worth the necessity of enduring these volatile box office figures. Originally, it was announced that Murphy would play her final performance on January 9, 2018. However, to accommodate Midler’s whims and convictions, this has been changed. Murphy will now play her final performance on January 7, 2018, on which date there has been added a previously unscheduled evening performance at 7:30pm. In addition, the January 9, 2018 performance will be cancelled in light of the added January 14, 2018 Actors Fund benefit performance. As such, Midler will now play all eight performances in the final week of her run in Hello, Dolly! The show will then go dark for a week, and on January 20, 2018, Bernadette Peters will begin her run as Dolly Gallagher Levi as previously announced. Furthermore, on that date, Victor Garber will step in for David Hyde Pierce, who has been Midler’s loyal co-star since the beginning of the run.
