Add Ain’t Too Proud – The Life and Times of the Temptations to the growing list of Broadway closures.
The jukebox musical chronicling the career and relationships of the Motown legends is set for its final performance Sunday, Jan. 16 at the Imperial Theatre.
As previously reported by The Root, the current surge in Covid-19 cases has been especially tough on the still recovering theater community, causing multiple cancellations and closures.
Ain’t Too Proud was forced to cancel performances Dec. 15-28, joining shows like Hamilton and Freestyle Love Supreme in canceling crucial holiday performances.
This is normally where we would tell you all about the Temptations and their classic songs, but if you don’t know about the Temptations, you’re on the wrong site.
Opening in March 2019, Ain’t Too Proud was nominated for 12 Tony Awards, winning for Best Choreography.
Entertainment Weekly reports, Ain’t Too Proud joins Jagged Little Pill, Waitress and ground-breaking play Thoughts of a Colored Man as productions forced to close due to Covid-19.
“While this is not the outcome we had hoped for, being part of this historic season on Broadway has been the greatest privilege of our lives,” Thoughts of a Colored Man’s producers said in a statement. “The theater industry’s great return is about so much more than the success or failure of any single production. As a community, we remain undeterred, unflinching and unstoppable. We have never been prouder to be theater makers than at this very moment.”
This latest round of cancellations and closures has been a heartbreaking gut punch for Broadway, as many shows just resumed performances in September, following the industry’s shutdown during quarantine.
According to Variety, since the Broadway League doesn’t release grosses for each show anymore, it’s hard to know what the financial impact of this latest surge is on the theater community.
If there are no more cancellations, and that’s a big if, Ain’t Too Proud will have given 488 performances.
Ain’t Too Proud is also playing the Kennedy Center in Washington DC and on a national tour.