Roseanne Barr, blue collar hero-turned-pariah, has finally been brought to heel. Continuing a pattern of alt-right rants on social media, she crossed an internal line at Disney and ABC by comparing former White House adviser Valerie Jarrett to an ape. Despite record-breaking ratings, the parent companies cancelled the reboot of Roseanne, citing her ‘abhorrent, repugnant’ behavior.
Her co-star Laurie Metcalf, however, is currently in fine form on Broadway, and breaking records of her own – without Barr’s noxious shadow looming over the proceedings.
Metcalf is currently starring in the revival of Edward Albee’s Three Tall Women, which has been nominated for six Tonys, including one for Metcalf’s performance.
Over Memorial Day Weekend, Women broke the house record at the Golden Theater, grossing over $940,000 with an average ticket price of $149.36. The theater’s previous weekly record had been set at $927,539 by the 2015 revival of Skylight starring Carrie Mulligan and Bill Nighy.
Metcalf won three consecutive Emmy awards playing Barr’s sister Jackie Harris in the original run of Roseanne, and returned to the reboot to reprise her part. The lauded thespian has had a whirlwind twelve months, first winning the Tony for Best Actress in A Doll’s House, Part 2, then earning her first Oscar nomination for her role in Lady Bird.
Metcalf has not commented on the Roseanne cancellation, but given her clout in the theater world, many fans were perplexed, if not downright livid, that she returned to the show. Barr’s racism and alt-right conspiracy-pandering has become more brazen since the election of Donald Trump, and the Broadway industry has little love for the current administration or its proxies.
It’s at this point that John Goodman, Laurie Metcalf and Sara Gilbert do not get a pass. pic.twitter.com/uMGf71E3c9
— Mark Schweitzer (@MarkSchweitzer) May 29, 2018
So far, however, there has been no financial backlash against Three Tall Women. It’s playing to standing-room-only houses each night, and while it’s not likely to win the top prize for Best Revival, it’s still out-grossing the category frontrunner Angels In America.
Broadway’s weekly grosses overall were up 1.6% this week, to a record $39.43 million. That’s up 15% from the same time last year. But given that audience growth was only up 4%, much of the boost came from premium prices on a few select shows, rather than a healthier slate overall.
Messrs. Alexander Hamilton, Bruce Springsteen, and Harry Potter alone accounted for almost a fifth of the entire industry’s box office, with an average ticket to see the Boss setting you back an eye-popping $509.
