Cake - Tour / Lyric / The Other Palace

This is sad news 😟

Sadly, Cake: The Marie Antoinette Playlist will conclude its run of performances at the Other Palace on Sunday 29 September. Despite strong initial interest in this exciting new musical, it is not viable for the production to continue beyond this point and complete its planned run.

“We would like to thank all of the cast, creative team, technical staff and all of those who have helped to develop this new musical to this point. All of the team involved have worked incredibly hard to create an excellent show which we are all incredibly proud of.

“Customers for cancelled performances will be contacted by the box office or ticket agents shortly and we will be cancelling our planned press performance on 24 September.”

Blimey, that is sad news.

Is that the shortest time anything has prematurely closed in London since Covid?

Wow, this seems tragic for all involved. I really enjoyed it at the Lyric (though it needed some work) and was looking forward to seeing it again next month. Not sure I'll be able to catch it now and I imagine this is the end of the road for it.

Going to be diplomatic.

Don’t think we should personally comment on PTM as otherwise it’s attacking creatives and probs goes against TheatreBoard. 😜

That’s a real shame for the cast / crew.

Quite shocked. That has hardly lasted two seconds.

What makes you say that? I've worked for PTM before and found him to be one of the more generous producers, if personally I found them a bit aloof in person. They have been working hard to get Cake off the ground for years (with the tour etc), so it is clearly a project they believe in. Some shows flop, it is part of the industry, particular new musicals which have high running costs, and I don't think it can be said that this one was through lack of trying.

The advance sales must have been extremely poor to close early.

Gutted for everyone involved.

I don’t know what producers are doing at the moment, this was always going to have to comp to sell tickets. If it couldn’t afford that, what was the point?

It was so good at the Lyric and the cast recording sounds excellent.

I look forward to seeing it next week, however.

When I booked directly with The Other Palace a few months ago and asked to change a booking to a different date, I was told it wasn't possible unless I signed up to be a Friend of the Other Palace for £35 a year.

As for Cake, a near two-month run turns into barely two weeks just like that. I didn't think much of the show at The Lowry but sad for all involved.

That's incredibly sad for all involved.

I was planning on going at some point during the run (I hadn't thought much beyond September with all of the shows with limited runs ending this month) but have just nabbed a £15 ticket for this Friday (or £13.50 with my TodayTix discount). I guess if they're struggling to sell tickets at that price then it really isn't viable.

I'm surprised. Morgan Lloyd Malcolm, plus Drew McOnie, plus a producer and exec who own/run the building and could give it some leeway financially - and yet it's failed.

Are people finally looking at historical stories given the sassy contemporary treatment and saying...urgh, not that again?

Is that over and done now?

A shame for Paul Taylor Mills and The Other Palace project.  Am I right that this was the first large statement new musical he's produced since his return and the new Kenwright ownership? The last thing that needed was to fail the first time some real bravery was shown on an in-house developed and produced show.

Lloyd Webber gave up on the venue disappointingly quickly - he's never been a great supporter of new writers, or did he twig that it just isn't perfect place to incubate new shows?

I'm surprised this has all gone so wrong when Bill Kenwright Ltd are co-producing.

I can't remember any of Bill Kenwright's other shows folding after a fortnight