The Mambo Kings Won't Play Songs of Broadway; Tuner's New York Run Canceled

The musical The Mambo Kings will not have a Broadway run after all. The troubled tuner, which enlisted new creatives after a poorly received San Francisco tryout, has now been canceled.

The Mambo Kings received mostly negative critical notices while at San Francisco's Golden Gate Theatre. Dennis Harvey of Variety wrote of the show: "The raw ingredients for a crossover crowd-pleaser are present in new tuner The Mambo Kings, adapted from Oscar Hijuelos' Pulitzer-winning 1989 novel. But this advertised 'hot new musical' at San Francisco's Golden Gate Theater is currently just lukewarm--an uneven, sometimes tepid package more middling than sizzling." And that was far from the worst review. Most notices praised Sergio Trujillo's choreography, but attacked the music, book and direction.

Last week, producers Daryl and Jordan Roth were still hoping to save the tuner-- which originally featured direction by Arne Glimcher, music by Carlos Franzetti, lyrics by Glimcher and a book by Oscar Hijuelos and Glimcher--in order to still launch it during the summer at the Broadway Theatre. Jerry Mitchell was enlisted to help direct, Jason Robert Brown was brought on to rewrite part of the score and David Ives was expected to work on the book. But the new team had not yet begun working on the show when the decision was made the cancel the New York production altogether.

Based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love, and Oscar-nominated film of the same name, The Mambo Kings starred Esai Morales, Jaime Camil, David Alan Grier, Albita, Justina Machado, Cote de Pablo, Christiane Noll and Dennis Staroselsk during its out of town tryout.

The cancellation of The Mambo Kings leaves the prime Broadway Theatre empty. The Color Purple has been mentioned as the venue's likely tenant.