Farrah's Broadway Debut A Bust

It's curtains for "Bobbi Boland," even before it opened.

The $2 million comedy starring Farrah Fawcett closed Sunday after seven preview performances, two weeks before its scheduled Nov. 24 opening at Broadway's Cort Theatre.

"The play simply does not work in a Broadway house," producer Joyce Johnson said Monday. "This work debuted in a more intimate, off-Broadway theater some years back, which is where I first saw `Bobbi Boland.' The vivid characters that I saw in such a small setting did not transfer to the Cort. It's as simple as that."

The play by Nancy Hasty concerns a former Miss Florida beauty queen, played by Fawcett, who sees her marriage threatened by the arrival of a much younger woman. It started previews Nov. 4.

Initial theater-chat room banter generally was not kind to the play. "Terribly misguided production, should have been put out of its misery before it got to this stage," wrote one disgruntled theatergoer on the Web site www.talkin'broadway.com. "Horrible actors, horrible show," fumed another.

Yet some had a few kind words to say about the former star of television's "Charlie's Angels." One fan wrote, "Farrah Fawcett looks amazing. Her clothes are incredible. ... Her wigs are incredible. Her real hair is incredible. And while I don't think she or anything else related to this show ... are good, I enjoyed it with a combination of amazement and awe."

Said Johnson, "I am especially disappointed that, in the end, I could not produce Farrah Fawcett's Broadway debut. She is a very intelligent, sensitive, fine actress — and a great star. It is my hope that she will be back on Broadway soon."

The producer added that she hoped the playwright would make the necessary script revisions so she could bring a new version of "Bobbi Boland," starring Fawcett, to off-Broadway, possibly next spring.

Fawcett, whose previous New York stage experience included a well-received run in the off-Broadway play "Extremities," did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the show's closing.

It's become increasingly rare for a show to begin previews in New York and then not open, although there have been several infamous musicals that expired during that time period, such flops as "Breakfast at Tiffany's" and "Rachael Lily Rosenbloom and Don't You Ever Forget It."