The Worst Lede Of The Day...

...goes to Charles Isherwood's cliche-riddled roundup of Broadway show closings in January, on the front page today:

For those susceptible to the romantic allure of attending the last performance of a Broadway show, January will be one for the history books. The annual post-holiday doldrums in the theater district are proving particularly doleful in 2009, as more than a dozen plays and musicals — almost half of the current lineup, incredible though it may seem — get ready to close by the end of the month.

Harvey Fierstein, who has returned to the cast of “Hairspray,” will saunter forth from a giant, glitter-bedecked aerosol can and rasp his last girlish rasp on Sunday afternoon. Patti LuPone will tear into the worn soul of Mama Rose for the last time on Broadway a week later. And the questing kids from “Spring Awakening” will sing their last moody hymn to the wondrous ache of self-discovery a week after that.

And that’s just the tip of the iceberg of misfortune upending many a once smooth-sailing ship on the Great White Way.