New Broadway musical Swept Away will close Dec. 15, a little less than a month after opening on Broadway.
The musical, which features a score by the Avett Brothers, will have played 32 regular performances and 20 previews at the time of its closing. The show, about a shipwreck and the crew’s struggle to survive in its aftermath, received a Critic’s Pick from the New York Times, but mixed reviews elsewhere. The musical has not had strong grosses or attendance since starting previews on Broadway Oct. 29.
During Thanksgiving week, the most recent week of grosses which is typically lucrative for Broadway shows, the musical saw its capacity fall to 61 percent at the Longacre Theatre and brought in just above $412,000, which is below the running cost of a typical musical.
The musical, which features a book by Tony winner John Logan and direction by Michael Mayer, stars John Gallagher, Jr., Stark Sands, Adrian Blake Enscoe and Wayne Duvall.
“We are deeply proud of this beautiful production and the years of work that it took to get to Broadway,” said producers Matthew Masten, Sean Hudock and Madison Wells Live. “We will forever be indebted to our fantastic creative team, our loyal actors and all of our co-producers and in turn their investors, for believing in this production and taking a risk on new work.”
The musical made its world premiere at Berkeley Repertory Theatre in 2022, and played Arena Stage in Washington, D.C., in 2023, before coming to Broadway.
The sudden closure comes amid high running costs on Broadway, which make it difficult to keep a struggling show open, and after a similar announcement from Elton John’s new musical Tammy Faye, which will be closing Dec. 8 after opening on Broadway on Nov. 14.
