‘First Date’ Cut Short, Closing on Broadway January 5

Following a steady decline in box office sales in recent weeks, the musical First Date will say its last goodbye early next year. The production has scheduled its final curtain for January 5, 2014.

The production opened to mixed reviews August 8 at the Longacre Theatre. Since its opening it has played to modest crowds never being able to capture enough attention or interest partially in part to a lack of solid marketing. A reviewer in The Hollywood Reporter wrote that it “displays a genuine wit and musical flair that marks a refreshing change from the onslaught of overblown musicals permeating Broadway these days.” Meanwhile, other reviews were less than favorable.

First Date is a romantic comedy that tells the story of the first night out of a couple of oddly matched New Yorkers. It is directed by Bill Berry and features a book by Austin Winsberg. Music and lyrics are provided by Alan Zachary and Michael Weiner with choreography provided by Josh Rhodes. The production stars Zachary Levi of NBC’s Chuck along with Krysta Rodriguez, who was a regular on the NBC series Smash and was most recently seen in Broadway’s The Addams Family.

The hope is that announcing the closing date more than 2 months in advance will help the show to pick up some holiday traffic. Especially give that the Thanksgiving holiday traditionally serves as one of Broadway’s biggest and  busiest weeks. Weekly grosses for the show have failed to reach the $500,000 mark, with the most recent weekly total being $281,538.

By the time it closes, First Date will have played 34 previews and 174 regular performances.