Woody Allen Ensemble Comedy ‘Relatively Speaking’ Closes January 29

“Relatively Speaking,” a Broadway production consisting of three one-act comedy plays by Woody Allen, Ethan Coen and Elaine May, has announced it will be closing at the end of this month. The play becomes the second Broadway show in two days to announce its closing after the recent holiday. It was announced yesterday that “Lysistrada Jones” would have its final performance January 8.

The early closing notice for “Relatively Speaking” lists that the final performance will be held January 29. At that point, the show’s run will have consisted of 118 regular performances along with 35 previews. Opening day was October 20, 2011, while previews began the previous month. All performances were held at the Brooks Atkinson Theatre, and John Turturro directed the show.

In addition to the big name writers and director, many cast members of the plays are somewhat well known, as well. Steve Guttenberg, Julie Kavner, Marlo Thomas and Mark Linn-Baker all had parts in the performances.

So far, the production has grossed $8.7 million, and after a debut week that brought in $700,000, weekly sales varied between $650,000 and $750,000 in the beginning of the show’s run. However, sales had been slipping in previous weeks, and even during the high sales week between Christmas and New Year’s, the play only made about $450,000.

Woody Allen’s contribution to the performance was “Honeymoon Motel,” and marked the veteran film director and actor’s first run on Broadway as a playwright in 30 years. “Talking Cure” was the title of a play about bad parenting by Ethan Coen, known for the movies he’s made with his brother Joel like “Raising Arizona,” “Fargo,” “O Brother, Where Art Thou?” and “The Big Lebowski.” Veteran actor and film director Elaine May contributed “George is Dead.” The production opened to mixed reviews that were generally harsh. The New York Times, however, is noted as one of the few publications to give the production a generous review.