'Frankie and Johnny' will close at the end of July

Scott Heller

July 9, 2019 9:27 AM

The box office wasn’t as good. For the week ending July 7, the show was the lowest grossing on Broadway, earning $231,745.

'Frankie and Johnny' will close at the end of July

NEW YORK — “Frankie and Johnny in the Claire de Lune,” Terrence McNally’s two-hander about wounded romantics in a one-night stand, will close July 28, producers announced on Monday.

Despite featuring six-time Tony Award winner Audra McDonald and two-time Oscar nominee Michael Shannon in the title roles, the show will close nearly a month earlier than planned. After opening May 30 as the first show of the 2019-20 season, it will have played 70 performances and 26 previews.

“Time has been good to ‘Frankie and Johnny,’ ” Jesse Green wrote in his New York Times Critic’s Pick review. “Its sentimentality hasn’t curdled the way it has in some of Mr. McNally’s many other plays.”

The box office wasn’t as good. For the week ending July 7, the show was the lowest grossing on Broadway, earning $231,745.

While its run will be brief, “Frankie and Johnny” has made Broadway history as the first show to use an “intimacy director” to help stage sex scenes and nudity.

Claire Warden handled that task, working with the actors and director Arin Arbus, making her own Broadway debut.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

Scott Heller