“Shucked,” a musical comedy fueled by corn puns and country music, will end its run at Broadway’s Nederlander Theater on Jan. 14.
The show’s lead producers, Mike Bosner and Jason Owen, are not calling the step a closing, apparently because they are hoping that they will find another theater at which the show might continue its run. But the current Broadway season is shaping up to be fairly robust, and it is unclear if there will be an empty theater available for it.
“Shucked” is vacating its theater as its grosses have remained consistently middling. Theater owners make money both by charging rent to producers, and by getting a percentage of the box office, and if the Nederlander Organization can find a higher-grossing tenant, it will make more money. (A leading candidate to take over the theater: a revival of “Tommy” that was well-reviewed and sold strongly at Chicago’s Goodman Theater.)
With a score by two successful Nashville-based songwriters, Brandy Clark and Shane McAnally, “Shucked” began previews on March 8 and opened on April 4. It was nominated for nine Tony Awards, and won one, for Alex Newell as best featured actor in a musical.
The musical, directed by Jack O’Brien and with a book by Robert Horn, was capitalized for up to $16 million, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission; it has not yet recouped those costs. Its grosses have been modest for a musical — during the week that ended Oct. 8, it grossed $751,829, with 85 percent of its seats occupied. The country singer Reba McEntire voiced new advertising for the show and has been talking it up, and the show’s producing team believe that her support is helping to promote sales.
A North American tour of “Shucked” was announced on Tuesday, with plans to kick off next fall in Providence, R.I. And on Thursday, the show’s producers said that they expect international productions to open in London in 2025 and in Sydney, Australia, in 2026.
