“Be More Chill” will end its Broadway run on Aug.11.
At that point the musical will have played 30 preview and 177 regular performances at the Lyceum Theatre. The closing announcement comes after the musical’s viral popularity propelled it to Broadway, but failed to translate to ticket sales.
The news was announced by the show’s composer Joe Iconis on stage following Thursday’s performance.
The musical, produced by Jerry Goerhing and Mike Mitri, hit its highest gross in the week ended March 17, when it hit $770,748 or 94% of its gross potential. Grosses dropped following the Tony nominations — the show received one nomination for Iconis’ score — with “Be More Chill” most recently pulling in $416,560 64% of its gross potential.
While Iconis said he was disappointed the musical did not have a longer run, he said he felt that his show had already “beat the odds” by getting to Broadway.
“‘Be More Chill’ has never followed a conventional path. It’s a musical that has subverted expectations and caused a ruckus every step of the way. I’m beyond proud that our little underdog musical played for the better part of a year in New York City, and that half of that year was spent on Broadway,” Iconis said in the press release.
The musical was capitalized for up to $9.5 million, according to documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
The musical had its world premiere at the Two River Theater on May 30, 2015. Fans latched on to cast album soon after, leading to viral streaming of the album and subsequent productions.
Before coming to Broadway, the show had an off-Broadway run at the Signature Theatre in the summer of 2018.
