Michael Frayn's Democracy to Shutter on April 17

Michael Frayn's Democracy, which has recently been advertising "Last Weeks," will end its run at the Brooks Atkinson Theatre on April 17. At the time it closes, the drama will have played 17 previews and 173 regular performances.

Democracy is set in West Germany in 1969 and centers on Willy Brandt James Naughton and his assistant, Günter Guillaume Richard Thomas. Brandt begins his brief but remarkable career as the first left-of-center Chancellor for nearly 40 years. Always present but rarely noticed is Guillaume, Brandt's devoted personal assistant--and no less devoted in his other role, spying on Brandt for the Stasi.

The drama, directed by Michael Blakemore, ran at the National Theatre and in the West End before transferring to Broadway, where it began performances at the Brooks Atkinson Theatre on November 3. In addition to Naughton and Thomas, the cast includes Michael Cumpsty, Robert Prosky, Terry Beaver, John Dossett, Julian Gamble, John Christopher Jones, Richard D. Masur and Lee Wilkof.

In his Broadway.com Review of the play, Eric Grode wrote: "When Frayn hands the stage over to the two distrustful, deeply flawed men at the core of Democracy, he offers as intellectually vibrant a voice as you'll find in today's theater. But when the other characters join them, the result is often as chaotic as Kretschmann describes. In Democracy, as in democracy, everyone gets to be heard. And in both cases, some people have less to say."

Democracy was doing fairly well at the box office at the beginning of its run, but its numbers have recently dropped. Last week, the play made $157,089 and filled the Brooks Atkinson Theatre to 39.48% on average.