The Broadway production of Coram Boy has posted a provisional closing notice, just days after picking up six 2007 Tony Award nominations. Unless business improves, the show will close on May 27 after 18 previews and 30 regular performances. Melly Still's production began previews on April 16 and opened on May 2 at the Imperial Theatre.
Featuring a cast of 20, including Tony nominees Jan Maxwell and Xanthe Elbrick, plus a choir of 20, Coram Boy tells the epic tale of the aristocratic Ashbrook family and its convoluted ties to the Coram Hospital for Deserted Children in 18th-century England. Helen Edmundson's script is an adaptation of a young adult novel by Jamila Gavin.
Though the play arrived on Broadway after having won numerous awards in London, reviewers in New York were wildly divided on its merits, and the production's marketing campaign seemed not to reach the play's natural audience, families with kids 12 and older. Coram Boy had consistently played to less than 50% capacity at the 1,431-seat Imperial and did not get an all-important Best Play nomination on May 15.
