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Urban Cowboy
Production History

Co-written by Aaron Latham and Phillip Oesterman, the show began its life as a December 2001 reading with Raúl Esparza, Caroline McMahon and Sandy Duncan. Public performances started with the world premiere at Florida's Coconut Grove Playhouse, where it played from November 5, 2002 to December 1, 2002 receiving generally positive reviews. Shortly before the premiere, its director and the driving force for the production, Phillip Oesterman, died suddenly of heart failure at the age of 46. It opened on Broadway at the Broadhurst Theatre on March 27, 2003 to mostly negative reviews (New York critical reception can be much different than in other places) and also suffering from the loss of money during the unfortunate musicians strike in February of 2003. The show nearly closed two days after its opening, but in a turn of events that only could happen on Broadway, the closing notice was rescinded by the producers the day of the supposed closing date and it ran until May 18, 2003, making its Broadway run a total of 26 previews and 60 regular performances.

(Thanks to JRB enthusiast Jimbo Diego for this write-up!)