‘Duck Dynasty’ musical is already closing

The unlikely stage musical based on the “Duck Dynasty” reality show will quack out an early end at the Rio. The final performance is set for May 17, producers announced Friday.

The “Duck Commander Musical” was front-page news for the New York Times when it was announced last November. Since then, questions have remained on whether the TV show’s rural fan base would be interested in the Broadway-style musical, and whether the gay-friendly theater community would shun a musical biography of a family whose patriarch, Phil Robertson, became infamous for homophobic comments.

Neither question could be answered in the six weeks that will have passed since the musical went up at the Rio on April 8. The lack of patience can likely be attributed to the show’s overhead, which includes an Actors Equity union cast and a seven-piece band.

The production may have been modest by Broadway standards, but with investors including former Sony Music head Tommy Mottola, it was lavish by the recent standards of the Strip.

Development costs for the show involving A-list Broadway professionals, including “Newsies” director Jeff Calhoun, could still have a chance to pay off.

Duck Commander, the Louisiana duck call company run by the Willie Robertson family that’s featured on the A&E series, will “now consider several possibilities for the next stage of life in the show, including extended sit-down engagements in interested cities, as well as a national tour,” said the statement from Dodger Theatricals, the Broadway producers behind “Jersey Boys” and “Matilda.”

It’s still possible that “Duck Commander” could be another “Jekyll & Hyde,” a musical that played for years in regional theaters while deliberately avoiding Broadway and potentially lethal reviews from New York critics.

“We were looking for the place to find out what we had,” producer Michael David explained of Las Vegas when the musical was announced in February. “An intimate space sort of out of the way, in a cosmopolitan area that might attract friendly audiences from everywhere.”

Las Vegas offered “a broad demographic to see, does anybody like this? Do some of these people like this?” he added.

With the answer being no — or at least not enough of them — the last question is who ultimately foots the bill to pay for substantial technical upgrades to the Rio venue, which last hosted “The Rat Pack is Back.”

Read more from entertainment reporter Mike Weatherford at bestoflasvegas.com. Contact him at mweatherford@reviewjournal.com.