SHORT TAKES : ‘Grapes of Wrath’ to Close

“The Grapes of Wrath,” winner of the 1990 Tony Award as best play, will close Labor Day weekend after a Broadway run of less than six months, a show spokeswoman said today.

The play, based on the classic John Steinbeck novel, will have played 188 performances and 11 previews when it ends its run Sept. 2, Ellen Levene said.

The production from Chicago’s Steppenwolf Theater Company opened March 22 to favorable reviews, but never became a hot ticket. Business improved a bit in June after the show won two Tony awards--for best play and for Frank Galati as best director of a play.

The show, which has a large cast of 35 performers, needs to gross about $180,000 a week to break even and has been doing that or a little better in recent weeks. But grosses slipped last week to about $177,900.

Galati adapted the sprawling novel, set during the Depression, for the stage. It had its premiere in Chicago in September, 1988, and traveled to La Jolla, Calif., and London before opening on Broadway in March.