Bright It On: The Musical has just announced its intention to close on Broadway on December 30.  The competitive cheerleading musical, based loosely on the 2000 movie of the same title, started performances at the St. James Theatre on July 12, with an official opening on August 1.  Originally Bring It On was only scheduled to play on Broadway until October 7, but good ticket sales and positive audience reaction encouraged the production to extend its run through January 20, 2013.

“We are extremely grateful for the enthusiastic audiences who have cheered on this extraordinary cast and that we’ve been afforded 12 additional performance weeks past our original end date,” said Universal Pictures Stage Productions spokesman Glenn Ross in a statement.  “We’ve decided to forego the historically slow month of January and play our final performance on December 30, at the height of the holiday season, as we celebrate the remarkable achievement of our creative team and all of the talented people who made Bring It On a one-of-a-kind Broadway experience.”

Bring It On: The Musical, which includes the participation of some real-life competitive cheerleaders to help create the show’s high-flying stunts, has a score by Tom Kitt (Next To Normal), Lin-Manuel Miranda (In the Heights), and Amanda Green.  Avenue Q scribe Jeff Whitty penned the musical’s book.  Although Bring It On will be closing on Broadway at the end of the year, the show’s producers are discussing the possibility of touring it around the country in 2013.