Broadway has always been a gambler’s business, and the biggest crapshoot of the season was the new musical “Leap of Faith,” whose producers hurried it into New York this spring rather than lose a prized theater that had suddenly become available. This week the bet soured, as the producers announced a closing date of Sunday, with losses exceeding $14 million, making “Leap of Faith” the biggest flop of the season as well as the latest case study in how shows fail.

The musical, about a phony evangelist who experiences a spiritual conversion during his latest con, struggled from its first preview performance, on April 3, with the creative team meeting daily to concoct changes to overcome some toxic word of mouth. “Leap of Faith” officially opened on April 26 to reviews so bad that many thought it would swiftly close. But the next week something extraordinary and unexpected happened: it was one of four shows nominated for the Tony Award for best musical, theater’s highest award.

Rarely does a production close before the Tony Awards (June 10 this year) when it has been nominated for best musical. But “Leap” was bleeding money because of horrid ticket sales, losing about $275,000 last week. Bookings of large groups of theatergoers, a backbone during the early weeks of a show, were modest, and the marketing team’s overtures to religious people, urging them to embrace the subject matter, did not take hold. The producers made the call: “Leap” would shutter well before all 851 Tony voters could see it.