With Broadway’s shut down at least until June, some producers who had been hoping to open shows this spring are re-setting their sights on fall or even 2022, while others have announced no plans whatsoever.
The latest to announce a new schedule is Lincoln Center Theater’s much anticipated production of Flying Over Sunset, a new musical with book and direction by James Lapine, music by Tom Kitt, lyrics by Michael Korie, and choreography by Michelle Dorrance. The production, along with Lincoln Center’s Off Broadway production of new opera Intimate Apparel, has now set a target opening of fall 2021.
The Broadway League announced Friday that all Broadway producers would now refund tickets through May 30, 2021, a four-month extension from the previous January target. Further extensions are possible, some say even likely.
Both The Music Man starring Hugh Jackman and the Michael Jackson musical MJ have announced new targets for the start of preview performances, both after next summer: December 2021 and September 2021, respectively.
Take Me Out, the planned Second Stage Theater revival of the Richard Greenberg play starring Patrick J. Adams, Jesse Tyler Ferguson and Jesse Williams, remains in the running for Broadway. The production had previously been postponed from spring 2020 to spring 2021, and a new statement posted on the Second Stage website pledges support for the show: “Please know that we remain committed to producing Take Me Out as soon as it is safe to gather again.” No mention of specific target date or casting though.
Producers of A Christmas Carol – the Old Vic musical staging of the Dickens classic as adapted by Jack Thorne and directed by Matthew Marchus that drew excellent reviews and solid box office last holiday season when it played Broadway’s Lyceum Theatre – had planned on returning this year but will instead revisit in time for Christmas 2021.
In an announcement today, producers said that in addition to a Broadway production for next year’s holidays, a touring company will include stops at Los Angeles’ Ahmanson Theatre and Las Vegas’ The Smith Center, with additional tour dates to be announced. No word on casting.
No announcements yet for the Roundabout Theatre Company’s Broadway revival of the Tony Kushner-Jeanine Tesori musical Caroline, or Change (most recently targeting a spring 2021 opening) or its New York premiere of Noah Haidle’s Birthday Candles starring Debra Messing (bumped from spring 2020 to fall 2021 following the League’s previous January extension).
Producers of Sing Street, the sold-out Off Broadway musical that was set to begin performances at Broadway’s Lyceum Theatre just as the COVID-19 shutdown hit and then postponed to spring 2020, announced in August they were targeting an opening sometime between winter 2021 and winter 2022.
Several productions that had been set for spring 2020 openings have not announced updated plans, but producers of two of those shows – the Broadway revival of American Buffalo featuring Laurence Fishburne, Sam Rockwell and Darren Criss, and the Steppenwolf production of Tracy Letts’ The Minutes – have said that the development of a coronavirus vaccine is “essential” to reopening plans.
Also to be announced is a new date for Plaza Suite, the Neil Simon revival starring Sarah Jessica Parker and Matthew Broderick.