Broadway announces extension of shutdown until June 2021

Broadway theaters will remain closed until June, 2021. (Photo Credit: Christopher Sadowski)

Broadway shutdown extended again, theaters to remain closed until June 2021

By Jessica Derschowitz
Entertainment Weekly
October 9, 2020

The shutdown of Broadway theaters in New York City will now be in place for more than a full year.

The Broadway League announced Friday that performances will now be suspended through May 30, 2021, due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. Theaters in the city have been dark since March 12, 2020. Theatergoers holding tickets through that date should contact their point of purchase for details about exchanges and refunds.

Per the league, dates for returning and new shows will be announced on an individual basis as those productions determine their respective performance schedules.

“With nearly 97,000 workers who rely on Broadway for their livelihood and an annual economic impact of $14.8 billion to the city, our membership is committed to re-opening as soon as conditions permit us to do so. We are working tirelessly with multiple partners on sustaining the industry once we raise our curtains again,” Charlotte St. Martin, President of the Broadway League, said in a statement Friday.

When performances were suspended in March, 31 productions were running, including eight new shows in previews. Additionally, eight productions were in rehearsals preparing to open in the spring. Stagings of Martin McDonagh's Hangmen, a Laurie-Metcalf led production of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, and Disney's Frozen musical opted to close permanently in the wake of the shutdown, while others like Hugh Jackman and Sutton Foster's revival of The Music Man and plays like The Minutes and American Buffalo, had announced reopening dates for spring 2021, plans that will now have to be revamped. (Indeed, The Music Man postponed its opening night to Feb. 10, 2022 after Friday's announcement, and the Michael Jackson musical MJ moved to September 2021.)

To read the full article, click here.