Roundabout Theatre Company will move its Broadway productions planned for this season to the fall of 2020.
The productions include the revival of “Caroline, or Change,” which was originally scheduled to open on April 7, and “Birthday Candles,” a new play starring Debra Messing which was scheduled to open April 21. Both Sharon D. Clarke, star of “Caroline, or Change,” and Messing plan to return with the productions.
This is the second nonprofit company on Broadway that has opted to move its productions into next season. Lincoln Center Theater said Tuesday that it would move the new musical “Flying Over Sunset” to the fall, as well as its opera “Intimate Apparel.”
“Our desire is to provide certainty and confidence to our artists, staff and audiences that we will come back from this hiatus with a full season,” Roundabout Artistic Director Todd Haimes said in a press release. “We are committed to the future of the theatre and its long-term sustainability in this crisis.”
There were 16 productions slated to open between March 12, the day Broadway theaters were ordered to close, and the end of the season in April. With Roundabout Theatre’s announcement, three of the planned productions have been pushed to the fall. Two, “Hangmen” and “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” have already announced that they will not reopen.
The Broadway League has not yet issued any further postponement for the season beyond its initial announcement of theater closures through April 12. Asked for comment Wednesday, a spokesperson for the League said there was “no new information” at this point.
Roundabout’s Broadway production of “A Soldier’s Play,” initially scheduled to end its run on March 15, played its final performance on March 11.
Roundabout will also be moving its Off-Broadway production “…what the end will be” to 2021 as well its Roundabout Underground production “Exception to the Rule.”
All of Roundabout’s previously announced productions, which includes “1776” at the American Airlines Theatre next spring, for the 2020-2021 season will proceed as planned. Off-Broadway, “The Year to Come” is still planned for fall 2020 and “The Wanderers” is planned for 2021.
