By: David Sheward
January 13, 2022: Two more Broadway shows are going on hiatus, joining Mrs. Doubtful as productions temporarily closing during these volatile COVID-tinged times in hopes of keeping open in a later, less chancy atmosphere. To Kill a Mockingbird, Aaron Sorkin’s stage adaptation of Harper Lee’s beloved Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, will play its last performance at the Shubert Theater on Jan. 16. The play will re-open at the smaller Belasco Theater on June 1 with Oscar nominee and Emmy winner Greg Kinnear resuming the lead role of courageous lawyer and father Atticus Finch. Mockingbird opened on Dec. 13, 2018 with Jeff Daniels as Atticus and has been one of the most financially successful straight plays in Broadway history. The play re-opened on Oct. 5, 2021 with Daniels and Tony winner Celia Keenan Bolger returning to their original roles. Kennear took over on Jan. 5. It will have played 626 performances and 45 previews.
Meanwhile, the current tenant of the Belasco, Girl from the North Country, will play its final performance on Jan. 23. The producers have stated it will reopen sometime in the spring at a Shubert theater to be announced. Girl is written and directed by Connor McPherson and employs the songs of Nobel Prize winner Bob Dylan to chronicle the travails of the denizens of a rooming-house in Depression-era Duluth, Minnesota, Dylan’s hometown. It originated in London and played the Public Theater Off-Broadway. The current production opened on Broadway March 5, 2020 but had to close a week later due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The show re-opened on Oct. 13, 2021 and will have played a total of 31 previews and 117 regular performances.
“Working on Broadway with this show has been an incredible and beautiful experience,” said Girl producers Tristan Baker and Charlie Parsons. “We are eternally grateful to our amazing cast and crew for their unwavering commitment, fortitude and professionalism to deliver the very best show each night. We are most appreciative to our fans and the Broadway community for welcoming us with open arms. We really believe in this show and are looking forward to seeing it in another Shubert house in the spring.”
“Girl From The North Country is an important part of this season,” said Robert E. Wankel, Chairman and CEO of The Shubert Organization. “We have always been supportive of this show, and we are excited about bringing it to another theater in the spring.”
“Although this is a very challenging time for all forms of live entertainment, Broadway is still open with gold standard protocols in place to keep everyone on both sides of the curtain safe,” said executive producer Aaron Lustbader. “We are looking forward to bringing Girl From The North Country back to Broadway later this spring.”
Rumor has it that Mockingbird vacated the Shubert because another production–possibly Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Cinderella–has its eye on the house for a fall opening.
In other news, after two postponements due to COVID outbreaks in the company, Skeleton Crew has announced a new opening date at the Samuel J. Freidman. Dominique Morriseau’s drama about the workers in a Detroit auto parts factory starring Phylicia Rashad will now open on Jan. 26.
Mr. Saturday Night, the musical based on the 1992 Billy Crystal film about a TV comic trying for a comeback, has announced opening dates and additional cast. The tuner with a score by Jason Robert Brown and Amanda Green, will open at the Nederlander on April 27 instead of the previously announced March 31. Singer-songwriter Shoshana Bean joins the Crystal, Randy Graff, Oscar nominee David Paymer, and Chasten Harmon.
2021-22 Broadway/Off-Broadway Schedule
Jan. 23–Long Day’s Journey Into Night (Audible Theater/Minetta Lane)
Jan. 26–Skeleton Crew (MTC/Samuel J. Friedman)
Jan. 27–Intimate Apparel (LCT/Mitzi Newhouse)
Feb. 1–MJ: The Michael Jackson Musical (Neil Simon); Prayer for the French Republic (MTC/City Center)
Feb. 3–Sandblasted (Vineyard)
Feb. 5–The Merchant of Venice (TFANA/Polonksy Shakespeare Center)
Feb. 7–Tambo and Bones (Playwrights Horizons)
Feb. 10–The Music Man (Winter Garden)
Feb. 15–Black No More (The New Group)
Feb. 14–Sleep No More (McKittrick Hotel)
Feb. 22–English (Atlantic Theater Company)
Feb. 23–On Sugarland (NYTW)
March 14–Mrs. Doubtfire re-opens (Sondheim)
March 17–The Little Prince (Broadway)
March 24–for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf (Booth)
March 28–Plaza Suite (Hudson)
April 3–Paradise Square (Barrymore)
April 4–Take Me Out (Second Stage/Hayes)
April 6–Suffs (Public Theater)
April 7–The Minutes (Studio 54)
April 8–Beetlejuice (Marriott Marquis)
April 10–Birthday Candles (Roundabout/AA)
April 13–Harmony (Museum of Jewish Heritage)
April 14–American Buffalo (Circle In the Square); To My Girls (Second Stage/Kiser)
April 19–How I Learned to Drive (MTC/Samuel J. Friedman)
April 23–Wedding Band (TFANA/Polonsky Shakespeare Center)
April 24–Funny Girl (August Wilson)
April 25–The Skin of Our Teeth (LTC/Vivian Beaumont)
April 27–Mr. Saturday Night (Nederlander)
April 28–Macbeth (Longacre)
April 30–The Bedwetter (Atlantic Theater Company)
Spring 2022–A Strange Loop (Lyceum)
May 17–Golden Shield (MTC/City Center)
June 1–To Kill a Mockingbird re-opens (Belasco)
Fall 2022
1776 (Roundabout/AA)
Between Riverside and Crazy (Second Stage/Hayes)
2022
Ain’t Supposed to Die a Natural Death, The Ohio State Murders, The Piano Lesson
2022-23
Dancin’, Pal Joey, Square One
2023 and Beyond
Game of Thrones, The Great Gatsby
Future–Cinderella; Our Town; Death of a Salesman; K-pop the Broadway Musical; The Nanny; The Normal Heart/The Destiny of Me; Smash; Some Like It Hot; Soul Train; The Who’s Tommy
2021-22 Broadway Season Breakdown:
New Plays
Birthday Candles
Chicken and Biscuits
Clyde’s
Dana H. (transfer from Off-Broadway)
Is This A Room (transfer from Off-Broadway)
The Lehman Trilogy (transfer from Off-Broadway)
The Minutes
Pass Over (previously presented Off-Broadway)
Skeleton Crew (previously presented Off-Broadway in a different production)
Thoughts of a Colored Man
Play Revivals
American Buffalo
for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf
How I Learned to Drive
Lackawanna Blues (previously produced Off-Broadway)
Macbeth
Plaza Suite
The Skin of Our Teeth
Slave Play (return engagement)
Take Me Out
Trouble in Mind
New Musicals
Diana
Flying Over Sunset
The Little Prince
MJ: The Michael Jackson Musical
Mr. Saturday Night
Mrs. Doubtfire
Paradise Square
Six
A Strange Loop (previously presented Off-Broadway in a different production)
Musical Revivals
Beetlejuice (return engagement)
Caroline, or Change
Company
Funny Girl
Waitress (return engagement)
Specialties
Bruce Springsteen on Broadway (return engagement)
David Bryne’s American Utopia (return engagement)
Freestyle Love Supreme (return engagement)
The cast of “To Kill a Mockingbird”. Credit: Emilio Madrid
The cast of “Girl from the North Country“. Credit: Matthew Murphy
Originally Posted on The David Desk 2 on January 13, 2022
