The Broadway production of Martin McDonagh’s new comedy Hangmen will not resume performances when the coronavirus shutdown is lifted. The producers of the Olivier Award-winning play, starring Downton Abbey‘s Dan Stevens and Game of Thrones‘ Mark Addy, said today that they do not “have the economic resources” to reopen.
In a statement, producers Robert Fox, Jean Doumanian, Elizabeth I. McCann and Craig Balsam said, “Because of the current health crisis which has created circumstances beyond our control, it is with deep regret that we are not able to resume performances of Hangmen. With no definite end in sight of the government’s closure and Broadway’s suspension, we have no alternative but to release the actors from their contracts and close the production.”
The statement continues: “Given our show’s budget and capitalization, we do not have the economic resources to be able to continue to pay the theater owners, cast and crew through this still undefined closure period. Therefore, in the interests of all involved, we regretfully have no choice but to close the show. We are all extremely disappointed that we cannot give Martin McDonagh and our fabulous director, cast and team the celebrated opening they all deserve.”
The decision marks Broadway’s first permanent closure since the March 12 four-week shutdown was announced. The Broadway League, the trade organization representing producers and theater owners, is considering extending the shutdown to eight weeks in accordance with guidance from the Centers for Disease Control, but no decision has been announced.
In all, 31 productions went dark on March 12, with a then-announced re-opening set for March 13.
Director Matthew Dunster’s Hangmen, a Royal Court Theatre/Atlantic Theater Company production, won the 2016 Olivier Award for Best Play following its world premiere at London’s Royal Court Theatre in September 2015 and a transfer to the West End’s Wyndham’s Theatre in 2016. Hangmen made its US Premiere Off Broadway in a sold-out January 18-March 7 2018 engagement at the Atlantic Theater Company; the production won the New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award for Best Foreign Play.
The Broadway production was to have starred Stevens, Mark Addy, Tracie Bennett, Ewen Bremner, Owen Campbell, Jeremy Crutchley, Gaby French, Josh Goulding, John Hodgkinson, Richard Hollis, John Horton and Ryan Pope.
The play would have marked Stevens’ return to Broadway after his 2013 debut in The Heiress opposite Jessica Chastain. He was to have played Mooney, a mysterious newcomer to the Northern England pub where Harry (Addy, reprising his Off Broadway performance) holds court as one of England’s last executioners. The play is set in 1965, after hanging has been abolished in England.
Hangmen would have been McDonagh’s seventh Broadway production, and his first since directing the Oscar-nominated film Three Billboards Outside of Ebbing, Missouri.
Tickets will be automatically refunded for purchasers who bought tickets with a credit card from Telecharge, TKTS, TDF or at the Golden Theatre box office.
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