EXCLUSIVE: The Broadway League delivered welcome news to its members today: New York State found the funds to extend a valuable tax credit by five weeks, with another extension possible.
Empire State Development will accept applications for the New York City Musical and Theatrical Production Tax Credit for shows having their first paid performance by Oct. 20, 2025, according to the state. The previous deadline for the first performance was this Monday, Sept. 15.
The extension means that the upcoming Broadway plays Liberation and Little Bear Ridge Road and the musicals Chess and The Queen of Versailles will now be eligible for the credit, which subsidizes 25 percent of most production costs and is worth a maximum $3 million per Broadway show and $350,000 off-Broadway. The starry revivals of Art, which is in previews, and Waiting for Godot, which is scheduled to begin previews tomorrow, Sept. 13, were already eligible.
The credit “continues to be vital to the funding of Broadway productions,” League President Jason Laks said in a statement in July, when news broke that the program’s funds had been depleted.
Shubert Organization President Jeff Daniel, the government subsidy guru of the League — the trade association of theater owners and producers — wrote in an email to members today: “This new date takes into account current projections and ensures that all eligible applications can receive their expected credit. Additionally, ESD [Empire State Development] will continue to monitor the availability of funds and may extend the period further if funds allow.”
Introduced in 2021 to help Broadway recover from the pandemic, the credit has been an incentive to invest in an industry grappling with inflated costs and, with notable exceptions, daunting losses. The credit can take months off a production’s path to recoupment, or offer some financial recovery on flops that otherwise would result in total loss of capital.
The program is technically to expire on Sept. 30, 2027. Laks has told members and reporters that the League will lobby the state to fund the program going forward as well as retroactively, so that all eligible shows this season could ultimately get the credit. An ESD spokeswoman wasn’t immediately available for comment. A League spokesman declined to comment.
Queen of Versailles is Stephen Schwartz’s first new Broadway musical since the composer-lyricist’s 2003 blockbuster Wicked. Samuel D. Hunter’s Little Bear Ridge Road, starring Laurie Metcalf, is Scott Rudin’s first Broadway production since Rudin left the industry following extensive stories about his bullying of staff. Chess is Lea Michele’s first Broadway show since she proved herself to be a major Broadway star in Funny Girl. Bess Wohl’s Liberation is an acclaimed drama about feminism and identity that’s transferring from the nonprofit Roundabout Theatre Co., which presented it off-Broadway.
