The Broadway League and American Theatre Wing indefinitely postponed the 2020 Tony Awards, which was scheduled for June 7 at Radio City Music Hall.
This afternoon’s announcement follows the postponement of three Broadway shows presented by nonprofit companies until the fall: the new musical Flying Over Sunset at Lincoln Center Theater; and a revival of Caroline, Or Change and a new play, Birthday Candles, starring Debra Messing, at the Roundabout Theatre Co. Two commercially produced plays have been cancelled: Martin McDonagh’s Hangmen and a revival of Edward Albee’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
Additional postponements and cancellations are likely, with nearly a dozen openings still officially scheduled before the April 23 cut-off date for Tony eligibility.
With New York now the epicenter of the United States’ coronavirus pandemic, Gov. Andrew Cuomo recently predicted that it will be spreading through society for at least four months. After he ordered Broadway shut down earlier this month, the League, a trade association of producers and theater owners, said that shows would reopen the week of April 13.
That edict was unlikely then and all but impossible now. The League has yet to provide a new date, but said it would update the information as soon as possible.
