Roundabout Theatre shifts Broadway lineup to 2021

The theatre company has added Alice Childress's Trouble in Mind to its programming, and moved productions of Caroline, or Change and Birthday Candles to 2021.

UPDATE: Roundabout Theatre Company announced a change to its programming on November 17. For more information, read here.

Roundabout Theatre Company announced an update to its upcoming season on Broadway, with the second postponement of two productions and an additional production.

The company has added the Broadway debut of Alice Childress's Trouble in Mind, directed by Charles Randolph-Wright, to the season's lineup. Known as a founding member of the American Negro Theatre, Childress was the first Black woman to be produced professionally in New York with her play Gold Through the Trees in 1952. Trouble in Mind will open at the American Airlines Theatre in winter 2021/22.

"With the ongoing uncertainty of the pandemic and with concern for our artists, staff, and audiences, we have determined that we will not be able to reopen our theaters this fall," said Artistic Director/CEO Todd Haimes in a statement. "While this decision brings tremendous financial challenges—and is genuinely heartbreaking—our artistic team is continuing to build and evolve our work for the future. I'm pleased to add Alice Childress to the lineup of great writers that Roundabout celebrates and to give this play its overdue Broadway premiere, directed by our Board member and friend Charles Randolph-Wright."

The revival of Caroline, or Change, which is a transfer of the acclaimed 2018 West End production starring Olivier Award winner Sharon D. Clarke, will be postponed again to spring 2021. The Jeanine Tesori and Tony Kushner musical was originally scheduled to start performances in March but was shuttered due to the COVID-19 pandemic. While the production was rescheduled for the fall, a Broadway reopening is looking increasingly unlikely this year, and the production is now planned for spring 2021 at Studio 54.

Noah Haidle's Birthday Candles, starring Debra Messing will now open on Broadway at the American Airlines Theatre in fall 2021. The new play, which follows a woman over five generations of birthdays, was initially set to open in April and was initially postponed to this fall. However, the production has now been moved to fall 2021. 

The previously announced production of 1776, directed by Diane Paulus, will open as planned in spring 2021. 

As far as the Off-Broadway lineup goes, Jiréh Breon Holder's ...what the end will be will open at the Laura Pels Theatre in spring 2021, and Dave Harris's Exception to the Rule will also open in spring 2021. 

Additional dates and casting will be announced at a later date. 

^{Photo credit: Sharon D. Clarke in Caroline, or Change}