Roundabout Theatre Company confirms postponement of Caroline, or Change and Birthday Candles

Roundabout's planned Broadway productions for this spring are now expected be staged in fall 2020.

Roundabout Theatre Company has confirmed that its Broadway revival of Caroline, or Change (originally slated to begin performances at Studio 54 on March 13, 2020) and its Broadway premiere of Birthday Candles (slated from April 2 at the American Airlines Theatre) are now both being postponed until the fall due to the current COVID-19 pandemic.

Two-time Olivier Award winner Sharon D. Clarke and Emmy Award winner Debra Messing remain attached to their respective productions.

Caroline, or Change is written by Tony & Pulitzer Prize winner Tony Kushner and Tony Award winner Jeanine Tesori. This new production, directed by Michael Longhurst, transfers from the UK with Ms. Clarke reprising her 2019 Olivier Award-winning performance in the titular role.

Synopsis: "Sharon D Clarke stars in an exhilarating, Olivier Award-winning performance as Caroline, an African-American maid whose world of 1963 Louisiana ripples with change both large and small. Erupting with transcendent songs and larger-than-life imagination, Caroline, or Change explores how, in times of great transformation, even the simplest acts shake the earth."

Birthday Candles is written by Noah Haidle and directed by Vivienne Benesch. "Will & Grace" favorite Debra Messing stars as Ernestine Ashworth.

Synopsis: "Ernestine Ashworth spends her 17th birthday agonizing over her insignificance in the universe. Soon enough, it's her 18th birthday. Even sooner, her 41st. Her 70th. Her 101st. Five generations, dozens of goldfish, an infinity of dreams, one cake baked over a century. What makes a lifetime...into a life? Birthday Candles is a poignant new play as fearless in scope as it is tremendous in heart."

In addition, Roundabout announced that its planned Off-Broadway productions of Jiréh Breon Holder's ...what the end will be and Dave Harris' Exception to the Rule will now be staged at the Harold & Miriam Steinberg Center for Theatre in 2021.

Revised dates for these four Roundabout Theatre Company productions will be announced in due course.

^{(Caroline, or Change photo by Helen Maybanks / Debra Messing photo courtesy of Polk & Co.)}