Bushnell cancels ‘When Playwrights Kill’ tryout run
“When Playwrights Kill,” won’t be killing in Hartford.
A planned out-of-town tryout of the new comedy “When Playwrights Kill” by Matthew Lombardo, scheduled to play The Bushnell Performing Arts Center in late July and early August, won’t be happening after all.
The show’s producers announced Tuesday afternoon that they had decided to develop the play in New York City this summer instead. On social media, Lombardo announced that “When Playwrights Kill” will be doing invitation-only “presentations” at the Pershing Square Signature Center in New York City during the same time period when it would otherwise have been in Hartford.
While the producers hope to bring “When Playwrights Kill” to Hartford at a future time, there are no firm plans for that, so all ticket purchases for the run are being refunded. Ticketholders can contact the Bushnell box office for details.
“When Playwrights Kill” was an unusual booking for The Bushnell: a multi-week engagement of a work-in-progress, featuring some big-name Broadway stars, in the performing arts center’s smaller Belding Theater space. It harkened back to Connecticut’s mid-20th century role as a place to try out shows before they went to Broadway. In recent decades, new plays still regularly get workshops and try-outs in Connecticut, but usually at regional theaters such as Hartford Stage, Yale Repertory Theatre or Goodspeed Musicals. The Bushnell generally books national tours of musicals that have already succeeded on Broadway.
Lombardo was born and raised in Wethersfield. His play about Katharine Hepburn, “Tea at Five” premiered at Hartford Stage in 2002 before moving to Broadway. Another Lombardo work, “High,” had its world premiere at Theaterworks Hartford in 2010. The playwright also was one of the original contributors to the Theaterworks seasonal hit “Christmas on the Rocks,” creating a “The Grinch Who Stole Christmas” parody scene which he later expanded into the full-length one-person off-broadway show “Who’s Holiday!” A post-new York tour of “Looped” played The Bushnell in 2013.
“We are so excited to explore the further development of this play,” producers said in a statement accompanying The Bushnell
cancellation announcement. “Although sales were strong in Hartford, we decided this shift would benefit all involved, particularly the creative team as they foster their vision in an effort to move this production forward”.
“When Playwrights Kill” stars Jeremy Jordan (Broadway’s “Newsies,” TV’S “Smash”), Harriet Harris (Broadway’s “Thoroughly Modern Millie,” TV’S “Frasier” and “Desperate Housewives”) and André De Shields (Broadway’s “Hadestown” and “The Wiz”) with Arnie Burton, Nik Alexander, Irene Sofia Lucio, Jake Loewenthal, Catherine Lefrere and Darius Wallace also in the cast.
The Bushnell website described the comedy as about an aspiring playwright on the verge of making his Broadway debut who realizes after a disastrous out-of-town tryout that one of the show’s stars “must be stopped!”
It was amusing that a play about out-oftown production troubles would go the out-of-town development route itself, but that’s no longer the case. “When Playwrights Kill,” they will do so in New York.