DCPA cancels “Book of Mormon”
Musical was scheduled to play June 9-28 in Denver
The Tony-winning, nationally touring Broadway musical “The Book of Mormon” on Tuesday canceled its Denver dates amid a cross-country shutdown related to the coronavirus pandemic.
Denver Center for the Performing Arts, which has hosted the musical’s previous shows at the Buell Theatre, shared the news Tuesday afternoon, adding to a list of recent cancellations that includes six other Broadway musicals and plays, 523 educational classes and programs, 19 rental events and two fundraisers.
“The Book of Mormon” was scheduled to play at downtown’s Ellie Caulkins Opera House at the Denver Performing Arts Complex June 9-28. Within minutes of the announcement, Denver Center officials changed the ticketing page at denvercenter.org to remove the dates and sales information.
People who have already purchased tickets will be notified via email by 10 a.m. tomorrow (Wednesday, April 8), and DCPA officials strongly encourage ticketholders to use email and/or denvercenter.org to request refunds due to DCPA’s limited capacity for handling requests by phone.
In addition to requesting a refund for this and the other recently canceled shows, ticketholders will have the option of donating the price of their ticket to the DCPA. The organization is waiting until April 19 to issue refunds to give patrons time to decide, as well as to streamline the credit, donation and refund process, according to a spokeswoman.
If ticketholders do not intentionally request a refund, a credit will automatically be applied to their DCPA account, a spokeswoman said.
The move is not completely unexpected, given that Denver Center officials have been closely watching city and state shelter-in-place orders in recent weeks that have shut down the rest of the performing arts world.
On Thursday, the nonprofit DCPA also announced it was cutting staffing costs by more than 50%, resorting to layoffs, furloughs, salary reductions and other measures to stem the loss of “millions of dollars” in revenue. Officials were not specific about the number of people laid off or the amount of money lost.
The “Book of Mormon,” written by Colorado natives and “South Park” creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone, had been playing for a stunning 360 weeks before producers decided to shutter it today, DCPA officials said.
Notably, producers launched the nationally touring version of “Mormon” at Denver’s Buell Theatre in 2012 before sending it out to the rest of the country.