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Although Broadway officially re-opens in September, theater lovers will be delighted to know that the very first play since the pandemic forced the theater district to shut down will actually kick off performances in August. You read that right.
Previews for Pass Over, a new 85-minute play by Antoinette Chinonye Nwandu focusing on two Black men trapped on a street corner, will begin at the August Wilson Theatre on 52nd Street on August 4. Tickets will go on sale this Friday at 10am EST.
The nature of the show, which features three actors and requires no intermission, certainly lends itself to the safety procedures that define our new world order. However, the decision to begin previews a whole month before the rest of Broadway will is clearly an important one. Hadestown, set to return on September 2, was the show boasting the earliest premiere date until now (here are all the other productions you can already buy tickets for).
Directed by Danya Taymor, the show is a take on the Samuel Beckett play Waiting for Godot. It actually ran at Lincoln Center Theater back in 2018 and at Chicago's Steppenwolf Theater Company before that, in 2017. New Yorker Spike Lee filmed the latter production, now available for streaming on Amazon Prime.
But do expect 2021's version of the story to look slightly different than previous iterations. "Though much about Pass Over remains a lament over the lives of Black people stolen too soon, I am happy to confirm that my team and I, along with our producers, are presenting a new version that centers the health, hope, and joy of our audiences, especially Black people," Nwandu said in an official statement about the production. "We are reuniting to envision this play again, to tell a version of the story on Broadway where Moses and Kitch both survive their encounter with white oppression."
Following previews in August, the play will open at full capacity (1,190 seats!) on September 12 and run through October 10. Of course, health official will be consulted prior to the opening and safety guidelines are expected to be in place.