Joe.My.God. LGBT News
Variety reports:
Broadway’s revival of “West Side Story” will not be returning to the Great White Way when theaters reopen later in the year. “It is with great regret that we are announcing today that the 2020 Broadway revival of ‘West Side Story’ will not reopen,” producer Kate Horton said in a statement.
Broadway has been dark since March 2020, with plans to reopen to full capacity in September. Several shows, including “Mean Girls,” Disney’s “Frozen” and “Beetlejuice,” have permanently closed as well.
One of the producers on “West Side Story” was Scott Rudin, who announced plans to “step back” from his theater and film productions following allegations of abusive and bullying workplace behavior.
The New York Times reports:
Earlier this summer “West Side Story,” the ambitious, avant-garde-tinged revival of the classic musical, got some significant relief: $10 million in federal funding. It was the maximum amount allowed under the new Shuttered Venue Operators Grant initiative, which devoted $16 billion in federal aid to help music clubs, theaters and other live-event businesses recover from the pandemic.
But even with that aid in its war chest, the show announced this week that it would not return to Broadway. Asked about the grant on Tuesday, the show said it would give back the money. “‘West Side Story’ will be returning the entirety of the S.V.O.G. grant with the hope that another production will be able to use the funds,” a spokesman for the show, Rick Miramontez, said in a statement.
The Broadway revival of “West Side Story” got a $10 million federal grant for pandemic relief, the maximum allowed. But it decided not to reopen, and said it would return the money. https://t.co/bg5YpLKsvN
— New York Times Arts (@nytimesarts) August 10, 2021