Broadway's Lack of Vacancies Stall Productions

In a recent New York Times article, numerous Broadway producers discuss the demand for theatres and the impact on their upcoming productions.

"I've never seen it more competitive, or the supply-and-demand imbalance more stark," said [Philip] Smith, whose Shubert group owns 17 theaters. "For the next Broadway season, which begins after Labor Day 2010, we don't have a single theater available. Not one. Everything is committed, and several theaters already have one or two backup shows if a commitment falls through."

The piece also discusses the acclaimed Signature Theatre Company production of "The Orphans’ Home Cycle," currently running Off-Broadway. The show had been rumored to transfer to Broadway, but plans have yet to be finalized. “We couldn’t get the right theater,” one of its producers, Daryl Roth, said in January when the decision was made. (Her team is now aiming for the fall.) “Real estate is really difficult to come by on Broadway these days. And it’s too bad, because some great shows aren’t being seen.”

To read the entire NY Times article, click here.

THE ORPHANS' HOME CYCLE, the world premiere of a three part theatrical event by the late Academy Award and Pulitzer Prize winning playwright Horton Foote, is now in its final two weeks at Off-Broadway's Signature Theatre Company. Following two extensions, the production's critically acclaimed run ends Saturday, May 8.

The world premiere production of THE ORPHANS' HOME CYCLE, a three part theatrical event by the Pulitzer Prize and Academy Award-winning playwright Horton Foote, is co-produced by Signature Theatre Company (James Houghton, Founding Artistic Director; Erika Mallin, Executive Director) and Hartford Stage (Michael Wilson, Artistic Director; Michael Stotts, Managing Director). Wilson directs a 22-member company in the historic, sweeping work.

THE ORPHANS' HOME CYCLE has been nominated for three Lucille Lortel Awards, including Outstanding Play, and five Outer Critics Circle Awards, including Outstanding New Off-Broadway Play.

Set in Foote's fictitious town of Harrison, Texas and based partly on the childhood of Foote's father and the courtship and marriage of his parents, THE ORPHANS' HOME CYCLE is a wide-ranging, intricate work that spans the lives of three families over three decades. All actors in the production play multiple roles and several track their characters through time in the various plays which comprise the Cycle.

THE ORPHANS' HOME CYCLE begins with a father's death in a small Texas town at the turn of the century, a loss that sends his son, Horace Robedaux, on an odyssey through the darkest corners of the heart as he learns to become a husband, father and patriarch.

The ensemble of THE ORPHANS' HOME CYCLE includes Devon Abner, Mike Boland, Pat Bowie, Leon Addison Brown, James Demarse, Hallie Foote, Justin Fuller, Jasmine Amii Harrison, Bill Heck, Henry Hodges, Annalee Jefferies, Virginia Kull, Maggie Lacey, Gilbert Owuor, Jenny Dare Paulin, Pamela Payton-Wright, Bryce Pinkham, Stephen Plunkett, Emily Robinson, Lucas Caleb Rooney, Dylan Riley Snyder and Charles Turner.

The design team for THE ORPHANS' HOME CYCLE includes Jeff Cowie and David M. Barber (Set Design), David C. Woolard (Costume Design), Rui Rita (Lighting Design), John Gromada (Original Music and Sound Design), Jan Hartley (Projection Design), Mark Adam Rampmeyer (Wig and Hair Design). Peter Pucci (Choreography), Ralph Zito (Voice/Dialect Coach) and Mark Olsen (Fight Director).