Broadway’s Room stars Adrienne Warren and Ephraim Sykes, along with choreographer Galen Hooks, are speaking out on the the bizarre, last-minute “indefinite postponement” of the much anticipated spring production.
“We do not know what happened,” says Warren, the Tina star who was to play the lead role in the Room stage adaptation that was to begin previews next month. “We have no idea. As this continues to unfold, I just want to publicly say, it is not a reflection on the beautiful souls in this piece. It is not a reflection on our creatives.”
Watch the video here.
Warren added that the the cast and creatives “are completely heartbroken that we don’t get to share this beautiful piece with you,” but the actor quickly added the word “yet.”
Producers announced last week, that the Broadway production of Emma Donoghue’s play, based on her novel Room and its successful film adaptation, was indefinitely postponed due to a “shortfall in capitalization” that occurred with the “withdrawal” of a lead producer due to personal reasons. Room was to have begun previews on April 3 at the James Earl Jones Theatre ahead of an official opening on April 17. The limited production would have run through September 17.
Nathan Gehan, the producer who withdrew his ShowTown Productions from the Room engagement, has told The New York Times that he left the project due to a family crisis and that he had endeavored to secure enough financial commitments to meet his company’s commitment. But lead producer Hunter Arnold said that none of ShowTown’s potential fill-ins were viable options to meet the shortfall, thought to be about $7 million.
In her Instagram video with Sykes and Hooks, Warren says cast remains “hopeful that something will happen, and the universe will allow us to bring this to you in whatever way.” Adds Sykes, “We were pouring our hearts and souls into something that meant so much to us, and still does.”
“Every single day it was just bliss, the way we were using movement to tell the story in a completely new way in a piece with a Black cast,” says Hooks, who was making her Broadway debut as a choreographer with Room. “I hope somewhere down the line you get to see the magic they were doing.”