Playhouse Square announced this week that touring Broadway productions aren’t expected to return to the downtown Cleveland theaters until next fall.

In a statement released this week, Playhouse Square President and CEO Gina Vernaci said, “Based on what we know today about the state of the virus, the hopeful news regarding a vaccine and the status of the touring industry, we anticipate that Broadway will return to our stages in the fall of 2021.

“It will take time for tours to get back up and running when mass gatherings become safe again. They will have to rehearse for a period of time. Routes and logistics have to be planned out all over the country. It will not happen overnight.”

Playhouse Square events draw more than a million guests annually, and the KeyBank Broadway Series has 34,000 subscribers. While many cities host touring Broadway companies for a week, tours that are part of the series spend at least three weeks in Cleveland. Some, like “Hamilton” in 2018, have longer runs.

“We know this means an even longer wait, but we also know that the Broadway experience at Playhouse Square is worth it,” Vernaci said. “And this is the best way to ensure the safety of our guests.

“As a not-for-profit organization, it is stressful to have our main source of revenue on pause for an extended period of time, but the health and safety of our audiences, performers and staff remains our priority. We were fortunate to be in a position of strength when the pandemic struck, thanks to the foresight of our founding board members who developed a business model combining the arts and real estate, but we will need philanthropic support from our community to sustain our mission-based work, particularly our educational programming, over the coming months.”

Arts education is a large part of Playhouse Square’s mission. Unable to invite school groups due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Playhouse Square is providing access to nine streaming performances accompanied by teacher guides and additional video resources. The are accessible to any northeast Ohio classroom for $20 per show.

Playhouse Square also is partnering with the Cuyahoga County Board of Developmental Disabilities to create and release a series of video resources to help with stress reduction, emotional awareness and other topics for parents of children with sensory needs. A video series that launched with a streaming concert featuring Dan & Claudia Zanes can be accessed at playhousesquare.org/sensoryresources.

news@tribtoday.com