I’ve heard of soft openings. You know, like when a restaurant has customers in before its grand opening, with little fanfare.
But I can’t say I’ve ever heard of a soft theater season announcement.
The Shubert knows four of the five main shows in its 2014-15 season. There are posters touting these shows in the theater’s lobby. But no press release has gone out, no official announcements have been made, and there’s nothing on the website.
Anthony Lupinacci, the Shubert’s longtime marketing director, says it’s due to quirky timing. One final show is being negotiated, and that should be known soon. But the current Shubert season ends this weekend with We Will Rock You, and then the theater’s dark for the entire summer while it undergoes renovations in time for the 100th anniversary celebrations it has planned. So it was decided that something ought to be done, even if it’s just posters in the lobby.
One of the shows has already been announced: Matilda, which is having its first national tour built and rehearsed in New Haven. The Shubert performances, May 16-23, 2015, will technically be tech rehearsals, since the official start of the tour is in California
The other shows, which you’re hearing about first here at Theater Jerk unless you happened to be looking up at the walls of the Shubert lobby earlier this evening: