East Haddam-based theatre nonprofit Goodspeed Musicals announced it will start its 2021 season in June, and audiences will have the option to stream the live shows online.
The two-musical 2021 season will feature “South Pacific” and “Anne of Green Gables.”
Goodspeed typically begins its annual season in April, but Director of Marketing Dan McMahon said the performance house will start next season in June and put on two instead of its usual three musicals at the Goodspeed Opera House in East Haddam. The delay is mainly to ensure that audiences will be able to safely gather in its 398-seat theatre when the season starts.
“This is a major, major financial and artistic hit,” McMahon said.
The pandemic forced Goodspeed to cancel its entire 2020 season, and the nonprofit is projecting a $6.6 million revenue loss by the end of the year, McMahon said. The company’s annual budget is $12 million.
Goodspeed has cut its workforce to 24 people — who are all working part time — from its 57-member staff in March, McMahon said, and hasn’t been able to hire some 200 actors, artists and other contractors for the 2020 season it canceled before beginning.
For the foreseeable future, Goodspeed will likely operate as a smaller organization than it did before the COVID-19 pandemic.
“It’s going to take a couple of years to restart and rebuild our organization, and this goes for all theatre and arts organizations,” McMahon said. “We are devastated.”
