UPDATE: Operation Mincemeat is bowing to the blizzard after all, as well as a city-wide travel ban: Producers for the show say tonight’s evening performance, its last on Broadway to feature the show’s original British cast, has been canceled.
Today’s matinee performance at 2 p.m. now serves as the cast’s final show; a new American cast begins Tuesday.
But the original cast isn’t leaving without a hearty goodbye. To make up for the canceled performance, original cast David Cumming, Natasha Hodgson, Zoë Roberts, Jak Malone and Claire-Marie Hall will perform a live-stream concert of all the show’s musical numbers at 5:30 p.m. ET today live from the the Laurie Beechman Theatre.
The concert will live-stream on the show’s Instagram account.
“Due to the incoming blizzard, the final Broadway evening performance cancellation is confirmed: Operation Mincemeat has made the difficult decision to cancel their Sunday evening show,” the production said in a statement.
Other Broadway productions canceled their planned Sunday evening performances earlier today as weather forecasters predicted blizzard conditions for this evening.
This afternoon, as a light, wet snow was falling, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced a state of emergency for the city and a travel ban beginning at 9 p.m. tonight, and ending at 12 p.m. Monday. “The state of emergency closes the streets, highways, and bridges of New York City for all traffic, cars, trucks, scooters, and shuts down traffic with some specific exemptions for essential and emergency movement,” the mayor said.
Beginning Tuesday, the all-American cast will lead the British-made Mincemeat for the first time ever, with the cast featuring Julia Knitel, Jeff Kready, Brandon Contreras, Jessi Kirtley and Amanda Jill Robinson
PREVIOUS, 8:58 a.m.: While today’s Broadway matinees are expected to go on as planned, performances scheduled for tonight have been canceled due to the anticipated blizzard and evening travel bans.
The announcement was made by the Broadway League just before 11 a.m. ET today.
The statement reads: “Due to anticipated travel impacts from the impending blizzard and evening travel bans already announced for our surrounding areas, Broadway theatre owners and producers have come to the consensus that evening performances (curtain times at 6pm or later) tonight (Sunday, February 22) will be canceled.”
The League noted that as of 10:30 a.m., Operation Mincemeat has not cancelled its 7:30 p.m. evening performance. (Deadline confirmed that as of 11:30 a.m. tickets were still being sold for the musical.) Tonight’s performance will be the final featuring the production’s original British cast.
Broadway matinee performances (curtain times at 3 p.m. or earlier) are proceeding as planned. (Evening performances have curtain times of 6 p.m. or later).
For questions about exchange or refund policies, theatregoers should contact their point of purchase directly.
The Manhattan Theatre Club’s Broadway production of Bug announced a “$45 snow sale” for all remaining seats for today’s 2 p.m. matinee at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre. (MTC’s Off Broadway The Monsters, at New York City Center, Stage II, was offering $39 snow sales for all remaining seats at today’s 2:30 p.m. matinee).
Among the other shows canceling tonight are Oh, Mary!, All Out: Comedy About Ambition, Stranger Things: The First Shadow, Wicked, Chicago, The Book of Mormon and & Juliet.
Sidewalk and curbside snow piles, grimy and discolored from car exhaust and pet waste, had just begun to melt away this week a month after New York’s last big winter storm.
The National Weather Service has issued blizzard and winter storm warnings for New York City and surrounding areas, with the worst expected to arrive Sunday evening into Monday. A light, wet snow began falling in the city before noon with little if any accumulation.
The winter storm will strengthen later in the day, with a whopping 12 to 18 inches of snow expected across most of the region throughout the night and early Monday morning hours. Travel in the region is expected to grow increasingly difficult with the heavier snow.
The storm could bring the biggest snowfall to the region since January 2016, when New York City was socked by its worst snowstorm on record. The last blizzard warning was in March 2017. Weather forecasters are warning that conditions are such that the storm could resemble a winter hurricane. The phrase “bomb cyclone” is also being used.
Snowfall rates of 1 to 2 inches per hour are likely, with wind gusts of 50 to 60 mph near the coast. Whiteout visibility and widespread power outages due to downed trees and lines are a real possibility.