New Play Relocates After Connelly Theater Closure

Following the abrupt closure of the Connelly Theater a couple of weeks ago, The Hearth’s planned future production ”Racecar Racecar Racecar,” which was intended to be performed there, seemed to be in jeopardy of not being produced.

Now, a new location has been secured, with ”Racecar Racecar Racecar” currently in rehearsals for its December run at the Mezzanine Theatre at A.R.T./New York Theatres.

The Connelly Theater’s closure came after the theater’s owner, the New York Archdiocese, prevented the Connelly Theater from hosting a production of “Becoming Eve,” amid a seeming shift to stricter regulations of what the theater was and was not allowed to host.

Julia Greer, the Producing Artistic Director of The Hearth, found her production canceled as a result. This was despite the show having been approved far earlier than was typical, even under the former guidelines. In fact, Greer said, “Racecar Racecar Racecar” was the last production approved before the stricter rules were put in place.

“I think people thought we could just go along and do the play, even if it was the last one,” Greer said, explaining that she was not concerned at first. “And then everything in that weekend before the announcement in the NY Times came out sort of spiraled, and [it] seemed that it was not going to be possible, or even if possible, a very bad idea to do it there.”

In in the story breaking the news that the Roman Catholic Archdiocese was shutting the theater down, the New York Times wrote: “The Connelly Theater in New York’s East Village has for years been a shabby but warm haven for adventurous performing arts: the play “Job,” which is now wrapping up a Broadway run; Kate Berlant’s “Kate,” a one-woman show that went on to London and California after selling out downtown; and the satire “Circle Jerk,” a Pulitzer finalist in 2021.

But then the Archdiocese began taking a hard look at the content of some of the plays that were being staged and decided to intervene, triggering a clause in the contract with the producers that allowed the theater to bar anything that it considered obscene, pornographic or detrimental to the church’s reputation.

Joel Luxenberg, who had been the general manager for a decade resigned in protest on Oct. 18. Then the Archdiocese said it was shutting down entirely.

Had the theater not been closed, Greer is not entirely certain “Racecar Racecar Racecar” would have been put on at the Connelly under the new leadership anyway—and even if it were, she explained, she would still consider not using the facility in solidarity.

“Once we learned more about the types of plays that were being censored and why and the artists working on those plays, it ... started to feel like the chances of us getting shut down were higher,” Greer said. “But also, it just felt — in terms of how we want to produce a play and how we want to present a play to the world—that it started to feel not like a good idea.”

Luckily, the A.R.T./New York Theatres location was able to work out, and rehearsals are chugging along as normal.

“I am always a believer that any play that happens feels like a small miracle, especially these days,” Greer said. “And I think there’s been so much gratitude and excitement and relief that we get to do this play with the same team and on the same timeline ... It feels really, I think, even more special and lucky that we get to all do it because it was threatened.”

“Racecar Racecar Racecar” will play at the Mezzanine Theatre at A.R.T./New York Theatres from Dec. 6 through Dec. 22.