Steppenwolf’s Osage County Finally Gets Its Broadway Run

BY Becky Brett

The stagehands strike is over, with ratification expected early next week, and that means shows are open on Broadway again. That’s good news for Steppenwolf executive director David Hawkanson, who has watched his theatre’s newest Broadway entry, August: Osage County, stymied by the walk-out.

“I’ve been up so many nights waiting for the call at 5 a.m. that it’s over,” said Hawkinson.

The strike ended the night of Nov. 28, and most shows were up and running for the weekend. Osage County resumed previews on Nov. 29, with an official opening on Dec. 4. The play originally started previews on Oct. 30, but was robbed of its Nov. 20 scheduled opening night because of the strike.

Steppenwolf announced shortly before Thanksgiving that they would extend the run by three weeks (now ending March 9, 2008).

Osage County’s cast were going “out of their minds” during the 19-day strike, said Hawkanson. “As you can imagine, we got the show up, they previewed for two weeks to good audiences—receiving the same kind of enthusiastic response as in Chicago—and then it was gone.”

Letts’ show was not the only one in limbo. The strike caused the postponement of the opening of three other Broadway shows: Aaron Sorkin’s The Farnsworth Invention, Conor McPherson’s The Seafarer and Disney’s The Little Mermaid.

It’s not an easy decision to take a show to Broadway, but when the right project comes along, producers want to jump on it. Taking August: Osage County was a measured risk because, as Hawkanson understated, “This is a very unusual production for a commercial house. I’m not the least bit worried that the show will be well-received, but there’s one small criteria: you have to be in front of an audience.”

Hawkinson was afraid that with each passing day of the strike, the show would lose momentum to draw audiences. The difficult part, he said, was “not knowing when it would begin again.”

It is interesting to note, though, that in spite of the difficulties brought about by an uncertain opening night, the concern showed by the press that this show might not happen has seemed to generate more interest than they had going into the production.