Breaking News: PUMP BOYS AND DINETTES Postpones Broadway Production

Producers Abby Lee, David B. Brode, Lee Seymour, Alec Seymour, Suzanne & Michael H. Moskow and Executive Producer Tom Viertel announced today that the new Broadway production of Pump Boys and Dinettes has postponed its Broadway opening.

"On behalf of my fellow producers and investors, we are all so excited to bring Pump Boys and Dinettes back to Broadway," producer Abby Lee said. "With the crowded landscape on Broadway this spring, we all agreed that the wise choice was to proceed with a new opening date. We are in the process of determining the updated production schedule and look forward to sharing this wonderful musical with Broadway audiences in the near future."

Full production details will be announced at a later date. Pump Boys and Dinettes was previously scheduled to begin previews on Tuesday, March 19th at Circle in the Square Theatre (1633 Broadway) with an opening on Monday, April 8th.

Conceived and written by the original company, John Foley, Mark Hardwick, Tony Award-winner Debra Monk, Cass Morgan, John Schimmel and Jim Wann, John Doyle directs this new production of Pump Boys and Dinettes, a tribute to life by the roadside, which takes place on Highway 57. Somewhere in America's heartland, between Frog Level and Smyrna, North Carolina, stands a rest stop, for those who need a good rest. The four hard-working fellas at the gas station, Jim, Jackson, Eddie and L.M., have been known to do some auto repairs, but only when aided by ample quantities of time, great tunes and a few beers while they're at it. Just a few feet away, there's also a roadside eatery, the Double Cupp Diner, where the Cupp sisters, Prudie and Rhetta, celebrate their famous home cooking and gift for song with the same zeal they bring to their kinship with the boys.

An exuberant mixture of heartland-pop concert and musical theatre, Pump Boys and Dinettes premiered at the Chelsea West Side Arts Theatre on July 10, 1981, transferring to the Colonnades Theatre in October of that year. The production became a sensation, immediately plugging into the zeitgeist and galvanizing audiences with soul-grabbing hits like "Be Good or Be Gone," "Pump Boys" and "Vacation." The success of the Off-Broadway production led Pump Boys and Dinettes to open on Broadway at the Princess Theatre on February 4, 1982, where it went on to play 573 performances and was nominated for both Tony and Drama Desk Awards for Best Musical. The New York Times called the show, "Both musically and theatrically, a triumph of ensemble playing. It doesn't merely celebrate the value of friendship and life's simple pleasures, it embodies them," while Newsweek called the show "Totally delightful," and the New York Post, "Such fun!"