The Immigrant Finds a Home at the Variety Arts

Because of construction delays at 37 Arts the new off-Broadway theater complex being developed by producers Harriet Newman Leve, Dan Markley, Kevin McCollum and Jeffrey Seller, Broadway.com has learned that the Jewish-themed tuner The Immigrant will not open there after all. The show will instead play at the Variety Arts Theatre, where performances will begin on October 15.

The Immigrant, based on Mark Harelik's play of the same name, tells the story of a young Jewish immigrant who fled the pogroms of Czarist Russia in 1909 and pushed his banana cart into the tiny Baptist community of Hamilton, Texas. Given shelter by a childless older couple, he sent for his wife, raised a family and made the town his home. The show features a book by Harelik, lyrics by Sarah Knapp and music by Steven M. Alper.

The musical, directed by Randal Myler, ran at Cap 21 in New York from September 13 through October 8, 2000 with Jacqueline Antaramian, Walter Charles, Cass Morgan and Evan Pappas. It was then performed by the Denver Center Theatre Company in the winter of 2002 and at Florida's Coconut Grove Playhouse in the spring of that year. Antaramian, Charles, Adam Heller and Morgan starred in both of the 2002 mountings and will reprise their roles off-Broadway.

A production spokesperson could not confirm the change of venues for The Immigrant.