Off-B'way Garden of Earthly Delights Announces Early Closing

The off-Broadway revival of Martha Clarke’s Garden of Earthly Delights has announced an early closing date. It will now play its final performance on April 5. Based on Hieronymus Bosch’s  landmark triptych, the production opened at the Minetta Lane Theatre on November 19. It was originally set for a 12-week run but extended twice, the second time through May 31. Producers cite the downturn in the economy as the reason for the early closing.

A 70-minute piece that plays without intermission, Garden of Earthly Delights uses music, dance and trapeze art to dramatize Bosch’s surreal painting, which presents three sides of the human experience, from the innocence of Adam and Eve to the chaos and debauchery of life on earth before ending with a vision of hell.

The original production of Garden of Earthly Delights premiered at the Theatre at St. Clement's in 1984 before transferring to the Minetta Lane in 1987. The show was honored with a Drama Desk Award for Unique Theatrical Experience, an Obie Award for Richard Peaslee’s score and a Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award for choreography. It returned to the Minetta Lane last November for the current acclaimed revival.

Garden of Earthly Delights features Sophie Bortolussi, Benjamin G. Bowman, Daniel Clifton, Marjorie Folkman, General McArthur Hambrick, Whitney V. Hunter, Gabby Malone, Jennifer Nugent, Matt Rivera, Jenny Sandler, Isadora Wolfe. Music is provided by Wayne Hankin winds, Egil Rostad cello and Arthur Solari music director, percussion.

Following its New York engagement, Garden of Earthly Delights will embark on a world tour. Details on cities, dates and theaters have yet to be announced.