Frozen has become the most high profile casualty of Broadway's coronavirus shutdown - the show will not return when New York's theatres re-open in September.

The producers of the Disney production have announced the show's permanent closure, making it the third production to shut down completely amid the ongoing global health crisis.

Frozen, which first opened in March, 2018 at the St. James Theatre, was far from a flop and in the week before Broadway's curtains came down in March, the show grossed over $798,600 (£653,000).

"In the summer of 2013, when Frozen began its road to Broadway, two things were unimaginable: that we’d soon have five productions worldwide, and a global pandemic would so alter the world economy that running three Disney shows on Broadway would become untenable," Thomas Schumacher, the president and producer of Disney Theatrical Productions, tells Deadline.

"The extraordinary contribution of Broadway’s original company, plus those who have joined more recently cannot be overstated. Frozen, like all shows, is wholly dependent on those who create and perform them but this was an uncommonly close and talented group and they’ll be missed. Finally, I have to acknowledge our incredible audiences; night after night, the fans showed us how much they loved this show and we look forward to seeing them at Frozen around the world."

The Broadway blackout previously led to the cancellation of two prominent new productions - Martin McDonagh's Hangmen, with Dan Stevens, and Edward Albee's Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, starring Laurie Metcalf - which had been in previews when the shutdown occurred. Producers have since confirmed they will also not return once the suspension ends.

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