4000 Miles: Timothée Chalamet’s West End debut cancelled two years after play was due to open

Timothée Chalamet’s West End debut has been cancelled two years after it was originally due to open.

The Call Me By Your Name star, 26, had been set to star opposite 87-year-old Eileen Atkins in Amy Herzog’s play 4000 Miles at London’s Old Vic, which was first announced in 2019.

The production was one of the theatre’s best-selling shows of all time. However, its April 2020 opening was delayed in March 2020 due to the pandemic with a future reopening date promised at the time.

On Thursday (5 May), ticketholders were sent an email announcing that 4000 Miles would not be returning.

“Following its postponement due to the pandemic, and despite an enormous amout of effort from all involved, we have now sadly and reluctantly concluded that we are unable to reschedule the show at a time possible for everyone involved,” the statement read.

“It’s been a long journey to get to this point and despite two years of trying hard to make it work, it has proved impossible.”

They continued: “It’s hard to believe that it’s almost two years to the day that we should have been stepping onto The Old Vic stage for the first preview to share our show with an extremly eager audience (4000 Miles was one of the top-selling shows ever to be scheduled at this theatre).”

The Old Vic added that they had struggled financially during the pandemic, when the theatre “lost all its earnt income overnight and had to sustain for almost two years without it”.

Refunds are available, but the theatre is asking ticketholders to consider donating the value of their ticket to keep the venue running.

Matthew Warchus had been due to direct 4000 Miles, which follows a 21-year-old who vanishes while cycling across the United States with his best friend, only to turn up at his grandmother’s Manhattan home after weeks of silence.

The play debuted off Broadway in 2011 and was nominated for the 2013 Pulitzer Prize for Drama.