Armie Hammer Withdraws From The Minutes on Broadway

Armie Hammer has withdrawn from the Broadway production of The Minutes.

The announcement was made today amid an investigation of Hammer by the Los Angeles Police Department concerning sexual assault allegations.

"I have loved every single second of working on The Minutes with the family I made from Steppenwolf," Hammer said in a statement. "But right now I need to focus on myself and my health for the sake of my family. Consequently, I will not be returning to Broadway with the production."

The Minutes, written by Tracy Letts, had played 19 previews before it was forced to shut down due to the Covid crisis. The Steppenwolf production is still planning to return to Broadway on March 15, 2022 (exactly two years to the day of the originally scheduled opening), after having vacated the Cort Theatre to make way for the venue's renovations. A new theater for the production has yet to be announced.

As of now, the whole creative team remains intact. It is expected that the rest of the Broadway company — Ian Barford, Blair Brown, Cliff Chamberlain, K. Todd Freeman Tracy Letts, Danny McCarthy, Jessie Mueller, Sally Murphy, Austin Pendleton, and Jeff Still — will return. Anna D. Shapiro directs.

The Minutes premiered at Steppenwolf Theatre Company in 2017. The play is set during a small town's city council meeting, when hypocrisy, greed, and ambition bubble to the surface as a newcomer starts to ask the wrong questions.