The Roundabout Theatre Company has postponed a proposed production of Spring Awakening, a new rock-musical with music by Duncan Sheik, book and lyrics by Steven Sater and direction by Michael Mayer. It was to have played during the 2002-03 season.

The Long Wharf Theatre, which was to have staged the piece prior to the New York City run, also dropped the show from its schedule. Mayer's full scheduled was cited as a reason.

Neither the Roundabout nor the Long Wharf have named replacement shows, but a spokesperson for the latter voiced the two theatres' commitment to the work.

Spring Awakening is based on the 19th century German dramatist Frank Wedekind's tragedy.

The postponement leaves a second hole in the Roundabout's 2002-03 line up. Last week the company canceled plans for its announced production of Thornton Wilder's classic Our Town. Roundabout artistic director Todd Haimes recently sounded off about the detrimental effect of the newly pumped up League of Resident Theatres (LORT) basic salaries. Haimes had said he might cut Our Town, which has a large cast, from the schedule. "There's a 50-50 chance we won't do it," he told Variety. "We're looking at the budget for next year and we may not be able to afford it... We can't do the same size productions as we did in the past, which for a theatre like ours that does classics is a problem." —By Robert Simonson