Don't let it end, dear friend!

Barbara Cook has canceled her widely ballyhooed return to the New York stage in a concert show conceived by James Lapine and directed by ten-time Tony winner Tommy Tune.

Barbara Cook: Then and Now was to have played 65 scheduled performances April 13-June 26 at Off-Broadway's New World Stages–Stage One. But producer Producer Furman, in association with Sandy Robertson and Luigi Caiola, released a statement saying, “Yesterday, after meeting with Barbara, Tommy and James, the decision was made to postpone the production. Barbara has spent the last several months working very hard to finish her book. Going directly into rehearsal to create this new production was causing undue pressure and stress. Despite strong ticket sales and everyone's best intentions, we all agreed it was best to postpone the production.”

Cook added “I want all of my friends and fans to know that I look forward to singing again for them very soon.”

No date for a rescheduled concert was announced.

All tickets purchased by credit card will be refunded by Telecharge to the credit card. Those who purchased tickets at the box office with cash, should return tickets to the box office for refund.

For additional ticket information, call Telecharge at (800) 447-7400 or visit Telecharge.com.

Barbara Cook’s autobiography bearing the same title, Barbara Cook: Then and Now, is still scheduled to be released by HarperCollins in June.

Three-time Tony Award winner Lapine (Into the Woods, Sunday in the Park With George, Passion) had been credited with conceiving the evening, described in press notes as “a poignant one-woman performance that takes you on a vibrant and candid journey through her remarkable life. Discover the people and the moments, the challenges and the triumphs that shaped her life–in a one-of-a-kind musical memoir you will never forget.”

Tony Winner Barbara Cook Shares Her Theatregoing Experiences

Lapine will return to Broadway next season, directing a revival of Falsettos.

Cook, 88, starred on Broadway in the original casts of the musicals The Music Man, Candide, Plain and Fancy, Flahooley and The Grass Harp, and was last on Broadway in the musical Sondheim on Sondheim in 2010. She was also the lead in the 1963 musical She Loves Me, which is being revived this spring with Laura Benanti in the role she originated, and which supplied her with her signature song, "Vanilla Ice Cream."

“As I began to write my upcoming memoir, I was surprised by how moved I was in revisiting my early years and later my alcoholic years,” Cook said when the concert was announced, “I’ve always felt that the narrative of my life came through many of the songs I sing, both tunes I’ve introduced and favorites that have spoken to me through different chapters of my life. I’m hoping this evening will be a live companion piece to the book that taught me more about my own life than I ever would have expected.”