Final Hill Cumorah Pageant delayed to 2021 

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The last Hill Cumorah Pageant, the extravagant annual theatrical performance of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints that draws tens of thousands of visitors to Palmyra in Wayne County, has become another arts-related casualty of the coronavirus pandemic.

The church announced Thursday that the final show, which was to be staged in July, would be moved to July 2021.  

In a statement, pageant president Neil Pitts said now "just isn't the time" to hold an event that attracts thousands of people to the Palmyra area.

“We are happy to know that it has been moved to another year," Pitts said. "It would have been heartbreaking to have ended with a cancellation.”

The pageant has been staged annually since 1937 and is a re-enactment of the Book of Mormon that celebrates the hill on which the church's founder, Joseph Smith, unearthed sacred tablets.

The event routinely features a volunteer cast of upward of 700 people and requires a technical crew of more than 100 people. The last event reportedly drew 25,000 attendees.

The church announced in 2018 that it would halt production on several of its large-scale productions, including the Hill Cumorah Pageant.

The final pageant will run July 8-10 and 13-17, 2021.