"We do not encourage arriving any earlier than 1 hour before curtain, since there will be no interior gathering spaces available." That sentence comes from Paper Mill Playhouse's renovation FAQ for the 2026–27 season. It changes how a show night in Millburn works for the next eight months.
For decades the lobby at 22 Brookside Drive was where the evening started. You met friends there, picked up tickets, browsed the gift shop and finished a drink before the house opened. Construction on the theater's Front of House project began July 1, according to the Short Hills Sentinel, and the old lobby is coming out. Until it is replaced, most of what it did is happening a few blocks away in downtown Millburn. Mary Poppins opens on Wednesday, November 18, and is the first production to run under the new arrangement.
Each Lobby Service Has a New Location
Almost nothing has been cancelled outright. The services were moved.
| What the lobby used to handle | Where it is during the 2026–27 season |
|---|---|
| In-person ticket sales and exchanges | Satellite box office at Paper Mill Studios, 20 Main Street, in municipal Lot 1 |
| Showtime ticket pickup | A pickup point beside the main auditorium entrance |
| Gift shop | Show merchandise at the satellite box office after performances, or ordered in the Paper Mill app for pickup |
| Bars and snacks | Limited pop-up concessions inside the theater |
| Restrooms | Climate-controlled portable units near the entrances, with flushing toilets, running water and accessible units |
| Entry | An enclosed walkway on the Brookside Drive side of the building |
| Gathering before the show | None indoors; the auditorium opens one hour before curtain |
The satellite box office prefers cashless payment because of limited space and cash-handling logistics. The auditorium itself is untouched. Only the mezzanine is closed, because it sits against the construction zone at the front of the house. Construction does not take place during performances.
If you used to arrive 45 minutes early to meet people, have a drink and look around, that time now has to be spent somewhere else, and the theater is directing people downtown.
Your Showtime Decides Where You Park
Parking on campus is tight this season. Lot A is filled with construction trailers and equipment and is closed to patrons. Lots B, C and D are unaffected, but the theater says on-campus parking will still be difficult even with fewer seats sold. It recommends parking in a Millburn municipal lot and carpooling. The renovation FAQ describes downtown lots as paid all day until 6 p.m. and free on Sundays. The shuttle lots and a township pilot program, both covered below, carve out exceptions to that rule.
The free shuttle still runs and drops off in front of the theater. Its two stops follow different calendars. Paper Mill's parking page offers free parking and shuttle service from the commuter Lot 7 at the Millburn train station after 6 p.m. on weekdays and all day on weekends. It also offers the Lot 2 garage on Essex Street after 6 p.m. Monday through Saturday and all day Sunday. The shuttle starts two hours before the show and keeps looping until 30 minutes after the performance ends.
Here is how that works for each type of performance:
- Weekday or Saturday evening. Both Lot 2 and Lot 7 are free after 6 p.m. Lot 2 is in the middle of the restaurant blocks, which makes it the better choice if you are eating downtown first.
- Saturday matinee. Lot 7 is the shuttle lot that offers free all-day parking on Saturdays. Lot 2 is free only after 6 p.m. that day.
- Sunday, any curtain. Both shuttle lots are free all day, and so is every other downtown lot.
- Weekday matinee. Neither shuttle lot is listed for weekday daytime hours. The parking page also notes that Lot D belongs to the Department of Education and is unavailable for weekday matinees while school is in session.
In March, TAPinto Millburn/Short Hills reported that the Township Committee approved a nine-month pilot giving one hour of free parking in the Parking Deck, running March 1 through November 30, 2026. That leaves less than two weeks of overlap with the Mary Poppins run. It also helps with a daytime errand to the satellite box office on Main Street.
Paper Mill also asks patrons not to park at South Mountain Reservation or the Millburn Library.
The Hour Before Curtain Moves to Main Street and Essex Street
Since the auditorium doors open exactly one hour before curtain, the time before that is best spent downtown. Paper Mill says downtown is about a five-minute walk from the theater. Its downtown dining guide includes Millburn Standard, MoonShine Modern Supper Club, Sakura Japanese Restaurant on Essex Street, Sum Ramen, Fiamma Wood Fired Pizza and La Pergola. Millburn Standard's own site lists it as open seven days a week, with a fall menu. Sakura lists 44 Essex Street. Sum Ramen lists its Millburn location at 188 Essex Street. Since the guide was published in 2025, check each restaurant's current hours before booking a pre-theater table.
The Carriage House Restaurant on the Paper Mill campus is still open before the show, at intermission and after the performance, though the FAQ warns it may be a little harder to reach while construction is under way. Patch reported that its reopening was celebrated on March 30, 2026. That makes it the only place to sit down indoors on campus this season.
The downtown calendar is busy during these weeks too. Explore Millburn-Short Hills lists its free downtown Halloween event for Friday, October 30, from 2:30 to 6 p.m. According to NJ Family's listing for the Halloween Stroll, local businesses will hand out candy and offer specials, and there will be face-painting, pumpkin-painting, a DJ and a costume contest. The organization's events calendar also lists a Taste of Millburn Food Tour on Sunday, November 15, with details still to come. That date falls three days before Mary Poppins opens.
Some Audiences Will Feel the Construction More
Families are the main audience for the first show. Mary Poppins runs about two and a half hours with an intermission, and Paper Mill recommends it for ages 4 and up. Children under 4 are not admitted. The run continues through January 3, 2027, so many performances fall in December. On cold nights, the theater says its plan is to open the auditorium doors as early as possible so people spend less time waiting outside. That is why the Carriage House or a downtown table is the better place to spend the half hour before doors open.
Accessibility is mostly unchanged. The building is still accessible to patrons using wheelchairs or mobility devices, and every accessible seat in the auditorium remains available. Scheduled audio-described, open-captioned and ASL-interpreted performances continue, and assistive listening devices and Braille and large-print programs are available at the back of the theater. The parking page places designated accessible spaces in Lots A and C and recommends the drop-off zone in front of the theater. With Lot A closed, Lot C and the drop-off zone are what remain on campus.
Two programs are paused. The pre-show sensory seminars before audio-described performances are suspended, and so are dedicated Autism-friendly performances, because the chill-out zone and open roaming those performances depend on are not possible during construction. Paper Mill says it plans to bring both back after the work is finished.
What Is Being Built
The construction work is the reason the season looks different. Paper Mill is staging four productions this season instead of its usual five. After Mary Poppins, the season continues with Lend Me a Tenor from January 27 to February 21, Million Dollar Quartet from March 17 to April 25, and Dear Evan Hansen from May 19 to June 27, 2027. NJ Arts reported that the theater plans to return to five productions at full capacity in 2027–28.
In July 2026 the New Jersey Economic Development Authority approved up to $24.8 million in Cultural Arts Facilities Expansion tax credits for the Front of House project. The project expands and reconfigures the entrance and lobby, removes accessibility barriers, adds ADA-compliant restrooms and upgrades the mechanical, electrical and plumbing systems. The new two-story lobby will include a box office, concessions, merchandise, stairs, an elevator and a larger donor lounge. In the NJEDA announcement, Executive Director Mike Stotts described the existing building systems as "severely outdated and inefficient."
The tax credits cover most of this phase but not all of it. NJEDA's board materials put total Front of House costs at $29,845,440, which is one part of a Next Act campaign with a current goal of $48.725 million. The wider campaign also covers backstage and dressing-room work, an expanded Carriage House, parking and outdoor improvements, and a downtown education center. The Short Hills Sentinel reported $7 million still to be raised as of late July. KSS Architects designed the project, and Phelps Construction Group is managing construction day to day.
Paper Mill expects construction to finish by the end of summer 2027. NJEDA's timeline calls for a soft opening in the third quarter of 2027 and full programming in the fourth quarter. That means Dear Evan Hansen in June will be the last show staged with the lobby closed.
As the new front of house goes up on Brookside Drive, I'll be watching how its finishes, circulation and that new two-story entry come together. If you'd like to talk through any part of it, or how a project of this scale changes the blocks around it, Kristina Baez is happy to hear from you. Let's Connect.
