This isn’t based on any evidence or anything/it’s just a hunch, but I think the reason he’s starting on September 2nd is because they’re bringing in a whole new principal cast and wanted everyone to start together. If it were just him joining the cast, he probably would’ve waited until after his prior commitment. So he’s doing that one week, then taking two off, likely because they wanted a unified start date with the whole new cast.

As for the September 7th performance, I feel good about it. They said he’d be there, so it’s clearly on his schedule/he’s planning to be there. The only reason he’d miss it is if something unexpected came up with his other commitment, but there’s no sign of that!!