Musical Theatre

When the Broadway production of the The Book of Mormon played its 4,643rd performance on December 28 at the Eugene O’Neill Theatre, it surpassed Jersey Boys to become the 12th longest-running show in Broadway history.

To mark the occasion, four members of the current Broadway cast of The Book of Mormon - Noah Marlowe, PJ Adzima, John Pinto, Jr., and Ben Laxton - paid tribute to the Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons musical in a new video featuring a “Walk Like a Man"/“Man Up” mashup.

Even hardcore fans of the Hook may not know it started out as a full-blown movie musical. Director Steven Spielberg (who has often been likened to Peter Pan) had always wanted to make a musical, and thought Hook presented the perfect opportunity. He didn't want to remake any of the previous Pan musicals — not the 1953 Disney animated movie, nor the 1954 Broadway version originally starring Mary Martin. He wanted something brand new.

For that, he turned to his faithful composer, John Williams. Over two decades and nearly a dozen films, Williams already helped Spielberg make some of the most unforgettable soundtracks in Hollywood, from the Indiana Jones movies to E.T. But Williams needed a lyricist, and who better than the guy who wrote the songs for 1971's Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory? Leslie Bricusse, a British lyricist and composer in his own right, was an old friend and collaborator with Williams. Starting in the 1960s, they wrote several title songs for now-forgotten films. Prior to Hook, Bricusse had set words to Williams' classic love theme from Superman and two original Christmas carols in Home Alone.

Shortly before he died in 2021, Bricusse told NPR he was thrilled about writing lyrics for a brand new Peter Pan musical movie.

"We thought we'd got the Oscar with a song called 'Childhood,'" Bricusse said. "I remember Steven, when he heard it, saying: 'That's a home run.' It was a beautiful song — beautiful song. Beautiful melody. Vintage Williams."

"Childhood" was written for Granny Wendy, played by Maggie Smith in the film. Since Smith isn't a singer, Bricusse phoned a favor from an old friend — Julie Andrews — who went into the studio and recorded it in the manner of an older woman. Williams and Bricusse also wrote a seductive villain's song, "Stick with Me," for Dustin Hoffman's wily Captain Hook.

The most lavish number was a big choreographed sequence when Peter first arrives in Neverland — and the pirates burst into a song called "Low Below." With choreography by Vince Paterson, who worked with Madonna and Michael Jackson, Spielberg spent an entire week shooting that elaborate routine. But when he and John Williams reviewed the campy footage, they looked at each other and realized ... their musical was a very bad idea.

Spielberg cut the scene and ditched the idea of Hook as a musical. Only a few remnants remained — including a lullaby, "When You're Alone," which earned an Oscar nomination for Best Original Song.

To most critics, the lack of musical numbers made no difference; the film was bad. Newsweek's David Ansen summed up the consensus among critics when he called it "a huge party cake of a movie with too much frosting."

But Hook has always enjoyed a legion of diehard fans. That's partly why Mike Matessino, a record producer who resurrects and remasters old John Williams scores, decided to revisit the soundtrack. He dug up the old demos, most of them recorded in 1991 for the actors to learn — including a song Williams and Bricusse wrote for the Lost Boys and another for Tinkerbell.

Thus, 32 years after the musical Hook died, Matessino was finally able to convince all the parties at play to release a new, 3-CD album on La-La Land Records with all of the abandoned song demos (alas, minus the Julie Andrews recording of "Childhood") — as well as John Williams' complete instrumental score, where the songs have always been hiding in plain sight. The score took the song melodies for most of its major character themes.

"Even without the songs being sung," Matessino explains, "the score has a 'lyrical' quality. You don't really get themes in a film score that have what we call bridges in a song, sort of a center section. And that's a clue right there that a lot of these themes began life with the intention of having lyrics set to them."

So even though most of the songs in Hook walked the plank, their tunes took flight as one of Williams' best, and most songlike, scores. And now the final collaboration between John Williams and Leslie Bricusse can finally fly. And even crow.

Stephen Sondheim was a self-confessed “world-class procrastinator,” and he left behind evidence in the form of an unfinished show, Here We Are, that might have otherwise opened in his lifetime. Here We Are—which ends its 17-week run Jan. 21 at The Shed’s Griffin Theater—draws from two films by master surrealist Luis Buñuel: The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie and The Exterminating Angel, both stinging satires of the corrupt upper-crust. But, says David Ives, who wrote the book for Here We Are, Sondheim didn’t have Buñuel in mind when the two first began working together.

That would have been around December of 2009. Ives—one of the most prolific and comical playwrights around (Venus in Fur, Lives of the Saints, Babel’s in Arms)—remembers meeting with Sondheim at the Manhattan townhouse in Turtle Bay. “I knew him the way one knows people in the theater, so we were casually acquainted to begin with,” Ives tells Observer. “Then, one day, out of the blue, he asked me if I wanted to come over for a drink and said that he wanted to talk to me about something—but that it wasn’t important. I said, ‘Sure.’ I had never been to his house, so we set a date.”

The two drank and chatted until Ives asked what unimportant things Sondheim wanted to talk about. “And he said, ‘Did I say it wasn’t important?’ I said, ‘Yeah,’ and he said, ‘Well, I’ve got this idea for a musical, and I wondered if you wanted to work on it with me.’”

It turns out what Sondheim had in mind was an original idea of his own. “He called it All Together Now,” Ives recalls. “It was a show that would take a single moment in the lives of two people and investigate it musically. It was a very complicated idea. We worked on it for about four years. Then, for various reasons too complex to go into, we let it go. He had already proposed to me the idea of turning these two Buñuel movies into a show. I thought that was a great idea. The same month we ended All Together Now, we started working on the Buñuel.”

Why did Sondheim tap Ives to collaborate instead of his regular collaborators? “I know he liked my short plays—particularly All in the Timing and Sure Thing,” Ives says. “There is a certain vague similarity between what happens in Sure Thing and what was to happen in All Together Now: you take a single moment, and you explore it. I believe that’s why he originally asked me for that. Then, after collaborating for four years, we got to know each other pretty well and stuck with it.”

Once they set aside All Together Now and set to thinking about the Buñuel project, Sondheim and Ives watched the two movies repeatedly. “I went over to his house, and we talked about them endlessly for weeks. I took a lot of notes. I synopsized the movies. I probably saw The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie 12 or 15 times and The Exterminating Angel more than that, maybe 20 times. I went back to them quite a bit, especially at the beginning and then toward the end, so see if there was anything that I had missed.

“The way Sondheim and I worked—I was over at his house a lot, about once a week early on. We’d talk about the show, and I‘d write up the notes from our meeting and send them to him. Then we’d talk on the phone about the notes and I’d come back the next week and we would continue that process. A lot of it, at the beginning, was up close and personal in his study.

“Even when he slowed down, it was fun—partly because I was hanging out in a room with Sondheim. That, automatically, was fun. It was like going over to Mozart’s house. Mozart says, ‘I had this idea. Let me play you this,’ and he plays it and sings what he has come up with. We got to become good friends over the course of all of this. That made it more than a collaboration.”

Ives describes Sondheim as “one of the most down-to-earth people”: ” It’s ironic that he has become kind of a demigod because he was just this man in a sweatshirt and old pants. There was nothing august about him. He was funny, he was generous, he was very quick. And he could laugh faster—and he could cry faster—than anybody I know. He was a great Margaret Sullavan fan and could do a brilliant Margaret Sullavan imitation at the drop of a hat.”

Three years into the project, a director appeared—Joe Mantello, with a direction for the show. “Joe is a great director,” says Ives. “Every show he does, what you’re seeing is Joe Mantello because he creates a world for each of his shows—Three Tall Women, Wicked, Assassins . . .”

Sondheim bailed first, informing his lawyer that he was off of the project. In his 90s and facing death himself, he was confronting a roomful of characters also facing death. Daunting, what?

“Why are these people singing?” were his parting words. His collaborators began to agree. Three years after Sondheim’s death, Montello realized they had gone as far as they could go, that their show was indeed finished. Hence, the title of arrival: Here We Are. There you are.

As we hurtle towards 2024, it’s time to take a closer look at 20 new musicals coming our way over the next twelve months.

Every entry on our list is a show that has not previously been staged in the UK – whether it’s a world premiere production or a transfer from Broadway – so, for example, the much-anticipated West End debuts of Hadestown and Standing at the Sky’s Edge don’t make the cut due to their previous incarnations at the National Theatre and/or Crucible Theatre.

Read the story for more details, but the musicals are:

• 42 Balloons
• Before After
• Banghra Nation
• Bronco Billy
• Burlesque
• Cable Street
• Clueless
• The Devil Wears Prada
• Fangirls
• Frankie Goes to Bollywood
• Here You Come Again
• Just for One Day
• London Tide
• Mean Girls
• MJ
• Now That's What I Call a Musical
• The Odyssey
• Opening Night
• Sherlock Holmes and the Poison Wood
• Starter for Ten

The Color Purple opened enormously on Christmas Day to take top spot at the domestic box office, trouncing its nearest competition Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom in the process. Wonka finished in third for a top-three triumph for Warner Bros. The Color Purple smashed expectations with an $18.5 million debut, almost double initial projections of $8 million to $10 million. The musical cinematic adaptation of the theatrical show, produced by Oprah Winfrey and Steven Spielberg, stars Fantasia Barrino, Taraji P. Henson, Danielle Brooks and Colman Domingo. The movie is also based off both the Alice Walker novel and the Tony-winning Broadway production.

The Color Purple is also evidence that, for the right movie, older audiences will still come out in their numbers. While it took that particular demographic longer to return to the multiplexes in a post-pandemic world, for The Color Purple they turned out big time. It was also lauded with sensational audience approval ratings, currently sitting at a 94% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes, and sky-high critical acclaim.

The movie was most popular among audiences over 55, who made up 25% of viewers and rated it highly at 97%. Directed by Blitz Bazawule, it also saw significant turnout from women over 25, who comprised 62% of the audience and gave it a 94% grade. Men over 25 represented 21% of viewers with an 86% rating, followed by women under 25 at 14% (91% rating), and finally, men under 25 were the smallest group at 4%, yet they still gave it an 89% approval rating.

Wonka continues to charm audiences worldwide. Just behind Aquaman with $10.4 million, giving it a holiday weekend haul of $28.7 million, the origin story of the Roald Dahl-created chocolatier has also exceeded the expected $26 million it was projected to earn over Christmas. This brings its domestic tally to over $85 million and ensures it has passed $250 million worldwide. With its box office success, and great word of mouth, the $125 million-budgeted film looks certain to get a sequel at this rate.

Stephen Sondheim, the great musical theater composer and lyricist, was widely acclaimed as a genius, but during his lifetime he had a bumpy track record at the box office, with many of his shows losing money.
In death, however, his shows have flourished.

A revival of “Merrily We Roll Along” — which was so unpopular when it debuted in 1981 that it closed 12 days after opening — is now the hottest ticket on Broadway. A lavish revival of “Sweeney Todd” that opened in March is already profitable, and at a time when almost everything new on Broadway is failing.

Meanwhile, Sondheim’s unfinished and existentialist final work, “Here We Are,” is now the longest-running show in the brief history of the Shed, a performing arts center in Hudson Yards on Manhattan’s West Side, where luminaries like Steven Spielberg and Lin-Manuel Miranda signed up as producers to make sure no expense was spared on the Sondheim send-off.
“There just seems to be an unbounded appetite for him,” said Alex Poots, the artistic director of the Shed.

The posthumous Sondheim bump appears to have resulted from a confluence of factors.

The big Broadway revivals feature fan-favorite talent — the “Merrily” cast includes Daniel Radcliffe of “Harry Potter” fame, while “Sweeney” is led by the celebrated baritone Josh Groban — reflecting a desire by top-tier entertainers to champion, and tackle, Sondheim’s tricky but rewarding work.

Also: The outpouring of praise for Sondheim upon his death, when he was hailed as a transformational creative force, seems to have spurred new interest in his work. And his shows, some of which felt challenging when they first appeared, are now more familiar, thanks to decades of stage productions and film adaptations. Plus, according to most critics, the current revivals are good.

“Sondheim went from being too avant-garde to being a sure bet, like you’re doing ‘A Christmas Carol’,” said Danny Feldman, the producing artistic director of Pasadena Playhouse, a Southern California nonprofit that won this year’s Regional Theater Tony Award. The playhouse devoted the first half of 2023 to Sondheim: A production of “Sunday in the Park With George,” a show once seen as esoteric, became one its best-selling musicals ever, and a production of “A Little Night Music” was not far behind. “The interest was shocking,” Feldman said.

One side effect of his popularity: Ticket prices are high. “Merrily” is facing strong demand from Sondheim lovers and Radcliffe fans, but its capacity is limited; it is playing in a theater with just 966 seats. That has made it the most expensive ticket on Broadway, with an average ticket price of $250 and a top ticket price of $649 during the week that ended Dec. 17. “Sweeney” is also pricey, with tickets that same week averaging $175 and topping out at $399. (Both shows offer lower-priced tickets, particularly after the holidays.)

“We shouldn’t be criticized for being a hit and paying back investors who have taken a big punt in New York,” said the “Merrily” lead producer, Sonia Friedman. “Most shows right now are not working, and therefore when something comes along that does, let’s get the investors some money back.”

In life, Sondheim was often seen as more of an artistic success than a commercial one — a critical darling with a passionate but finite fan base, leading to short runs for many of the shows whose scores he composed, especially during their first productions. A few shows, particularly “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum,” were hits from the start, but some musicals that are now viewed as masterpieces, including “Sweeney Todd” and “Sunday in the Park With George,” did not recoup their costs during their original productions.

“It’s not like he fell out of favor and has been rediscovered. He’s always been revered and valued and prized by everybody who loves theater, but we also have to recognize that several of his shows, when they first premiered, were not understood and were not embraced,” said Jordan Roth, the producer who brought “Into the Woods” back to Broadway in the summer of 2022, seven months after Sondheim’s death. Now, Roth said, “The grip on our hearts seems to have tightened.”

“Into the Woods,” a modestly scaled production, featured the pop singer Sara Bareilles and a troupe of Broadway stars. It recouped its costs and then had a five-month national tour.

In February, seven weeks after “Into the Woods” concluded on Broadway, “Sweeney Todd” began previews. It’s a much bigger production — big cast, big orchestra — that was capitalized for up to $14.5 million. It has sold strongly from the get-go (during the week that ended Dec. 10, it grossed $1.8 million) and has already recouped its capitalization costs.

“I’m sorry that I can’t call him and say look at these grosses. He definitely would have had a sarcastic statement in response, but he would have liked it secretly,” said the show’s lead producer, Jeffrey Seller. “Who doesn’t want to be affirmed by the audience?”

Groban and his co-star Annaleigh Ashford are ending their runs in the show on Jan. 14; the show’s success has prompted the producers to extend the run, with Aaron Tveit and Sutton Foster taking over the lead roles on Feb. 9.

“It has morphed into being under the umbrella of an enormous and deserved celebration of Sondheim’s work and legacy and life,” Groban said. “All of a sudden there’s grief involved, and wanting to do him proud, and what-would-Steve-do feelings.”

“Merrily,” which began previews in September, is the biggest turnabout, given that its original production is one of Broadway’s most storied flops. The current revival, capitalized for up to $13 million, has been selling out.

“Of all the things he wanted, he wanted as many people as possible to be in the theater watching the shows, and he just missed it,” said Maria Friedman, the director of the “Merrily” revival and a longtime Sondheim collaborator.

In November, 10 members of the company of the original ill-fated “Merrily” attended the revival and marveled at the reversal of fortunes.

“It’s thrilling to see the show finally get its due,” said Gary Stevens, who was an 18-year-old in the original “Merrily” ensemble, and who is now 60 and works an executive at a chauffeuring company in Florida. “I’d be remiss if I didn’t say there was a sense of bittersweetness. We look at this revival’s success as, in some ways, our success, because the day after closing, even with how exhausted we were and how sad we were, we recorded a kick-ass album that kept that show alive, so that it became a legendary flop and cult classic that kept going and going, and now this.”

Another member of the original “Merrily” cast, the actress and singer Liz Callaway, was nominated this year for a Grammy Award for a live album of Sondheim songs, one of two collections of Sondheim songs nominated in the 2024 Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album category. “I think a new generation is falling in love with Sondheim now,” she said.

“Here We Are” is a little different. It is not expected to recoup its costs, or to transfer to Broadway, but both the leadership of the Shed and the commercial producer who raised money to finance the production proclaimed it a success.

“It was always about honoring Steve’s legacy,” said the producer, Tom Kirdahy. “And we hope that it has another life, in London or on the road.”

In London, there are also two Sondheim shows running. “Old Friends,” a revue of Sondheim songs with a cast led by Bernadette Peters and Lea Salonga, is in the West End. And at the Menier Chocolate Factory, a revival of Sondheim’s rarely staged “Pacific Overtures” opened earlier this month to critical praise.

“For those of us who wanted to do right by him, this is a year I’ll never forget,” Groban said. “I just hope he’s smiling down.”

The films "The Color Purple" and "Mean Girls" were transformed into Broadway musicals; now both are heading back to movie houses in musical form. But this combination of shape-shifting and baton-passing is a tricky task, and the third time is not always the charm.

archive link: https://archive.md/M6Uu2

When the stage-musical and camera combine, the two mediums can make a tremendously profitable hybrid. Disney might be considered the master of the form, having churned out family-friendly musical movies for thirty years (from 1937 to 1967)—and then another thirty-plus years (late 80s to the present). By now, no one is shocked by Box Office Mojo reporting that the 10 highest-grossing movie musicals in the United States have largely been Disney productions familiar to audiences all over the world. Of course the non-Disney ones are super famous, too.

The top 10 are:

• The Lion King (2019) - $565 million
• Pinocchio (1940)
• Sleeping Beauty (1959)
• The Jungle Book (1967)
• Grease (1978)
• Mary Poppins (1964)
• Fantasia (1940)
• The Lion King (1994)
• Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937)
• The Sound of Music (1965) - $1.3 billion

According to Darren Criss, he and Evan Rachel Wood will be headed to Skid Row for a short run as Seymour and Audrey, beginning in late January through the end of March.

Criss announced the limited engagement on Sirius XM On Broadway during "A Very Darren Crissmas Hour."

"Folks, Evan [Rachel Wood] and I, if you haven't heard, will be going into Little Shop of Horrors at the West Side Theatre Off-Broadway, and I'm going to be doing that from I think late January through the End of March. It'll be short and sweet, but I'm so excited to be announcing that to you if you didn't already know that," stated Criss during the show.

Darren Criss recently starred on Broadway in David Mamet’s American Buffalo alongside Laurence Fishburne and Sam Rockwell. He also appeared on Broadway in How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying and Hedwig and the Angry Inch. He is best known for the YouTube viral hit A Very Potter Musical and his role as Blaine Anderson in the television show Glee.

Evan Rachel Wood's recent film and television roles include Dolores Abernathy in the HBO series Westworld and Madonna in Weird: The Al Yankovic Story opposite Daniel Radcliffe. She also voiced Queen Iduna in the Disney animated film Frozen II.

There has been a remarkable intersection between video games and musical performance this year, from villains lending vocals to their own theme tunes to interactive songs.

The article discusses (and has clips from):

• Baldur’s Gate 3's "Raphael’s Final Act" musical number
• Cyberpunk 2077’s Phantom Liberty expansion's "Delicate Weapon" musical number
• Alan Wake 2's "Herald of Darkness" musical biopic
• Stray Gods: The Roleplaying Musical

The cast for the Mean Girls musical movie has been spilling the beans on which numbers have successfully made it from stage to screen.

From the interviews thus far, numbers that have been confirmed as recorded (though not necessarily included in the final cut, mind) include “A Cautionary Tale” (performed by Cravalho and Spivey, whose narration acts as the framing device for the feature), as well as “World Burn”, “Rather Be Me” (with Cravalho apparently “sprinting” throughout the number), “What’s Wrong With Me”, “Someone Gets Hurt [Reprise]”, “Stars”, “Sexy”, “Revenge Party” (which is set to be presented as a major, eight-minute sequence that was filmed over many days across different weeks).

There will also be a new number replacing “It Roars”, penned by Rapp, with composer Jeff Richmond saying that the film’s flavour was all about “changing the palette from Broadway to radio.”

Tina Fey also mentioned in an interview with Entertainment Weekly that the team had to convince Paramount Pictures that a new film would be a good idea, emphasising the difference in form and tone. Rice understood that, ultimately, there will be a lot of Broadway enthusiasts keenly anticipating the film’s take: “Musical theatre fans are so dedicated and passionate – in a way that is frightening – I am a huge musicals fan myself, so I know there’s a big responsibility.”

Sickness on Broadway led to a mid-show shuffling of swings and understudies.

Usually, a principal is out and they're replaced with an understudy from the ensemble, who's themselves replaced with a swing. And sometimes, there's the December 19 performance of Hamilton on Broadway.

According to a TikTok post from ensemble member Jennifer Geller, a unique set of circumstances that evening led to a highly unusual intermission role swap. The performance started with Alexander Hamilton standby Marc delaCruz on in the Tony-winning musical's title role. Kyle Scatliffe was in his regular role as Marquis de Lafayette and Thomas Jefferson. By intermission, Scatliffe was forced to go home due to sickness. And who happened to be the only person in the building left who's rehearsed to cover Lafayette and Jefferson? Marc delaCruz.

Luckily, there was one other person at the Richard Rodgers who was rehearsed to play Alexander Hamilton: ensemble member Alexander Ferguson. And that meant for Act Two, delaCruz became Jefferson and Ferguson became Hamilton, with swing Adam Ali-Perez taking over in Ferguson's ensemble track. Live theatre!

According to this Redditor who was in the audience, there were no complaints with performers at this caliber handling things. "I thought they both did a great job!," the audience member writes.

Starring an electrifying Nicole Scherzinger, Sunset Boulevard ends its limited run at London’s Savoy Theatre on January 6. However, Deadline can reveal in its 2024 West End look ahead that the singer will lead the Andrew Lloyd Webber show to Broadway in November, according to insiders connected with the production.

Scherzinger, who won the Evening Standard’s best musical performance prize for her show-stopping turn as Norma Desmond, has indicated to producers that she will commit to a six-month season in New York, we understand.

The Sunset Boulevard revival does not at all resemble the original London production directed by Trevor Nunn, choreographed by Bob Avian and starring a breathtaking Patti LuPone. Lloyd has stripped it down to its bare essentials. Gone are big sets and Norma Desmond’s extravagant gowns.

Scherzinger appears on stage in a silk slip and simply sizzles as Desmond. The director has certainly found new ways to dream, to borrow a line from Billy Wilder’s 1950 classic film and a lyric from the show’s book by Don Black and Christopher Hampton.

Lloyd Webber’s re-orchestrated score is allowed to soar. A long-rumored screen adaptation, set to star Glenn Close who won a Tony for her interpretation, has been put on hold and there has been a lot of chatter about the possibility of Scherzinger taking on the role should a feature get the green light. Much will depend on how Scherzinger fares on Broadway.

The Color Purple movie musical features several new songs with music and lyrics by Brenda Russell, Allee Willis and Stephen Bray. With the additional of new material, some of the songs from the stage production have been cut. Check out a guide to new and old songs from The Color Purple on Broadway and on screen.

Broadway brought in more than $31 million last week, playing to nearly 90% full houses at an average paid admission of $140.

Leading that high average ticket price continues to be the starry revival of Merrily We Roll Along. Its average of $250 (thanks to a top ticket price of $650), is far and away the highest on Broadway, beating runner-up The Lion King's average ticket price by around $50. Celebrities and Sondheim are proving to be a powerful combo, with both the Daniel Radcliffe-, Jonathan Groff-, and Lindsay Mendez-led revival of Merrily We Roll Along and Josh Groban- and Annaleigh Ashford-led Sweeney Todd now reliable mainstays in the weekly top five highest grossers.

Leading the pack as usual is The Lion King with $2.5 million, followed by Wicked and Hamilton with $2.3 and $2 million, respectively. Wicked, at the high capacity Gershwin Theatre, also continues to reliably top the list of most attended—15,304 people saw the Wizard of Oz prequel musical last week, beating runner-up Aladdin by more than 2,000. In fact, all of Broadway is pretty well attended, with 17 shows playing to 90%-or-higher capacities.

It should be noted that last week's grosses were 15% lower than the same December week in 2022, though that can be attributed to there being eight fewer shows playing this December compared to last December.

The cast for Broadway Center Stage’s production of tick, tick... BOOM! at the Kennedy Center in Washington DC has just been announced. It will star Tony Award winner Brandon Uranowitz (Leopoldstadt, Falsettos) as Jon, Tony Award nominee Denée Benton (Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1912; The Gilded Age) as Susan, and Tony Award nominee Grey Henson (Shucked, Mean Girls) as Michael.

As previously announced, the show will be directed by Emmy and Tony Award winner and New York Times bestselling author Neil Patrick Harris.

Last week, whilst I was overseas doing important journalism in London, I bought tickets to see “Les Misérables” in the West End, because I’m a woman from Utah and that’s just what we do when we go to London at Christmastime. I don’t make the rules; I just enthusiastically keep them.

I’ve seen “Les Misérables” in some form or another probably 20 times. I have the entire score and script memorized. I’ve had “Do You Hear the People Sing?” stuck in my head since my parents first bought the soundtrack after seeing the production on tour at Capitol Theater in Salt Lake City 30 years ago. I later saw it for myself the next time the tour came around. I watch the Tom Hooper movie — a film I don’t even like but which makes me cry every time I watch it — at least once a year when I get the itch to watch Anne Hathaway sniffle onscreen. I have “One Day More” on my workout playlist. When my children used to request “Sesame Street,” I always played the episode that features Cookie Monster doing “Les Mousserables.”

There’s no “Les Misérables” content I have not consumed. I even followed one TikToker’s journey as she played the score on her otamatone, one part at a time.

So you would think I’d find the entire production repetitive when I saw it Friday night at the Sondheim Theatre on Shaftesbury Avenue.

AND YET. Four minutes in, when the bishop not only tells the French police that he gifted Jean Valjean the silver he actually stole but that also Valjean forgot the candlesticks, I was sobbing.

By the time Fantine perished in her hospital bed (spoiler, sorry, but also the novel was published in 1862 so that one might be on you), I was convulsing. At the conclusion of the epilogue, tears were streaming faster than I could wipe them away.

Since then, I’ve been singing lines like “10 francs may save my poor Cosette,” with the passion of a scorned woman living on the streets from my very comfortable suburban home.

I’ve had the soundtrack on repeat singing every song loudly to my children, because at this point there’s no hope of ever getting any of it out of my head. It’s like a musical hair of the dog.

Revisiting the soundtrack with such frequency has given me a chance to reflect on the choices made by many of the story’s central characters. Obviously, Victor Hugo wrote the characters the way he did for the sake of a very compelling read. And this is in no way a criticism of his literary masterpiece.

I just feel like if most of these characters had one close friend, their stories may not have ended quite so tragically. I’ve decided to make that friend me, and tell you what I wish for the following characters:

Éponine

Look. There’s a reason the book “He’s Just Not That Into You” was such a runaway hit. It was a revolutionary message for many women. Sometimes your love is unrequited, and it’s best to just accept that and move on with your life instead of endlessly pining (though honestly, doing some of the best singing in the whole show). As much as I would hate to lose “On My Own,” I want what’s best for Éponine. And what’s best for her is a friend looking her in the eyes and telling her “It’s time to let go” and keeping her from following Marius to the barricade, thereby preventing her premature death.

Javert

One important thing to remember about Javert is that, really, he was just trying to do his job well. And that’s great, in theory. But there’s a fine line between meeting your deadlines and becoming a workaholic, and Javert clearly had no work-life balance and became obsessed with the pursuit of Jean Valjean, ultimately leading to his demise. What I wish for Javert is that he had a hobby. Something else to think about. Maybe bird-watching? Coin collecting? A quilting group? Might lend some perspective.

Cosette

Who among us didn’t have a thing for an activist in college? There’s something very attractive about a man with political passion who believes he can change the world. But there comes a day when those men realize they actually can’t change much and they get real bummed out, and I just don’t want Cosette to have to spend her life trying to cheer up Marius because his revolution didn’t really work. Also, this is her first relationship after a childhood and adolescence spent in near reclusion, and that’s a red flag. A good friend would tell her to wait a beat, I think, and live a little before settling down.

Jean Valjean

I get that after the encounter with the bishop Jean Valjean wanted to start life anew, but I think it might have been a good idea for him to check in with his parole officer, thereby avoiding a lifetime on the run from the law. Sure, it would require some back and forth, pretending to be two different people at once — Jean Valjean and Le Maire — but if Mrs. Doubtfire could do it, anyone can!

Monsieur Thénardier and Madame Thénardier (better known as innkeeper and wife)

Honestly, the Thénardiers might have one of the better relationships in the whole story. They’re united in purpose — making as much money as possible at every opportunity. They have the ruthlessness and drive necessary to turn a profit in the fast-paced world of hospitality. I just have a few minor critiques. For one, maybe treat the child you agreed to take in a little better. Like, bathe her every now and again. Also, it’s not great that you don’t recognize your own daughter when you go to rob Jean Valjean’s house. Also not great that you attempted to rob Jean Valjean’s house. But other than that? No notes.

In a highly competitive selection process this year, musical stars Kim Jun-su, Cho Seung-woo, Choi Jae-rim, Hong Kwang-ho and Park Kang-hyun were nominated for the best actor award at the 8th Korea Musical Awards.

The Korea Musical Theatre Association unveiled the final nominees for the awards during a press conference held at Seoul’s Hongik Art Center, on Monday.

In the grand prize, "22 Years and 2 Months," "The Devil: Eden,” “The Secret Garden,” “Sun-sin” and "SheStars!” have been nominated. The award for the grand prize is presented to an original production that premiered during the year regardless of production size.

The best musical of the year award, irrespective of production size, sees fierce competition in two subcategories. For productions with 400 seats or more, "Memphis," "Moulin Rouge!," "Six the Musical," "The Phantom of the Opera" and "If/Then" are vying for the spot. In the under-400 seats category, "L’Art Reste," "The Secret Garden," "Wasted," "Inside William" and "Pann" are in contention.

The battle for the best actor award is fierce, with musical stars Kim Jun-su (“Death Note”), Park Kang-hyun (“Memphis”), Cho Seung-woo and Choi Jae-rim (“The Phantom of the Opera”) and Hong Kwang-ho (“Moulin Rouge!”) competing for the accolade.

Nominees for the best actress category are Min Kyoung-ah (“Red Book”), Ivy (“Moulin Rouge!”), Yuria (“Memphis”), Lee Ja-ram (“Sun-sin”) and Jeong Sun-ah (“If/Then”).

In the best new actor category, the spotlight falls on Park Bo-gum, making his debut in the musical realm with "Let Me Fly." He faces competition from Kim Joo-taek and Hwang Gun-ha (“The Phantom of the Opera”), Park Sang-hyeok (“The Brothers Karamazov”), and Yoon Seok-ho (“Cinderella Homme”).

The best new actress nominees include Kim Se-young (“Swag Age: Shout Out, Joseon!!”), Ryu In-a (“Les Miserables”), Park Sae-him (“Interview”), Sohn Ji-soo and Song Eun-hye (“The Phantom of the Opera”).

In his last season playing in "Rent," Kim Ho-young earned a nomination for best supporting actor alongside Kim Dae-jong (“Red Book”), pansori singer Kim Jun-soo (“Gone Tomorrow”), Seo Kyung-Soo (“Death Note”) and Ahn Jee-hwan (“Let Me Fly”).

In the best supporting actress category, Na Ha-na (“Let Me Fly”), Lee Arumsoul (“If/Then”), Chang Eun-ah (“Death Note”), Cho Jung-eun (“Les Miserables”), and Choi Jung-won (“Memphis”) vie for recognition.

Additionally, awards such as ensemble, producer, direction and playwriting will honor exceptional artists, while special categories like lifetime achievement and family musicals will also be acknowledged.

Leading the pack with nominations in 10 categories, "Memphis" is poised to compete for the top honor, best actor and best supporting actress, among others.

Established in 2016, the nation’s musical awards select winners each year through a collective decision of experts and the general public voting online.

The 8th Korea Musical Awards ceremony will be held at Kyung Hee University Grand Peace Palace, on Jan. 15.

Broadway's Tony-winning revival of Jason Robert Brown and Alfred Uhry's Parade will embark on a national tour beginning in January 2025. The production will launch from Minneapolis' Orpheum Theatre.

Casting and further dates are to be announced.

The official premiere in Minnesota will follow technical rehearsals and public preview performances as Proctors Theatre in Schenectady, New York.

Michael Arden will be back to recreate his Tony-winning direction, working with his entire Broadway creative team.

Parade tells the true story of Leo Frank, a Jewish man who was wrongfully accused and convicted of murdering a 13-year-old girl in Atlanta, Georgia, in 1913. It features a score by Brown and a book by Uhry.

This production began with a 2022 limited run at New York City Center. Much of that cast continued on with the Braodway transfer, including Ben Platt and Micaela Diamond as Leo and Lucille Frank, respectively. The revival won two 2023 Tony Awards, including Best Revival of a Musical and Best Direction of a Musical for Arden.

The 2023 Black List, an initiative that shines a spotlight on the best of Hollywood's unproduced screenplays, is out (see the full list here), and it includes one title that will be especially interesting to Playbill's readers: Boy Falls From Sky by Hunter Toro. The screenplay reportedly follows an "anxious playwright" writing Broadway's ill-fated Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark while dealing with all of the musical's much publicized off- (and on!) stage drama. The screenplay's inclusion in the list does not necessarily indicate that it will become a finished film, though the Black List has led to at least 440 scripts produced from past lists.

The 2011 musical, which featured a score by Bono and The Edge and a book ultimately credited to director Julie Taymor, Glen Berger, and Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa, was famously plagued with trouble throughout its development process, from its original producer dying suddenly moments before Bono and The Edge officially signed on to the project to a historically long preview period marred by technical problems and onstage mishaps, some of which resulted in serious injuries. The project was initially planned by Tony-winning director Julie Taymor to be the splashiest spectacle Broadway had ever seen, with extravagant sets and action sequences that sent actors flying around the Lyric Theatre. And that came with a historic price tag, a reported $70 million.

The musical's many technical troubles made it the rare Broadway show to break into the national consciousness, becoming a frequent target for jokes from late-night shows. Getting to opening night ultimately involved closing the show for almost a month while extensive revisions were made, which included several deleted characters, dramatically altered plot points, and a new book writer and director. But open it did, June 14, 2011. Despite much mockery in the press, the show ran for two-and-a-half years, closing in January 2014. Unfortunately, the reportedly exorbitant weekly running costs meant that the endeavor still lost much of its initial investment, and the work hasn't been seen since.

Original book writer Glen Berger released his version of the experience with a 2013 book titled Song of Spider-Man: The Inside Story of the Most Controversial Musical in Broadway History. It's unclear if Boy Falls From Sky is officially adapted from Berger's memoir.

Andrew Lloyd Webber has won a court battle with a dancer turned songwriter who claimed to have written the theme to the musical Cats.
The composer had faced a claim from Philip Christian over the authorship of the words and melody that eventually became Memory, the main theme from the West End and Broadway 1981 hit production.

Christian, 68, had told a court that a recording of a song that he had written was heard by a member of one of Lloyd Webber’s other shows, who then recited it to the composer in the run-up to the production of Cats.
In his breach of copyright claim against Lloyd Webber and the lyricist Sir Trevor Nunn, Christian argued that he owned the rights to the “lyrics and musical score” and demanded future royalty payments.

But sitting in the High Court at the Royal Courts of Justice in London last week, the judge, James Brightwell, dismissed the claim as “fanciful and entirely hopeless”.

Rights to the song Memory were registered to Lloyd Webber and Nunn, who shares the copyright in the words with Eliot’s family.
Christian told the court his own song was inspired by his experiences arriving in the UK from the Dominican Republic as an 11-year-old in the 1960s.

He said he was training in the performing arts when a recording was made of his song and then heard in 1980 by one of Lloyd Webber’s dancers at the renowned Pineapple Dance Studios in Covent Garden.

Singing his song in court for the judge, Christian claimed that it must have been “memorised and then recited” in front of Lloyd Webber, who went on to use it for his musical.

Christian, who represented himself in court, told the judge: “I have always had that tune in my head … Every time I hear it on the radio, I get angrier.”

But Stephanie Wickenden, the barrister representing Lloyd Webber and Nunn, countered that Christian’s copyright claim was hopeless. She said that the suggestion that the song had been memorised and recited for Lloyd Webber was meritless, while much of the lyric was based on one of Eliot’s poems from 1917.

“If there were any merit to the claim, it would’ve been brought 40 years ago,” the barrister argued.

Giving judgment, Brightwell said that Christian had failed to produce a copy of the song, noting that he found it “inherently incredible that a dancer could, in the context of the entrance hall to a dance studio, have remembered, word for word, both the lyrics of the song and the melody and been able to communicate them at a later point to Andrew Lloyd Webber”.

The judge continued that the allegations were “entirely fanciful and entirely hopeless, and this claim cannot be allowed to continue any longer”.

Broadway musicians say they are being preyed upon by violent criminals at the stage door of the beloved “The Lion King” musical and other shows.

Video obtained by The Post shows the moment a violinist with the Disney production was suddenly shoved to the ground in the breezeway of the Minkskoff Theater after exiting an Aug. 5 matinee via the stage door, breaking her wrist in 10 places and nearly ending her decades-long career.

Another “Lion King” violinist was targeted twice in the past year by deranged crooks outside the theater between 44th and 45th streets.

One thief tried to swipe the instrument strapped to his back, according to leaders of American Federation of Musicians Local 802, which represents the Broadway maestros, and the union’s newsletter.

Two months later, the musician was attacked by a different goon, who fled after the violinist decked him.

Numerous musicians from Lion King have reported attacks after the show lets out. J.C. Rice

A fourth attack occurred on March 10 outside of the New Amsterdam Theatre, when a stranger whacked a substitute drummer for “Aladdin” in the head with a tree branch-like weapon just as he was heading inside to perform that evening.

“It seemed like a ‘knock out game’ kind of thing,” the 62-year-old musician told The Post. “He hit me as hard as he could when I wasn’t looking, and ran away.”

The drummer still managed to play despite observing “dents” in his head from the assault, but a few days later, he began slurring his speech and couldn’t walk straight.

He went to the ER and was diagnosed with a concussion. He hasn’t played on the Great White Way since.

For those unfamiliar with the term "diegetic music", it refers to music that's actually played in the story rather than just for the benefit of the audience. The characters can hear it too.

With that in mind, are there any musicals where the characters acknowledge that they're constantly breaking into song? Buffy the Vampire Slayer's "Once More with Feeling" is the best example I can think of for this.

In an abundance of riches this weekend, Waitress The Musical from Bleecker Street will pass an estimated $3.2 million in its opening weekend on 1,214 screens in the U.S and Canada. It’s no. 8 at the domestic box office.

Waitress debuted in 2016 and was one of the longest-running shows in recent Broadway history. It returned for a limited engagement to celebrate Broadway’s re-opening in the fall of 2021. The film was captured from a live onstage show during that run. It was acquired by Bleecker after a premiere at the Tribeca Festival this year.

It’s seeing a largely female-driven audience and doing well in major markets i.e. New York, LA, Boston, Chicago and San Francisco. Salt Lake City is a real standout along with NYC, given the Broadway connection. “It’s encouraging because we had advance tickets up for quite some time and exhibitors started scrambling to add showtimes, and there were a lot of sell-outs and the feedback was that this thing has got some real energy,” said Kyle Davis, Bleecker’s head of distribution.

Sara Bareilles announced on Instagram that the limited release season is being extended because of the musical's popularity.

sarabareilles

OH MY GODDESS!!!! HUGE NEWS!!! Due to popular demand, WAITRESS: THE MUSICAL is being extended in theaters NATIONWIDE! THIS IS NOT A DRILL. If you missed it this past weekend, you have another chance. If you’ve already seen it, the second (or third!) time’s a charm!! Tickets for the extended run will be available soon. Can’t thank you enough our beloved fans. This is all because of you!!! WE ARE OVER THE MOON PIE! May we all be so lucky!! @waitressmusical

The pro-shot is also available for pre-order on streaming platforms.

Front-of-house workers at leading West End theatres have told Sky News audiences have "forgotten how to behave" - claiming assaults and abuse are a common occurrence.

Agreeing to talk to us anonymously, we heard accounts of drunk audience members projectile vomiting in the auditorium, used condoms being found in the stalls, and ambulances being called to treat bleeding audience members after fights.

One theatre worker - who was fearful speaking out could cost him his job - said he was concerned that top management at some venues are putting "profit over safety".

He told us how, despite a life-long love of theatre, his job has become intolerable after the COVID pandemic.

"I had a friend who is barely 5ft 2in punched in the face by a man who was 6ft 9in. She's in her 20s."

He said he was assaulted by a man who had arrived late and wouldn't accept that he had to wait for an appropriate moment in the show to take his seat.

"I'd moved myself in front of the doors and he basically slammed me against the wall and then walked in, calling me a f****** w***** for doing my job... security pulled him out and he was made to apologise... but he was allowed to watch the show. I've just been assaulted and I'm shaken but that's a common experience in the West End."

As well as hearing countless examples of how audience members are routinely drunk and disrespectful, another worker even showed Sky News one theatre group's internal incident reports.

"We have to ask people to leave probably at least once a week," they explained.

"There's a huge amount of people that come to the theatre and it's just a magical experience for them" we were told - "but there is this small minority of people that have forgotten how to behave".

Workers told us how incidents are more frequent at jukebox musicals that clearly pitch their tickets at stag and hen dos - advertising "a raucous night out".

"They bring in the crowds and the crowds spend money... there are offers at the bar and it's money after a lockdown... we've got to do bag checks, ticket checks, get them to their seats before the show starts and they all want to go to the bar. I've had bar staff being shouted at... some horrible abuse goes on."

As an example of how little audience members seem to care, one theatre worker recounted: "I brought the person into the foyer and explained that we had received complaints about them being noisy, that they'd been vaping, to which they replied 'So what?'"

Speaking to Sky News back in October, musical composer Stephen Schwartz - who has worked in theatre for over five decades on countless Broadway and West End hits from Godspell to Wicked - spoke of how mobile phones are becoming a real problem.

"What's exasperating is the cell phones, people being on their phones and you want to say to them, you know, just go out in the lobby and text on your phone and let everybody else get on and watch the show!"

Related stories:

• Audiences behaving badly: An epidemic of anti-social behaviour in theatres, concerts and gigs
• Theatre slams abusive audience behaviour as another venue urges people not to sing along during shows