Musical Theatre

National Alliance for Musical Theatre has announced the keynote speakers and Conference Agenda for the Fall Conference titled "New Musicals on the Horizon," which takes place on Tuesday, October 24 and Wednesday, October 25, 2023, at NYC's Pershing Square Signature Center.

The 2023 Fall Conference, hosted by Signature Theater at the Pershing Square Signature Center, will feature Michael Kaiser (Chairman of the DeVos Institute of Arts Management at the University of Maryland) in a keynote conversation with NAMT’s Board President Kwofe Coleman (The Muny, MO), and a second keynote speaker on day two to be announced. Other Fall Conference sessions include: “The State of the Industry,” a panel featuring leaders from theatres across the country; “Models of New Work Development,” an exploration of how to continue supporting new musicals during difficult times; and “Accessibility for All,” an examination of what all audiences need to attend a musical, and much more!

Conference attendees will also get a sneak peek of the 35th Annual Festival of New Musicals (taking place immediately after the conference, on 26-27 October) at a special Meet-the-Writers panel, and have many opportunities for networking and real connection over breakfasts & lunches as well as a member-favorite cocktail party at Broadway mainstay Glass House Tavern. Most Conference sessions will also be livestreamed for members who are unable to join in person.

Other speakers and panelists for the 2023 Fall Conference include: Michael Baron, Lyric Theatre of Oklahoma (OK); Melissa Bencic, Bravo Academy (ON); Marsha S. Brooks, Brooks & Distler (NY); Debby Buchholz, La Jolla Playhouse (CA) Ben Cameron (MN); Jim Colleran, Concord Theatricals (NY); Victoria Detres, RISE Theatre (NY); Michael Detroit, Playhouse on the Square (TN); Sharon Fallon, Sharon Fallon Productions (NY); Mark Fleischer, Pittsburgh CLO (PA); Kate Galvin, Constellation Stage & Screen (IN); Gabe Gloden, Constellation Stage & Screen (IN); Neil Gooding, Neil Gooding Productions (NY); Steven Gross, Temple Theaters (PA); Hillary Hart, Theatre Under The Stars (TX); Alisa Hauser, Florida State College of Music (FL); Branden Huldeen, Barrington Stage Company (MA); Adam Hyndman, RISE Theatre (NY); Jennifer Jaquess, Red Mountain Theatre Company (AL); Bradford Kenney, Ogunquit Playhouse (ME); Eric Keen-Louie, La Jolla Playhouse (CA); Karen Kowgios, Withum Smith+Brown, PC; Victoria Lang; Broadway & Beyond Theatricals (NYC); Martin Miller, McCarter Theatre Center (NJ); Eric Nelson, TRG Arts (CO); Christine O’Grady Roberts; Ann-Carol Pence, Aurora Theatre (GA); Jim Reynolds, Lyric Theatre of Oklahoma (OK); Emily N. Wells, The Human Race Theatre Company (OH), Blair Russell, Blair Russell Productions (NYC); Douglas Senecal, Musical Theatre West (CA); Kate Supleve, The Musical Stage Company (ON); Jay Woods, The 5th Avenue Theatre (WA); Kathleen Wrinn, Syracuse University (NY), and more to be announced.

In related news, a reminder that:

• applications to the 2024 Eugene O’Neill Theater Center's National Music Theater Conference close on 16 October 2023.
• a new residency in Scotland for musical theatre writers, composers, and lyricists from the UK, India and the United States close on 20 October 2023

Article highlights:

DALLAS — “Three songs in, and Texas hasn’t shut us down yet!”

The audience howled and clapped and hooted with delight at the ad-lib by David Lugo, playing the pricelessly smarmy Narrator in “The Rocky Horror Show,” a 50-year-old musical that suddenly has the knickers of Texas politicians in a twist. See, “Rocky Horror” features — yes, horrors! — male actors in wigs and sparkly eye shadow and body-hugging female garb (and looking really good doing it).

In Texas, a man or woman in drag, or an actor wearing nothing at all, has become a potential subject of criminal prosecution. Senate Bill 12, which was signed into law in June by Republican Gov. Greg Abbott, makes it a crime to present a “sexually oriented” performance to anyone under 18.

Which is how the Dallas Theater Center’s revival of “The Rocky Horror Show,” a mainstream, Broadway-tested hit and longtime cult movie sensation as “The Rocky Horror Picture Show,” has been transformed into something more than mere pop entertainment. It has become a symbol of freedom, a focal point in a broad effort by authorities in red states to demonize drag and regulate artistic expression.

To a theater lover, it is all a bit surreal, sort of a real-life version of “The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas,” the 1978 musical comedy about the hypocrisy surrounding an effort to shutter a beloved house of ill repute. Except there is nothing funny about the implications of S.B. 12, which seeks to regulate any performance that “appeals to the prurient interest in sex.” Critics point out it was written so broadly that unintended targets such as the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders could be subject to its restrictions for wearing suggestively skimpy costumes.

As the law makes its way through the courts, a chilling effect is already apparent, according to local arts leaders and owners of some entertainment venues.

In Dallas, leaders of Theatre Three, founded in 1961, originally decided to prohibit anyone under 18 from attending their first show of the season, “Lizzie: The Musical,” because of worries about how vaguely S.B. 12 defined sexual content. S.B. 12 describes “sexually oriented performance” as “a performer who is nude” or “a male performer exhibiting as a female, or a female performer exhibiting as a male, who uses clothing, makeup, or other similar physical markers and who sings, lip syncs, dances, or otherwise performs before an audience.” (Codifying lip-syncing as potentially criminal adds to the surreality.)

Christie Vela, associate artistic director at Theatre Three, said the company did not want to face the expense of being dragged into court, even though the world premiere musical, about alleged ax murderer Lizzie Borden, had no drag performer or content of a graphic sexual nature. It was because, Vela said, “there are allusions in the story to a romantic relationship between two women.” Artistic director Jeffrey Schmidt added, “S.B. 12 is so vague. I just did not want to be the one to test the waters.” After the recent ruling, the theater, whose season includes “Deathtrap,” “The Seagull” and “Pirates of Penzance,” opted to relax the ban on juvenile attendees.

Still, there is a sense the political well has been poisoned, in a state where the ideological divisions are intense and often regional.

To Liz Mikel, none of this makes sense. A veteran actress who just finished the national tour of “1776,” cast entirely with female, trans and nonbinary actors, she plays the nosy Dr. Scott in “The Rocky Horror Show” in the 440-seat Kalita Humphreys Theater.

“Artists are being penalized for being artists, for bringing art to the community,” Mikel said. “I want to cry now.” Sitting in the theater lobby, her castmates Lee Walter and Zachary Willis, both of whom portray gender-fluid characters, concurred. Walter, a Dallas star who plays Dr. Frank-N-Furter, lamented the loss of some entertainment jobs when promoters canceled drag brunches because of worries about prosecution.

The Dallas Theater Center had previously staged “The Rocky Horror Show” in 2014, when no Texas lawmaker was in a public tizzy over drag. At that time, the company hosted Dallas middle and high school students, as part of the its decades-old, award-winning Project Discovery education program. This year, company officials said, the Dallas school district declined to send students.

What has really changed, aside from the fact that the state has weighed in? Jennifer Altabef, a lawyer and chair of the Dallas Theater Center board, said she has friends “on all ends” of the political spectrum and that she respects differing points of view. “I do understand that everyone wants to protect their children from things they think are harmful, and what people think is harmful is different, and it will always be that way.” She added, “But we have constitutional protections that cannot be abridged. And you know, that is where it has to stop. I mean, what a child sees should be in the purview of the parents and the parenting relationship, and not in the state relationship.”

On a recent weekday night, the kind of raucous crowd that has been attending “Rocky Horror” for years, people in their 20s and their 60s, some in fright wigs or cosplaying the musical’s zany characters, filed into the Kalita Humphreys Theater, designed by eminent architect Frank Lloyd Wright. While they could attend, I did not notice anyone under 18 at the show, which is directed by Blake Hackler and choreographed by Kelsey Milbourn and runs until Oct. 29.

The young woman in her 20s seated next to me laughed and caterwauled as other audience members participated in the traditional “Rocky Horror” routine, shouting catchphrases and sarcastic commentary back at the actors. It was this young woman’s first experience of the musical, she said. At intermission, I asked if she was aware of the controversy swirling in the theater community and whether it was in any way spoiling her fun. “Yeah, the drag ban,” she said. “And no, not tonight!”

Article highlights:

For 12 years, Alicia Keys has been developing Hell's Kitchen, a musical based on her adolescence in a then-gritty New York neighborhood, and at the top of her to-do list was writing a new song for the actress playing the main character's mother.

So she took a nap with her headphones on, listening to a playlist of theatrical mom songs (think "Rose's Turn" from Gypsy and "Little Girls" from Annie). When she woke up, she could feel the rhythm. She could hear the chords. She could see the title.

She ducked into a closet and began to sing into her phone. She hopped online, doing a little research to strengthen her lyrics. And then, when she returned to New York, she began to write, in the wee hours after the meetings and the calls and the rehearsals, noodling at an upright piano in her Chelsea recording studio.

"This is occupying a lot of space in my mind," Keys said about the musical, considered but candid as she was driven to a downtown rehearsal hall, tuning out the traffic and focusing on getting where she wants to go.

That day, where she wanted to go was the Public Theater, the celebrated but pandemic-weakened nonprofit where Hell's Kitchen is to begin an Off Broadway run on Oct. 24. Even though Keys is not in it, demand is high: Each time more tickets go on sale, they are snatched up.

"I am thinking a lot about Hell?s Kitchen, and obviously the goal for it to be tremendously beloved and really something that comes into the world in a way that is just like a storm, an incredible storm," Keys said. "And the goal, obviously, is to transfer to Broadway. So that's heavy on my mind."

Her musical, Hell?s Kitchen, is unusual in ways that seem promising. Unlike many biographical jukebox shows chronicling childhood to celebrity, this one is both focused and fictionalized, depicting a few months in the life of a 17-year-old named Ali.

"This is not Tina Turner, this is not the Temptations, this is not MJ, this is not Carole King, although all of those are phenomenal," Keys said, referring to shows about pop stars. "It's really so much more about relationships and identity and trying to find who you are, which I think is a continuous theme in all of our lives: Who are we? Who do we want to be? Who are we becoming?"

In Hell's Kitchen, Ali, like Keys, is the daughter of a white mother and a Black father and is growing up in Manhattan Plaza, a subsidized housing development just outside Times Square where 70 percent of the units are for performing artists. The supporting characters - a hyper-protective single mother, a life-changing piano teacher, an older boyfriend and an unreliable father - are based on figures in Keys's own upbringing.

"We've highly fictionalized the specifics," said Kristoffer Diaz, a playwright and librettist who has been working with Keys on the show for more than a decade. Along the way, Keys and Diaz have been joined by the Broadway veteran Michael Greif, who directed Dear Evan Hansen, and by the choreographer Camille A. Brown, an in-demand dance-maker.

In some ways, the show's narrative structure resembles that of Steven Spielberg's semi-autobiographical film, The Fabelmans: It is a coming-of-age story about a gifted teenager with a fractured family; it ends with the protagonist's trajectory unclear, but audiences can fill in the blanks based on what they already know about the author's accomplishments.

Hell's Kitchen is, in the eyes of its creative team, a mother-daughter love story. And, in an era when many musicals market themselves as love letters either to Broadway or to New York, this one falls squarely into the latter camp: Keys's identity, as a person and as a songwriter, was shaped by the city in the 1990s, and that informs the show's sounds (like bucket drumming) and movement (with echoes of social dances like the Running Man).

The score, played by a band that will include a pianist visible to the audience even when actors pretend to be tickling the ivories, features Keys's best-known hits. Keys said she has written four new songs for the show, but that even existing songs have a new sound because they have been rearranged.

Making a musical might seem like a swerve for Keys, but the truth is the overlap between the recording industry and musical theater is substantial. There is an ever-growing inventory of jukebox musicals biographical (MJ, about Michael Jackson) and fictional (& Juliet), as well as shows with original scores written by pop stars (Here Lies Love).

Keys is a lifelong theatergoer who has dabbled in acting.

Keys would tag along to auditions and rehearsals when her mother couldn't afford a babysitter; when there was enough money, they would stand in line at the TKTS booth and buy discount theater tickets. Her mother recalls an early trip to Cats, and Keys remembers Miss Saigon, but the show that stands out most is Rent, in part because it's about AIDS, which hit Manhattan Plaza, with its high population of gay artists, quite hard. Rent, like Hell's Kitchen, was directed by Greif.

"Because I have all the experience with seeing theater since a kid, I just was really ready to reinvent theater, too," she said. "I just felt like there was so much to bring, so many worlds to collide and cross. I almost felt obligated to create that piece that would be something that people who absolutely can?t stand musical theater would love."

Hang on! There are people who can't stand musical theater? Apparently, yes, and one of them is Keys's husband, Swizz Beatz, a renowned hip-hop producer.

"He's not a fan," Keys said, laughing. "Do not bring him to the show where in the middle of the sentence they break out into the song. He falls asleep. He cringes. He can't take it."

So one goal, Keys said, is simply to create a show her husband will like.

And what about reinventing theater? When I ask her about that word, she qualifies it - mindful of how it might sound and wary after two decades talking to journalists. Keys said she thinks about her project differently now, because she believes that over the last decade, Broadway has made strides.

"I don't want you to now quote me and say I'm reinventing Broadway," she said. "I want to be clear that there's so many pieces that exist now that really do challenge, I think, what we were seeing. There of course needs to be more diversity on Broadway. Is there more already? Hell yeah. And we still need more."

I write about the business of Broadway, so one thing that has struck me, as I've been working on this profile, is Keys's ownership - economic as well as artistic - of Hell's Kitchen. Rather than finding Broadway producers to finance and shepherd the show, thus far she is doing so herself, retaining the rights to its commercial future.

"I want to own my story. And I deserve to."

She consults, and is heard, on every strategic and creative choice: writing, casting, staging, marketing.

"People know her centrality to decision-making matters to her," said Oskar Eustis, the artistic director of the Public. "She's been as involved as any artist I've ever worked with - she gets involved on a level of granularity that's just astonishing. It's not just music, but every sentence, every relationship, every actor. There's nothing of the absent star about her."

Maintaining creative and financial control has become ?a mission,? she said, and with Hell's Kitchen, she believes the lessons she has learned are paying off.

"For the first time in my life," she said. "I'm doing something exactly right."

Just Stop Oil protesters have halted a West End performance of Les Miserables after invading the stage.

During the song Do You Hear The People Sing? last night (Wednesday 4 October 2023), members of the group stormed the stage with banners emblazoned with Just Stop Oil.

The Just Stop Oil protest group claimed responsibility for the disruption and posted a video on Twitter/X.

Footage showed the actors on stage continue to perform the song briefly before stepping back, with the safety curtain then coming down.

Some members of the audience booed and shouted at the protesters, while a member of Just Stop Oil addressed the auditorium.

What's On Stage reports that:

One punter reached up and grabbed a flag from a protestor, with those climbing onto the stage using flexible bike locks to chain themselves to the set.

The activists then locked themselves to the set, prompting the Sondheim Theatre to be evacuated.

Just Stop Oil explained the motivations of those on stage in a series of posts on social media:

Hanan, a student, took action because the UK Government, by approving new oil and gas has shown total disregard for their wellbeing… Noah, a theatre lover, took action because he knows there’s no future for the arts if society fails under the pressures of climate collapse.

Like the citizens of Paris in 1832 you have locked your doors, while the young face slaughter on the streets. We will inherit a scorched earth, unfit to live in and our politicians will be long gone. We cannot let this stand. The show cannot go on.

William Village, chief executive of Delfont Mackintosh Theatres, told Sky News: "During the first half of our performance of Les Miserables, individuals from Just Stop Oil invaded the stage, abruptly stopping the show.

"Following our safety protocols, the audience were asked to leave the auditorium and the Met Police attended.

"Regrettably, there was insufficient time to enable us to complete the rest of the performance. Whilst we recognise the importance of free expression, we must also respect our audience's right to enjoy the event for which they have paid."

Refunds will be offered to audience members, the theatre group has said.

Five individuals, aged 28, 23, 22, 19 and 18 were arrested on suspicion of aggravated trespass. They remain in custody.

The London Metropolitan Police issued a statement Wednesday morning following the protest. Detective inspector Chris Rudd of the Met’s Public Order Command said:

Many of those in the audience will have travelled significant distances, having purchased tickets months in advance, and it is unacceptable that demonstrators have targeted a specific group of people in order to ruin what should have been a special night been out.

We are aware of footage circulating on social media, but ask anyone with additional footage to get in touch as this will help us bring those responsible to account.

Anyone with information or footage relating to the incident should call police on 101 or Tweet ‘X’ @MetCC quoting 2074/5OCT.

Footage of the incident can be submitted by email to [email protected].

In the meantime, The London production of Les Miz has extended its booking season to 28 September 2024.

The Tony Awards are moving locations again and will take place in June 2024 at the David H. Koch Theater at the Lincoln Center.

The 77th Tony Awards will air live on June 16 from the new location, which is typically home to the New York City Ballet. This comes after the awards show moved to the United Palace theater in Washington Heights for the first time last season.

The Tony Awards have traditionally been held at Radio City Music Hall, but moved to the Beacon Theater on Manhattan’s Upper West Side in 2011 and 2012. The 2019-2020 Tony Awards, which were delayed until September 2021 due to the pandemic, were held at Broadway’s Winter Garden Theatre.

The Tony Awards administration committee did not give a reason for the change in venue, but the Upper West Side location places the performing cast members closer to their theaters, which makes transportation for rehearsals and the broadcast easier than it was traveling to Washington Heights (which had been a source of frustration in June). It also gives attendees easier access to the after parties, which typically take place in midtown.

The David H. Koch Theater, which is a proscenium-style theater, seats about 2,500, compared to the United Palace’s just over 3,300 seats and Radio City Music Hall’s close to 6,000 seats.

The eligibility cut-off date for the 2023-2024 season is April 25, 2024. Nominations will be announced on April 30.

Musical Con which makes its return to ExCel London this month for its second year, has now announced a complete schedule.

With doors opening from 9am, there will be a main stage, a Webber Room, Larson and Sondheim Studios for workshops, “Stage Doors” for autographs and signatures and a “Backstage Theatre” location for panel discussions.

Main stage

Show and artist spotlights on the Main Stage on the Saturday will feature The Lion King (11am), Operation Mincemeat (11.45am), Arlene Phillips (12.30pm), Rachel Tucker (1pm), Broomsticks and Bubbles fan celebration (3.30pm). The main stage will open with a special performance (10am).

At 2pm on Saturday will be a “Star of Musical Con” event, with a Bat Out of Hell cast reunion at 3pm and a “Show Off” game show between casts of Six and Heathers (4.20pm).

On the Sunday, Claude-Michel Schönberg, the composer behind iconic productions like Les Misérables and Miss Saigon, will appear (10am), there will be a “Farewell to Heathers” (10.50am), a new shows spotlight including Ride, Babies, Bronco Billy and The Book Thief (11.30am), an Everybody’s Talking About Jamie spotlight (12pm), a lip sync battle (12.30pm), a special performance from SVN (1pm) and a surprise cast reunion (1.20pm). From 2pm is a cosplay competition, and a turn from Lizzie at 2.50pm.

A “Revolting Children” singalong will take place at 3.20pm, with a Newsies cast reunion at 4pm, and a closing ceremony at 4.30pm.

Appearing in the opening and closing performances will be Aimie Atkinson, Trevor Dion Nicholas, Sophie Evans, Alice Fearn, Ben Forster, Lucie Jones, Shanay Holmes, Miriam-Teak Lee, Jon Robyns and Layton Williams.

Backstage theatre

On the Saturday, the backstage theatre will host a panel on social media and musicals (10am), Disney Puppetry (11.30am), Queendom fans (12.15pm), choreography Dancing Through Life (1.10pm), stage make-up and wigs (2pm), the year in review (3pm), mental health and musicals (3.40pm) and casting direction (4.20pm).

On Sunday will be a panel about breaking into the West End (10am), creating musicals (11am), access in the West End (12pm), Black excellence (1pm), the ESEA community (2pm), LGBTQIA+ in the West End (3pm) and how to write a musical (4pm).

Autographs and photo signings

Across both days, expect opportunities to see photo signings with Alisha Weir, Courtney Bowman, Lucie Jones, Ben Forster, Hannah Lowther, Alice Fearn, Shanay Holmes, Cassidy Janson, Erin Caldwell, Arlene Philips, Laurence O’Keefe and Sophie Evans. Complete timings are available via the Musical Con website.

A selection of day and weekend tickets remain for the event. It is due to take place on Saturday 21 October, and Sunday 22 October 2023, at ExCel London.

The Broadway production of Six will host a sing-along performance on next year. The special event will be held on Wednesday, March 6 2024 at 7pm.

The Six singalong show follows in the path of other singalong performances by Moulin Rouge

Original Broadway cast member Reeve Carney will play his final performance as ‘Orpheus’ in Hadestown on Sunday, November 19 2023.

Carney began playing ‘Orpheus’ in 2017 at Edmonton’s Citadel Theatre before transferring with the production to London’s West End and Broadway in 2018 and 2019, respectively.

“It feels so deep and tough to say goodbye to Reeve, who has been with the show since Edmonton in 2017,” said composer Anaïs Mitchell. “His ‘Orpheus’ underwent a massive reimagining en route to Broadway, and Reeve, in his graceful way, taught us so much about who that character wanted to become. There’s no one the phrase ‘earth angel’ describes more exactly. Sending mad love and gratitude as he flies off to his next earth mission.”

“Reeve helped define both stories at the center of this show — the cosmic love story of a young man who changes the laws of the space time continuum to save his lover, and the political story of a ‘poor boy’ who gets angry enough to question ‘the king,’” said director Rachel Chavkin. “His extraordinary musicianship as guitarist and singer was an endless source of inspiration to both Anaïs and I in the creation of the show, and his elegant leadership as an actor and company member, both onstage and off, will be deeply missed.”

“My gratitude goes out to Anäis Mitchell and all who have touched this show with their divine intention,” said Reeve Carney. “To my fellow cast mates, who have been with me in the trenches, giving of themselves freely and unceasingly, on and off the stage. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. And to our incredible audiences here at The Walter Kerr Theater… It has been an honor bringing this story to life for you all night after night over these many years.”

Near the end of this month, actor-singer Nick Cartell will mark a major milestone in his career. He will log his 1,000th performance as the heroic ex-convict Jean Valjean in the national touring production of “Les Misérables.”

Cartell landed the highly coveted role in 2017 under tragic circumstances, when his mom passed away from ovarian cancer the day before his final callback. He toured with the show for 2-1/2 years — including a 2018 visit to San Diego — then was laid off when the pandemic shut down all tours and theaters in March 2020.

Finally the tour relaunched in Ohio last October with Cartell in the lead and now it arrives Tuesday at the San Diego Civic Theatre for its first two-week visit here since the 1990s.

In a recent interview, Cartell said he was thrilled to return to the role of Jean Valjean for several reasons. The role transformed his career; the musical’s message of survival and humanity mean so much more to him post-pandemic, and he now feels a deeper connection to his character, because, like Valjean, he recently became a father who would do anything to make his daughter happy.

“I now understand the feeling of having your heart outside your body,” Cartell said of his 3-year-old daughter, Sullivan, who he shares with wife, Christine Cartell. “Singing that line that she’s the best of my life, and to actually sing that with the knowledge that I do have someone who is the best of my life and the best thing I’ve ever done, puts a new perspective on the sacrifices he makes.”

Cartell said the scale of the human tragedy in the musical has a more profound impact with tour audiences now than it did before the pandemic.

“The world has gone through this collective moment,” Cartell said. “So when audiences come to this show, they know they’re going to hear the songs and see the characters they expect, but they don’t realize how deeply this story will affect them this time. You see a story about people who are fighting for a better world and fighting to be heard. There’s this theme of the survival of the human spirit and everybody down to their core can connect with that now.”

When the pandemic shut down the tour in March 2020, Cartell had already taken a leave with his wife to return to their two-bedroom apartment in New York City to welcome their daughter, who was born on April 2, 2020. Although he said it was “scary” living in the city with the highest COVID death toll in the U.S., Cartell said that it was a profound blessing to have that quiet time with his wife and daughter.

“We had a chance to watch our newborn grow every day,” he said. “But it was very hard to pick yourself up and get going in the morning and try to figure out what the next steps for this career would be.”

When he was finally called to join the tour’s relaunch last fall, he remembers a very emotional first day of rehearsals for the cast and creative team.

“We sang ‘One Day More,’ and to hear those four magic notes at the top, there was this energy in the room. This was the one day more, when we finally get to take that show back out. It still gives me goosebumps whenever I hear the orchestra start playing those notes.

“The fact that we’re able to welcome live audiences back into the theater again is such a joy and privilege that I get to do it every single night and and take the journey with us. Our perspective has changed. None of us are taking this for granted,” he said.

After finishing the San Diego visit on Oct. 15, the “Les Mis” tour will head to San Jose Oct. 17-22, then on to Sacramento Oct. 24-29. It’s there in California’s capital city where Cartell said he will mark his 1,000th performance as Jean Valjean.

Cartell said he has never tired of the role and he aims to make it like the first night every night when he performs.

“My secret to keeping it fresh is our audiences, who change every time. The energy they bring every night keeps us going,” he said. “And I also always try to find little moments onstage each time that are new. It’s easy because these characters are so rich.”

A London concept album of Death Note The Musical, which recently played London’s Palladium and subsequently Lyric Theatre, will be released by Ghostlight Records on a date to be announced.

The album will feature the Palladium cast, including Tony nominee Adam Pascal as Ryuk, Joaquin Pedro Valdes as Light, Dean John Wilson as L, Aimie Atkinson as Rem, Frances Mayli McCann as Misa Misa, Rachel Clare Chan as Sayu, and Christian Ray Marbella as Soichiro.

Based on the best-selling Japanese manga series of the same name by Tsugumi Ohba and Takeshi Obata/Sheuisha, the new musical has a score by Frank Wildhorn with lyrics by Jack Murphy and a book by Ivan Menchell.

Mean Girls - based on the Lindsay Lohan-led film - is coming to the West End. The show (by Tina Fey with music by Jeff Richmond and lyrics by Nell Benjamin) will open at the Savoy Theatre in June 2024, with tickets going on sale on 1 November 2023. Dates and casting are to be confirmed

Fey says: ”We’re so excited to bring Mean Girls to London, where everyone already knows what Regina means.”

London Theatre Direct penned has an article Five iconic Mean Girls moments we can’t wait to see on stage and has another article with more background and information non the show.

The West End production will premiere after the film of the musical opens in cinemas in early 2024.

Playbill has an interview with Mean Girls director/choreographer Casey Nicholaw.

In other related news, Paramount has uploaded the original Lindsay Lohan movie to TikTok in 23 parts, because this is the world we live in now.

Jason Robert Brown will perform in concert for one night only at The London Palladium on 24 March 2024. He will be joined by special guest Cynthia Erivo.

Tickets are now available.

Last season, grumbling in the industry was this season would have fewer musicals. Shows were taking longer to receive their full capitalization. Many musicals were losing hundreds of thousands of dollars per week. Attendance was down from pre-pandemic levels. Buying habits had changed such that reserves had to increase. In other words, it didn’t feel like a particularly hospitable time to launch a Broadway show without a bankable star or title, especially a musical, which typically has a higher running cost than a play. But instead of there being fewer musicals this season, we are about to have more new musicals than any season in this century.

If you include Melissa Etheridge: My Window, four musicals have already opened this season. (My Window might attract a musical-leaning audience, though come Tony time it should be a Special Tony recipient, rather than a musical eligible in a competitive category.) One of those closed quickly.

Seven more have theaters and dates officially announced: Gutenberg! The Musical!, Harmony, How to Dance in Ohio, Days of Wine and Roses, The Notebook, Water for Elephants, and The Outsiders.

That is eleven, which wouldn’t be a record breaker. But insiders know Lempicka, The Heart of Rock & Roll, and Suffs have theaters. We’re unlikely to see both BOOP! and Hell’s Kitchen this season, but we're likely to see one, with Hell’s Kitchen being the favorite with a theater on hold, pending reviews. That makes fifteen.

For the sake of not muddying the waters, let’s remove My Window and say fourteen. While shows can always drop out, fourteen is the minimum number of new musicals that I expect to be on Broadway this season.

And I say "minimum" because there are others that could come in, but we’re likely in for at least fourteen. That is more than any other season this century. The closest is the 2016-2017 season, which had thirteen. Usually, we’re in the eight to eleven range. In the last full season before the pandemic, the 2018-2019 season, which was the highest-grossing and best-attended season in recorded history, there were eleven new musicals and two musical revivals.

In addition to thirteen new musicals, the 2016-2017 season also had six revivals and the return engagement of Motown, so twenty musicals overall. We only have four announced revivals. Therefore, it’s possible we might not break the century record for musicals overall, but we still might. There are additional revivals likely.

Cute article about how theatre fans decorated their college dorm rooms with musical theatre merchandise.

Personally I never lived in a college dorm, but my place does have quite a lot of musical theatre - and related - posters hanging on the walls even now, with two highlights being a poster for the original 1985 RSC production of Les Miz at the Barbican Centre, and a study for George Seurat's A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte (ie not a print of the final painting, but a print of a precursor in rough form), the basis of Sunday in the Park with George.

What musical theatre "swag" do you own and do you show it off proudly?

Further to last week's story about Actors Equity organising Broadway production assistants (PAs) to seek voluntary recognition from The Broadway League (the organization representing theater owners and producers):

Actors' Equity Association has now filed with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) to recognize them as the bargaining representative of the newly unionized Broadway production assistants after failing to receive voluntary recognition from The Broadway League. The government board will determine a schedule to hold a formal unionization vote among the production assistants.

"We had high hopes for a swift and collaborative process with The Broadway League, and are disappointed to hear they've chosen the more contentious path," says union 3rd Vice President Erin Maureen Koster, who represents stage managers. "That said, these workers are giving a master class in solidarity and it’s honestly our honor to witness that and to continue to support them through every step of the organizing process. One way or another, at the end of this process is the fair contract PAs have long deserved."

"These PAs are such essential members of the stage management team that when the employer hands out company contact sheets on the first day of rehearsal, they're listed alongside the PSM and ASMs," adds AEA President Kate Shindle. "Does anybody really think it's a coincidence that the vast majority of Broadway PAs are already Equity stage managers? This work clearly belongs on an Equity contract. If the Broadway League's going to make us run an election, we'll run an election, and we'll see them at the bargaining table after the votes are counted."

A statement from The Broadway League characterizes the move more congenially, saying that an NLRB election is the "proper forum" for the unionization effort. "The Broadway League and our members value the work of the Production Assistants that Actors’ Equity Association is seeking to represent," reads a statement provided to Playbill from League representatives. "We believe that the National Labor Relations Board is the proper forum for determining whether an election is appropriate and we have encouraged the Union to seek a determination from the Board."

Variety's 2023 New Power of New York list includes several people with musical theatre credentials, including:

• Rachel Zegler (West Side Story movie)
• Ariana Greenblatt (In the Heights movie)
• Alex Newell (Shucked, Once On This Island, Glee)
• J. Harrison Ghee (Some Like It Hot, Kinky Boots, Mrs Doubtfire)
• Jelani Alladin (Frozen, Hercules, tick tick... Boom movie)
• Matthew López (Some Like It Hot)

I'm in the middle of a theatre holiday in Europe, and as part of that saw Les Miz in Eindhoven, Netherlands, including the final performance on Sunday 1 October. This matinee was the last show in Eindhoven and also the final performance of several cast members before the production moves to Antwerp, Belgium, with some new cast members joining.

There's a theatre tradition of the "muck-up matinee" where actors either deliberately muck something up, or try to cause someone else to muck up, and this Sunday afternoon performance of Les Miz was one of those. I noticed three different things that were definitely deliberate and another one which may have been a genuine mistake or could have also been deliberate:

• After "Little Fall of Rain", the students didn't carry Eponine off into the wings, but instead deposited her behind the table upstage right. So she was lying there "dead" throughout all of "Drink With Me" and "Bring Him Home". Everyone on that side of the stage kept on looking down at her - very somberly (cause, you know, she was "the first of us to fall upon this barricade") - and had to gingerly navigate themselves around the body (cause there wasn't a lot of room to move). They finally picked her up and carried her off at "Let all the women and fathers of children [and corpses] go from here". I don't know if this was done at Vajen van den Bosch's (the Eponine) request, or if it was a prank played on her (as it was her last show, a new Eponine joining in Antwerp), but it was pretty funny if you spotted it - which, granted (because her body was lying behind the table), was pretty difficult to to.
• During the wedding when the Thenardiers did the plate gag - ie when it fell from Madame Thenardier's dress and clatters onto the ground - instead of the Thenardiers (Yannick Plugers, whose last show it was also, and understudy Kim Reizevoort) looking up and pointing as if to say "It must have fallen from the sky", they instead did a choreographed little dance step and loudly exclaimed "Tadaaa!!" to the audience. I cracked up but I think I was the only one. I guess if you hadn't seen the show before you wouldn't know they did something different. (And in fact the gag changes sometimes from production to production - for instance in London at the moment they don't do the falling plate gag because the stage is so steeply raked it would risk the plate rolling into the audience.)
• A bit later during "Beggar at the Feast" Madame Thenardier also did a little ballet routine at the "This one's a queer but what can you do line". This line, by the way, I'm pretty sure is changed for the Dutch version to convey something like "Here are all these posh people, but instead I ended up with ... that". based on the way Thenardier points at his wife during the line.
• The other mistake - the one which I'm not sure was deliberate or not - was during the "Heart Full of Love" reprise. Sem Gerritsma who plays Cosette totally missed the high note at the end of the song ("Not a dream after all"). The note started in a squeak and then just totally cut out. It's not the sort of mistake that I think you would choose to do deliberately, but it is something that if (for example) she saw something funny in the wings it might cause her to miss it. On the other hand, it was not Sem Gerritsma's last night (as opposed to the Eponine and Thenardier), and that note is a pretty difficult one to hit anyway, being even higher than the first "Heart Full of Love" in Act 1 (although she's hit it every other time I've seen her play the role). So I think this one might have been a genuine flub.

Anyway, have you ever seen any performers muck around in a show, professional or otherwise? If so, what happened?

The nonprofit organization TDF has announced its 12th season of autism-friendly performances (AFP) for individuals and the families of those with autism and cognitive disabilities. Included in the season, to date, are Broadway’s “The Lion King,” “MJ” and “Aladdin.”

The 2023-2024 season will kick off on Oct. 1 with Disney’s “The Lion King” at the Minskoff Theatre. “MJ” will offer its first-ever AFP on March 10, 2024, at the Neil Simon Theatre. And Disney’s “Aladdin” will conclude the season on May 5, at the New Amsterdam Theatre.

On a related note, the new non-profit, Autistic Theatermakers Alliance, announces three new education grants supporting youth, teen, and young adult theatremakers. The grants are for $3,000, $5,000 and $7,000 respectively. Applications for the first round of grants will be open until March 1, 2024, at 11:59 PM EST, and recipients will be notified by March 15, 2024.

Nicole Scherzinger is currently starring in the London revival of Sunset Boulevard, which is about to open, so the PR machine has pushed out a couple of interviews, one with the Guardian and another with The Sunday Times.

Highlights from the Guardian interview:

What convinced you to return to theatre after a decade away?
I grew up loving musical theatre and went to a performing arts school, so it’s always been in me. Music is the best way that I know to communicate. Why not do it through theatre, where you have the liberty to communicate the fullest way possible? Jamie [Lloyd, the director] knew I’d been itching to come back, and asked to meet in London 18 months ago. He said: “I’ve got this vision of you as Norma Desmond in Sunset Boulevard.” I was like “What?” So I read the script, listened to the music and there was no looking back. Jamie was bold enough to see me in this daring, iconic role. I grew up wanting to be Miss Saigon. I never dreamed I’d be playing someone like this, but in a batshit crazy way it makes complete sense.

Were you already familiar with the story?
I knew that Glenn Close had won a Tony for it. I listened to her recording of it and also Patti LuPone’s, because I’m a massive fan of hers too. And then I watched the film and was like: “Yo Jamie, we’ve got to have a talk because I don’t know if I can do this!” He said: “Don’t watch the film! It has nothing to do with what we’re doing!” This is our interpretation of the story. We’re telling it anew. It’s a modern-day setting not a period piece. I’m working my ass off. I have bruises on my body in places I’ve never had them before.

How come you’re bruised?
This Norma’s dancing, darling. I’m bringing Scherzinger to the table. We’re going full Scherzy on this.

Is the story relevant today?
100%. There are songs about how to make it in Hollywood which remain completely true. This industry is a harsh, savage beast. I know what it’s like to be the hot new thing on the block. You blink your eye, time goes by and you’re like: “Woah, where did it all go?” The younger generation comes in and suddenly you’re fighting to be seen and have a voice. I’m still doing that. So it speaks to the ageism of Hollywood but it’s also about how hard it is to get and keep any job. In the past, Norma’s been misunderstood. If anybody’s got passions and dreams, then it’s taken away from them, it leaves an emptiness inside. I think most people can relate to that.

Do you go to the theatre much?
I’m so inspired by it and try to see as many shows as I can. I recently saw my dear friend JoJo in Moulin Rouge! on Broadway. Here in London I’ve seen Six, which was genius, and Cabaret blew my frickin mind. I cried at the end. But I cry at everything. I cried at Finding Nemo. It’s probably why Jamie cast me, because I’m an emotional basket case.

Finally, I’ve got to ask. Are you ready for your closeup?
I’m getting there! Every day in rehearsal I was learning new things, which gives me such a rush. On day one, Jamie said: “I just ask you to do one thing, and that’s to be open. Every day you have to be fearless enough to be completely vulnerable.” It’s a lot easier said than done. But I promise you, I will be ready for my closeup.

And from The Times interview:

When the director Jamie Lloyd offered Nicole Scherzinger the lead in his new musical production of Sunset Boulevard, “I was like, ‘Are you out of your mind?’ First of all, I still look great under bright lights. And isn’t that an older woman who is, like, an old relic? How does that even remotely have anything to do with me?”

The former Pussycat Dolls pop star couldn’t see herself as Norma Desmond, the tragically faded and forgotten, psychotically deluded former silent movie starlet who at 50 still dreams of a comeback. Hand on hip, adopting a deep southern drawl of indignation: “I was, like, ‘Yo, this chick is crazy. I don’t want to play her. She crazy.’”

What persuaded her? “When I listened to the music I felt those were songs I could have written, like they were my songs. This is a completely different show than the musical people know. I feel like we might as well change the name of the show because it’s a completely different story we’re telling.” In her performance Desmond “is not crazy. She’s madly passionate about what she feels like she was put on this earth to do. She’s in love with her art. And there’s nothing tragic or pitiful about that.” She fixes me with a heartfelt stare. “She’s wanting to be seen for who she really is.” And so too, in Sunset Boulevard, is Scherzinger.
“People are going to see a very different side to me, aren’t they? Like they’ve never seen before in 45 years. I would like people to know me for the artist side of me.”

“Musical theatre was always my first love. And deep down inside I know that I am chosen. I know that I have something that no one else has in this world. You give me a song, and you put me on that stage, and it’s just a gift that I have, the gift to make people feel something. It’s my innate gift from God.”

Having grown up “dirt poor”— her mother was a clerk, her stepfather a welder — she works hard to support them and her grandparents back in the US. “Coming from nothing, my family needs me. My money is their money.” The decision to forfeit her highly paid job on The Masked Singer to be in Sunset Boulevard was, therefore, difficult.

“But I had to follow my heart. I chose this because this is where I belong. You don’t do this for money or cameras. You do this for love, the love of art — literally for art’s sake. And how are people going to know the artist side of me if I don’t put it out there? So it’s up to me to start making those choices in my life, to put myself where I can really share my true talents.”

Scherzinger’s legendary work ethic is in overdrive. She gets up 6.30am, takes a sauna “to sweat out toxins”, and works out with her trainer before rehearsing from 10am, six days a week. The cast tease her for always working through lunch break. At 6pm she goes straight home to an evening shift on the phone to her team in Los Angeles, and makes notes before getting to bed “at 12, if I’m doing good. If I’m not, more like 4.” She has to take something to help her wired brain sleep. “CBD gummies are legal in LA,” she says, grinning. “They work for me.”

Her drive to do justice to the role of Desmond is turbocharged by her empathy with her character’s experience of ageism in Hollywood. “It’s just as relevant today. And it’s still very brutal.” My assumption that she would be too young to have any experience of it makes her laugh. “Even if I look like I’m 37 or something, the moment somebody knows your age they will just —” and she draws a hand across her throat. “So it’s relevant to parallels in my life.”

She can empathise, too, with Desmond’s fear of no longer meeting Hollywood’s impossible demands of female beauty. When she was in the Pussycat Dolls, Scherzinger used to spend more than five hours a day in the gym, and suffered for years with bulimia. Their manager told her to lose weight when the band was formed. “But I didn’t need anyone to tell me. I’m my hardest critic of myself, so I was the worst voice, right?”

The Sound of Music's 1965 movie soundtrack is set to be re-released on 1 December 2023,. with a wealth of previously unreleased songs — including actor Christopher Plummer's original recordings that weren't used in the film. Though Bill Lee's singing voice was dubbed over Plummer's in the Oscar-winning movie, the upcoming set includes Plummer himself performing songs from the film.

A new compilation album will feature remastered versions of iconic tunes from the Julie Andrews-starring movie. It will also include 40 previously unreleased tracks, instrumentals of each song, and 11 never-before-heard alternate takes.

Among the previously-unreleased songs are "The Little Dears" — a combination of "I Have Confidence" and "My Favorite Things" — and "New Governess," which wasn't used in the film.

WICKED celebrates its 20th anniversary on Broadway with special partnerships and events throughout October. These include

• a moleskin notebook
• adult and children's dresses
• bracelets
• afternoon teas and experiences
• presale access and special events for certain credit card holders
• doll costumes

There will also be a 20th anniversary Playbill

Rock icon Bob Geldof is collaborating on a stage musical about the global phenomenon that was Live Aid. The show, called Just For One Day, devised and directed by Luke Sheppard (currently represented on the West End via The Little Big Things @SohoPlace), will have its world premiere at the Old Vic Theatre in London early next year, running from 26 January - 30 March 2024.

Sheppard and book writer John O’Farrell (Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget) are placing Live Aid “in the hands of the people who made it, who were there, who experienced it, even the fact that my mum was there and she’s told me a lot about it. That’s really influenced one of the characters in there as well. So, it’s Live Aid for the people essentially, as opposed to a kind of tribute act version of the show,” Sheppard stressed.

The show, Sheppard said, looks at Live Aid “from all angles, including from the technicians who are trying to pull off this satellite broadcast to the first-aid worker who was running the first-aid tent.”

Sheppard said that “we also look at it through the eyes of a guy called Bob who happened to be at the center of it all.”

Actor Craige Els takes on the Bob Geldof character. The BBC obtained this quote from the real Geldof on hearing that Craige Els will be playing him: "Let me be completely blunt. It's bad enough being Bob Geldof. It's slightly worse seeing someone else pretending to be you. The one upside for me is that he's got an amazing voice, stage Bob, so that people will think I actually sing as good as that."

Other casting includes Naomi Katiyo, Julie Atherton, Ashley Campbell, Jackie Clune, James Hameed, Hope Kenna, Freddie Love, Emily Ooi and Rhys Wilkinson. Further casting will be revealed later in the year.

The show’s creative team includes: musical supervision, arrangements and orchestration, Matthew Brind; choreography, Ebony Molina; set design, Soutra Gilmour; costumes, Fay Fullerton; lighting design, Howard Hudson; sound created by Gareth Owen; with video and animation by Andrzej Goulding. Casting is by Stuart Burt.

A decade after 'Book of Mormon,' Josh Gad and Andrew Rannells reunite for 'Gutenberg!,' an absurd musical romp.

If you're a theatre fan living in New York City, and especially if you're a theatre student or artist, you've likely heard about the New York Public Library's Theatre on Film and Tape Archive, which contains countless full videos of Broadway, Off-Broadway, and even regional productions from the 1970s. Anyone can come in and view these filmed productions in the NYPL's screening room. Recently, new titles were added to the archive, including The Phantom of the Opera (with the original cast); Kiss of the Spiderwoman; Dreamgirls; A Chorus Line; Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812; In the Heights; the 2022 Broadway revival of Company; and the 2018 Broadway revival of Carousel.

TOFT only puts productions in its archive after they have closed. So with Phantom's recent closure, you might imagine people lining up down the block to see the never-before-seen footage of the original 1988 cast.

But it's not as simple as just walking into a movie theatre—the purpose of the archive is to serve as a resource, not an entertainment venue. So, what are the stipulations? How can you view something in the archives?

9 of the ten performers, directors, producers and programs in Variety's 10 Broadway to Watch honorees list have musical theatre connections, including:

• Julie Benko (Funny Girl, Harmony)
• Sammi Cannold (Ragtime, Evita)
• Rebecca Frecknall (Cabaret)
• Nichelle Lewis (The Wiz)
• Ingrid Michaelson (The Great Comet, The Notebook)
• Clint Ramos (Here Lies Love)
• Rise Theatre Directory
• Rachel Sussman (Parade, Suffs)
• Whitney White (Macbeth in Stride)

The exception is performer Kara Young.