Musical Theatre

Neuwirth and Skybell will play Fraulein Schneider and Herr Schultz, with performances to begin April 2024.

Neuwirth has worked with Kander and Ebb for decades. Her performance as the first Velma Kelly in the still-running Broadway revival of Chicago earned Neuwirth a second Tony (the first she received for Sweet Charity). Neuwirth went on to star as Roxie Hart and Matron "Mama" Morton in subsequent runs in the show, making her the only actor (so far) to play all three roles. Neuwirth's multitude of stage credits also includes a West End run as Aurora in Kander and Ebb's Kiss of the Spider Woman.

Skybell starred as Tevye in the Joel Grey-helmed Fiddler on the Roof in Yiddish Off-Broadway, for which he received a 2019 Lucille Lortel Award. Skybell's additional Broadway credits include Pal Joey, Wicked, and The Full Monty.

As previously reported, Eddie Redmayne will reprise his London performance as The Emcee on Broadway, Gayle Rankin will star as Sally Bowles, and Ato Blankson-Wood will play Cliff. Additional casting is to be announced.

Barbra Streisand says that Stephen Sondheim would not let her direct and star in a Gypsy movie musical. Although she had written 'a synopsis of how every scene would work' in the movie, Sondheim said it was 'too difficult' for her to take on both roles.

"I wanted to end my career with playing Gypsy," Streisand shared on Howard Stern's Sirius XM radio show today. "I wanted to direct it and I could see every frame and just be in it."

She began working with Sondheim, who wrote the lyrics for the musical, on the structure of the film adaptation, saying that she "adored" working with him on potential changes to the musical.

"That was a very creative time in my life with him, we were both so open to change things and make it new but his same songs but looking at them again and he was so open to change, it was incredible."

However, once it came to Streisand directing the film and starring as Mama Rose, the legendary musical theatre writer would not let her take on both roles.

"You either direct the movie, or you act in it. But you can't do both," she says Sondheim told her, stating that the role was "too difficult."

Although she had written "a synopsis of how every scene would work" in the movie, Streisand's dreaming of helming and starring in the film never came to fruition.

"There are things in life that you can't have. It was very sad for me," she concluded.

Starting in January, the music streaming platform Spotify will no longer pay royalties on any songs played less than 1,000 times in a year. The change is expected to impact about two-thirds of the tracks on the platform, and a lot of the less popular Broadway cast recordings.

For example, the cast recording of the 1989 Broadway musical revue Black and Blue, which was a nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Musical Theater Album, receives less than 1,000 streams each year. According to Spotify, only about 53 users listen to some of its songs each month.

“Right now, streams and revenue are effectively synonymous, but by this time next year, they will mean very different things,” observed Mark Mulligan, the founder of the research and analysis firm MIDiA Research. Only the streams after 1,000 streams will count now for purposes of calculating revenue, and “[t]he majority of artists direct will no longer be paid for their contribution to the value of the $11.99 subscription,” he stated.

As a result, it is probable that the rightsholders of Black and Blue will get any greenbacks from Spotify.

“It will definitely have a negative impact on some artists, as not all tracks reach the 1,000-play threshold,” added Van Dean, the president of Broadway Records, which releases many Broadway cast recordings. “I don’t think Spotify’s royalty model properly compensates artists, and those who support them, for their work,” he added. “Instead of looking for ways to cut back, they should be looking for ways to better support and reward their artists,” Dean said.

Although a thousand streams of a song might not result in much revenue, some artists might decide to pull their works from Spotify in hopes of making money elsewhere. Other music streaming platforms like Amazon Music and Apple Music do not require a certain number of streams in order to receive royalty payments.

However, along with TikTok and other forms of social media, Spotify has helped lesser-known musicals find audiences, and, in some cases, gain the interest from producers and the funding from investors necessary to bring them to Broadway.

Several years after premiering at a small New Jersey not-for-profit theater in 2015, the musical Be More Chill blew up on social media and was produced on Broadway. “I was like, maybe somewhere three people discovered this cast album,” recalled the book-writer, Joe Tracz. But, “[t]hen those three people became 30, which became 300, which became over 150 million streams on Spotify,” he stated.

In addition, the live off-Broadway cast recording of Hadestown released in 2017 helped the musical make it to the Great White Way two years later.

Almost immediately, the cast recording was streamed more often than the cast recordings of some new Broadway shows, amazing its lead producer, Mara Isaacs. “It was like a little Off-Broadway show last summer,” she stated a few months after its release. “Where did all these people come from?” Isaacs asked.

The producers of a new musical, Treason, boasted about how its cast album was streamed millions of times on Spotify in order to secure financing for a full production in London’s West End later in the month. The show hopes to follow in the footsteps of the British musical Six, which arrived on Broadway with the second-most streamed cast recording behind Hamilton.

But, until the musicals break through the noise to attract large audiences, their creators might not receive any royalty payments from Spotify.

Broadway stars, including Billy Porter, Jeremy Jordan, Annaleigh Ashford, Tovah Feldshuh and Debra Messing, gathered together in a recording booth, or at home to record a video of "Bring Him Home" from Les Miserables, praying for the safety and quick return of all of the hostages taken by Hamas in Gaza on 7 October 2023.

In October the Israeli Opera also recorded a rendition of "Bring Him Home" for the same cause.

The trailer for the upcoming 2024 movie adaptation of Mean Girls the musical written by Jeff Richmond, Nell Benjamin and Tina Fey, which was an adaptation of the 2004 Mean Girls movie written by Tina Fey, which was an adaptation of the 2002 book Queen Bees and Wannabes by Rosalind Wiseman, has been released.

And there's nothing at all in the trailer which tells audiences that they'll be seeing a musical instead of a straight remake of the movie. This trailer is even more ashamed of its movie's musicalness than the Sweeney Todd trailer from 2007, which at least featured Johnny Depp warbling a few lines of "Epiphany" in the middle.

On stage, the role of Young Cosette is alternated by young actors, many of whom have gone on to star in Mary Poppins, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, School of Rock, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child and Matilda – both on stage and recently in the musical movie. For some, like Frozen favourite Emily Lane, Olivier winner Cleo Demetriou, and pop singer Eliza (aka Eliza DooLittle), this has continued to impressive adult stage, screen and music careers.

Link to video.

One day I'm going to read a story on "Where are the Young Cosettes now?" and come across the phrase "... has had two husbands, three children and seven grandkids".

It’s not too often that Australian television dishes out new musicals, though recent titles include the Aids crisis-themed In Our Blood and the superb psych ward-set drama Wakefield. But the musical parody genre is an even rarer beast, musicalising unexpected subjects such as the housing crisis – in SBS’s short and zippy comedy Time to Buy: A Musical – and now, in the ABC’s six-part series Australian Epic, a collection of “Australia’s most defining stories”.

Here that rather loose criteria essentially means stories the writers – Chris Taylor and Andrew Hansen of the comedy group the Chaser – felt were ripe for satire (albeit of a rather toothless kind; the first couple of episodes in particular play more like musical celebration). Part of the joke is the choice of topics: nobody would seriously suggest that the marriage of Mary Elizabeth Donaldson to Frederik, the Crown Prince of Denmark (the subject of episode two), was one of our most defining moments.

Ditto for the unlikely success of the ice skater Steven Bradbury, who won a gold medal in 2002 after all his competitors fell over (episode one). And double ditto for Melbourne’s ill-fated 120-metre-high ferris wheel (episode four). The remaining episodes cover the furore surrounding the arrival in Australia of Pistol and Boo, Johnny Depp’s dogs (episode three); the conviction of Schapelle Corby (episode five); and, in the only really interesting and dangerous choice, the sad debacle of the Tampa affair, including how the then prime minister, John Howard, exploited it.

Adapting a format that originated in Norway, the series’ central gimmick involves intercutting musical numbers with a standard talking heads documentary. Tune in when interviewees are talking and it’ll look like just another rote TV doco; a minute later there’ll be singing and dancing and all sorts of zaniness.

Australian Epic premieres on Wednesday 8 November at 9pm on the (Australian) ABC.

Rebecca Caine is currently on tour across the UK with her show Dividing Day. Rebecca created the role of Cosette in Les Misérables for the RSC and was a celebrated Christine Daae in The Phantom of the Opera opposite Michael Crawford in the West End and her native country, Canada.

A couple of interesting bits from this interview:

One of my regrets is that in order to be taken seriously as an opera singer and cross over from musical theatre, I felt I had to wipe any trace of it from my resumé for years. In a perfect world I should have kept both careers running simultaneously but is was not a possibility then. After I aged out of my opera roles I had to very much start again in MT. I now have reached a place where I feel an anomaly. I don’t vocally fit the stereotype of an older woman. My voice is still a pretty fresh soprano sound and I exist as that person. I’m not going to change my sound – attempt to belt or do anything to endanger my vocal health – so unless people write for me there are not many roles for me, but I have been lucky to have people compose for me. I’m no longer interested in trying to be a square peg in a round hole. I’ve earned that after over four decades and I’m very proud of my strange eclectic career.

When we made Les Misérables in a stuffy basement in the bowels of the Barbican in 1985, we had no idea it would become what it became. There had never been a phenomena like it, how was anyone to know? That whole experience was extraordinary in retrospect. The original cast’s very DNA are in the very bones of that musical and will be forever. To see it go on, means so much to so many, to hear it sung when real barricades are erected, it is a gift. I’m so grateful to have been rather reluctantly plucked out of the Glyndebourne chorus by Trevor Nunn and packed off to the RSC on that hot, sunny, distant day in the summer of 1985. You never know what awaits you in this extraordinary business.

Here Lies Love, the costly David Byrne-Fatboy Slim immersive musical that required an extensive renovation of the Broadway Theatre for its dance club setting, will play its final Broadway performance on Sunday, November 26 2023.

When it closes, Here Lies Love will have played 33 previews and 149 regular performances at the Broadway Theatre.

At an estimated cost of $22 million, Here Lies Love, which uses a dance club setting to tell the story of the rise and fall of Imelda Marcos, will now be among Broadway’s priciest flops in recent years. Despite a promising start when it opened July 20, the show failed to sustain the level of ticket sales that would cover its weekly operating costs. During the week ending November 5, for example, the show filled just 79% of seats at the Broadway, grossing $768,244.

A long-gestating production, the musical had its world premiere Off Broadway at The Public Theater in 2013, returning to the venue in 2014-2015. A West End production debuted at London’s Royal National Theatre in 2014, and a production opened at Seattle Repertory Theatre in 2017.

The Off Broadway production was an audience favorite and drew mostly excellent reviews. The transition to Broadway, however, never quite took hold, either critically or among audiences (despite various ticket initiatives). Much of the show’s appeal – or intended appeal – is its fun-night-out approach to theater, with a large segment of the orchestra-level audience required to participate in the dance-club goings-on. The unusual approach likely found a more receptive audience at the downtown Manhattan Public Theater.

The pro-shot of the West End production of The Prince of Egypt: The Musical, will be released on digital platforms from December 4. Following a release on BroadwayHD on November 15, the production will be available to buy or rent on YouTube, Xfinity, Prime Video, Apple TV, and more.

The show was recorded live at the Dominion Theatre in late 2021 and was recently screened in selected cinemas across the UK and internationally.

The revival of The Wiz is allegedly using AI to generate its “backdrop” projections. (Disney received criticism some months ago over the alleged use of AI in the credit sequence and posters for Loki.)

A TikTok user alleges that The Wiz, which is currently on its pre-Broadway tour, is using AI-generated “backdrops”, pointing out telltale signs of AI-generated art such as blurry spots or different styles in the same scene.

When BroadwayWorld contributor Cara Joyo David asked the production spokesperson whether AI was used, the production issued a categorical denial: “AI was not used in the creation of the projections.”

Boy George will join the cast of Moulin Rouge! The Musical on Broadway in February.

George will play the role of Harold Zidler, the club owner of the Moulin Rouge, starting Feb. 6 through May 12. He announced the news on the Today show Monday, saying that he had already seen the show a few times and was excited to join the show’s ensemble and learn about “fitting in” to the show, which has been running on Broadway since 2019.

While George is best known as the lead singer of Culture Club, whose hits include “Do You Really Want to Hurt Me” and “Karma Chameleon,” he has previously appeared on Broadway in his 2003 musical, Taboo. The musical, which also featured a score by George, told the story of George’s rise to fame through the club scene of London in the 1970s and 1980s.

The role of Zidler is currently being played by Tituss Burgess, who is set to end his run as Zidler on Dec. 17. Eric Anderson is scheduled to return to the role on Dec. 19 and play it through Feb. 4.

How often are Broadway musicals about real people who actually existed?

The article goes on to discuss:

• jukebox musicals (eg A Beautiful Noise, The Boy From Oz, Tina, MJ)
• shows adapted from documentaries (eg Grey Gardens, Hands on a Hardbody)
• shows based on real life political figures (eg Here Lies Love, 1776, Assassins, Diana, Evita, The King and I, Jesus Christ Superstar, Six, Parade, as well as lesser known shows like Onward Victoria)
• shows based real show business figures, but which are not jukebox musicals (eg A Class Act, Barnum, Funny Girl, Gypsy, Mack and Mabel, Side Show)
• shows based on historical events but not centred on real life figures. though real life figures may appear in them (eg Titanic, South Pacific, Ragtime, Pacific Overtures)
• shows that mix autobiographical and fictional elements (eg A Chorus Line, Rent, A Strange Loop, Fun Home)
• shows that don't quite fall into any of the above categories. including those based on people outside the worlds of politics and show business (eg Come From Away, The Sound of Music, The Capeman, Flying Over Sunset, Legs Diamond, Sunday in the Park with George, War Paint)

The Broadway theatre community consists of countless craftsman, designers, specialists, and of course... performers- all who play in integral role in getting (and keeping) your favorite shows up and running. Thirteen different unions (and three additional contracts) represent Broadway workers and BroadwayWorld is spotlighting each and every one of them.

Today, learn all about Actors' Equity Association...

Stephen Sondheim, Burt Shevelove, and Nathan Lane's The Frogs makes a NYC return via MasterVoices, which is presenting a concert production of the seldom-produced musical at Jazz at Lincoln Center's Rose Theater November 3 and 4.

Lane, who penned the revised book from Shevelove's original, is hosting, with Douglas Sills as Dionysos, Kevin Chamberlin as Xanthias, Peter Bartlett as Pluto (reprising his performance from the musical's 2004 Broadway production), Dylan Baker as George Bernard Shaw, Chuck Cooper as Charon, Marc Kudisch as Herakles, Jordan Donica as William Shakespeare, and Candice Corbin as Ariadne. Also featured is the 130-member MasterVoices Chorus.

A new musical adaptation of Clueless is to make its UK premiere in 2024. Adapted from the 1995 movie of the same name, Clueless will have a development run at Bromley’s Churchill Theatre from 12 – 24 February.

Clueless is adapted for the stage by Amy Heckerling who wrote and directed the film, based on Jane Austen’s 1815 novel Emma with an updated setting in modern-day Beverly Hills.

The show was previously seen Off-Broadway in New York in 2018 starring Dove Cameron. Then a jukebox musical, it featured songs from the 80s and 90s including U Can’t Touch This by MC Hammer, Barbie Girl by Aqua and Torn by Natalie Imbruglia.

This new version features an original score with music by the multi-platinum singer-songwriter KT Tunstall, and lyrics by Grammy winner and three-time Tony nominee Glenn Slater.

Imelda Staunton will star in the much-delayed and much-anticipated revival of Jerry Herman’s joyous musical Hello, Dolly! at the London Palladium in Summer 2024. It will play from 6 July to 14 September 2024, for 10 weeks only.

Hello, Dolly was initially scheduled to run in 2020 for 30-weeks, but was delayed due to Covid, and due to Imelda Staunton’s filming commitments for her role as The Queen in Peter Morgan’s Netflix drama The Crown.

Hello, Dolly! will see Staunton reunite with Director Dominic Cooke, following their acclaimed production of Follies at the National Theatre.

It is believed that Imelda Staunton met with Jerry Herman just before he died in December 2019, and he gave her and Dominic Cooke permission to switch around the show’s opening scenes and change one of its songs. They are adding another Jerry Herman song into the show – ‘Penny in My Pocket’, which was also inserted into the recent Broadway production starring Bette Midler.

That song is for store owner Horace Vandergelder, who will be played by Andy Nyman in the Palladium show. Nyman has long been attached to this production, as has Olivier Award winner Jenna Russell, who has been confirmed as playing Irene Molloy, Harry Hepple as Cornelius Hackl and Tyrone Huntley as Barnaby Tucker.

Previously reflecting on the role starring role of Dolly, Staunton said she hopes to bring out lead character Dolly Gallagher Levi’s Irish heritage when she brings the role to life.

The large scale revival will have a cast of 35 and an orchestra of 18 musicians. The creative team will also include Rae Smith – Set & Costume Designer; Bill Deamer – Choreographer; Jon Clark – Lighting Designer; Paul Groothuis – Sound Designer; Finn Ross – Video Designer; and Nick Skilbeck – Musical Supervisor.

Grant Gustin, the star of the CW’s long-running The Flash, will make his Broadway debut in the new musical Water For Elephants. Gustin, who also appeared in the TV series Glee, will portray main character Jacob Jankowski in a cast that also includes Isabelle McCalla (The Prom, Shucked), Gregg Edelman (City of Angels), Paul Alexander Nolan (Slave Play), Stan Brown (Homicide: Life in the Streets), Joe De Paul (Cirque du Soleil’s Dralion), Sara Gettelfinger (Dirty Rotten Scoundrels) and Wade McCollum (Wicked).

The musical, based on the Sara Gruen 2006 novel that was made into a 2011 film that starred Robert Pattinson in the Jacob role, begins previews on Saturday, February 24, 2024, at Broadway’s Imperial Theatre, with an opening night on Thursday, March 21.

Water For Elephants features a book by Rick Elice (Jersey Boys, Peter and the Starcatcher) and a score by PigPen Theatre Co. (The Tale of Despereaux). Jessica Stone (Kimberly Akimbo) directs.

The 2023 Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York will feature performances by Broadway’s “& Juliet,” “Back to the Future: The Musical,” “How To Dance In Ohio,” “Shucked” and “Spamalot,” with a special appearance by Josh Gad and Andrew Rannells of “Gutenberg! The Musical.

Also appearing are Cher, Brandy, David Foster and Katharine McPhee, and Ashley Park (joined by the Muppets of Sesame Street), among others.

The parade broadcast begins at 8.30am on 23 November nationwide (ie at 8.30am regardless of time zone).

The concept is a riff (or a ruff?) on Broadway Barks, an annual star-studded dog and cat adoption event founded by Mary Tyler Moore and Bernadette Peters and benefiting New York City animal shelters and adoption agencies.

Elaine Paige and Bernadette Peters will host the first ever in-person West End Woofs (and Meows) on Saturday 18 November from 10.00am – 12.30pm at St Paul’s Church, Covent Garden.

The dog and cat adoption event will see a ‘meet and greet’ with a variety of adoptable pets – followed by a special performance of “Old Friends” by the company of Stephen Sondheim’s Old Friends.

All proceeds from the event will benefit the following charities:

• Helping Dogs and Cats UK
• Pro Dogs Direct
• Home Run Hounds
• Saving Saints Rescue
• Noah’s Ark Dog Rescue
• German Shepherd Rescue South
• All Dogs Matter

Aaron Tveit and Sutton Foster will join the Broadway revival of Sweeney Todd succeeding original stars Josh Groban and Annaleigh Ashford. Tveit and Foster will step in as Sweeney Todd and Mrs. Lovett, respectively, for a 12-week limited run beginning February 9, 2024. Groban and Ashford will play their final performances January 14, 2024.

Victoria Clark has posted on her Instagram that she will be cutting back on her performance schedule in Kimberly Akimbo:

Hello My Friends, As you can imagine, being a teenager is exhausting work- so after a year (and over 400 performances) of bringing Kimberly to life, I’ve decided to to cut back a bit on my performance schedule. I want to spend a little more time with my husband and family and also give my glorious and talented standby Colleen Fitzpatrick @colleenfitzpatrickbroadway the opportunity to delight you. So, if you want to make sure to see me in @akimbomusical check in with the #booththeater box office to see if I’m in the show when you want to come. Thanks for all the love and support - it means the 🌎. ❤️❤️Love Vicki

Wicked, which became the fourth longest-running production in Broadway history this past April, celebrates another milestone October 30: 20 years at the Gershwin Theatre.

Following a weekend of anniversary celebrations that included a performance on ABC's Good Morning America, a Wicked Day Block Party outside the Gershwin, and special “Pink” and “Green” performances that boasted either a Pink Performance Wicked Day Playbill or a Green Performance Wicked Day, the Stephen Schwartz-Winnie Holzman musical offers a 20th anniversary performance for Wicked alums and fans at 6:30 PM at the Gershwin. To mark the occasion, the Empire State Building is being lit in green.

READ: All the Women Who Have Played Glinda and Elphaba in Wicked on Broadway

The 20th anniversary festivities are scheduled to conclude October 31 at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts with a free panel discussion about the creation of the global blockbuster. Panelists will include Wicked composer-lyricist Schwartz, librettist Holzman, and producer David Stone.

Photos: 9 Wicked Secrets of the Gershwin Theatre

Wicked is the winner of over 100 international awards and has been performed in over 100 cities in 16 countries around the world. The musical has been translated into six languages, been seen by nearly 65 million people worldwide, and has amassed over $5 billion in global sales. The musical is currently in its 17th year in London, and a U.K. tour will re-launch in Edinburgh this December.

More related stories:

• 11 Elphabas Reflect on Playing Broadway's Not-So- Wicked Witch
• Photos: Broadway's Wicked Celebrates 20th Anniversary at the Plaza

Wicked also currently touring Australia with the Australian production also celebrating the Broadway 20th anniversary via Pink and Green performances.

The new musical Lempicka, about Polish painter Tamara de Lempicka, will arrive at the Longacre Theatre in 2024, with previews scheduled to begin on March 19 ahead of an opening night set for April 14.

Eden Espinosa, a stage veteran who originated the musical’s title role in out-of-town stagings with Williamstown Theatre Festival and the La Jolla Playhouse, will headline the Broadway production.

Helmed by Tony-winning director Rachel Chavkin (“Hadestown”) and created by co-book writers Matt Gould and Carson Kreitzer (the latter of whom devised the musical’s original concept), “Lempicka” charts the painter’s journey through decades of political and personal turmoil, told via a pop-infused score (with music by Gould and lyrics by Kreitzer).

After seeing Here We Are, I’m wondering: have other shows premiered after one of the writers has passed away?

Musicals mentioned in the article include:

• Stephen Sondheim: Here We Are
• Fred Ebb: Curtains, The Scottsboro Boys, The Visit and New York, New York (all Broadway)
• Jonathan Larson: Rent (off-Broadway then Broadway) and tick tick Boom! (off-Broadway)
• Howard Ashman: Beauty and the Beast, The Little Mermaid, Aladdin (all Broadway) and Little Shop of Horrors (premiered off-Broadway while Ashman was alive, but on Broadway after his death)
• Wendy Wasserstein and Cy Coleman: Pamela’s First Musical (New Jersey)

This is a New York (and New Jersey) centred article but there must be other shows which received their premieres after one of the writers died. Chime in if you know of any.