Musical Theatre

An article on some of the musicals at this year's Edinburgh Festival Fringe which are hoping to duplicate the success of SIX, which also got its start at the Fringe.

The next Lionel Bart Memorial Masterclass features Next To Normal writer Tom Kitt, who will discuss his work and career, answer questions and will give constructive feedback on songs by four writers/writing teams.

The masterclass will be held on 7pm Wednesday 9 August 2023 at the London Welsh Centre and is free for Mercury Musicals Development (MMD) and Book Music Lyrics (BML) members with paid tickets also available.

The revival of Parade closed the Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre, following 21 previews and 166 regular performances. The revival of the Jason Robert Brown / Alfred Uhry musical starred Ben Platt and Micaela Diamond and won two Tony Awards, for Best Direction (Michael Arden) and Best Revival of a Musical.

A video of the closing night speeches by Brown, Uhry and Arden is available here.

Related: Micaela Diamond was a recent guest on the Little Known Facts by Ilana Levine podcast.

After one major cast change and a lot of off-stage drama, “Funny Girl” has recouped its $16.5 million capitalization, the producers of the Broadway revival announced.

This means the musical has successfully paid back its investors and any revenue the show, and its tour, bring in now (after running costs are deducted) is considered profit.

The Broadway revival opened 24 April 2022, with Beanie Feldstein as Fanny Brice, after beginning previews 26 March 2022. Lea Michele stepped into the role on 6 September 6 2022, alongside Tovah Feldshuh, who succeeded Jane Lynch as Mrs. Brice.

The Broadway production will close on 3 September, at which point it will have played 30 previews and 599 regular performances on Broadway.

In related news, full casting and the 2023-24 tour route for the Funny Girl North American Tour has been revealed.. The full tour schedule is available on the show's website.

Connecticut's Goodspeed Musicals announces the cast for the new musical The 12.

The 12 will be directed by Tony-winner John Doyle, with book and lyrics by Robert Schenkkan, and music & lyrics by Neil Berg.

The cast includes Akron Lanier Watson, Wonzaā Johnson, Wesley Taylor, Etai Benson, Gregory Treco, Kyle Scatliffe, Kelvin Moon Loh, Mel Johnson Jr, Brandon J. Ellis, Rob Morrison, F. Michael Haynie, Adrienne Walker, Rema Webb, Matt Caplan and Aurelia Williams.

The 12 will run September 8th – October 29th, 2023.

The cast album for the 2023 revival of Sweeney Todd starring Josh Groban and Annaleigh Ashford will be released for digital download on September 8.

The pre-release tracks for this album have been dripping out for months, so it's good to finally have an official release date.

The new musical “The Notebook,” based on the novel by Nicholas Sparks, will arrive on Broadway in 2024. Previews will begin on Feb. 6, 2024, ahead of an official opening night of March 14 at the Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre. The musical made its world premiere at Chicago Shakespeare Theater in October 2022.

Co-directed by four-time Tony Award nominee Michael Greif and Schele Williams, “The Notebook” features music and lyrics by singer-songwriter Ingrid Michaelson and a book by Bekah Brunstetter.

“The Notebook” follows the love story of Allie and Noah, who meet as teenagers and are tested by people and circumstances that try to pull them apart.

The musical will mark Michaelson’s Broadway songwriting debut, as she previously bowed as a replacement actor for the role of Sonya in “Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812.” Michaelson is best known for her music as a folk-pop singer-songwriter and multiplatinum recording artist.

Lin-Manuel Miranda's latest project will be an adaptation of Sol Yurick’s 1965 novel “The Warriors,” about violent gang battles in New York City during the sixties, a source near the Miranda family told The New York Post.

It’s not yet known if Miranda will make the new show sung-through, like “Hamilton,” or feature a script written by another playwright, like “In the Heights” by Quiara Alegría Hudes.

The novel was also the basis of a 1979 movie.

BACK TO THE FUTURE: The Musical opened on Broadway on Thursday 3 August 2023 at the Winter Garden Theatre.

Reviews seem to be split with Broadway World summarising eight positive, six negative and eight mixed reviews.

For what it's worth my personal opinion is that the show is pretty much what you'd expect from an adaptation of a well-known movie property. Slick, competently constructed, and perhaps a little too slavishly faithful to the source material (unsurprising that many of the people behind the movie are also behind the musical). When I saw it in London I thought Roger Bart as Doc Brown elevated the material and stole every scene he was in, with Hugh Coles as George McFly also making a strong impression, and I wasn't surprised that these were the two actors who were brought across the pond to open the show on Broadway.

There's also a small puff piece on the production.

Posters for the West End musical Operation Mincemeat were banned from London’s transport network due to concerns that the design looked like graffiti and would encourage “wider acts of vandalism”.

The team behind Operation Mincemeat had to redesign its posters after they were rejected by Transport for London (TfL) because they failed to comply with its policy.

The musical is currently on at Fortune Theatre until February after transferring to the West End this year.

Highlights this week include three books of interest to musical theatre lovers:

• The Stephen Sondheim Encyclopedia by Rick Pender
• Rescuing CATS: The Musical That's Better Than You Think by Scott Miller
• Out For Blood: A Cultural History of Carrie the Musical by Chris Adams

The Prince of Egypt received two Oscar nominations, one for Best Original Musical Score by Stephen Schwartz and Hans Zimmer, and another for Best Original Song for the iconic ballad "When You Believe," written and composed by Schwartz.

A.frame spoke with the film's directors to reflect on the making of this cinematic milestone and its enduring legacy. "I actually feel that the film has aged better when you look at it now," says co-director Hickner.

(The article doesn't mention the stage adaptation, which received productions in Silicon Valley California, Denmark and London.)

A new musical based on the novel Beaches (which was also made into a movie starring Bette Middler and Barbara Hershey) will premiere Theatre Calgary's Arts Commons Max Bell Theatre in Calgary, Canada in 2024.

Beaches the Musical features a book by Iris Rainer Dart and Thom Thomas (based on Dart's novel), music by Mike Stoller and lyrics by Iris Rainer Dart. Directed by Tony Award Nominee Lonny Price and co-directed by Matt Cowart, previews begin May 18th, 2024, with opening night May 24th. the run will conclude June16th 2024.

The full cast and creative team for Beaches the Musical will be announced at a later date. Beaches the Musical will be having a NYC Industry reading in October 2023.

Previous developmental productions of Beaches have taken place at The Signature Theatre in Washington, DC in 2014 (starring Alysha Umphress and Mara Davi) and The Drury Lane Theatre in Chicago in 2015 (starring Shoshana Bean and Whitney Bashor). Both versions were directed by Eric Schaeffer and featured music by David Austin.

The Oscar Hammerstein Museum and Theatre Education Center (OHMTEC) announced a $500,000 gift from the Estate of philanthropist Ronald Franklin Pratt that will allow the nonprofit to purchase Highland Farm, Hammerstein’s family home and creative epicenter in Doylestown, Pennsylvania.

Oscar Hammerstein II lived with his family at Highland Farm for the last 20 years of his life. This is the place where he forged his legendary partnership with Richard Rodgers and that inspired many of their greatest musical works, including The Sound of Music, Carousel, The King and I, Oklahoma! and South Pacific, and where he mentored a young Stephen Sondheim.

Hammerstein’s role as a mentor and humanitarian will play a large role in the forthcoming theatre education center. Plans include a youth theater company; classes in theater, dance, and music production; mentorship programs for young adults and emerging professionals; school programming; writer’s retreats; and outreach programs for all ages, both in-person and virtual. Consistent with the nonprofit’s goal to provide learning opportunities for all, programming fees will be on a sliding scale, and no one will be turned away.

This year's Edinburgh Fringe Festival will feature 172 shows in the "musicals and opera" category. These include well-known hits like Avenue Q and The Addams Family (two separate productions of the latter) to two separate Alan Turing biomusicals (Alan Turing - A Musical Biography and Alan Turing - Guilty of Love). And those are just the shows starting with the letter "A".

Some of the shows would fall under the "opera" category, and the listing includes some shows that have been cancelled, but it's still likely that around 150 musicals will be part of the festival this year. Which would fall under the heading of "embarrassment of riches" (depending on their quality). I've always wanted to go to the Edinburgh Fringe, unfortunately the cost of accommodation has become insanely expensive. One day...

Washington DC's Kennedy Center announced that its production of “Spamalot” (which played in May 2023) will transfer to Broadway Preview performances start at the St. James Theatre on 31 October 2023, with opening night on 16 November. Josh Rhodes returns to direct and choreograph. Casting has yet to be announced.

The transfer is a crowning achievement for the Broadway Center Stage series, which began in 2018 at the Kennedy Center as semi-staged concert performances and has evolved in recent years into more fully produced musicals, including acclaimed runs of “The Music Man,” “Next to Normal” and “Guys and Dolls.” But no Kennedy Center show has made its way to Broadway since 2011, when a production of “Follies” starring Bernadette Peters ran for four months two years after a revival of “Ragtime” followed the same path.

A return of cast members from the Kennedy Center run, which included James Monroe Iglehart as King Arthur, Alex Brightman as Sir Lancelot, Michael Urie as Sir Robin, Leslie Rodriguez Kritzer as the Lady of the Lake and Rob McClure as the Historian/Prince Herbert, would certainly generate buzz. Coyly addressing his to-be-announced actors, Rhodes said: “I love that cast from D.C., and I would be so happy to do the show with them again.”

An in-depth article about the development of Moulin Rouge! The Musical, based on Baz Luhrmann’s 2001 movie, which has recouped its capitalisation on Broadway, the West End and in Australia. Baz Luhrman recounts how he decided that he was not the right person to direct the stage production (a wise decision in my opinion, as his adaptation of Strictly Ballroom was not good) and producer Carmen Pavlovic talks about the tribulations the productions faced during the Covid-19 pandemic.

In a reminder that Covid still impacts the theatre community American Repertory Theater announced that the current production of Evita closed early due to cases of Covid in the company. Originally scheduled to run to 30 July 2023, it unexpectedly played its final show on 28 July.

A Broadway transfer has long been rumoured but not yet announced, however the production will play in Washington DC in the autumn.

Shereen Pimentel played Eva Peron, Omar Lopez-Cepero played Che and Caesar Samayoa Peron.

The Here Lies Love Instagram account announced that Lea Salonga will be extending her stint as Aurora Aquino, originally scheduled to end on 13 August, by a week to 19 August matinee.

As BroadwayWorld reported, Salonga (who is also a producer of the show) started her run early - on 5 July instead of the planned 11 July.

The English-language premiere of the Frank Wildhorn, Jack Murphy, Ivan Menchell musical Death Note in Concert, set to play three performances at the London Palladium August 21-22, will subsequently transfer to London's Lyric Theatre for six performances September 7-10.

Based on the manga, Death Note concerns Light Yagami, a high school student in Tokyo who discovers he can kill anyone by just writing their names in the supernatural notebook.

Sierra Boggess will star as Laurey in an upcoming studio cast album of Rodgers and Hammerstein's Oklahoma!, the first to feature the complete score performed with Robert Russell Bennett's original orchestrations. Boggess will co-star with Nathaniel Hackmann as Curly, Rodney Earl Clarke as Jud, Jamie Parker as Will Parker, Sandra Marvin as Aunt Eller, and Louise Dearman as Ado Annie.

Caroline Innerbichler, who originated the role of Maizy in Shucked (and who, after Alex Newell, stole the show as far as I'm concerned) is departing the Broadway musical on Sunday 3 September 2023](https://www.broadwayworld.com/article/Isabelle-McCalla-to-Join-the-Cast-of-SHUCKED-as-Maizy-in-September-20230727). Isabelle McCalla will take over the role.

Innerbichler said:

Being on stage with this remarkable company of actors has been one of the great joys of my professional life. I have some exciting things cooking that I can’t share just yet, but all will be revealed in good time. Even though, I’ll be leaving Shucked, I will still be cheering everyone on as they continue to make audiences feel the love of Cob County.

(Rumour has it she's pregnant.)

Broadway and West End star Willemijn Verkaik will star as Elsa in Frozen in Hamburg, Germany beginning on 18 October 2023. Verkaik previously lent her singing voice to the role of Elza in the German versions of the Disney Frozen films. Abla Alaoui will take on the role of Anna.

The Theatre Now Musical Theatre Writers Lab is accepting new applications for its New York City Lab. The deadline is midnight 4 September 2023 (though I'm not sure if that means 0.01am or 23.59pm).

The Lab was formed in the fall of 2019 with 10 musical theatre writing teams. There are two ongoing Musical Theatre Writing Labs: the NY Lab for those residing in the local tri-state area and an international Lab that meets on zoom.

Members of the NY Lab must be available to attend in-person Lab meetings that are held every other Sunday from 2-5pm at a midtown Manhattan studio from September through June.

Lab member teams are scheduled rotating presentation times throughout the season of 45 minutes each with three teams presenting at each session.

Additional support offered includes individual and group consultations, mentoring, dramaturgical sessions, writers groups, office resources, rehearsal space, networking and developmental lab productions with Theatre Now or through other theatre companies and other performance and production opportunities.

You may apply as a team (book writer, composer, lyricist or any combination with 2 or more collaborators) or as an individual (as the sole book writer/composer/lyricist).

Acceptance is through a highly selective and competitive application process. The application will require you to submit a sample of a musical (book and music) that you have completed or that your are currently working on, at any stage of development, and has not yet received a major production, as an example of your work for evaluation. If chosen, your participation in the group encourages work at any and all levels of development. You may submit multiple applications if you’ve collaborated and wish to continue with different sets of team members.

The submission form is here

The cast of the upcoming Korean production of Les Misérables will feature some familiar faces from the musical's previous productions, while also welcoming new big-name theater stars and a rookie actor.

Unlike the 2013 Korean production (which I was lucky enough to see), this 2023/20234 production will be dual-cast, with two actors sharing the principal roles. These are:

• Valjean | Min Woo-hyuk (Enjolras in the 2015 production) and Choi Jae-rim (Matilda, Chicago)
• Javert | Kim Woo-hyung (Enjolras in the 2013 production and Javert in the 2015 production) and Kai (Jekyll & Hyde, Frankenstein)
• Fantine | Cho Jung-eun and Lina
• Cosette | Lee Sang-ah and Ryu In-ah
• Marius | Yoon Eun-oh and Kim Kyung-rok
• Eponine | Kim Soo-ha (Do You Hear the People Sing concert) and Lumina

The article did not say who was playing Mr and Mrs Thenardier or Enjolras.

Les Miserables will open on 15 October 2023 at Busan's Dream Theatre and run through 19 November. It will open in Blue Square in Yongsan District, central Seoul, on 30 November and run through 10 March 2024. From 21 March to 4 April 2024, the show will be playing at the Keimyung Arts Center in Daegu.

Last week, picketers sang the iconic Les Miserables song outside of Universal Studios in Los Angeles, CA while on strike.

"Do You Hear the People Sing?" is often used as a protest song. Some examples include:

• Ukraine in 2014
• Korea in 2016
• Hong Kong in 2019
• Belarus in 2020
• China in 2022
• Sri Lanka in 2022