Initial casting has been announced for the off-Broadway return of Teeth, written by Anna K. Jacobs (book and music) and Michael R. Jackson (book and lyrics). After the sold-out, extended world premiere at Playwrights Horizons, the open-ended commercial remount will have its official opening at New World Stages on October 31. Alyse Alan Louis (Soft Power, Disaster!) will reprise her Lucille Lortel Award-winning performance in the role of Dawn, an evangelical Christian teen. She will be joined by three-time Tony Award nominee Andy Karl (Groundhog Day, Rocky) in the role of Pastor Bill O'Keefe. Also reprising their roles are Will Connolly (Once, The Gilded Age) as Brad O’Keefe, Jason Gotay (Bring It On, A Bronx Tale) as Toby and Jared Loftin (Gigantic, Tick, Tick…Boom!) as Ryan. Additional casting will be announced shortly. Teeth is directed by Sarah Benson and choreographed by Raja Feather Kelly. Based on Mitchell Lichtenstein’s screenplay for the cult-classic 2007 horror comedy, Teeth is a tale of revenge and transformation that tears through a culture of shame and repressed desire one delightfully unhinged song at a time. The musical follows Dawn (Louis), a …

In a key scene in Back to the Future on Broadway, Marty McFly, played by Casey Likes, straps on a cherry red electric guitar and performs an ecstatic rendition of “Johnny B. Goode.” Likes unleashes a furious blizzard of notes, slides his fingers down the fretboard and works the whole room into a frenzy before getting carried away, finally leaving a wailing high B hanging awkwardly in the air. Likes—obviously—isn’t really playing the guitar. Somewhere in the warren of tightly packed backstage spaces at the Winter Garden Theatre, well out of sight of the audience, the guitarist Aurélien Budynek is the guy who actually performs the instrumental part that Likes studiedly simulates on stage. Budynek executes the number on his own custom Gibson ES-345 without breaking a sweat. “I actually bought this for the show,” he told a visitor recently, showing off the instrument. “I made sure that it was the same color as the movie too.” Aurélien’s custom Gibson ES-345 (Photo by Sergio Villarini for Broadway.com) Growing up near Bordeaux, France, Budynek took a few piano lessons around the age of four. They didn’t stick. A few years later, he saw Back to the Future for the first …

Earlier this year, Molly Carter from Fort Pierce, Florida, winner of Broadway.com's Broadway's Biggest Fan competition, got to visit New York for the first time. She took in three current Broadway shows—Aladdin, Back to the Future and Water for Elephants—and attended a private reception for the Broadway.com Audience Choice Award winners with stars like Rachel McAdams, Daniel Radcliffe, Jeremy Jordan and Eva Noblezada. “I put a lot of work into the video,” Molly told The Broadway Show about her all-sung video entry. “I was really proud and I hoped for the best, but I was just happy with what I did, regardless of the outcome. But it was incredible to find out that it was me.” Check out the video below for the full interview with Molly about her time in New York. And revisit Molly's winning submission below.

The Public Theater has announced initial casting for its Free Shakespeare in the Park production of Twelfth Night, set to reopen the Delacorte Theater in August 2025. The show will be directed by the Public’s Associate Artistic Director/Resident Director Saheem Ali. The company will feature Emmy and Golden Globe Award winner Peter Dinklage as Malvolio, Tony winner Jesse Tyler Ferguson as Andrew Aguecheek, Oscar winner and Tony nominee Lupita Nyong’o as Viola and Golden Globe Award winner Sandra Oh as Olivia. Additional casting and creative team details will be announced this fall. "Twelfth Night is the epitome of joy,” said Ali in a statement. “It also happens to be the first production I ever saw at the Delacorte, as a college student taking the Chinatown bus from Boston. I’m delighted to be reuniting with my dear friend Lupita Nyong’o, joined by fellow Public Theater alums Peter Dinklage, Jesse Tyler Ferguson and Sandra Oh. Free Shakespeare in the Park is a gift to our city. I’m honored to be helming this production as we reopen the Delacorte after an extensive and essential revitalization." Built in 1962, the Delacorte Theater is receiving its first meaningful capital upgrades since 1999. The new …

McCarter Theatre Center has announced a cast of Broadway veterans to lead its world-premiere production of Empire Records: The Musical. Directed by Trip Cullman with choreography by Ellenore Scott, the show features an original rock score by Zoe Sarnak and a book by Carol Heikkinen, screenwriter of the 1995 film on which the musical is based. Performances will run from September 6 through October 6 in McCarter’s Berlind Theatre. The cast will feature Tony nominee Lorna Courtney as Corey, Tony nominee Damon Daunno as Rex Manning, Taylor Iman Jones as Max, Michael Luwoye as Joe, Tyler Donovan McCall as Lucas, Liam Pearce as AJ, Sam Poon as Warren, Analise Scarpaci as Debra, Eric Wiegand as Mark and Samantha Williams as Gina. The Ensemble also includes Hoke Faser, Alex Lugo, Leah Read and Maximilian Sangerman with swings Andrew Cekala and Jarynn Whitney. Overflowing with optimism, ‘90s counterculture, rooftop dancing and the spirit of punk rock, Empire Records: The Musical tells the story of a band of idealistic misfits fighting to save their beloved record store from a corporate takeover. With tactics ranging from desperate to dangerous, the team comes together during a visit by over-the-hill pop star Rex Manning to discover …

Tony winner Aaron Tveit and actress Ericka Hunter are expecting a baby. The pair made the announcement on Instagram with a photograph captioned: “Table for 3.” Judging by the ring on Hunter's finger, the picture also doubles as an engagement reveal. Tveit’s Broadway credits include Next to Normal, Catch Me If You Can and Sweeney Todd. He won a Tony Award for originating the role of Christian in Moulin Rouge!, a role to which he returned this week. Hunter has been an ensemble member in the Broadway casts of Rock of Ages (later playing the role of Sherrie), American Psycho, Doctor Zhivago, Miss Saigon and Moulin Rouge! Tveit and Hunter met on the latter show. Broadway.com spoke to Hunter about her journey in 2019; check out the video below.

Auliʻi Cravalho and Adam Lambert will be the new Sally Bowles and Emcee in the Broadway revival of Cabaret. They take over the roles originated by Gayle Rankin and Eddie Redmayne, beginning performances at the August Wilson Theatre on September 16 and playing a limited engagement through March 30, 2025. Rankin and Redmayne, both of whom earned 2024 Tony nominations, will play their final performance on September 14. Casting for the roles of Sally Bowles and Emcee after March 30 will be announced in the new year. Making her Broadway debut in Cabaret, Cravalho voiced the title character in Disney’s Moana and the upcoming sequel. She also appeared in NBC’s Rise, Netflix’s All Together Now and the film adaptation of the Mean Girls musical. Lambert, also making his Broadway debut, performed in the ensemble and understudied the role of Fiyero in the Los Angeles and national tour productions of Wicked, before rising to stardom as a runner-up on the eighth season of American Idol. He has fronted the rock band Queen since 2012. "Growing up on the musical theater stage, it was always a childhood dream to perform on Broadway," said Lambert in a statement. …

New York City Center has announced additional featured casting for its gala presentation of Ragtime, directed by Encores! Artistic Director Lear deBessonet. Performances will run from October 30 through November 10.  Colin Donnell, last seen on Broadway in The Shark Is Broken, will play Father; Ben Levi Ross, a veteran of Dear Evan Hansen and currently starring as Nick in Gatsby at the American Repertory Theater, will play Younger Brother; Shaina Taub, two-time Tony-winning writer and star of Suffs, will play Emma Goldman; and Joy Woods, now starring as Middle Allie in The Notebook, will take on the role of Sarah. As previously announced, the cast will also star Joshua Henry as Coalhouse Walker Jr., Caissie Levy as Mother and Brandon Uranowitz as Tateh. Taub will appear in select performances of Suffs between October 29 and November 10, with alternate Hawley Gould and understudy Chessa Metz playing the role of Alice Paul in remaining performances. The full schedule is available on the show's website. Ragtime, the musical adaptation of E.L. Doctorow’s novel of the same name and winner of four 1998 Tony Awards, features music by Stephen Flaherty, lyrics by Lynn Ahrens and a …

The upcoming Broadway production of Othello, starring Denzel Washington and Jake Gyllenhaal, has its Desdemona: London actress Molly Osborne, making her Broadway debut in the role. The production, directed by Kenny Leon, will open on Broadway in spring 2024 at a Shubert theater to be announced for a strictly 15-week engagement. “I am so excited to welcome Molly Osborne to our Broadway cast of Othello as Desdemona,” said Leon in a statement. “Her unique blend of heart and intellect, coupled with a natural vulnerability, makes her a truly captivating actress. I am thrilled to welcome her to our theater community and eagerly anticipate collaborating with her on her Broadway debut.” Osborne made her West End debut in 2018 as Tzeitel in Fiddler on the Roof. In London she has also starred in Indecent, the world-premiere musical adaptation of The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and Laughing Boy. In Othello, Washington will play the noble Moor of Venice and commanding warrior-general opposite Gyllenhaal as the ambitious lieutenant and masterful manipulator Iago. Spurned for promotion, Iago’s relentless quest for vengeance against Othello and his wife, Desdemona (Osborne), plunges them into a shocking web of deception and …

Comedian Hannah Gadsby (Nanette, Douglas, Something Special) will return to New York City this fall with their latest stand-up show WOOF!, directed by Jenney Shamash, Gadsby's wife and frequent collaborator. The show will play a strictly limited four-week engagement at the Abrons Arts Center from September 27 through October 20. The official opening will be on October 6.  More than six years after Nanette propelled them to international stardom, Hannah Gadsby is learning how to process the new world, with all its catastrophes and hypocrisies, from a new perspective. Hannah now finds themself yet again in a place of cultural dissonance, and we all know Hannah does their best work while casting their atypical eye over the fundamental contradictions of life.  “Most people would be trying to level up at this point in their career,” Gadsby said in a statement. “But not this contrary Nancy. You see, I get the impression the world is ending, so I have decided to go down the nostalgic route over the ambitious one. So, New York City, you’re part of a tour where I am revisiting many of my old haunts, such as the Edinburgh Fringe, the Melbourne International Comedy …

Forbidden Broadway: Merrily We Stole a Song has delayed its off-Broadway opening. Originally set to begin performances at Theater 555 on August 23, the show will now begin on August 30, with an official opening set for September 19. According to a spokesperson for the production, the delay is due to a scheduling conflict. The show is directed by creator Gerard Alessandrini with musical staging by Gerry McIntyre. Past Forbidden Broadway performers Chris Collins-Pisano and Jenny Lee Stern will lead the cast, with musical direction and piano accompaniment by Fred Barton. Additional casting and creative team members are to be announced. Alessandrini's targets this year include Hell’s Kitchen, Stereophonic, The Outsiders, The Great Gatsby, Back to the Future, The Wiz and Merrily We Roll Along. In addition, there will be sendups of Roger Bart, Patti LuPone, Daniel Radcliffe, Ariana DeBose and Jeremy Jordan, among others. The show will also skewer the 2024 Tony Awards and include some of the most popular numbers from Alessandrini’s recent Forbidden Sondheim. The Broadway run was originally scheduled to begin at the Hayes Theater on July 25 ahead of an August 5 opening, …

Oh, Mary!, Cole Escola's riotous, ahistorical romp about First Lady Mary Todd Lincoln, has extended its Broadway run. The play, which began its Broadway engagement on June 26 at the Lyceum Theatre, will now run through November 10. Escola leads Oh, Mary! as a miserable, suffocated Mary Todd Lincoln in the weeks leading up to Abraham Lincoln’s assassination. Unrequited yearning, alcoholism and suppressed desires abound in this one act play that finally examines the forgotten life and dreams of Mrs. Lincoln through the lens of an idiot. The show also stars Conrad Ricamora as Mary’s Husband, James Scully as Mary’s Teacher, Bianca Leigh as Mary’s Chaperone and Tony Macht as Mary’s Husband’s Assistant, with Hannah Solow, Peter Smith and Martin Landry completing the cast. Sam Pinkleton directs. Oh, Mary! had a twice-extended world premiere at the Lucille Lortel Theatre. It won Best New Play at the Off Broadway Alliance Awards, received the John Gassner Award for new American play from the Outer Critics Circle and was honored with the Sam Norkin Off-Broadway Award from the Drama Desk.  The Broadway creative team includes dots (scenic design), Holly Pierson (costume design), Cha See (lighting design), Daniel Kluger (sound design and original music), Drew Levy (sound …

Tony Award winner Aaron Tveit and singer Joanna “JoJo” Levesque return to Broadway’s Moulin Rouge!—and to the roles of Christian and Satine, respectively—on July 23. Their limited engagement at the Al Hirschfeld Theatre will run through October 13. Tveit earned his first Tony Award for originating the role of Christian in the show. Most recently, he played the title character in Sweeney Todd opposite Sutton Foster. JoJo rose to fame at the age of 13 with her eponymous debut album. She made her Broadway debut as Satine in Moulin Rouge! last year. They lead a cast that includes Austin Durant as Harold Zidler, André Ward as Toulouse-Lautrec, David Harris as The Duke of Monroth, Ricky Rojas as Santiago and Sophie Carmen Jones as Nini, with Hailee Kaleem Wright as the Satine Alternate. Based on the 2001 movie directed by Baz Luhrmann, Moulin Rouge! is set to a kaleidoscopic score that mashes up decades’ worth of pop classics. It is directed by Alex Timbers, with a book by John Logan and choreography by Sonya Tayeh.

Jason Robert Brown's The Last Five Years, starring Nick Jonas and Adrienne Warren, has found a theater for its spring 2025 Broadway premiere. Directed by Whitney White, the production will begin previews at the Hudson Theatre on March 18, 2025 ahead of an official April 6 opening. As previously announced, the show will have a limited 14-week engagement. Tickets go on sale to the general public on July 26.  The Last Five Years follows two New Yorkers, rising author Jamie (Jonas) and aspiring actress Cathy (Warren), as they fall in and out of love over the course of five years. Jamie's story is told in chronological order, while Cathy's is told in reverse chronological order, beginning at the end of the couple's marriage. Their timelines only intersect once throughout the show.  The musical premiered at Chicago's Northlight Theatre in 2001 and was produced off-Broadway in 2002, starring Norbert Leo Butz and Sherie Rene Scott, who later recorded a cast album. The production won the 2002 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Music and Lyrics. Second Stage Theater revived the musical off-Broadway in 2013 with Adam Kantor and Betsy Wolfe, and an off-West End production followed in …

Olivier-winning actress Elaine Paige is giving Broadway.com listeners a chance to hear her BBC Radio 2 show Elaine Paige on Sunday. This week, Paige has show tunes, movie songs and the latest news from the boards. Plus, she shares her thoughts on the new West End production of Jerry Herman's classic musical Hello, Dolly! starring Dame Imelda Staunton. Catch the full episode by clicking the link below!

Of the new musicals slated for the 2024-25 Broadway season, Redwood has the greatest air of mystery. It’s a brand-new title with a brand-new score, and not only brings Tony winner Idina Menzel back to Broadway for the first time in over a decade, but she returns in creative collaboration with Tina Landau, the wild creative mind whose last Broadway musical was the underwater fever dream, SpongeBob SquarePants. West Coast audiences got a first look at the new project during its La Jolla Playhouse world premiere earlier this year, but here’s the essential information that we East Coasters have managed to piece together. Idina Menzel in "Rent" (Photo: Joan Marcus) Return to Nederlander In 1996, Idina Menzel landed her first professional theater job after her boyfriend secretly faxed her resume to a casting director. The show was Rent. After a couple of months at New York Theatre Workshop, the generation-defining rock musical opened at Broadway’s Nederlander Theatre on 41st Street in April that year—a theater chosen for its appropriately dilapidated surroundings and fixer-upper conditions. It was here, really, that the world got to hear and know Menzel’s roof-raising soprano for the first time. Nearly 30 years later, Menzel …

Broadway choreographer and perfomer JoAnn M. Hunter will direct and choreograph the new musical Yasuke: The Black Samurai. According to the exclusive Variety report, the production is aiming to open on Broadway in the 2026-27 season. The musical features a book and music inspired by traditional Japanese music sounds (“hōgaku”) by New York-based composer Bálint Varga, with Japanese lyrics by Azusa Fujikura and English lyrics by Jöel René Scoville and Joe Barros. Further creative announcements are forthcoming. The show was presented to industry experts and potential backers in the inaugural Broadway Shark Tank in 2023, a pitch program for new musicals. Hunter made her Broadway debut in the cast of Jerome Robbins’ Broadway in 1989. Her extensive Broadway resume since then includes performing in Miss Saigon and Thoroughly Modern Millie and serving as dance captain in Chicago and Spring Awakening. Most recently, she choreographed Bad Cinderella and School of Rock. Hunter is also attached to direct the similarly Broadway-aimed Jo: The Little Women Musical. Yasuke: The Black Samurai is set in 16th-century feudal Japan. It recounts the journey of Yasuke, an African man uprooted from his native land of Mozambique, only to be brought to …

Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS executive director Tom Viola will retire from the nonprofit on December 31, 2024 after 36 years of leading the organization. Danny Whitman, the current director of development, will succeed Viola. Viola has been involved with the nonprofit since its inception in 1988 and has run the organization as executive director since 1996. In 2010, Viola was awarded the Tony Honor for Excellence in Theatre at the 64th Tony Awards. “Few, if any, have served the theater community with more heart, dedication, determination and distinction than Tom Viola,” said Robert E. Wankel, president of the Broadway Cares Board of Trustees and chairman and CEO of the Shubert Organization in a statement. “Tom nurtured goodwill and trust throughout the theater community in the toughest of times, building Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS into an integral part of our industry that has reached out to millions of people in crisis through the years.” “Joining the Broadway community in the creation and now nearly 40-year legacy of Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS has given my life purpose and meaning,” Viola said. “Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS will be a part of my heart always, fiercely and with great joy.” Under Viola’s leadership, BC/EFA …

Maybe Happy Ending, the new romantic musical comedy about robots starring Darren Criss, Helen J. Shen and Dez Duron, has completed casting and announced new dates. Marcus Choi (Miss Saigon, Wicked, Flower Drum Song) has joined the cast of the show, which will now begin previews on October 16 with an official opening set for November 12; the change was attributed to supply chain-related delays behind the show's essential scenic design elements. Inside a one-room apartment in the heart of Seoul, Oliver (Criss) lives a happily quiet life listening to jazz records and caring for his favorite plant. But what else is there to do when you’re a Helper-Bot 3, a robot that has long been retired and considered obsolete? When his fellow Helper-Bot neighbor Claire (Shen) asks to borrow his charger, what starts as an awkward encounter leads to a unique friendship, a surprising adventure and maybe even...love?  Maybe Happy Ending was written in both Korean and English-language versions. The Korean-language version opened in December 2016 at DaeMyung Culture Factory in Seoul and subsequently won six Korean Musical Awards including Best Musical. The English-language version was awarded the 2017 Richard Rodgers Production …

The recipients of the 47th Kennedy Center Honors, awarded annually to those in the performing arts for a lifetime of contributions to American culture, were announced on July 18. This year’s honorees are the storied New York venue the Apollo Theater; filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola; singer-songwriter Bonnie Raitt; jazz performer and composer Arturo Sandoval; and the surviving members of countercultural jam band the Grateful Dead. The annual ceremony will take place on December 8 and will air on CBS on December 23. The Apollo Theater is the first venue to be honored in the history of the Honors. The Harlem landmark launched the careers of everyone from Ella Fitzgerald to Lauryn Hill and has hosted milestone performances by the likes of Aretha Franklin, James Brown, Little Richard and Stevie Wonder, as well as by current Broadway musical subjects/songwriters Michael Jackson and Alicia Keys. In 2018, it presented the theatrical adaptation of Ta-Nehisi Coates' Between the World and Me. It is also the home of the longest-running talent show in America, Amateur Night at the Apollo. No Broadway or theater artists were recognized this year, though Coppola did direct the 1983 film of The Outsiders. Recent honorees from the …