In the original 1993 production of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Sunset Boulevard, the primary set, designed by John Napier, was the gilded rococo interior of a Hollywood mansion, replete with sweeping staircase, grand columns and pipe organ, exuding an oppressive, ghostly glamor. In this season’s Sunset Boulevard, scenic designer Soutra Gilmour's set is, essentially, an empty stage—dark, impregnable, abyss-like. “You kind of clear, in a way, the history, the legacy of the show,” director Jamie Lloyd told The Broadway Show about his initial intentions for the production, which arrives in New York after an acclaimed run in the West End. There was an exhilaration to “pressing reset on the material,” distilling the work to “the bare minimum you need to be able to tell the story. And actually you just need people in a space. It’s as simple as that. And then the work grows from there.” “That's why I get out of bed in the morning,” Lloyd added. “How do we reinvent these things?” With no elaborate scenery to hide amongst, there’s an added intensity of focus—and pressure—on the performers. “There’s nothing to distract you,” said Nicole Scherzinger, who is reprising her Olivier-winning performance as Norma Desmond …

A director’s job is to coax humanity from a character, but Rupert Goold’s special knack is making characters of humans—rich ones who touch something universal with their biographical specificity. He helped make a Shakespearean meal of (at the time) a theoretical future King Charles III, crafted an artful Faust out of tabloid king Rupert Murdoch in Ink, and in last season’s Patriots, turned Vladimir Putin into Frankenstein’s monster. Televangelist Tammy Faye Bakker—the subject of Tammy Faye, a new musical with a book by Ink playwright James Graham that Goold directs this fall at the Palace Theatre—may seem out of place in this menacing group of historical characters. One reason being she (unlike King Charles, Murdoch or Putin) will be singing and dancing in the show about her life. And to a brand-new Elton John score at that. But just like all those men, Goold says, she’s a “properly complex three-dimensional character.” “Tammy was from a Christian movement that was associated with the moral majority and conservatism. And yet she became this LGBTQ icon and was central to the centering of the AIDS discussion in this country,” Goold tells The Broadway Show. Oh yeah, and she …

Three-time Tony nominee Sherie Renee Scott and Nicholas Christopher will be the next Audrey and Seymour to take up residency at the Westside Theatre in Michael Mayer's hit off-Broadway revival of Little Shop of Horrors. The pair, who were announced today at the show’s 5th anniversary celebration, will begin performances October 22. The musical’s current stars, Sarah Hyland and Andrew Barth Feldman, will play their final performances as Audrey and Seymour on September 29. Scott earned a Tony nomination in 2005 for her performance in Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, followed by two Tony nominations in 2010 for writing and starring in Everyday Rapture. Her Broadway credits also include Aida, Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown and The Little Mermaid, and she starred as Cathy in the original off-Broadway production of Jason Robert Brown's The Last Five Years. Christopher has been seen on Broadway in Motown The Musical, Hamilton, Miss Saigon and Sweeney Todd. He starred in the recent Encores! production of Jelly's Last Jam, and will star alongside Kate Baldwin in Love Life at Encores! in spring 2025. He and Scott previously performed together in Whorl Inside a Loop (written by Scott and Dick Scanlan) …

Romeo + Juliet, Shakespeare’s tragedy of star-cross’d love, is a perennial of the stage. What sets this new production, led by Rachel Zegler and Kit Connor, apart? “If a bunch of young, gorgeous, queer people broke into Circle in the Square and decided to just do the play… That’s what [audiences are] in for,” Gabby Beans told The Broadway Show. As a performer, Beans can really get her teeth into a rich text—she was nominated for a Tony for her performance in The Skin of Our Teeth—but this production marks Beans’ first professional opportunity to perform Shakespeare. Her casting in dual roles—the wisecracking Mercutio and bumbling Friar Lawrence—adds an extra layer of intriguing complexity. “These are two diametrically opposed characters in terms of energy and what they want in the play." That contrast is what initially drew her to audition, alongside the opportunity to work with director Sam Gold on a hip, modern take on the play. “There’s this vibe of, this is Romeo and Juliet for a new young audience. And part of me kind of was like, what does that mean? But what we've been finding out in the room is really distilling the …

Additional featured casting is set for New York City Center's gala presentation of Ragtime, running from October 30 through November 10. The star-studded production is directed by Tony nominee and Encores! Artistic Director Lear deBessonet. Tony Award winner Joaquina Kalukango will now star as Sarah, replacing Joy Woods who had to exit the production due to scheduling conflicts. Also joining the cast are John Clay III as Booker T. Washington, Rodd Cyrus as Harry Houdini, Matthew Lamb as The Little Boy, Tabitha Lawing as The Little Girl and Stephanie Styles as Evelyn Nesbit. As previously announced, the cast will also star Joshua Henry as Coalhouse Walker Jr., Caissie Levy as Mother, Brandon Uranowitz as Tateh, Colin Donnell as Father, Ben Levi Ross as Younger Brother and Shaina Taub as Emma Goldman. The ensemble includes Nicholas Barrón, Briana Carlson-Goodman, Billy Cohen, Aerina DeBoer, Ta’Nika Gibson, Olivia Hernandez (Kathleen), Marina Kondo, Jeff Kready (Henry Ford), Tiffany Mann (Sarah’s Friend), Morgan Marcell, Tom Nelis (Grandfather), Ramone Nelson, Kent Overshown, John Rapson (J.P. Morgan), Destinee Rea, Deandre Sevon, Kathy Voytko, Jacob Keith Watson (Willie Conklin), Alan Wiggins and Henry Witcher. Additional casting is to be announced.  Ragtime, the musical adaptation of E.L. Doctorow’s novel of …

Age: 24 Hometown: Basking Ridge, New Jersey Current Role: Helen J Shen stars in the new rom-com musical Maybe Happy Ending as Claire, a humanoid who comes face-to-face with the facts of life, adventure and love as newer Helper-Bots are created to assist the humans of Seoul. Shen leads the company opposite Broadway veteran Darren Criss. Credits: Shen was recently seen off-Broadway in MCC Theater's The Lonely Few, written by Zoe Sarnak and Rachel Bonds, and the Playwrights Horizons production of Teeth, written by Anna K. Jacobs and Michael R. Jackson.   A Mushu Moment Although she grew up across the bridge from the bright lights of New York City, Shen didn’t spend much time in the concrete jungle. It was her local community theater that gave her a taste of the stage. “I played Gretel when I was five years old, and after that I was like, ‘This is my calling. I have to do this,’” she says. “I was very shy and theater brought me out of my shell. I was really excited by going to the theater and making something with my friends. We weren't allowed to do school theater until middle school, I …

Broadway veterans Max Chernin and Talia Suskauer will lead the national tour of Michael Arden's Tony-winning revival of Parade as Leo and Lucille Frank. They begin performances in January 2025, but offered Broadway.com an exclusive preview with an in-studio performance of Leo and Lucille's powerhouse duet, "This Is Not Over Yet." Watch the performance below. Chernin's past Broadway credits include Bright Star, Sunday in the Park with George and Parade, in which he served as standby for the role of Leo. Suskauer played Elphaba in Wicked on Broadway from May 2022 to March 2023, a role she also played on tour. She made her Broadway debut in the 2019 production of Be More Chill, and is currently starring as Audrey in Little Shop of Horrors at Ogunquit Playhouse.  “Max and Talia are extraordinary artists who bring an incredible sense of identity and empathy to their work, rooted in their Jewish heritage," said Arden in a statement. "I can’t wait for audiences across the country to witness the remarkable depth, passion and grace they will bring to their portrayals of Leo and Lucille Frank.” Parade, which features a Tony-winning score by Jason Robert Brown and a Tony-winning book by Alfred …

“It's bananas,” Robert Downey Jr. says of the play McNEAL. “I mean, I think audiences can expect the unexpected.” Downey sat down recently with Paul Wontorek on The Broadway Show to talk about making his Broadway debut in a new play by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Ayad Akhtar. “[My wife] Susan Downey handed me the script. I looked at the title. I said, ‘That's a cool title.’ She goes, ‘It's theater. I love this writer. I'm not going to say anything. I'm not going to try to color your experience of reading this.’ And I knew I was doing it practically from jump.” In the full interview, Downey discusses the debut of “Digital Downey,” the American obsession with technological innovation and the power of art. Check out the full segment below.

When Audra McDonald made her Broadway debut in The Secret Garden at the St. James Theatre in 1992, her across-the-street neighbor, The Phantom of the Opera, was already four years into its run at the Majestic Theatre. By the time the musical moved out of the Majestic in 2023, McDonald had six Tony Awards.  It's hard to imagine the sprawling 1,600-plus-seat house without its glass-shattering sopranos and haunted chandeliers, but George C. Wolfe's revival of Gypsy, led by McDonald as Rose, is the theatrical equivalent of smudging—a fresh start for the refurbished theater with only the friendly ghosts remaining. McDonald commemorated the moment by emceeing the venue's big reveal, raising the curtain on the view she'll have eight times a week beginning this winter. And of course it's not a true cleanse without a sound bath in Jule Styne's Gypsy overture. Watch the full video below. 

Christopher Sieber, a two-time Tony-nominated maestro of musical comedy, is bursting at the prospect of being the resident schlub of the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre. Beginning October 23, he'll be sandwiched between the glamorous Megan Hilty and Jennifer Simard as plastic surgeon Ernest Menville in Death Becomes Her, a musical adaptation of the 1992 film that showed Meryl Streep and Goldie Hawn cheating death to stay young and beautiful. As he tells Broadway Show correspondent Charlie Cooper on a walk through Times Square to his imminent Broadway home, he's just about the only one in the cast who doesn't get the glitz treatment from costume designer Paul Tazewell. But he's more than happy being the man in the middle of the madness and giving the die-hard fans what they want—plus a little more. Watch the full video below.

Oh, Mary!, Cole Escola's riotous, ahistorical romp about First Lady Mary Todd Lincoln, is extending its Broadway run. The play, which began its Broadway engagement on June 26 at the Lyceum Theatre, will now run through January 19. Escola plays Mary Todd Lincoln as a frustrated cabaret star in the weeks leading up to Abraham Lincoln’s assassination. 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 creative team features dots (scenic design), Holly Pierson (costume design), Cha See (lighting design), Daniel Kluger (sound design and original music), Drew Levy (sound design), Leah J. Loukas (wig design), Addison Heeren (props supervision) and David Dabbon (musical arrangements).

You know the voice. Gravelly, warm, deep, shaped by years of singing and smoking. It’s the voice that James Monroe Iglehart has had to perfect in order to play jazz legend Louis Armstrong in A Wonderful World: The Louis Armstrong Musical at Studio 54. The Tony winner has embraced the challenge of capturing Armstrong's voice, both in tone and dialect. “The voice is one thing,” he told Tamsen Fadal on The Broadway Show in a chat at So & So's Neighborhood Piano Bar, “but to actually talk like the man is something else.” Portraying Armstrong's evolution means navigating the complexities of his voice as it changed over time. Armstrong's voice became deeper and raspier in his later years. “People thought drinking and smoking was healthy back then," said Iglehart. To maintain his own vocal health, Iglehart is anticipating limiting fan interactions post-show. “I probably won’t be able to talk as much after performances, but I’ll still find ways to connect.” A Wonderful World highlights Armstrong’s personal life as well as his music; his wives have a strong presence in the show, balancing his version of events with their own perspectives. "Without them, Louis would not be who he is," …

Tony Award winner Danny Burstein has joined six-time Tony Award winner Audra McDonald in the upcoming revival of Gypsy in the role of the mild-mannered former talent agent Herbie. Performances will begin November 21 ahead of a December 19 opening at the Majestic Theatre. Debuting on Broadway in 1992, Burstein has appeared in 19 Broadway shows, earning Tony nominations for roles in The Drowsy Chaperone, South Pacific, Follies, Golden Boy, Cabaret and Fiddler on the Roof and winning a Tony Award for Moulin Rouge! The Musical. Most recently, he appeared in Broadway’s Pictures From Home. Additional casting is still to be announced. Loosely based on the memoirs of striptease artist Gypsy Rose Lee, Gypsy features music by Jule Styne, lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and a book by Arthur Laurents. The production is directed by George C. Wolfe and choreographed by Camille A. Brown. Music direction and supervision is by Andy Einhorn, with additional orchestrations and arrangements by Tony Award winner Daryl Waters.  The creative team includes scenic design by four-time Tony Award winner Santo Loquasto, costume design by four-time Tony Award nominee Toni-Leslie James, lighting design by nine-time Tony Award winner Jules Fisher with three-time Tony Award winner …

The launch of Broadway’s fall season gets all the buzz but, as ever, some of the city’s must-see shows are taking place a bit farther afield. From the sublime to the sexy to the willfully stupid, here’s Broadway.com's latest roundup of some of the theatrical delights on our minds and after our hearts as the air gets brisker and September turns into October. Rajan Velu and Prakash Belawadi in “Counting and Cracking” (Photo: Pia Johnson) COUNTING AND CRACKING Belvoir St Theatre is a small but mighty theater company in Sydney, Australia (it’s the company that turned this writer onto theater, incidentally) whose directors have a knack for creating theatrical magic out of thin air. A collaboration with the similarly Sydney-based company Kurinji, Counting and Cracking, now playing at NYU Skirball with a three-hour-plus runtime and a largely South Asian cast of 19, is told partly in Tamil and Sinhala dialogue, spans four generations of a Sri Lankan-Australian family's history and traverses thousands of miles. By any definition, it’s a sprawling, ambitious epic. It’s also lighter on its feet than that term implies, telling its story of personal and political upheaval with warmth, humor and humanity—and stagecraft so ingenious it …

Initial casting is set for Second Stage Theater's Broadway production of Cult of Love, a dysfunctional family play by Emmy nominee Leslye Headland (Russian Doll). Trip Cullman directs the New York premiere, beginning performances at the Hayes Theater on November 20 ahead of a December 12 opening.  The ensemble cast will feature Molly Bernard (TV Land’s Younger), Roberta Colindrez (Fun Home), Barbie Ferreira (HBO’s Euphoria), Rebecca Henderson (Star Wars: Acolyte), Christopher Lowell (Hulu’s How I Met Your Father), Zachary Quinto (The Boys in the Band, The Glass Menagerie), Christopher Sears (Gently Down the Stream) and Emmy, BAFTA and Golden Globe Award nominee Shailene Woodley (HBO’s Big Little Lies) in her Broadway debut. It’s the holiday season for the Dahl family! The four adult children return to their childhood home with partners in tow. The Dahl traditions include singing carols in harmony at the drop of a hat, but the gathering is anything but harmonious. Old conflicts resurface, new issues battled and dinner is taking absolutely forever to be served. Will the love the Dahls have for each other be enough to get them through, or …

Leana Rae Concepcion (Merrily We Roll Along) has joined The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts’ production of The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee. She will play the role of Marcy Park, replacing the previously announced Anna Zavelson, who departs the production to star in The Notebook on Broadway. The show will play the Kennedy Center’s Eisenhower Theater in Washington, D.C. from October 11 through October 20. Concepcion joins a cast that, as previously announced, includes Philippe Arroyo as Chip Tolentino, Beanie Feldstein as Logan Schwartzandgrubenierre, Noah Galvin as Leaf Coneybear, Alex Joseph Grayson as Mitch Mahoney, Taran Killam as Vice Principal Douglas Panch, Kevin McHale as William Barfee, Bonnie Milligan as Rona Lisa Peretti and Nina White as Olive Ostrovsky. The production will be directed and choreographed by Danny Mefford with musical direction by Roberto Sinha. The creative team also includes scenic design by Paul Tate dePoo III, costume design by Emily Rebholz, lighting design by David Weiner and sound design by Haley Parcher. The musical, about six mid-pubescents competing in a spelling bee championship, features music and lyrics by William Finn with a book by Rachel Sheinkin. It was conceived by …

Fall has arrived, and with the cooler weather comes 16 Broadway productions raring to take their turn on stage. From an AI-infused drama about the humanity of storytelling, to a musicalized ‘90s cult classic, The Broadway Show with Tamsen Fadal is giving you the full rundown of Broadway’s new arrivals and the artists bringing them to life. Robert Downey Jr. (Photo: Marc J. Franklin) Academy Award winner Robert Downey Jr. sits down with Broadway.com Editor-in-Chief Paul Wontorek to discuss Ayad Akhtar’s newest play, McNEAL. Hear why the Lincoln Center Theater production became Downey’s first stop after the Oscars. Thornton Wilder’s evergreen American drama Our Town has returned with a Kenny Leon-directed revival at the Barrymore Theatre. Meet the cast, led by Jim Parsons as the iconic Stage Manager, as they share how they’re breathing new life in a classic that’s anything but dusty. Jen Silverman’s two-hander The Roommate, starring Patti LuPone and Mia Farrow, celebrated its Broadway opening at the Booth Theatre. Look inside the red-carpet event that brought two legends back to the stage. James Monroe Iglehart stars in the new biomusical A Wonderful World about jazz legend Louis Armstrong, beginning previews October 16 at …

Rapper, singer and songwriter Lauryn Hill will help round out the cast list for Warriors, the upcoming concept album from Lin-Manuel Miranda and Eisa Davis, based on the 1979 film The Warriors. Hill will take on the role of Cyrus of the Grammercy Riffs, joining the final group of voices on the album, which also includes Kenita Miller as Cochise, Sasha Hutchings as Cowgirl, Phillipa Soo as Fox, Aneesa Folds as Cleon, Amber Gray as Ajaz, Gizel Jiménez as Rembrandt, Jasmine Cephas Jones as Swan and Julia Harriman as Mercy. They join Colman Domingo (Masai of the Gramercy Riffs), Cam'ron (Manhattan), Busta Rhymes (Brooklyn), Ghostface Killah and RZA (Staten Island), Chris Rivers (The Bronx), Nas (Queens), James Remar and David Patrick Kelly (the Cops), Billy Porter (Granger), Michaela Jaé (Yaya), Mykal Kilgore (Élan), Utkarsh Ambudkar (Sully), Casey Likes (Jesse), Marc Anthony (Tato), Luis Figueroa (Miguel), Flaco Navaja (Jesús), Shenseaa (DJ Lynne Pen), Kim Dracula (Luther), Alex Boniello (Cropsy), Stephen Sanchez (Cal), Joshua Henry (Wanya), Timothy Hughes (Lance) and Daniel Jikal (Joon). Warriors follows a fictitious New York City gang from Coney Island to the Bronx and back when they are framed for the murder of a respected gang leader, Cyrus. The …

Rob McClure will depart the title role of Daniel Hillard/Euphegenia Doubtfire, the performance for which he was nominated for his second Tony nomination, in the national tour of Mrs. Doubtfire. He will play his final performance on October 13 in Sacramento, California, after having played more than 400 performances of the show on Broadway and on the road. Stepping into the role will be Alex Branton and Jonathan Hoover, who will alternate the role through the end of the tour on November 24 in Appleton, Wisconsin. Branton and Hoover join the principal company, which includes recently announced Catherine Brunell as Miranda Hillard, Giselle Gutierrez as Lydia Hillard, Aaron Kaburick as Frank Hillard, Marquez Linder as Andre Mayhem, Alex Ringler as Stuart Dunmire, Romelda Teron Benjamin as Wanda Sellner, Charlotte Sydney Harrington and Sunny Lauren Hoder as Natalie Hillard and Jake Beser and Sam Bird sharing the role of Christopher Hillard. McClure’s wife Maggie Lakis, who played the role of Miranda Hillard opposite McClure, departed the tour in August. Based on the 1993 movie, Mrs. Doubtfire is about an out-of-work actor who creates the alter ego of a Scottish nanny to stay in the lives of his children. The …

The North American tour of Alain Boublil and Claude-Michel Schönberg’s Les Misérables has its cast for its third successive year on the road. The tour was relaunched in October 2022 at the Playhouse Square in Cleveland, Ohio, where the production is currently playing.  Nick Cartell will continue to portray the fugitive Jean Valjean, a role he has played more than 1,200 times on tour. Beginning October 1, he will be joined by Nick Rehberger (Patriots) as Inspector Javert, Lindsay Heather Pearce as Fantine, Matt Crowle as Thénardier, Victoria Huston-Elem as Madame Thénardier, Christian Mark Gibbs as Enjolras, Mya Rena Hunter as Éponine, Jake David Smith as Marius and Delaney Guyer as Cosette. Emerson Mae Chan and Greta Schaefer alternate in the role of Little Cosette/Young Éponine. Jackson Parker Gill and Jack Jewkes alternate in the role of Gavroche. The ensemble includes Kyle Adams, Ashley Alexandra, Jeremiah Alsop, David Andino, Daniel Gerard Bittner, Jenna Burns, Ben Cherington, Steve Czarnecki, Arianne DiCerbo, Emily Fink, Nicole Fragala, Audrey Hoffman, Randy Jeter, Danny Martin, Mikako Martin, Eden Mau, Andrew Marks Maughan, Paige McNamara, Ashley Dawn Mortensen, Tim Quartier, Juliette Redden, Matt Rosell, Christopher Robin Sapp, Kaitlyn Sumner, Kyle Timson, David T. Walker, …