Broadway
Details and Talent For Curtain Up! A Three-Day Outdoor Experience in Times Square With Twenty-Two Star-Studded Events
Playbill, in partnership with The Broadway League, the Times Square Alliance, and title sponsor Prudential announces details and talent for Curtain Up!, a three-day outdoor experience in Times Square presented by title sponsor Prudential; sponsored in part by Lexus, Netflix, and United Airlines; with additional support from Audible and the NYC Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment.
Curtain Up! will take place outdoors in Times Square, on Broadway stretching between 45th and 48th Streets. Twenty-two unique events will take place on stages in Duffy Square (7th Ave. & 47th St.) and between 45th & 46th Streets.
The three-day celebration will include the following headlining events:
CURTAIN UP! FESTIVAL SCHEDULE OF EVENTS
The three-day celebration will include the following events below. For a full, detailed listing of the events taking place, please also visit Playbill.com/CurtainUp.
*Performers are subject to change.
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 17
Event: Wake Up, Broadway!
Time: 11:00 AM – 12:00 PM
Location: Playbill Piano Bar (Location in Times Square bet, 45th and 46th Streets)
Join co-hosts, Ayanna Prescod and Christian Lewis of What’s Up Broadway? a BPN original podcast delivering the latest news, interviews, and chatter from Broadway and beyond, as they welcome esteemed guests from BPN and the Broadway community. Prescod, our very own “Gossip Girl”, is omniscient on everything buzzworthy happening on the Great White Way, don’t miss this informative hour.
Event: Official Curtain Up! Kick-Off
Time: 12:00-1:00 PM
Location: Mainstage on Duffy Square
Playbill, The Broadway League and The Times Square Alliance will Kick-Off Curtain Up! featuring speakers and special guests Brian Stokes Mitchell and Jessica Vosk, with music director John McDaniel and additional participants to be announced. The event will ignite excitement on the mainstage and include a celebratory countdown to the official event start!
Event: Divas of Broadway Sing-Along
Time: 1:00-1:30 PM
Location: Playbill Piano Bar (Location in Times Square bet, 45th and 46th Streets)
Join 2021 Richard Rodger Awards Winner Brandon James Gwinn (pianist at the world-renowned Marie’s Crisis and producer of Trixie Mattel’s albums) as he plays some of the greatest hits from the divas of Broadway!
Panel: “Dear White People” Discussion
Time: 1:30-2:30 PM
Location: Mainstage on Duffy Square
Presented by Netflix, join celebrities as they speak in conversation with stars from the Netflix Series “Dear White People”, discussing the crossover of theatre to TV/Film and the remarkable steps towards diversifying the arts for BIPOC members of the community.
Event: New Broadway Hits Sing-Along
Time: 2:30-3:00 PM
Location: Playbill Piano Bar (Location in Times Square bet, 45th and 46th Streets)
Join 2021 Richard Rodger Awards Winner Brandon James Gwinn (pianist at the world-renowned Marie’s Crisis and producer of Trixie Mattel’s albums) as he plays some of pop and contemporary hits from Broadway!
Event: Sing-Along with Joe Iconis
Time: 3:00-3:30 PM
Location: Playbill Piano Bar (Location in Times Square bet, 45th and 46th Streets)
Join Joe Iconis (Composer, Be More Chill) as he plays through some of his best known (and super fun) songs on the Sing For Hope Piano!
Event: The Playbill Variety Show
Time: 3:30-4:30 PM
Location: Mainstage on Duffy Square
Playbill is curating an hour of Broadway news updates, stories, interviews, and surprise performances in the middle of Times Square. Join Playbill’s Creative Director, Bryan Campione as he. invites stars and more to the stage for a fun celebration of theatre, Broadway and Curtain Up!. Guests include: Joshua Henry (Carousel, Shuffle Along, Violet, Porgy and Bess, American Idiot, The Scottsboro Boys, In The Heights); Tom Viola – Executive Director of Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS; The Actors Fund; Frank DiLella – Emmy Award Winning Host of Spectrum News NY 1’s “On Stage”; Viral Sensation T.3 (America’s Got Talent) and more!
Event: WICKED Sing-Along
Time: 4:30-5:00 PM
Location: Playbill Piano Bar (Location in Times Square bet, 45th and 46th Streets)
We couldn’t be happier to have pianist Paul Loesel play thrillifying songs from the Broadway sensation, WICKED! Audiences can sing-along to their favorite songs in the heart of Times Square on the Sing For Hope Piano!
Concert: Jimmy Awards® Reunion Concert!
Time: 5:30-6:30 PM
Location: Mainstage on Duffy Square
Hosted by Broadway’s Jelani Alladin, this event brings together alumni of the famed Jimmy Awards®/National High School Musical Theatre Awards® program in a free, outdoor concert with live music. Join us for a chance to catch up with some of the Jimmy Awards alums who have graduated to roles on Broadway and National Tours. They’ll each have a moment in the spotlight with solo numbers from classic and contemporary Broadway shows, and they’ll join-together for a grand finale. The concert will feature the two top winners from the virtual 2021 Jimmy Awards making their New York performance debuts. For more information on The Jimmy Awards program, visit www.JimmyAwards.com.
Event: Curtain Up After Dark
Time: 6:30-7:30 PM
Location: Playbill Piano Bar (Location in Times Square bet, 45th and 46th Streets)
Join Broadway guest performers as they take to the stage and perform their favorite tunes under the setting sun and the lights of Times Square. Performers will be announced soon.
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 18
Event: “The Broadway Morning Warm-Up”
Time: 10:30-11:15 AM
Location: Mainstage on Duffy Square
Join Broadway Arts Community, a performing arts training & James T. Lane, Jessica Lee Goldyn, Tyler Hanes mentorship company, as they “get the celebration started” Saturday morning! Together with BAC co-founders & mentors Chryssie Whitehead and Alexis Carra, special BAC guests, and BAC students will warm you up for an incredible day of all-things Broadway!
Event: Wake Up, Broadway!
Time: 11:30 AM – 12:15 PM
Location: Playbill Piano Bar (Location in Times Square bet, 45th and 46th Streets)
Join co-hosts, Ayanna Prescod and Christian Lewis of What’s Up Broadway? a BPN original podcast delivering the latest news, interviews, and chatter from Broadway and beyond, as they welcome esteemed guests from BPN and the Broadway community. Prescod, our very own “Gossip Girl”, is omniscient on everything buzzworthy happening on the Great White Way, don’t miss this informative hour.
Panel: Black to Broadway – It’s “Play” Time!
Time: 12:15-1:45 PM
Location: Mainstage on Duffy Square
As Broadway performances resume following the global pandemic and social reckoning that have taken place over the past 18 months, no less than seven new productions of plays by Black writers are slated to open this fall—including four by Black women. Join us for an entertaining and informative live conversation in the heart of the Broadway Theatre District that will give the theatergoing public a chance to get to know some of the writers, directors, and performers who are bringing these works to Broadway stages. These works represent a broad spectrum of production styles and voices, and the event will spotlight what makes each one uniquely relevant and entertaining. Harriette Cole, the nationally renowned lifestylist, and branding coach and DREAMLEAPERS founder, will introduce the speakers and lead the discussion.
The event is part of The Broadway League’s ongoing Black to Broadway initiative to inspire, engage and build awareness among the Black community with Broadway.
Event: Broadway Sing-Along’s
Time: 2:00-4:45 PM
Location: Playbill Piano Bar (Location in Times Square bet, 45th and 46th Streets)
Times Square Guests can spend an hour or two at the Sing For Hope Piano with special guests pianists and a Broadway star or two.
Event: The Golden Age of Broadway Sing-Along
Time: 2:00-2:30 PM
Location: Playbill Piano Bar (Location in Times Square bet, 45th and 46th Streets)
Join Playbill’s own Logan Culwell-Block as he plays songs of the past, that still have an imprint on Broadway fans and audiences on the Sing For Hope Piano!
Event: Sing-Along with Rob Rokicki
Time: 2:30-3:00 PM
Location: Playbill Piano Bar (Location in Times Square bet, 45th and 46th Streets)
Join Rob Rokicki (Composer, The Lighting Thief: The Percy Jackson Musical) on the Sing For Hope Piano, as he plays songs fans of his music can sing-along to!
Event: The Playbill Variety Show
Time: 3:00-3:45 PM
Location: Mainstage on Duffy Square
Playbill is curating an hour of Broadway news updates, stories, interviews, and surprise performances in the middle of Times Square! Join Playbill’s Creative Director, Bryan Campione as he invites stars and more to the stage for a fun celebration of theatre, Broadway and Curtain Up! A special AAPI conversation and performance will helm this event, hosted by JoAnn M. Hunter and produced by Valerie Lau-Kee with special Broadway surprise guests!
Concert: ¡Viva! Broadway When We See Ourselves
Time: 5:00-6:30 PM
Location: Mainstage on Duffy Square
A musical celebration of the joy, diversity, and extensive contributions of the Latin and Hispanic Broadway! We are celebrating the beginning of the 2021 National Hispanic Heritage Month and welcoming the return of live Broadway performances. The free concert will lift-up the incredible history Broadway Latinx artists have shared throughout the decades and invite audiences to join us in the continued work that lies ahead.
The event will celebrate some of the most familiar names of Latinx representation on Broadway such as Daphne Rubin-Vega, Robin de Jesús, Bianca Marroquín, Ana Villafañe, and more, and elevate the talented ensemble members who always lead the way. The creative team includes Luis Salgado (director and choreographer), Gabriela Garcia (associate director/choreographer), Eric Ulloa (writer), Jaime Lozano (musical direction) and Sergio Trujillo (creative consultant).
Viva Broadway is a national Broadway League audience development partnership with the Hispanic community that helps bridge the world of Broadway with Latinx audiences around the country. This long-term initiative aims to celebrate Latinx talent and increase awareness of and engagement with Broadway. More info at Viva.Broadway.org
Event: Curtain Up After Dark
Time: 6:30-7:30 PM
Location: Playbill Piano Bar (Location in Times Square bet, 45th and 46th Streets)
Join Broadway guest performers as they take to the stage and perform their favorite tunes under the setting sun and the lights of Times Square. Performers will be announced shortly.
SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 19
Event: Wake Up, Broadway!
Time: 8:30-10:00 AM
Location: Playbill Piano Bar (Location in Times Square bet, 45th and 46th Streets)
Join co-hosts, Ayanna Prescod and Christian Lewis of What’s Up Broadway? a BPN original podcast delivering the latest news, interviews, and chatter from Broadway and beyond, as they welcome esteemed guests from BPN and the Broadway community. Prescod, our very own “Gossip Girl”, is omniscient on everything buzzworthy happening on the Great White Way, don’t miss this informative hour.
Concert: Curtain Up: This is Broadway!
Time: 11:00 AM – 1:00 PM
Location: Mainstage on Duffy Square
A grand, outdoor event that marks the culmination of the Curtain Up! Festival, this concert will spotlight marquee talent from returning and new Broadway productions, showcasing Broadway to the world, trumpeting the message that BROADWAY IS BACK! This concert will celebrate all of Broadway and the re-opening of New York City. Current shows and performers participating include: Ain’t Too Proud – The Life and Times of The Temptations, Aladdin, Caroline, or Change, Chicago, Come From Away, Company, Dear Evan Hansen, Diana the Musical, Girl from the North County, Hadestown, Jagged Little Pill, The Lion King, Mrs Doubtfire, The Phantom of the Opera, Six, Tina- The Tina Turner Musical, Waitress, Wicked and the following plays: Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, Lackawanna Blues, Pass Over, Thoughts of a Colored Man, and To Kill A Mockingbird. Additional special guests will be announced soon.
*Shows and performers are subject to change.
I went with T2C’s editor to A Dolls House, which inspired this caricature. You can read Suzanna’s review of the show here.
Saturday, March 25, 2023
A Statement From Andrew Lloyd Webber
I am shattered to have to announce that my beloved elder son Nick died a few hours ago in Basingstoke Hospital. His whole family is gathered together and we are all totally bereft.
Thank you for all your thoughts during this difficult time.
The 75-year-old Oscar-winning composer son Nicholas followed in his father’s footsteps and was a successful composer in his own right, having written Fat Friends The Musical. He was married to musician Polly Wiltshire, who appeared on the soundtrack of his father’s 2019 movie Cats.
During his career, Nicholas also scored music for an adaption of The Little Prince as well as composing numerous TV and film scores, including for the BBC1 drama Loves, Lies, and Records.
Nicholas previously spoke about making his own way in the theatre world away from his famous family name in a 2011 unearthed interview.
He said he wanted to be ‘judged on his own merits’ so dropped his surname when working to see what the reaction would be.
Our hearts and prayers go out to his family.
Also on Saturday Lea Michele updated her fans on the status of her two-year-old’s health via her Instagram after he was hospitalized earlier this week. Her son Ever was in the hospital, but is now out due to a ‘scary health issue. She posted a picture backstage in her dressing room ahead of her Broadway performance in Funny Girl. Lea had been out to focus on her family.
“I just wanted to say thank you to everyone for just so much love and support this week. I really really appreciated it”.
Micaela Diamond and Ben Platt Photo by Joan Marcus
I have always loved Jason Robert Brown’s score for Parade. “You Don’t Know This Man,” “This Is Not Over Yet” and the wonderfully romantic “All the Wasted Time” are just the tip of the iceberg for music that stirs your soul and tells a tale of heartbreak. There is a reason this score won the Tony Award in 1999.
Ben Platt Photo By Joan Marcus
The musical now playing on Broadway dramatizes the 1913 trial of Jewish factory manager Leo Frank (Ben Platt), who was accused and convicted of raping and murdering a thirteen-year-old Mary Phagan (Erin Rose Doyle). The trial was sensationalized by the media, newspaper reporter Britt Craig (Jay Armstrong Johnson) and Tom Watson (Manoel Feliciano), an extremist right-wing newspaper aroused antisemitic tensions in Atlanta and the U.S. state of Georgia. When Frank’s death sentence is commuted to life in prison thanks to his wife Lucille (Micaela Diamond), Leo was transferred to a prison in Milledgeville, Georgia, where a lynching party seized and kidnapped him. Frank was taken to Phagan’s hometown of Marietta, Georgia, and he was hanged from an oak tree.
Erin Rose Doyle, Photo by Joan Marcus
The telling of this horrid true tale begins with the lush ode to the South in “The Old Red Hills of Home.” Leo has just moved from Brooklyn to in Marietta, where his wife is from and he has been given the job as as a manager at the National Pencil Co. He feels out of place as he sings “I thought that Jews were Jews, but I was wrong!” On Confederate Memorial Day as Lucille plans a picnic, Leo goes to work. In the meantime Mary goes to collect her pay from the pencil factory. The next day Leo is arrested on suspicion of killing Mary, whose body is found in the building. The police also suspect Newt Lee (Eddie Cooper), the African-American night watchman who discovered the body, but he inadvertently directs Starnes’ suspicion to Leo.
Across town, reporter Britt Craig see this story as (“Big News”). Mary’s suitor Frankie Epps (Jake Pederson), swears revenge on Mary’s killer, as does the reporter Watson. Governor John Slaton (Sean Allan Krill) pressures the local prosecutor Hugh Dorsey (the terrific smarmy Paul Alexander Nolan) to get to the bottom of the whole affair. Dorsey, an ambitious politician sees Leo as he ticket to being the Governor and though there are other suspects, he willfully ignores them and goes after Leo.
Sophia Manicone, Emily Rose DeMartino, Ashlyn Maddox Photo By Joan Marcus
The trial of Leo Frank is presided over by Judge Roan (Howard McMillan). A series of witnesses, give trumped up evidence which was clearly is fed to them by Dorsey. Frankie testifies, falsely, that Mary said Leo “looks at her funny.” Her three teenage co-workers, Lola, Essie and Monteen (Sophia Manicone, Emily Rose DeMartino, Ashlyn Maddox), collaborate hauntingly as they harmonize their testimony (“The Factory Girls”). In a fantasy sequence, Leo becomes the lecherous seducer (“Come Up to My Office”). Testimony is heard from Mary’s mother (Kelli Barrett ) (“My Child Will Forgive Me”) and Minnie McKnight (Danielle Lee Greaves)before the prosecution’s star witness, Jim Conley (Alex Joseph Grayson ), takes the stand. He claims that he witnessed the murder and helped Leo conceal the crime (“That’s What He Said”). Leo is given the opportunity to deliver a statement (“It’s Hard to Speak My Heart”), but it is not enough. He is found guilty and sentenced to hang. The crowd breaks out into a jubilant circus.
Alex Joseph Grayson Photo by Joan Marcus
Act 1, is not as strong as it should have been. I have attended three different incarnations, the last being with Jeremy Jordan as Leo and Joshua Henry as Jim in 2015. Part of the problem is Michael Arden’s direction. Instead of allowing his performers to act, he has them pantomime, as the solo goes forth. “Come Up to My Office” was not as haunting as in past productions. The same can be said of “That’s What He Said”. Who’s stands out in the first act is Jake Pederson as Frankie and Charlie Webb as the Young Soldier who sings “The Old Red Hills of Home.”
Micaela Diamond and Ben Platt Photo by Joan Marcus
In Act 2, Lucille finds Governor Slaton at a party (the hypnotic “Pretty Music” sung wonderfully by Krill) and advocates for Leo. Watson approaches Dorsey and tells him he will support his bid for governor, as Judge Roan also offers his support. The governor agrees to re-open the case, as Leo and Lucille find hope. Slaton realizes what we all knew that the witnesses were coerced and lied and that Dorsey is at the helm. He agrees to commute Leo’s sentence to life in prison in Milledgeville, Georgia, which ends his political career. The citizens of Marietta, led by Dorsey and Watson, are enraged and riot. Leo is transferred to a prison work-farm. Lucille visits, and he realizes his deep love for his wife and how much he has underestimated her (“All the Wasted Time”). With hope in full blaze Lucille leaves as a party masked men kidnap Leo and take him to Marietta. They demand he confess and hang him from an oak tree.
Paul Alexander Nolan, Howard McMillan Photo By Joan Marcus
In Act Two Parade comes together with heart and soul. Diamond, who shines brightly through out the piece is radiant, and her duets with Platt are romantic and devastating. Platt comes into his own and his huge following is thrilled to be seeing him live. Alex Joseph Grayson’s also nails his Second Act songs.
Dane Laffrey’s set works well with the lighting by Heather Gilbert.
Frank’s case was reopened in 2019 and is still ongoing.
Parade has multiple messages and the question is will audiences absorb it. I am so glad this show is on Broadway, making us think and see. This is a must see.
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Parade: Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre, 242 W 45th Street.