Broadway
He Says: Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird Thrives and Flies on Broadway
Adding to the weight of an all ready legendary story, Aaron Sorkin (Broadway’s A Few Good Men, the film “The Social Network”, TV’s ‘West Wing’) delivers to Broadway a spectacle of such simplicity and straight forwardness that it would be impossible not to fall under its subtle charm and delicate intricacies. This is clearly Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, overflowing with Lee’s feel and feather of the time frame, painted with a dynamic and clear minded stroke by the particular Sorkin. None of her pointedness is lost in this strong telling, but enhanced theatrically by the smart and sly wit and structure of his pointed and precise writing. It’s good fortune fate is sealed in the wide eyed minds of its young guides, and cemented in its old wooden porch steps.

When I saw a production of the older play by Christopher Sergel at Stratford Shakespeare Festival this past summer – mainly so I could contrast and compare the two, I thought Segel’s version was very meaningful and tender in its linear and straightforward approach, although not clearly as good as its source material. It felt like it existed more because of the book and the movie, than as a piece of art on its own. Scout Finch was played by two actors, an adult grownup, functioning as the narrator guiding us through the classic tale that most of you all studied in school (I’m Canadian so I didn’t, but I did see the film years ago), and a child actor playing the young daughter Scout enmeshed in the intricacies of the narration. It was lovely and charming but old fashioned and somewhat lacking in creative juice.

Here on Broadway in the far more dynamic and wisely non-linear telling, Scout is played by the absolutely perfect Celia Keenan-Bolger (2ST’s The Parallelogram) as both the girl whose eyes are opened wide to racism and prejudice and is embodied in the same breathless energy of a youngster. She and the other two kid characters, Jem Finch, portrayed with beautiful depth by Will Pullen (Broadway’s Sweat) and his best buddy, Dill Harris, magnificently portrayed by the smart and talented Gideon Glick (LCT3’s The Harvest) find the duality of their narration with a strong sense of purpose, never losing the case and the point of Lee’s Mockingbird. It’s a wiser structural decision then it first registers. The beginning is connecting and sweetly engaging, loving the idea that we are going to be lead in hand by these three young ever so capable creations, but the emotional weight of this duality becomes more and more imperative and important as the play hopscotches back and forth between home life and the spectacular created courtroom, courtesy of scenic designer Miriam Buether (Broadway’s Three Tall Women), with warmly caressing lighting by Jennifer Tipton (Broadway’s A Doll’s House Part 2). To see the proceedings through these adult children’s eyes is to feel the dark weight of realization, and the uneasy disturbing truth of the world they and us are living in. This is not just a time period from back then that we are being connected to, but ours. And theirs. And everything in between.

And then there is Atticus Finch, walking casually to take center stage in the courtroom, bringing the familial and morality drama together with a simple stance, a performance that is delicately and dynamically given by the brilliant Jeff Daniels (Broadway’s Blackbird). He’s dashingly gracious and sincere playing the “kindest man” in town, but an imperfect one who doesn’t always get it right, just ask Calpurnia, deftly portrayed by LaTanya Richardson Jackson (Broadway’s A Raison in the Sun). All rise for Daniel’s take on the iconic man who will stand up to the racism that hangs in the air of that courtroom and in his beloved town. He floats magnificently into place defending the good Tom Robinson, portrayed delicately by Gbenga Arkinnagbe (The Flea’s Fulfillment, Lower Ninth) who has been accused of raping Mayella Ewell, a sad sack of a woman given nervous life by the dynamic Erin Wilhelmi (Broadway’s A Doll’s House Part 2) who is in need of more than just a helping left hand.

Robinson stands accused, mainly on the word of Mayella’s father, the rat-like Bob Ewell, given more than just a stereotypical life by the solid Frederick Weller (MTC’s The Fulfillment Center). We all know from the beginning what will happen in Finch’s chapel, watched over by the good Judge Taylor, excitingly well-played by Dakin Matthews (Broadway’s Waitress), and his Sheriff Heck Tate, exactingly portrayed by Danny McCarthy (Broadway’s The Iceman Cometh), but it’s all in the fine details where this revamping glides together with such homespun grace. As directed by the grand master of the Lincoln Center, Bartlett Sher (Broadway’s My Fair Lady, Oslo), the words spoken are delicately and meaningfully woven together like an expert quilt-maker, fleshing out the moments with a wise heart and a wickedly sharp wit. It never feels preachy, but solidly organic with the perfect stitch of seriousness twisted in with the delicateness of its humor.

Sher has a nack of pulling together a historical and possibly dusty foundation and breathing life into the scenario. Sorkin and Sher play with the linear, most adeptly, and add fine tuned nuance to the timely tale. The two musicians, seated on each side of the stage, music director Kimberly Grigsby on the Pump Organ and Allen Tedder on the Guitar, nimbly and graciously fill the air with an elegance of period flavor with original music by Adam Guettel and a solid sound design by Scott Lehrer (Broadway’s Carousel), in the same way that costume designer Ann Roth (Broadway’s Shuffle Along…) fills each bodily space right down to the bunched-up stockings of Mayella with a perfect seriousness of epic time and place. But it is in the recreation of Calpurnia that has, as I have been told, been fleshed out, given the balancing act of Lee’s scripture and Sorkin’s purpose, in order to get inside everyone’s skin. The interpersonal dynamic between her and Atticus is where the more modern thread has been sown. The intent is clear, and neatly done, adding a weight that we need, and a timelessness that is necessary.

The show has an “optimism” about it, and not one ounce of “stupid“. The monster that is living in that house over yonder, Boo Radley, nicely done by Danny Wolohan (off-Broadway’s The Low Road), is really not residing in that particular house, but living in the dark souls of many of the townsfolk who feel the racist strength of a hooded crowd, but are unmasked in the personal connection to their kid’s friends. The perfection at that is at the core of To Kill A Mockingbird slowly comes to order by Sorkin, like a classic hymn that we all know well, easily sung by anyone willing to raise their voices to heaven. Radley’s fantastical killer persona is spun forward by the excited adult children in swashbuckingly style, daring each other to jump across boundaries they are told not to step. It’s done in a manner that feels like some thrilling childish game that is larger than life, but still holds a kernel of truthful remorse and sadness; scary in the eyes of a child, but known and understood in the heart of a man who believes in the law like Atticus. The tender moments, especially the heartfelt talks between Atticus and perfectly crafted Dill, and the other with his daughter, Scout is as tender as you could hope for, yet powerfully tense with real world trouble. It all feels excitingly real while staying simple and clear. The “fell on his knife” creation hangs with full meaning in the eyes and voices of the three young narrators, who, wisely, are also residing as part of the narration. Sorkin has done Harper Lee an honor, rising her already perfect blend of storytelling and keen morality up to a higher, tighter, and stronger level, infusing it with humor and enmeshing it with strength of character. And I don’t know how we could “not agree on this point“.

Broadway
Before Evita, Rachel Zegler Is Coming to Broadway to Dance With Buena Vista Social Club
Before Rachel Zegler returns to Broadway as Eva Perón, she is making a considerably less formal stop in Cuba.
The Olivier and Golden Globe Award winner will host the next “dance-along” performance of the Tony and Grammy-winning Buena Vista Social Club on Tuesday, September 29 at 7 p.m., continuing what has quietly become one of Broadway’s most joyful traditions.
For one performance, the usual Broadway commandment—sit down and behave yourself—gets loosened considerably. Audience members are invited to dance from their seats whenever the music takes over, whether that means swaying, shaking a shoulder or surrendering completely to the rhythms that have made Buena Vista Social Club such an exhilarating night in the theatre.
There are rules. This is Broadway, after all. Patrons are asked to dance responsibly and return to their seats between songs so everyone can see and enjoy the performance. But within those boundaries, the evening turns the theatre into something closer to a communal celebration than a conventional Broadway musical.
Zegler follows a rather spectacular trio of previous hosts. Lin-Manuel Miranda launched the dance-along series in March, John Leguizamo took over in May, and Lupita Nyong’o hosted the most recent edition this summer. Each performance sold out, making a fourth installment almost inevitable. Zegler is an especially delicious choice.
She will return to Broadway next year in Jamie Lloyd’s acclaimed production of Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Evita, reprising the Eva Perón performance that earned her the Olivier Award for Best Actress in a Musical. The production begins previews February 27, 2027, at the Winter Garden Theatre and officially opens March 25.
The London production became a phenomenon, with Zegler’s “Don’t Cry for Me Argentina” spilling beyond the walls of the London Palladium as she performed the number from the theatre’s exterior balcony. That particular staging will not be recreated in New York; director Jamie Lloyd has said he is developing a new idea specifically for Broadway.
September 29th is a rather wonderful Broadway appetizer. Before the balcony, before the Winter Garden, before the diamonds and the ambition of Eva Perón, Rachel Zegler will be at Buena Vista Social Club, where the assignment is considerably simpler: Feel the music…..and dance.
Tickets for this special Dance-Along performance, as well as all regularly scheduled performances, are available at buenavistasocialclub.com
Broadway
Theatre News: Broadway Castings, Galileo, A Few Good Men, The Fantasticks, the Flea Market and More
Broadway is heading into fall with casting news, long-awaited arrivals and one New York tradition celebrating a milestone of its own. Krysta Rodriguez is joining A Few Good Men, Galileo has added some formidable Broadway talent, The Fantasticks has finally assembled the company that will bring the legendary musical to Broadway, and the Broadway Flea Market & Grand Auction is turning 40. Off-Broadway, a new musical takes on the complicated world of teenage mental health, while out of town Signature Theatre offers a fresh look at Sondheim’s Merrily We Roll Along.
The Broadway production of Aaron Sorkin’s A Few Good Men continues to assemble an impressive company around the previously announced Bradley Whitford, who will play Col. Nathan R. Jessep, and Tom Blyth as Lt. Daniel Kaffee.
Joining them are Krysta Rodriguez, Stephanie Berry, Nick Blaemire, Michael Braugher, Christopher Gurr, Billy Eugene Jones, Collin Kelly-Sordelet, Shunté Lofton, Michael Oberholtzer, Lavel Schley, Thom Sesma, Daniel Velez and John Zdrojeski. Brendan Evan Behm, Alex Ekker, Drew Elhamalawy, Miles Fowler, Quentin Nguyen-duy and Stephen Michael Spencer complete the company as Marine and military personnel.
Rodriguez is an especially welcome addition. From Spring Awakening and The Addams Family to First Date and Into the Woods, she has repeatedly proved herself an actress capable of bringing intelligence and individuality to roles that could easily disappear in lesser hands. Pairing her with Whitford and Blyth makes this revival increasingly interesting.
Broadway’s upcoming musical Galileo has added Javier Muñoz, Bradley Dean and Jordon Lee Garcia, who will make his Broadway debut, to the company led by Raúl Esparza, Jeremy Kushnier and Joy Woods.
There is also an intriguing development in the title role. Michael Park will alternate with Esparza as Galileo at select performances. Park brings considerable stage credentials of his own, alongside his television work in Stranger Things, making this far more than conventional understudy casting.
With Esparza at its center and Muñoz, Dean and Park now joining the company, Galileo is quietly assembling the kind of cast that makes a new musical worth watching closely.
One of the theatre community’s most beloved annual rituals returns on Sunday, September 27, when the Broadway Flea Market & Grand Auction celebrates its 40th anniversary.
Produced by and benefiting Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS, the sprawling outdoor event will once again take over West 44th and West 45th Streets, Shubert Alley and Times Square from 10 a.m. until 7 p.m., with the live auction beginning at 5 p.m.
For Broadway fans, the Flea Market remains something wonderfully peculiar to New York: part treasure hunt, part reunion, part theatrical yard sale and part fundraiser. Forty years later, it is still one of the rare places where a piece of Broadway history might be sitting on a table waiting for someone to discover it.
It seems almost impossible. The Fantasticks is the longest-running musical in history, yet it has never actually played
Broadway. That changes this fall.
Second Stage Theater has announced the complete company for the Broadway premiere, directed and choreographed by Tony Award winner Christopher Gattelli. Zane Phillips, making his Broadway debut, will play El Gallo, joined by Maxim Chlumecky as Matt, Nathan Levy as Lewis, Leslie Rodriguez Kritzer as Mildred Hucklebee, Ruthie Ann Miles as Bessie Mae Bellomy, David Patrick Kelly as Henry, Kevin del Aguila as Mortimer and Ahmad Simmons as The Mute.
The new interpretation makes a significant change to the familiar story, centering two boys and their two mothers, while retaining Tom Jones and Harvey Schmidt’s tale of young love, parental interference, separation and reconciliation.
With its book and lyrics by Tom Jones and music by Harvey Schmidt, The Fantasticks has spent decades living just outside Broadway mythology while becoming one of the most enduring musicals ever written. Its score gave us “Try to Remember,” “Soon It’s Gonna Rain” and “They Were You,” songs that long ago escaped the boundaries of the original production.
Previews begin October 22 at the Hayes Theater, with opening night set for November 16. The engagement is scheduled for 15 weeks.
After all these years, The Fantasticks is finally moving a few blocks uptown.
KOTA Productions will present the world premiere of Sound Mind from September 17–20 at Urban Stages, timed to Suicide Prevention Awareness Month.
Featuring music and lyrics by Ray Andersen, known to younger audiences as mr. RAY, and a book and lyrics by Sheryl Berk, the musical follows a group of teenagers inside an inpatient mental health facility. Over 12 weeks, the characters confront depression, anxiety, OCD, PTSD, social phobia and other struggles while music becomes another language for experiences they have difficulty expressing.
Andersen’s score blends pop, hip-hop and rock with ballads, while the project itself grew from his experience watching a close family member spend time in a similar treatment facility. Andersen also has an unusual musical résumé, having performed with artists including Meat Loaf, Bruce Springsteen and Jon Bon Jovi before building a career creating music for children.
An original cast album is scheduled for release in October.
There is always a danger when theatre tackles subjects this delicate that message overwhelms character. Sound Mind is attempting something more difficult: allowing teenagers to speak from inside those experiences rather than reducing them to diagnoses. That distinction will ultimately determine whether the musical succeeds.
Signature Theatre has released its first look at its new production of Stephen Sondheim and George Furth’s Merrily We Roll Along, returning the musical to the Signature stage after a 20-year absence.
Jason Gotay, Jake Loewenthal and Melanie Field lead the company, with Matthew Gardiner directing and Jonathan Tunick’s orchestrations accompanying one of Sondheim’s most fascinating scores.
Told backward across 20 years, Merrily begins with friendships damaged by success, compromise and disappointment, then gradually strips away the cynicism until we finally meet the hopeful young people those adults once were. That reverse structure remains the show’s great cruelty: we already know what these people will lose while watching them discover everything they believe they are going to have.
The company also includes Kerstin Anderson as Beth Spencer, Maria Rizzo as Gussie Carnegie, James Whalen as Joe Josephson and Neal Gaensehals as Frank Jr., with an ensemble featuring Joel Ashur, Ben Beckley, Lindsay Nicole Chambers, Eric Easter, Jonah Ho’okano, Stephen Russell Murray, Beatrice Owens, Sarah Anne Sillers and Alondra Trinidad-Colon.
Its score contains “Good Thing Going,” “Not a Day Goes By” and, of course, “Our Time”—a song whose optimism becomes more devastating precisely because we know what happens next.
Between major Broadway castings, an Off-Broadway classic finally crossing onto Broadway, a 40-year theatre tradition and Sondheim once again asking us to look at who we were before life intervened, September is beginning to look very much like New York theatre has returned from summer vacation.
Broadway
Broadway Goes Dark in Memory of Tim Curry, Dolly Parton, Josh Grisetti and More
Broadway will go dark for a moment on Tuesday, September 8 at 6:45 p.m., when the marquees of all 41 Broadway theatres dim simultaneously in memory of 13 artists and industry figures whose work helped shape the theatre—and, in several cases, American culture far beyond it.
The September Broadway in Memoriam tribute will honor Tim Curry, Clive Davis, Gina Ferrall, Josh Grisetti, Jeff Hamlin, Glen Hansard, Louise Lasser, Anna Louizos, Seth Marquette, Dolly Parton, Anne Russell, James Walsh and Harold Wheeler.
There is something particularly moving about the Broadway tradition of dimming the lights. Theatre is built on illumination—the marquee, the footlights, the spotlight—and so Broadway marks loss by taking that light away. For a few moments, Times Square becomes noticeably darker, acknowledging that someone who contributed to its brilliance is no longer here.
This September’s list crosses nearly every corner of the industry. Tim Curry, forever associated with his indelible Dr. Frank-N-Furter in The Rocky Horror Show, was also a three-time Tony Award nominee whose Broadway career included Amadeus, My Favorite Year and Spamalot. Dolly Parton, whose songs, personality and unmistakable generosity made her one of America’s most beloved entertainers, also left her mark on Broadway through 9 to 5: The Musical and the theatrical projects that followed.
Clive Davis, one of the towering figures of the recording industry, spent decades influencing the music that ultimately found its way onto stages as well as records. Glen Hansard, whose music helped give Once its singular heartbeat, became part of Broadway history when the intimate musical defied conventional Broadway expectations and captured the 2012 Tony Award for Best Musical.
Broadway will also remember the extraordinary orchestrator, composer, conductor and musical director Harold Wheeler, whose career stretched across decades and included work on The Wiz, Dreamgirls, The Full Monty, Hairspray and countless other productions. Wheeler’s contribution was often the kind audiences feel without necessarily knowing whose hand created it—the musical architecture beneath some of Broadway’s most memorable nights.
Theatre designer Anna Louizos gave physical form to stories through a career that included scenic and costume work and multiple Tony nominations.
Louise Lasser, best known to much of America through television and film, also had roots on the New York stage. Gina Ferrall, Jeff Hamlin, Seth Marquette, Anne Russell and James Walsh will likewise be remembered for lives and careers connected to the Broadway community.
For T2C, the inclusion of Josh Grisetti carries particular weight. Grisetti, who died at only 44, possessed the kind of talent that made an audience look twice: an actor with comic precision, musical intelligence and an individuality that could not be manufactured. His work ranged from the stage to television and film, but those who saw him in the theatre understood exactly what Broadway has lost.
The September ceremony is part of the relatively new Broadway in Memoriam initiative, established last year to create a more consistent and inclusive way of honoring members of the theatrical community. Rather than allowing recognition to depend upon sporadic individual marquee dimmings, the quarterly tradition gathers multiple members of the Broadway family into a shared remembrance.
The ceremony now takes place four times annually, on the second Tuesday of September, December, March and June, with all 41 Broadway theatres participating simultaneously. The committee can also designate a separate dimming for an individual whose contribution to Broadway is considered profoundly significant.
Members of the Broadway community may submit creative professionals who have worked on Broadway, as well as career professionals who devoted their lives to the industry, for future consideration. The next submission deadline is November 17, for the December 8, 2026 dimming. Information and submissions are available through Broadway in Memoriam.
Broadway is an unusual place. Shows disappear. Sets are struck. Costumes are packed away. Dressing rooms are emptied and another name eventually goes above the theatre door. An industry devoted to creating moments that vanish every night has always had a complicated relationship with permanence.
That is why September 8 matters.
At 6:45 p.m., Broadway will briefly extinguish the lights that ordinarily announce who is playing, what is opening and what audiences should see next.
For that moment, the darkness will say something else entirely:
We remember who was here.
Broadway
Broadway on Record: The Lost Boys, Evita, Bat Boy, Beau and More Hit the Turntable
There is something about a cast album that keeps theatre alive long after the curtain comes down. This late-summer crop is particularly eclectic: vampires, Eva Perón, 1979 New York nightlife, memory and mortality, a queer singer-songwriter discovering a family secret, and a developing musical using its music to support Alzheimer’s care. Some are full cast recordings, some are singles offering the first glimpse of what’s coming next, and one is finally getting the vinyl treatment it deserves.
The Lost Boys Sinks Its Teeth Into Vinyl
Atlantic Records’ The Lost Boys (Original Broadway Cast Recording), already available digitally, will arrive physically on October 30 on CD and as a two-LP black-and-red vinyl edition—a color combination that seems almost mandatory for a musical about the vampires of Santa Carla. The 27-song album features music and lyrics by Tony-nominated trio The Rescues—Kyler England, AG and Gabriel Mann—and includes the bonus track “Brother,” which was cut during Broadway previews.
The recording features the Broadway company led by LJ Benet, Shoshana Bean, Ali Louis Bourzgui, Benjamin Pajak, Maria Wirries and Paul Alexander Nolan, with fan favorites including “Secret Comes Out,” “Now, Forever,” “Superpower” and “If We Make It Through the Night.”
It also preserves a show that emerged from the 2026 awards season with four Tony Awards, including Featured Actress in a Musical for Bean, Featured Actor in a Musical for Bourzgui, Scenic Design for Dane Laffrey and Lighting Design for Michael Arden and Jen Schriever.
Listen to or preorder The Lost Boys
Rachel Zegler’s Evita Comes Home From London
Jamie Lloyd’s electrifying London revival of Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Evita has released EVITA: The Full Album, recorded live at the London Palladium in July 2025. The 30-track recording is available digitally and as an extravagant three-LP vinyl set, arriving ahead of the production’s planned Broadway transfer in spring 2027.
Rachel Zegler leads the company as Eva Perón, joined by Diego Andres Rodriguez as Che, James Olivas as Juan Perón, Aaron Lee Lambert as Agustín Magaldi and Bella Brown as The Mistress. Zegler’s “Don’t Cry for Me Argentina” previously reached No. 1 on the UK’s Official Vinyl Chart, while the Palladium production collected two Olivier Awards, two London Standard Theatre Awards and five WhatsOnStage Awards.
The beauty of recording this particular Evita live is that Lloyd’s production wasn’t conceived as a museum piece. It had heat, theatricality and controversy, and the album captures a company performing the score rather than politely preserving it. Broadway audiences now have something of a musical preview before Eva arrives in New York.
Listen to EVITA: The Full Album
Bat Boy Is Back—and Still Delightfully Insane
Ghostlight Records and Yellow Sound Label have released Bat Boy: The Musical (New York City Center Cast Recording), preserving the terrific 2025 City Center Gala revival directed by Alex Timbers.
The recording features Taylor Trensch as Edgar/Bat Boy, alongside Kerry Butler, Gabi Carrubba, Andrew Durand, Mary Faber, Alan H Green, Evan Harrington, John-Michael Lyles, Tom McGowan, Jacob Ming-Trent, Alex Newell, Olivia Puckett, Christopher Sieber, Rema Webb and Marissa Jaret Winokur. The new album contains 23 tracks, including three songs receiving their world-premiere recordings, and expanded orchestrations for 12 musicians by Laurence O’Keefe and Ben Green.
Inspired by the infamous 1990s tabloid story, Bat Boy remains an outrageous mixture of horror, satire, tragedy, religion, sexuality and small-town hysteria. More than two decades after its 2001 Off-Broadway premiere, the score has lost none of its wonderfully warped personality. As T2C said of the City Center production, it was “absurd, hilarious, and weirdly unforgettable.”
Beau: The Musical Offers Two More Songs Before the Album Arrives
Joy Machine Records has released “Crush” and “It Couldn’t Be,” two new singles from the forthcoming Beau: The Musical (Original Off-Broadway Cast Recording). “Crush” features Matt Rodin and Miyuki Miyagi, while “It Couldn’t Be” pairs Rodin with Max Sangerman. The full recording is expected this fall.
Conceived and written by Douglas Lyons, with music by Lyons and Ethan D. Pakchar and lyrics by Lyons, Beaufollows Ace Baker, a young queer singer-songwriter who discovers that Beau—the grandfather he believed was dead—is actually alive. As family secrets unravel, a guitar becomes the connection between generations and a way of recovering years that can never quite be returned.
The Off-Broadway production earned an impressive 10 Drama Desk nominations, including Outstanding Musical, along with nominations from the Outer Critics Circle, Drama League and Off-Broadway Alliance. The forthcoming album also features Jeb Brown, Andrea Goss, Amelia Cormack, Ryan Halsaver and Derek Stoltenberg.
Listen to the new Beau singles
Kevin Chamberlin Takes a “Wander” With Big Man
The developing Big Man: A New Musical releases its second single, “Wander,” on September 4, performed by three-time Tony nominee Kevin Chamberlin. The musical features music by Billy Recce, book and lyrics by New York Timesbestselling author Sheryl Berk, arrangements by Lena Gabrielle, with the single produced and orchestrated by Nick Anton.
Inspired by Berk’s own family experience, Big Man enters the imagination of Albert, whose modest memory-care room gives way to the swagger and fantasy of 1960s Las Vegas. “Wander” is Albert’s assertion that age and circumstance do not erase identity, dignity or the desire to determine one’s own life.
The song follows the musical’s first single, “Wanted to Believe,” performed by Ramin Karimloo. There is also a purpose beyond introducing a developing show: proceeds from 99-cent downloads of both songs benefit the Alzheimer’s Association.
This Ain’t No Disco Goes Back to New York in 1979
For those who prefer their musical theatre with considerably more downtown grit, Center Stage Records has released This Ain’t No Disco: World Premiere Recording—Songs from the Musical by Stephen Trask, the composer behind Hedwig and the Angry Inch, and Peter Yanowitz.
Part rock opera and part impressionistic portrait of New York City in 1979, the musical moves between Studio 54, the Mudd Club, downtown lofts and the art world, following strivers, artists, dreamers and beautiful disasters searching for identity and belonging in a city about to undergo enormous cultural change.
And what a recording cast: John Cameron Mitchell, Lena Hall, Sean Ono Lennon, Jake Shears, Miriam Shor, Brandon Uranowitz, Rebecca Naomi Jones, Lilli Cooper, Taylor Hanson, Chilina Kennedy, Adam Chanler-Berat and more.
The musical originally premiered at Atlantic Theater Company in 2018 under the direction of Darko Tresnjak with choreography by Camille A. Brown. Eight years later, the recording gives Trask and Yanowitz’s score an entirely new opportunity to find its audience.
Night Side Songs Preserves One of the Season’s Most Intimate Scores
Finally, Octoverse Media and Warner Music Group’s Arts Music have released the cast album of The Lazours’ Night Side Songs, following its 2026 Lincoln Center Theater engagement at LCT3’s Claire Tow Theater.
Featuring Robin de Jesús, Brooke Ishibashi, Jonathan Raviv, Kris Saint-Louis and Mary Testa, the album captures Daniel and Patrick Lazour’s folk-inflected score and its examination of illness, caregiving, faith, fear, memory and the strange intimacy created when someone’s life changes irrevocably. An in-studio audience even joins the company in song, giving the recording the communal quality at the heart of the piece.
The stage production earned a Drama Desk nomination for Outstanding Music, a Drama League nomination for Outstanding Production of a Musical and Lucille Lortel nominations for Outstanding Musical and Outstanding Ensemble. The digital album is available now, with CD and vinyl editions planned for later this year.
What connects these recordings isn’t style—there could hardly be more distance between Evita, Bat Boy and Night Side Songs. It is preservation. Theatre disappears nightly, even while a production is still running; no two performances are precisely the same. A cast album catches one incarnation before everyone moves on.
And this summer, Broadway and Off-Broadway have given us quite a lot worth keeping.
Broadway
Events for September… The City Is Back
September arrives with the U.S. Open in full swing at Flushing Meadows, followed almost immediately by Fashion Week, Broadway Week, major art fairs, Harry Styles taking over Madison Square Garden, the Feast of San Gennaro and the first real surge of New York’s fall cultural season. Summer isn’t quite gone, but the city is already moving at full speed again.
Continuing 9/13: The U.S. Open Tennis Championships take over the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows, bringing the world’s greatest tennis players to Queens for the final Grand Slam tournament of the year.
9/2, 4-5, 9-12, 16-19, 23, 25-26 & 30: Harry Styles begins his massive Together, Together residency at Madison Square Garden, turning September at MSG into something close to Harry Styles month.
9/3: Bryant Park Picnic Performances presents saxophonist and singer Grace Kelly with Ashni as the Asian American Arts Alliance takes over the Lawn for a free evening of music beginning at 7 p.m.
9/4: Bryant Park’s Brass Festival fills the Lawn with brass bands and big sound during another free Picnic Performance beginning at 7 p.m.
9/4–5: Ed Sheeran brings his 2026 tour to MetLife Stadium for two nights.
9/6: Islands in the Park: A Caribbean Jam transforms Smorgasburg Prospect Park into a Caribbean celebration with DJs, live steel pan, Caribbean food vendors, arts and crafts and guest chef Scotley Innis. Admission is free.
9/7: The West Indian American Day Carnival Parade explodes across Eastern Parkway on Labor Day with spectacular costumes, steel-pan and calypso bands, floats, Caribbean food and an estimated crowd approaching two million.
9/8 – 20: If you’re looking to add a can’t-miss theater night to your September plans, Broadway Week returns to New York City from September 8–20, 2026, offering 2-for-1 tickets to select Broadway shows.
9/9: The Annual Taste of Times Square, one of NYC’s most beloved and longest-running food events, is returning to Midtown this September. The four-hour outdoor festival features 30+ restaurants serving everything from Mexican street tacos and Caribbean classics to Italian pasta, Indian curries, and American BBQ all for under $10per plate!
9/9: New York Fashion Week gets an early start, with Ralph Lauren, Coach and other designers presenting ahead of the official CFDA calendar.
9/10–15: New York Fashion Week unveils the Spring/Summer 2027 collections as designers, models, celebrities, editors and the fashion circus descend upon New York.
9/10: Bryant Park Picnic Performances: Dance Party All-Stars brings Alfredo de la Fé All Star Band and the George Gee Swing Orchestra to the Lawn for a free night of salsa and swing.
9/11: New York commemorates the 25th anniversary of September 11, 2001, with the annual reading of victims’ names at the 9/11 Memorial and observances throughout the city.
9/11: American Symphony Orchestra performs at Bryant Park in a special free Picnic Performance commemorating the 25th anniversary of September 11.
9/13: The U.S. Open Men’s Singles Final brings two weeks of extraordinary tennis to its climax at Arthur Ashe Stadium in Flushing Meadows.
9/15 -10/15: Hispanic Heritage Month in NYC a month-long celebration recognizing the rich cultures, histories, and contributions of Hispanic and Latino communities.
9/17–20: Clio Art Fair launches the first of two consecutive September editions in Chelsea, showcasing independent and emerging artists outside the traditional gallery system. Admission is free.
9/17–27: The Feast of San Gennaro celebrates its 100th anniversary, filling Little Italy with eleven days of Italian food, music, processions, entertainment and one of New York’s most beloved street traditions.
9/18–19: Return of the Buffalo: Tatanka Owe Akupi sends 40 life-sized buffalo puppets through Lower Manhattan and Brooklyn in an extraordinary free public-art event created with Lenape and Lakota elders.
9/19: The German-American Steuben Parade marches up Fifth Avenue, celebrating German-American heritage with marching bands, traditional costumes and organizations from across the country.
9/20-27: Climate Week: The week attracts decision makers from across society. Leaders set the strategies here that drive pollution reduction and business growth.
9/22: Fall officially arrives in New York with the Autumnal Equinox, as the city trades summer for one of its most beautiful seasons.
9/24–27: Armory Week brings collectors, galleries, artists and the international art world to New York, led by The Armory Show and a constellation of satellite fairs and exhibitions.
9/24–27: Clio Art Fair returns for its second September edition, offering another roster of independent artists in Chelsea.
9/25: The Museum of the City of New York opens Halumii Ktapihna, exploring the enduring presence and living cultures of the Lenape/Lunáapeew, the original people of the land that became New York City.
9/25: The Museum of the City of New York also opens Raise Your Voice, tracing more than 250 years of New York activism and the ways generations of New Yorkers have fought to create change.
9/26: Global Citizen Festival with Ms. Lauryn Hill and Wyclef Jean, Lenny Kravitz, John Legend, Lainey Wilson, Shaboozey, and TOMORROW X TOGETHER (TXT). The concert is free, you’ll have to earn your ticket by taking action through the Global Citizen app or website, such as signing petitions and completing quizzes on global issues. New this year, fans can also get automatic entry with a $25 charitable donation, with proceeds supporting local New York causes.
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