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Performances of Disney's Hercules are now underway at Theatre Royal Drury Lane, which will run until 28 March 2026. Check out a new video of Luke Brady, who plays the title role, singing the iconic song "Go The Distance." With music by Alan Menken and lyrics by David Zippel, and a brand-new book by Robert Horn and Kwame Kwei-Armah, Casey Nicholaw’s production of Hercules, co-choreographed with Tanisha Scott, is inspired by the 1997 animated film of the same name from Walt Disney Studios. The feature film, directed by The Little Mermaid filmmakers John Musker and Ron Clements, and written by Clements, Musker, Donald McEnery, Bob Shaw and Irene Mecchi, won Best Animation Feature at the Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards and was nominated for the Academy Award® for Best Original Song for Go the Distance. The cast...

“That’s the gospel truth!” After years in development and several stagings across the globe, Disney’s Hercules has crashed like a lightning bolt into the Theatre Royal Drury Lane. The show, with a book by Robert Horn and Kwame Kwei-Armah, music by Alan Menken and lyrics by David Zippel, is an adaptation of the 1997 Disney film of the same name, an animated musical that follows the son of Zeus and Hera, Hercules (Luke Brady), as he must earn his rightful place on Mount Olympus and face off against his evil uncle, Hades (Stephen Carlile). We are introduced to the world of gods and men through an energetic opening number, with...

Bless my soul! Performances of Disney's Hercules are now underway at Theatre Royal Drury Lane, which will run until 28 March 2026. Check out reviews of the show below! With music by Alan Menken and lyrics by David Zippel, and a brand-new book by Robert Horn and Kwame Kwei-Armah, Casey Nicholaw’s production of Hercules, co-choreographed with Tanisha Scott, is inspired by the 1997 animated film of the same name from Walt Disney Studios. The feature film, directed by The Little Mermaid filmmakers John Musker and Ron Clements, and written by Clements, Musker, Donald McEnery, Bob Shaw and Irene Mecchi, won Best Animation Feature at the Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards and was nominated for the Academy Award® for Best Original Song for Go the Distance. The cast is Luke Brady (Hercules), as the Muses, Candace Furbert (Thalia), Sharlene Hector (Clio), Brianna Ogunbawo (Melpomene), Malinda Parris (Calliope), Robyn Rose-Li (Terpsichore), and Kimmy...

Performances of Hercules are now underway at Theatre Royal Drury Lane, which will run until 28 March 2026. Check out all new photos from the show below! With music by Alan Menken and lyrics by David Zippel, and a brand-new book by Robert Horn and Kwame Kwei-Armah, Casey Nicholaw’s production of Hercules, co-choreographed with Tanisha Scott, is inspired by the 1997 animated film of the same name from Walt Disney Studios. The feature film, directed by The Little Mermaid filmmakers John Musker and Ron Clements, and written by Clements, Musker, Donald McEnery, Bob Shaw and Irene Mecchi, won Best Animation Feature at the Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards and was nominated for the Academy Award® for Best Original Song for Go the Distance. The cast is Luke Brady (Hercules), as the Muses, Candace Furbert (Thalia), Sharlene Hector (Clio), Brianna Ogunbawo (Melpomene), Malinda Parris (Calliope), Robyn Rose-Li (Terpsichore), and Kimmy Edwards and...

On National Corn on the Cob Day, theatrical licensor Music Theatre International announces the acquisition of Shucked. Featuring a book by Tony Award winner Robert Horn (Tootsie), and a score by the Grammy® Award-winning songwriting team of Brandy Clark and Shane McAnally, this corn-fed, corn-bred American musical is sure to satisfy your appetite for great musical theatre. What do you get when you pair a semi-neurotic, New York comedy writer with two music superstars from Nashville? A hilarious and audacious farm-to-fable musical about the one thing Americans everywhere can’t get enough of: corn. Shucked is the musical comedy that proves sometimes tearing down a few walls, rather than growing them, is the only way to preserve our way of life. Shucked has turned Broadway on its ear and offers a...

Tony Award-winning musical comedy Shucked is making its UK premiere, landing at Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre for 5 weeks only, following a run on Broadway and a US tour. Get a first look at the production here! Featuring a book by Tony Award winner Robert Horn (Tootsie), a score by the Grammy Award-winning songwriting team of Brandy Clark and Shane McAnally, and directed by Tony Award winner Jack O’Brien (Hairspray), this corn-fed, corn-bred American musical is sure to satisfy your appetite! Maizy and Beau are getting hitched, when the corn that protects their small community starts to die. The town needs answers. But who will dare to venture beyond the borders of Cob County? Including the knockout songs ‘Woman of the...

Check out title star Luke Brady and the company of Hercules bringing their gospel truth to the Britain's Got Talent stage. Watch the video of the cast performing some classic tunes from the film as well as a brand-new song for the mythic hero himself! The production opens at Theatre Royal Drury Lane on 24 June 2025, with previews commencing on 6 June, and is currently booking until 10 January 2026. Full casting will be announced shortly. With music by Alan Menken and lyrics by David Zippel, and a brand-new book by Robert Horn and Kwame Kwei-Armah, Casey Nicholaw's production of Hercules, co-choreographed with Tanisha Scott, is inspired by the 1997 animated film of the same name from Walt Disney...

Winter doldrums and a closing night be damned: Shucked just had a very good week, with news of a planned movie adaptation and its best-ever Broadway gross of $1,111,038.

The Brandy Clark-Shane McAnally-Robert Horn musical, which opened March 8, played its final Broadway performance on January 14 after 28 previews and 327 regular performances. The production ended its run at the Nederlander Theatre to a very nearly full house: 99% of seats were filled.

Broadway box office overall was down a bit from the previous week, with total receipts for the 26 shows tallying up to $27,657,991 for the week ending January 14. That’s a 7% drop from the previous week and 18% less than last year at this time when there were 29 shows running.

Total attendance for the week was 218,287, about the same as the previous week but down 12% from last season. Still, about 90% of total seats were filled.

Among recent arrivals, the acclaimed Prayer For The French Republic,...

Update, with Mandalay statement: A feature film adaptation of Shucked, the corny (that’s a compliment) pun-filled Broadway musical comedy, is in development, with Mandalay Pictures on board to produce.

Shucked producer Mike Bosner made the announcement last night during the curtain call of Shucked‘s final performance, saying, “We’re all a little sad to say goodbye to this, but there’s some good news. We don’t have to say goodbye just yet, because we will be making a feature film of Shucked.”

Watch video of the announcement below.

Mandalay president and Air producer Jason Michael Berman, Alan Fox and Mandalay VP Jordan Moldo are on board as Producers, and David Zelon and Sandra R. Berman will be executive producers.

From the stage side, composers Brandy Clark and Shane McAnally, book writer Robert Horn, and stage director Jack O’Brien are Executive Producers. Horn will write the screenplay.

In a joint statement to Deadline,...

The musical-comedy “Shucked” had its closing performance on Broadway Sunday night, but the show went out with an even louder set of whoops than expected, as the curtain call included the news that a feature film adaptation is in the works.

Show reps confirm to Variety that a movie version of “Shucked” is being set up with Mandalay Pictures.

The producers for Mandalay will be Jason Michael Berman (Air) and Jordan Moldo, along with Alan Fox.

“We’re all a little sad to say goodbye to this. But there’s some good news,” one of the Broadway production’s producers, Mike Bosner, said amid the cast’s final farewells. “We don’t have to say goodbye just yet. Because I’m happy to announce that we will be making a feature film of ‘Shucked,'” he said, as the crowd’s cheering began to drown him out.

Robert Horn, who wrote the show’s book,...

Shucked, a best musical nominee at last season’s Tony Awards, will end its run at the Nederlander Theatre on Jan. 13.

However, the show’s producing team, led by Mike Bosner, is looking to move to another Broadway theater, if one becomes available after that date. That may be a tough proposition, given the many spring shows that have already been announced or are waiting in the wings.

The musical already has a North American tour in Fall 2024, as well as a planned London production at a Cameron Mackintosh theater in Winter 2024 and in Sydney in Spring 2026.

Shucked opened at the Nederlander Theatre on April 4, and was met with largely positive reviews. The show was nominated for nine Tony Awards and won one, for Alex Newell as best featured actor in a musical, Newell, along with J. Harrison Ghee in Some Like It Hot, became the first openly nonbinary actors to win Tony Awards.

Paradigm Talent Agency has hired Chris Till as an agent in their theater literary and content division, Variety has learned exclusively.

The hiring brings Till back to Paradigm, as he previously worked at the agency early in his extensive entertainment career, as he now has over 20 years of industry experience. He previously spent over a decade at CAA before joining Verve in 2020 to help launch that agency’s New York office.

Till will be based in Paradigm’s New York office as well, with a focus on representing writers and directors across theatre, film and television.

“I’ve always thought of Chris as the one that got away,” said Paradigm partner and head of the New York office Jack Tantleff. “He started his career as a young agent at Paradigm, and I have watched as he built his business to become one of the truly bright stars in our industry.

On Sunday night, Broadway honored the best live theater of the year at the 76th annual Tony Awards.

At a time of the ongoing Writers Guild of America (WGA) strike, it was a possibility that the ceremony would not happen this year, but the WGA and the Tony Awards’ organizers reached an agreement where the show would not be picketed and the writers would not work on the telecast. The previous time this occurred was in 1988 when Phantom of the Opera and Into the Woods competed for Best Musical.

The Tonys was the first major ceremony to take place amid the current writers’ strike. While other awards shows need a host and numerous presenters to say written remarks about the competitors and provide good ratings, the Tonys already have a built-in fan base that only requires around a dozen performances and winners’ speeches to succeed.

Ariana DeBose returned as the host,...

Alex Newell and J. Harrison Ghee made history on Sunday, when they became the first nonbinary-identifying people to win an individual acting prize at the 76th annual Tony Awards, breaking the glass for LGBTQ performers at the annual Broadway celebration.

Newell won Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Musical for their show-stopping performance in Shucked and Ghee won the prize for Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Musical for Some Like It Hot, becoming the first nonbinary performer to win the category.

“I have wanted this my entire life. And I thank each and every one of you in this room,” Newell said while taking the stage at the United Palace Theatre, during the 2023 ceremony hosted by Ariana DeBose.

Speaking directly to their mother, who was in the audience, Newell shared, “Mommy, I love you. Thank you for believing in me. Thank you for loving me unconditionally.

The 2023 Tony Awards just honored a fresh group of incredible talents. Trophies were handed out at the United Palace Theater in NYC on June 11. This year's big winners include "Killing Eve" star Jodie Comer for her role in "Prima Facie," the play "Leopoldstadt," and the musical "Kimberly Akimbo."

"Shucked" star Alex Newell and "Some Like It Hot" star J. Harrison Ghee also made history as they became the award show's first openly nonbinary acting winners. The Tony Awards do not have gender-neutral acting categories. Newell, an alum of "The Glee Project," took home the award for featured actor in a musical. Ghee also won in their category, best actor in a musical.

The annual theater award ceremony was hosted by Oscar winner Ariana DeBose, who is emceeing without a script amid the 2023 writers strike.

Ahead, these are the 2023 Tony winners.

Best Musical

"& Juliet"

Winner: "Kimberly Akimbo"

"New York, New York...

Alex Newell made history on Sunday during the 76th Tony Awards, where they became the first openly non-binary person to win a Tony Award. Newell nabbed the Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Musical category for their role as Lulu in Shucked.

“Thank you for seeing me Broadway,” Newell said while accepting the award. “I should not be up here as a queer, non-binary, fat, Black, little baby from Massachusetts. And to anyone that thinks that they can’t do it, I’m going to look you dead...

Tony Awards nominations were announced on Tuesday, May 2 by Lea Michele and Myles Frost. While the nominations for the 76th annual Tony Awards were determined by 40 theatre professionals, winners were decided by over 750 members of the Broadway community.

A whopping 38 shows were eligible for consideration by the nominating committee. On the play side, there were 17 original works and six revivals in the running for nominations. Over on the musical side, nine new tuners were in contention for bids as were six musical revivals. The cutoff date for eligibility was April 27.

The Tony Awards are set for June 12 at United Palace Theatre in Washington Heights and will be hosted for the second year in a row by Oscar winner Ariana DeBose. The earlier “Act One” ceremony will be hosted by Julianne Hough and Skylar Astin.

Musicals

Best Musical

& Juliet

X — Kimberly Akimbo

New York, New York

Shucked

Some Like It Hot...

The show went on at Broadway’s Shucked on Wednesday night, though New York City’s bad air quality did have an impact on the staging: Book writer Robert Horn and composer Brandy Clark stepped in to play the main female character Maizy, with Horn reading the dialogue and Clark singing the songs.

The night’s concert-style staging was necessitated by the absence of Maizy actress Caroline Innerbichler, who was out for the night due to reasons unrelated to the orange haze covering the city. Innerbichler has two understudies, one of whom was out due to what a spokesperson for the show said was a sinus infection unrelated to the air quality and another understudy out due specifically to the air quality.

Related: Broadway’s Tony-Nominated ‘Shucked’ Sets 2024 London Run In A Cameron Mackintosh Venue

The historically bad air quality stemming from Canadian wildfires hit New York City hard yesterday...

Exclusive: Shucked, the Broadway musical nominated for nine Tony Awards, will begin a London run on the West End next year, producer and theater owner Cameron Mackintosh announced today.

“I’m delighted to confirm that London is going to get Shucked in one of my theatres next year,” Mackintosh said in a statement. “Shucked is that rarity: a completely original musical and the funniest show since The Book of Mormon, with a terrifically tuneful rollicking country and western score. It’s snuck up on Broadway and is proving to be the most talked about hit of the season.”

In keeping with the musical’s pun-filled promotional campaign, Mackintosh ended his statement with, “The corn at the heart of Shucked will have you husky with limitless laughter!”

Casting, venue, ticketing information and other details will be announced in the coming months.

With a book by Tony nominee Robert Horn (he won...

Last night, the Broadway musical Shucked made history of a sort when cast member Alex Newell delivered a red-hot performance of the musical’s barnburner “Independently Owned” on The Voice, marking the first time a Broadway show has gained entry onto the NBC talent competition.

The performance before a national audience was just the latest tradition-bucking move for Shucked, the seemingly out-of-nowhere musical that capped a months-long campaign for recognition – any recognition – with its garnering of no fewer than nine Tony Award nominations on May 2, nominations that included Best Musical, Best Book, Best Score, Best Direction and, for both Newell and actor Kevin Cahoon, Best Featured Actor/Musical.

The nominations marked a big turning point for the production, both in terms of box office and public perception. New Yorkers and tourists began noticing the ubiquitous, pun-filled, bright yellow and green Shucked posters throughout the subway system and elsewhere months ago,...

“The Voice” has not been much concerned with current Broadway voices until now. That’ll change in a big way with this coming Monday’s episode, which will feature a show-stopping number from “Shucked” — marking the first time a song from a currently running Broadway show has been featured on the long-running singing competition series.

The song is “Independently Owned,” a major nightly showcase for Tony nominee Alex Newell. It’s been cited as the rare example of an original Broadway musical having its first and possibly biggest standing-ovation number come in the middle of the first act… and it’s a testament to “Shucked” as a whole that the production doesn’t feel like it’s going downhill from that early barn-burner.

“We have always imagined ‘The Voice’ as a platform to foster talent while being relevant and of-the-moment,” Melissa Watkins Trueblood, the head of talent for “The Voice,...

The Outer Critics Circle has named Some Like It Hot as the year’s Best New Broadway Musical and Leopoldstadt as Best New Broadway Play, the organization announced today.

The Circle, made up of writers on New York theater for out-of-town newspapers and national publications, also named Parade in the musical revival category, and Topdog/Underdog as the outstanding play revival.

In all, Some Like It Hot topped the list in number of wins – five, in all – with Leopoldstadt coming in second with three awards.

Winners of the 72nd Annual Outer Critics Circle Awards will be honored at a ceremony on Thursday, May 25 at the Bruno Walter Auditorium at Lincoln Center’s New York Public Library for The Performing Arts.

Here is the complete list of winners:

Outstanding New Broadway Musical

Some Like It Hot

Outstanding New Broadway Play

Leopoldstadt

Outstanding New Off Broadway Musical

The Harder They Come

Outstanding...

Lea Michele and Myles Frost hosted ‘The 76th Annual Tony Award Nominations (Photo by Jenny Anderson / Getty Images for Tony Awards Productions)

Funny Girl‘s Lea Michele and Tony Award winner Myles Frost had the honor of announcing The 76th Annual Tony Awards. Some Like It Hot earned the most nominations with 13, including Best Musical, Best Direction of a Musical, and two in the Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Musical category.

Shucked, & Juliet, and New York, New York picked up nine nominations each. Kimberly Akimbo and Sweeney Todd earned eight, followed by Ain’t No Mo’, A Doll’s House, Into the Woods, Parade, and Leopoldstadt with six.

Oscar winner Ariana DeBose (West Side Story) returns to host the live Tony Awards show airing on June 11, 2023 at 5pm Pt / 8pm Et. This year’s ceremony will be broadcast on CBS and will stream live on Paramount+.

On Tuesday, performers Lea Michele and Myles Frost presented the nominees for the 76th annual Tony Awards live on “CBS This Morning” before finishing the list from the heart of Broadway at the Sofitel New York.

Recognizing the best in live theatre, the Tony Awards cap off a strong year for Broadway, which bounced back during the 2022-2023 season with a number of acclaimed and groundbreaking productions. In total, there were 38 eligible shows, including 17 original plays and nine new musicals as well as six play revivals and six musical revivals.

Earning the most of any production, Some Like It Hot came out on top, with a total of 13 nominations. The most nominated play, meanwhile, is Ain’t No Mo’, which garnered six. Additionally, Sweeney Todd and A Doll’s House were the two most recognized revivals of the year, collecting eight and six nominations, respectively.

When it comes to the acting prizes,...

The 2023 Tony Awards nominations were announced on Tuesday, May 2 by Lea Michele and Myles Frost. The reveal of the roster of contenders was carried on the Tonys YouTube channel. While the nominations for the 76th annual Tony Awards were determined by a few dozen theater professionals, winners will be decided by upwards of 800 members of the Broadway community.

A whopping 38 shows were eligible for consideration by the nominating committee. On the play side, there are 17 original works and six revivals in the running. Over on the musical side, nine new tuners were in contention as were six musical revivals. The cutoff date for eligibility was April 27.

The Tony Awards are set for June 12 at United Palace Theatre in Washington Heights and will be hosted for the second year in a row by Oscar winner Ariana DeBose.

The 2023 Tony Awards nominations list below includes all 26 competitive categories.

Musicals

Best Musical

& Juliet

Kimberly Akimbo

New York,...

“What I wanted to do was redefine what I think is an American classic kind of comedy for a new generation,” reveals Robert Horn. This mission has resulted in the riotous new show “Shucked,” now playing on Broadway at the Nederlander Theatre. Horn wrote the book for this original musical, which is filled with corny jokes (the good kind) and surprisingly endearing characters. This mixture of laughter and heart defines the writer’s approach to comedy. Watch the exclusive video interview above.

See Kevin Cahoon interview: ‘Shucked’

“I always start with the heart. The comedy then is the prism through which you see that,” explains Horn. He loves genuine emotion on stage, but isn’t a fan when a scene becomes overly sentimental or maudlin. So he is quick to cut a moment with a joke before anything gets too sappy. Audiences don’t have to worry about “Shucked” going the sappy route,...

“It’s hilarious, sweet, universal,” declares Kevin Cahoon of the new Broadway musical “Schucked.” Original works spend years in development before they make it to the rialto, and the actor has been working on this musical comedy for the past eight years. In fact, he’s the only member of the Broadway company who has been with the production since day one. As he thinks back on the many readings, out-of-town tryouts, and script overhauls which have shaped this “corny” tuner, Cahoon believes that “It has finally found its right moment” to make its hysterical and heartwarming entrance in New York. Watch the exclusive video interview above.

Cahoon portrays Peanut, a quirky man who seems to be at the center of every event in the small farm town of Cobbs County. The character started as the county clerk in early iterations of the script, but over the years Peanut evolved...

The corn is as high as an elephant’s eye in Broadway’s latest musical comedy “Shucked.” The new original show is an intentionally corny riff on classic Golden Age musicals: it sets a country girl from Cob County off to the big city of Tampa to find help when her community’s corn faces a blight, where she promptly meets and brings home a huckster. “Shucked” opened at the Nederlander Theatre on April 4.

Directed by three-time Tony Award winner Jack O’Brien and featuring a book by Tony-winner Robert Horn and score by first-time Broadway composers Brandy Clark and Shane McAnally, “Shucked” boasts an ensemble comprised of Tony nominee Grey Henson and Broadway standouts John Behlmann, Kevin Cahoon, Alex Newell, and others surrounding its lead, newcomer Caroline Innerbichler.

Watch 2023 Tony Awards slugfest: 15 productions vie for places in Musical races

“Shucked” received positive reviews from most critics. Adam Feldman (Time Out...

Puns grow knee-high – and in bawdier moments a bit higher – in Shucked, the new musical comedy that combines the winking hayseed humor of Green Acres and Hee Haw with the decidedly urban, gently subversive camp that peppered the Off Broadway scene in the ’90s with kitschy fare like Ruthless!, The Real Live Brady Bunch and Theatre-a-Go!-Go!’s Valley of the Dolls parody.

The musical comes by its unlikely spiritual DNA honestly, or however it can, through the combined and disparate talents of book writer Robert Horn and composers Brandy Clark and Shane McAnally.

Consider that pedigree for a moment: Horn won a Tony for 2019’s Tootsie, and has written for Dame Edna, Designing Women, Bette Midler and RuPaul. Clark and McAnally have stacked up a big barnful of CMA Awards, Grammys and country music hits. Together this trio is a match made in some bizarro Broadway cornfield of dreams,...

Broadway’s old and new teamed up last week to boost total box office nearly 20%, with The Phantom of the Opera (the old) posting a best-ever $3 million weekly gross and The Jonas Brothers taking in $1.6 million for their five-concert residency.

In all, Broadway’s 29 productions grossed a total $34,124,422 for the week ending March 19, a jump of 19.1% over the previous week. Total attendance was 259,832, a 13% increase (the previous week had two fewer shows on the roster).

With Phantom now in its final weeks – the closing date is April 16 – the musical posted the biggest weekly gross in its 35-year history: $3,029,826 for eight performances (its first $3M+ tally). That tops even previous nine-show weeks. Attendance at the Majestic was 101.71%, with a big average ticket price of $232.01.

The Jonas Brothers on Broadway, the March 14 to March 18 residency at the Marquis,...

A raft of Broadway’s recent arrivals led by Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street helped push the industry’s total box office last week to $28,638,821, up 13.8% from the previous week. Total attendance was up commensurately to 229,771.

Sweeney Todd, starring Josh Groban and Annaleigh Ashford, contributed a whopping $1.8 million to the kitty, selling out its seven previews at the Lunt-Fontanne for the week ending March 12. The Stephen Sondheim-Hugh Wheeler musical had a healthy average ticket price of $172.18. Opening night is March 26.

Another strong performer last week was A Doll’s House, the critically acclaimed Ibsen revival starring Jessica Chastain. The play, which opened March 9, took in $728,913, filling 97% of seats at the Hudson.

Parade, with only seven preview performances (the Saturday night show was canceled due to a technical malfunction) was at $861,707 – a drop of $52,803 no doubt reflecting the loss of the sold-out weekend preview – with 95% of seats filled at the Jacobs.

Twenty years after the fan-favorite Disney Renaissance film debuted in 1997, legendary composer Alan Menken revealed that he was working on a stage adaptation of "Hercules," the tale of a young man on his road to becoming a hero and finding out where he belongs in the world. Reunited with lyricist David Zippel, the Disney Legend created a number of all-new songs to compliment a book by Kristoffer Diaz and Robert Horn for the latest musical from the House of Mouse.

A few years later in 2019, the production made its world premiere at the Delacorte Theater in New York City's Central Park with a stellar cast that featured Jelani Alladin, who originated the role of Kristoff on stage in "Frozen," as Hercules, Tony Award winner James Monroe Iglehart of "Aladdin" on Broadway as Phil, star of NBC's "Smash" Krysta Rodriguez as Meg, and, instead of revisiting the character that he...

Brandy Clark and Shane McAnally offer a succinct exploration of the agonies and joys of the heart in “Maybe Love,” the first taste of their upcoming Broadway musical, Shucked. The show begins previews on March 8 at the Nederlander Theatre in New York.

“Maybe Love” bears some hallmarks of Clark and McAnally’s award-winning country songwriting pedigrees in its arrangement, consisting of a wistful piano part and two voices that play off each other. Clark sings of love’s frustrations and endurance and how it has to be nurtured to survive.

We’re now about halfway through the 2022-2023 Broadway season, and there are currently seven productions of musicals set to open this spring. Could we be seeing any of them contend at this year’s Tony Awards? Below, find the plot description of each musical as well as the awards history of its author, cast, creative team, and the opening and (where applicable) closing dates.

“Bad Cinderella” (previews begin February 17; opens March 23)

In this loose adaptation of the classic fairy tale, the fields are idyllic, the prince is charming, and the townsfolk are ravishing in the beautiful kingdom of Belleville. One stubborn peasant stands in the way of absolute perfection: Cinderella. To those in Belleville, the damsel is the distress.

This musical features a book by Oscar winner Emerald Fennell, music by six-time Tony winner Andrew Lloyd Webber, and lyrics by Tony winner David Zippel. The production previously premiered in...

Producers Mike Bosner and Jason Owen announced today that Shucked, a new original musical comedy with a book by Tony winner Robert Horn (Tootsie) and music by Nashville’s hit songwriting team Brandy Clark and Shane McAnally will open on Broadway this spring.

Shucked will begin previews at the Nederlander Theatre on Wednesday, March 8, 2023 for a Tuesday, April 4 opening night.

The musical comedy will star John Behlmann (Tootsie), Kevin Cahoon (The Who’s Tommy), Andrew Durand (Head Over Heels), Caroline Innerbichler (Frozen North American Tour), Ashley D. Kelley (Bella: An American Tall Tale), and Alex Newell (Once On This Island). Additional casting will be announced in the coming weeks.

The production is directed by three-time Tony Award winner Jack O’Brien with choreography by Sarah O’Gleby, and music supervision, music direction, orchestrations, and arrangements by Tony Award nominee Jason Howland.

Clark and McAnally collectively have earned three Grammy Awards and 18 Grammy nominations.

As studios meet in Las Vegas to present footage of their upcoming slates to exhibitors, Netflix is showcasing their own slate of future feature films as it has unveiled its upcoming summer slate of original movies. Some of the films receiving new release dates include the Vampire thriller Day Shift starring Jamie Foxx, which is set to bow on August 12, the Kevin Hart-Mark Wahlberg comedy Me Time, bowing on Aug. 26 and the Dakota Johnson drama Persuasion, bowing July 15. The streamer also confirmed dates of some highly-anticipated films that had previously been announced like the Adam Sandler sports pic Hustle, which bows on June 8, the Chris Hemsworth-Miles Teller Thriller Spiderhead, which bows on June 17 and most recently the The Russo Brothers next film The Gray Man, starring Ryan Gosling and Chris Evans, which will premiere on July 22.

You can find the remaining schedule for the entire summer...

Exclusive: Neil Bartram and Brian Hill, writers of the stage musical adaptation of Disney’s Bedknobs And Broomsticks that launched a UK and Ireland tour last weekend, have signed with Verve for representation.

Produced by Michael Harrison, Bedknobs and Broomsticks is adapted from Disney’s 1971 live action-animation hybrid. Bertram wrote new music for the stage production (which also includes songs from the original film) and Hill wrote the book.

The stage musical made its world premiere at the Theatre Royal in Newcastle on Aug. 14, with additional tour dates currently scheduled through next spring.

The production stars Dianne Pilkington as Miss Price, the witch-in-training played in the film by Angela Lansbury, and Charles Brunton as Emelius Browne (David Tomlinson in the movie).

Other Bertram-Hill credits include The Story of My Life, which ran on Broadway in 2009, and Goodspeed Musicals’ The Theory of Relativity and Chicago Shakespeare Theater’s The Adventures of Pinocchio.

Exclusive: And the dance card is full. Rhea Perlman, Josh Peck and Peter Hermann have joined 13: The Musical, rounding out the cast of Netflix’s feature adaptation of the Broadway show.

It follows 12-year-old Evan Goldman (Eli Golden) as he moves from New York City to small-town Indiana and must grapple with his parents’ divorce, prepare for his pending Bar Mitzvah and navigate the complicated social circles of a new school.

Perlman will play Grandma Ruth, Peck is Rabbi Shapiro, and Hermann portrays Joel Goldman.

Production is underway on 13: The Musical, which is produced by Neil Meron with Tamra Davis directing and Tony winner Robert Horn adapting the script off the book he co-wrote with Dan Elish.

‘Far Cry’: Netflix Unveils Two Projects Inspired By Ubisoft Video Game Franchise

Perlman, Peck and Hermann join a cast that includes Gabriella Uhl,...

Exclusive: We have learned that Will & Grace Emmy winning Best Actress Debra Messing is joining Netflix’s feature adaptation of Broadway’s 13: The Musical.

She joins the previously announced cast that we first told you about of Eli Golden, Gabriella Uhl, Jd McCrary, Frankie McNellis, Lindsey Blackwell, Jonathan Lengel, Ramon Reed, Nolen Dubuc, Luke Islam, Shechinah Mpumlwana, Kayleigh Cerezo, Wyatt Moss, Liam Wignall, and Khiyla Aynne in the Tamra Davis directed feature.

13: The Musical, produced by Neil Meron with Tony Award winner Robert Horn adapting the script off the book he co-wrote with Dan Elish, follows 12-year old Evan Goldman (12). He moves from NYC to small-town Indiana where he grapples with his parents’ divorce, prepares for his impending Bar Mitzvah, and navigates the complicated social circles of a new school. Messing will play Evan Goldman’s (Golden) mom.

Three-time Tony Award winner Jason Robert Brown, who served...

Exclusive: Netflix has locked down the cast to its upcoming feature adaptation of Broadway’s 13: The Musical.

The musical, which ran from October 2008 to January 2009 at the Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre follows Evan Goldman (12) who following a move from NYC to small-town Indiana, grapples with his parents’ divorce, prepares for his impending Bar Mitzvah, and navigates the complicated social circles of a new school.

The Broadway version featured the first and only all-teenage cast and band and served as professional debuts of Ariana Grande and Elizabeth Gillies. The musical has since been a popular production of high school theater groups.

Of the 14 starring in 13: The Musical include Eli Golden (The Wizard of Lies), Gabriella Uhl, Jd McCrary, Frankie McNellis, Lindsey Blackwell (The Change-Up), Jonathan Lengel, Ramon Reed (Disney Channel’s Just Roll With It...

Exclusive: Jon Hartmere, writer of the Broadway-bound Britney Spears musical Once Upon a One More Time and the 2017 film The Upside, has signed with Verve.

The Spears jukebox musical, with a Hartmere-penned book, sets hit songs including “Oops! I Did It Again,” “Stronger,” “Toxic” and “Lucky” to an irreverent take on classic fairy tale princess stories. A production was was set to begin previews in Chicago last April before the Covid-19 pandemic struck.

Prior to Once Upon a One More Time, Hartmere wrote the lyrics and co-wrote the book of the Off Broadway musical Bare. More recently, he wrote the screenplay for The Upside, the 2017 film starring Bryan Cranston, Kevin Hart and Nicole Kidman, and directed by Neil Burger.

Hartmere has also developed projects for Fox, Disney, Amazon, Paramount, TWC, Miramax, Nickelodeon, Sony, MGM and Sesame Street Productions. With the agency signing, he joins Verve’s growing roster of theater...

Exclusive: Longtime TV development executive Jessica Shulman has segued to the representation business, joining Literate as a manager.

At the company, where she started yesterday, Shulman will work alongside Literate partners A.B. Fischer and Dennis Kim and fellow manager Kelly Miller.

Shulman has been a development executive for the past 15 years, most recently serving as SVP of Television for Michael London’s Groundswell Productions. Prior to that, she spent 5 years as Head of Television for Neal Baer’s Baer Bones, overseeing the production company’s deals at CBS TV Studios and 20th Television.

“We’ve both known Jessica for years, and witnessed first-hand how she’s nurtured and cared for the writers she’s worked with,” Fischer and Kim said in a statement. “That quality alone will serve her well as she makes the transition from executive to manager. Her development experience, deep bench of relationships and genuine, collaborative spirit...

Murray Schisgal, whose writing brought a 1964 Tony Award nomination for the Broadway play Luv and a 1982 Oscar nomination for the hit Dustin Hoffman comedy Tootsie, died Oct. 1 at a nursing home in Port Chester, New York. He was 93.

His death was announced by his son Zach Schisgal. A cause of death was not disclosed.

Schisgal, a Brooklyn native, first came to public notice in 1963 with the popular Off Broadway plays The Typists and The Tiger. Two years later his Broadway debut, the absurdist hit comedy Luv, was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Play and for Best Author of a Play. Directed by Mike Nichols, Luv starred Eli Wallach, Ann Jackson and Alan Arkin.

A 1967 film version of Luv, starring Jack Lemmon, Elaine May and Peter Falk, directed by Clive Donner, was largely ignored, as was 1967’s The Tiger Makes Out, the film version of Schisgal’s play The Tiger starring Wallach and Jackson,...

Exclusive: Robert Horn, the Tony Award-winning book writer of the Broadway musical Tootsie, has signed with Verve for representation in all areas.

Horn, who began his career as a writer for TV’s Designing Women and Living Single before going on to create CBS’ High Society and FX’s Partners, currently is writing the stage musical adaptation of Hercules for Disney Theatricals, and the film adaptation of 13: The Musical for Netflix.

And last November, Deadline reported that Horn and and Tootsie director Scott Ellis were collaborating on a Fox multi-camera comedy project called Football Book Club inspired by the experiences of former New England Patriots wide receiver Malcolm Mitchell. The Mitchell-inspired character is a pro wide received sidelined by injury who joins an all-female Southern book club.

Read Deadline’s Broadway review of Tootsie here.

Also coming up for Horn is an original musical comedy featuring music and lyrics...

Verve is expanding its footprint in the New York market, opening its first office in New York and hiring veteran literary agent Chris Till to oversee it. Till will help build a team representing Theater, Talent, Unscripted and Publishing from the East Coast.

“We are excited to plant the Verve flag in one of the greatest cities in the world! Chris and his team will be another megaphone for Verve Voices,” Verve partners said in a collective statement.

Till brings over 20 years experience as a literary agent representing clients across theater, film and television. During his career, he has worked with various Oscar, Emmy and Tony Award-winning writers and directors. Additionally, he has represented two recipients of the Pulitzer Prize in Drama. Prior to joining Verve, Chris spent 12 years at CAA. Some of his clients there included Ayad Akhtar, David Bryan, Jon Hartmere, Robert Horn, Jennifer Lee, Bob Martin and Beau Willimon.

In Rolling Stone‘s series At Work, we go behind the curtain with decision-makers across the fast-changing music business — exploring a range of responsibilities, burgeoning ideas, advice for industry newcomers, and more. Read earlier interviews here.

Shane McAnally is a big advocate of finding a crew. When he arrived in Nashville as a struggling songwriter years ago, the Texas native banded together with several other writers, and he championed them through the music industry after his own fortunes began to improve. As he puts it: “My domino fell first of the group.

A movie adaptation of the stage musical “13” is in the works at Netflix from producer Neil Meron, whose credits include “Chicago,” “Hairspray” and 2011’s “Footloose” remake, Netflix announced Thursday.

Tamra Davis (“High School Musical: The Musical”) is directing the film adaptation of the original musical from 2008 about a boy who moves to a new school in a small town in Indiana and prepares for an impending Bar Mitzvah.

The original Broadway show featured the first and only all-teenager cast and band. The musical’s run on Broadway was short-lived, running for only 105 performances following an Off-Broadway run. But it did manage to help launch the careers of actors and stars like Ariana Grande, Elizabeth Gillies and Graham Phillips, all of whom were featured in the original cast.

Also Read: 'Hamilton' Movie With Lin-Manuel Miranda and Original Broadway Cast Hits Theaters October 2021

Tony Award winner Robert Horn will...

Exclusive: Fox’s ramp-up in animation continues with a series order to Housebroken (fka Therapy Dog). The half-hour project, originally picked up by the network with a script plus presentation commitment, stars Lisa Kudrow, Clea Duvall and Nat Faxon and hails from writer-producer-actress Sharon Horgan, who also provides a voice, actress DuVall (Veep, American Horror Story), writer-producers Jennifer Crittenden & Gabrielle Allan (Veep, Divorce) and Aaron Kaplan’s Kapital Entertainment (A Million Little Things, Divorce).

Housebroken will be a co-production between Kapital and Fox Entertainment. It marks Kapital’s first animated series, With the pickup, Kapital is going 5 for 5 in pilots financed by the indie company going to series (including straight-to-series orders). It joins CBS’ 9Jkl and Fam , ABC’s A Million Little Things and CBS All Access’ Tell Me a Story.

Fox’s recently acquired animation house Bento Box (Bob’s Burgers) also will co-produce Housebroken and will do the animation.

Exclusive: Fox has put in development People Person, a single-camera comedy from Mad Love and Alex, Inc. creator Matt Tarses, Aaron Kaplan’s Kapital Entertainment, and Wendi Trilling’s TrillTV. Sony Pictures TV, where Tarses has been under a deal for a long time, is co-producing with Fox Entertainment.

Written by Tarses, People Person is a comedy about the marriage of Sam, who doesn’t like people and doesn’t like doing things, and Emmy, the friendliest, most outgoing woman in the world.

Tarses executive produces with Kapital’s Kaplan and Dana Honor and TrillTV’s Trilling.

Kapital, TrillTV and Tarses previously teamed for blended family comedy Hannah Royce’s Questionable Choices, which went to pilot at CBS in 2017.

Scrubs alum Tarses serves as consulting producer on Sony TV’s Mad About You revival for Spectrum Originals.

TrillTV and Kapital have three multi-camera half-hour projects projects in development at CBS,...

Exclusive: In a competitive situation with multiple bidders, Fox has handed a put pilot commitment with a big penalty to Football Book Club, a multi-camera comedy from Robert Horn and Scott Ellis, the duo behind the Tootsie Broadway musical, former New England Patriots wide receiver Malcolm Mitchell, Aaron Kaplan’s Kapital Entertainment and Warner Bros. TV.

Written by Horn and to be directed by Ellis, Football Book Club is inspired by Mitchell’s experiences. In the comedy, when a career-threatening injury sidelines professional football wide receiver Lawrence Lasalle, a trip to an Athens, Georgia, bookshop unexpectedly lands him as the only male in an all-female Southern book club, started by recent suburban widow Nancy Leverett, looking to reconnect with life. These two opposite lives collide at a time of major transition for both, as a surprising relationship forms over beginnings, Beaujolais and books, bonding a group of opinionated Southern women...