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Devonté Hynes is well-known as a musical collaborator, songwriter and producer who’s worked with a diverse and ever-expanding group of artists (Solange, Mariah Carey, Harry Styles and Carly Rae Jepsen, to name a few) and a composer for film, television, dance and classical ensembles. Now, Billboard can exclusively reveal that the artist also known as […]
In a community of multitaskers, Shaina Taub is still most likely one of the busiest people on Broadway. Taub wrote the music, lyrics and book for Suffs, her musical bringing the women who fomented the women’s suffrage movement vividly back to life and firmly out of the history books to which they’ve long been relegated; she’s also one of the show’s stars, playing the central role of movement instigator Alice Paul.
At last week’s Tony Awards, Taub took home the prizes for both original score and book of a musical, and gave a moving televised speech calling out some of the pioneering women who paved the way for her – including both fellow composers and one of her lead producers, Sec. Hillary Rodham Clinton.
Shaina Taub as Alice Paul in Suffs.
Joan Marcus
Sitting in her dressing room a little over an hour from showtime on a recent night, the 35-year old Taub is clearly still absorbing her wins, though she admits that the ongoing routine of performing onstage each night has helped keep her grounded. “To have the tangible act of doing the show,” she says, “brings me back to reality in a beautiful way.” (The show’s original Broadway cast recording is currently out on Atlantic Records).
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Below, she speaks to Billboard about Suffs’ long road to Broadway (including its run at New York’s Public Theater in spring of 2022), the status of her next project – writing the lyrics for Elton John’s music in the The Devil Wears Prada musical (set to open at London’s Dominion theater in July prior to a West End transfer in October) – and more.
The world of theater often feels like a more progressive one than TV or film — but as you pointed out in your acceptance speech it’s still a fairly small group of women composers who are getting recognition of this level. What’s been your experience?
I’ve been so blessed to have been taught well for so long by so many brilliant women. Elizabeth Swados — who’s a legend of theater, composer, educator — I got to be in her class [at NYU], and she was the first person who pushed me off the cliff to write a song before that was something I thought I could even do. And Jeanine [Tesori] especially is just a titan of composing in our field for any gender. She’s been so generous — she just let me come and play crappy first drafts, and gave me essential devastating feedback, tough love and real-talk in moments when I’ve had questions about the business and about the craft. Georgia Stitt too, who put together Maestra, which is such an amazing community for women and non-binary folks making theater. Kristen Anderson-Lopez has been so kind.
A lot has been made this season of me being the second woman to write and star in a musical but the first one is Micki Grant, an incredible artist I sadly never got to meet whose legacy should be given a lot more attention. We’ve always been here, and so many women are my peers on Broadway right now: Rebekah Greer Melocik is a good friend, and her work for How to Dance in Ohio was so gorgeous; Kate Kerrigan with The Great Gatsby, she and I have come up together; Bekah [Brunstetter] and Ingrid [Michaelson] for The Notebook. Anais Mitchell – whose Hadestown I was in off-Broadway — we’re both Vermont girls and she’s such a confidante. Everyone is just so forthcoming; it’s a real sisterhood.
You clearly did work on Suffs between the Public and Broadway runs. How did you come to terms with what needed editing? Was there a moment between the runs of reset for you?
There really wasn’t a lot of a moment of reset. There was no back in the saddle – we kinda stayed in the saddle. I had demos of new ideas for songs from May 2022 that are now in the show on Broadway. I knew that it wasn’t finished, and there’s just that intel you get from a first production that you can’t get in a workshop or reading because the audience tells you everything and they tell you fast. It took a lot of willpower to keep going; I’m so proud of what we did downtown, and we had so much love for the show and also a lot of critique of the show. There were times that got me down, but any sense of feeling down pretty quickly transformed into almost this adrenaline, this sense of being underestimated that put me on fire to be like, we’re gonna finish this show, dammit!
From left: Jenn Colella, Kim Blanck, Shaina Taub, Nikki M James and Ally Bonino at Suffs‘ first preview performance.
Jenny Anderson / @jennyandersonphoto
What kind of changes did you know you had to make?
There were two driving principles to my revision. More humanity, less history: just making sure everything was as character- and emotion-forward as possible, with all the historical detail I fell in love with taking a bit more of a backseat. And then I kind of made a promise to myself that I was gonna spend more time sitting at the piano than the computer, trying to let my impulses be visceral, let me pull from my musical heart first and see where that would lead.
Did you always intend to perform in Suffs?
I always wanted to perform in it. I’ve always performed in my work — I find writing and performing feed each other. But I initially thought I’d play Doris, the young intern type character who documents everything. It sort of felt like the Mark in Rent character and I’ve always wanted to play Mark in a gender-flipped Rent. [Laughs.] But Alice was a difficult nut to crack, finding her inner life. She didn’t leave that much of a paper trail in terms of her emotional life.
And it was also about finding Alice’s sense of humor. I got a great note from our orchestrator, Michael Starobin, who came to see me play at Joe’s Pub early last year and was like, “I wish there as more of that girl in Alice – that self-deprecation and humor.” It was such a great note, and I think it helped me make her come alive.
What has Sec. Clinton been like as a producer?
She’s just been such a cheerleader and a warm, supportive presence — how vocal she’s been in her support of us before reviews, nominations, awards, just her vote of confidence in us and that we could see through this thing we started at the Public, that gave me faith in the dark and hard moments of tech and previews and the “Oh boy, we’re gonna go face the music again [on Broadway], what are people gonna say…” Knowing she believed in us so wholeheartedly that she was willing to attach her name and her legacy to this piece of art, that gave me confidence I needed in really vulnerable moments.
Suffs producers Rachel Sussman, Sec. Clinton, and Jill Furman, and co-producer Morgan Steward.
Jenny Anderson / @jennyandersonphoto
Can we please discuss her amazing Tony night caftan? It was definitely one of the biggest stories of the night…
I loved it. She looked gorgeous as always, and she seemed to me to be so liberated. And to see her be so celebrated by the theater community with that standing ovation — it was great to see her given her due. She’s a theater lover, and beyond just being an enthusiast I think she understands the importance of theater to the public discourse. She gets that it matters beyond just entertainment; it’s a public common good that should be funded, that should be championed, and that’s rare in a leader of her stature. New York theater loves HRC!
Have you been juggling Devil Wears Prada work with all this too? Are there lessons you’ve learned in the editing process for Suffs that you’re finding are applicable there?
I mean, that’s another long and winding road — we’re going through a lot of changes, and it’s exciting. I was actually just texting with the creative team right now! I’ve been working on that show for six years, it’s gone through so many permutations, and yet we keep trying to figure it out. It’s such a fundamentally different experience [from Suffs] in that I’m collaborating so much, writing lyrics for a composer who’s worked lyrics-first for his whole 50-plus-years songwriting career. That’s really strengthened me as a songwriter, to write lyrics first and lyrics only. It’s gotten me excited for my projects after this to be a little more in the music seat, after this lyric-honing time.
It’s crazy with theater, you can never plan these things in advance. I never imagined it would be this insane overlapping season, but luckily we got to do a lot of amazing work last year. Elton and I wrote a few new songs, so it’s on its way.
Once again, the annual Broadway Bares charity burlesque benefit show not only raised temperatures, but also raised a bevy of money for a good cause. Over two sold-out shows on June 23 at New York’s Hammerstein Ballroom, more than 200 dancers strutted their stuff and helped generate $2,259,134 for Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS (BC/EFA) – […]
“I’m trying to get you hyped and excited,” exclaimed theater director Lileana Blain-Cruz at the Minnesota State Theatre in Minneapolis on Saturday (June 22). “I’m trying to get a motorcycle on stage!”
Hot off directing a visually extravagant, emotionally stirring production of John Adams’ El Niño at the New York Metropolitan Opera (she’s the resident director at Lincoln Center Theater), Blain-Cruz has proven she’s adept at helming massive, complicated productions. But in spring 2025 at the State Theatre, she’s facing an audience even more passionate and exacting than New York City theater critics – Prince fans.
On Saturday, a theater full of the “purple fam” were treated to the first public preview of an upcoming stage musical adaptation of Prince’s Purple Rain film as part of the five-day Celebration 2024 event in the Purple One’s hometown. And with Blain-Cruz – who repeatedly hopped out of her chair and solicited audience feedback while flaunting a flashy purple blazer – directing, it’s clear this stage musical has an advocate who can match the enthusiasm of Jerome Benton hyping up Morris Day during a performance by The Time.
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Joining Blain-Cruz during the preview – a panel discussion that boasted a work-in-progress look at three of the musical’s stage numbers – were book writer Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, fresh off a Tony win for Appropriate; music director Jason Michael Webb, whose credits include the Broadway hit MJ The Musical; and Bobby Z., who drums in The Revolution and recently joined the production as a music adviser alongside fellow Prince associate Morris Hayes. (Tony-winning producer Orin Wolf appeared at the tail-end of the hour-long panel, too.)
“This is not Hamilton,” joked Jacobs-Jenkins, who assured the audience of diehards that his book will draw on the 1984 film’s screenplay (written by Albert Magnoli and William Blinn) without radically reworking it. Even so, he said he intends to further develop the character of Apollonia and make some necessary pacing changes to fit a stage production: “A play is a play, and a movie is a movie.”
While the director is hellbent on getting that motorcycle on stage (she says the image of Prince “staring into her soul” on the Purple Rain bike is one of her earliest memories of the genius), she acknowledges some limitations of the medium. “I can’t get a Lake Minnetonka that isn’t actually Lake Minnetonka on stage,” she jested, while still promising to bring the “epic” nature of a Met Opera production “to something as sublime as Purple Rain.”
“It is an opera — it’s a tragedy and a triumph,” agreed Bobby Z. “I got to see Prince build a revolution from 1977 to the Parade album [in 1986].” Similar to many operas that have stood the test of time, Purple Rain comes complete with an unforgettable villain – Morris Day, Prince’s real-life friend and colleague who played a deliciously narcissistic version of himself in the 1984 film. For the world’s first musical preview of the Purple Rain musical, attendees of Celebration 2024 got to see performers portraying Day and Benton preen and camp it up in character before playing a solidly grooving version of The Time’s “Jungle Love” and “777-9311.” (Morris Day himself hit that same stage later on Saturday to perform an assortment of The Time classics and bust out some dance moves.)
“There only so many of these Black icons that we have,” mused Webb. “Working with the Michael [Jackson] legacy prepared me for the one I really wanted — which is this one.”
Explaining that he was looking to present some of the songs through a different lens, the multi-talented Webb brought out a performer (introduced only as Rachel) to portray Apollonia and duet with him on “Take Me With U.” The song is bombastic and string-drenched on the album, but this teaser version – which started out in an elegant, stripped-down vein before working up to a full-band sound – demonstrated that these songs can soar in a variety of stylings (something hardcore Prince fans already well know).
Acknowledging that the soundtrack’s nine songs are not enough material for a Broadway musical, they also revealed that the Purple Rain stage musical will draw on Prince’s full catalog, including songs that didn’t even appear in the film. Case in point: Before the event wrapped, the Apollonia performer returned to the stage with two others to perform “The Glamorous Life” as Vanity 6. While that Prince-penned song is certainly well-suited to the time period – it came out in 1984 and reached the top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100 that fall – it’s not a Vanity 6 number at all, but rather a hit performed by Sheila E.
But why not take some creative liberties? The team behind this production is openly gunning for a Broadway run after debuting Purple Rain in Minneapolis, so the bar is high. As long as the songs are a sonic and thematic match for the realm of Purple Rain, who cares whether a tune appeared in the film? Broadway is a tough market, and success is far from guaranteed for musicals based on the works of pop hitmakers (though that isn’t stopping plenty of artists from trying). Prince’s rich, rewarding catalog deserves a wide audience, so it only makes sense for the team behind this production to put their best high-heeled boot forward as they reimagine his magnum opus for the stage.
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The 2024 Tony Awards took place on Sunday (June 16), and the musical category was stacked with productions beloved by fans and critics.
Hell’s Kitchen, Water for Elephants, Illinoise, The Outsiders and Suffs were some of the award-winning and nominated musicals at the 77th annual Tony Awards. (Missed the show? Here’s how to watch this year’s Tony Awards for free.)
With the weather getting nicer on the East Coast and summer travel heating up, it’s a great time to start planning to see one of this year’s Tony-winning and nominated musicals on Broadway.
Tickets to musicals and other productions can be purchased at sites such as Broadway.com and Telecharge, in addition to TodaysTix, StubHub and Vivid Seats, but we rounded up other ticketing sites to utilize too. Ticket prices range from around $60 and up, but prices for some of the popular shows (Hell’s Kitchen included) can range from upwards of $100 to $300, depending on demand.
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Keep reading for a breakdown of each of the best musical nominees for 2024, and a couple of other buzzing musicals, and places to buy tickets.
Hell’s Kitchen
Leading the pack as the most Tony Award-nominated show of the year, Alicia Key’s Hell’s Kitchen took home two Tony Awards on Sunday (best performance by an actress in a leading role for Maleah Joi Moon and best performance in a featured role for Kecia Lewis).
Featuring music from Keys, Hell’s Kitchen is a coming-of-age story centered around a 17-year-old teen who lives in New York City’s Hell’s Kitchen and dreams of blazing a path through music. The cast includes Shoshana Bean, Brandon Victor Dixon, Lewis, Chris Lee and Moon.
‘Hell’s Kitchen’ Tickets
Illinoise
The 2024 Tony Award winner for best choreography, Illinoise is based on the Sufjan Steven’s 2005 album of the same name and features “a group of friends gather around a campfire, sharing stories of first love, grief, and growing up in this new musical.” The musical was created by Tony nominee Justin Peck and Pulitzer Prize winner Jackie Sibblies Drury.
‘Illinoise’ Tickets
Water for Elephants
Based on the New York Times bestselling novel, Water for Elephants is a Great Depression-era story about a man who steps onto a new life path after jumping in front of a moving train and subsequently joining a traveling circus.
‘Water for Elephants’ Tickets
The Outsiders
A stage adaptation of the S.E. Hinton novel , The Outsiders follows the story of Ponyboy Curtis, a 14-year-old orphan. The musical explores classism and gang rivalries in 1960s Tulsa, featuring music from Jamestown Revival (Jonathan Clay and Zach Chance) and Justin Levine.
The Outsiders won for best musical at the Tonys.
‘The Outsiders’ Tickets
Stereophonic
Stereophonic centers around a fictional 1976 rock band on the edge of superstardom. Featuring original music from Arcade Fire’s Will Butler, Stereophonic follows the band as they record a new album and navigate “ensuing pressures” that could end in a “breakup or a breakthrough.”
The musical won five Tony Awards out of 13 nominations (tying with Hell’s Kitchen‘s nods).
‘Stereophonic’ Tickets
Merrily We Roll Along
The Stephen Sondheim musical is about two artists whose friendship falls apart just as their careers start to come together. The play starts at the end and takes viewers down memory lane with Daniel Radcliffe, Jonathan Groff and Lindsay Mendez as its stars.
Merrily We Roll Along took home four Tonys, including best revival musical.
‘Merrily We Roll Along’ Tickets
Suffs
Suffs is a musical about the women’s suffrages movement of the early 1900s. The cast includes Shaina Taub, Jenna Bainbridge, Kim Blanck, Nikki M. James, Tsilala Brock, Jenn Colella, Ally Bonino, Hannah Cruz and Nadia Dandashi.
The musical notched six Tony nominations and won two awards.
‘Suffs’ Tickets
Nick Jonas is prepping his return to Broadway in the spring of 2025 with a co-starring role in the revival of the musical The Last Five Years. According to The Hollywood Reporter Jonas is slated to co-star alongside Tony-winner Adrienne Warren (Shuffle Along, Tina) in the show, which will be directed by Tony nominee Whitney […]
Nas is working on adapting the beloved 1984 hip-hop movie Beat Street for Broadway. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the rapper is working to expand and create new material inspired by the original film’s soundtrack for the musical that he will co-produce. He will be collaborating on the musical stage adaptation with producer Arthur Baker […]
“I try to really put all my focus into the project in front of me,” says Justin Levine. That may sound like a simple enough goal – but for Levine, Broadway’s favorite musical polymath, it’s not so easy these days.
Since 2009, when Levine was music director, co-orchestrator and also a performer in the genre-smashing off-Broadway rock musical Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson, more and more theater creators have called upon his various complementary talents to bolster their work. As a music director, orchestrator and arranger, the 38-year-old has most often found himself involved in the development of new musicals. “Sometimes I look at my résumé and feel like, ‘Oh wow, it has felt like there were twice as many projects as this,’ when in actuality it was about weaving in and out of each developmental step of a show,” Levine says with a laugh.
Case in point: Eight years ago, Levine started work on the two biggest musical projects he’s had since — Moulin Rouge! The Musical and The Outsiders, both ultimately Broadway-bound — within mere weeks of each other. Moulin Rouge! began performances in June 2019; was suspended due to the COVID-19 pandemic, reopening along with the rest of Broadway in mid-2021; and won 10 Tony Awards in 2021, including one for best orchestrations for Levine and his collaborators.
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Levine’s work on “the bullet train that is Moulin Rouge!,” as he calls it, is still far from done — he’s been “heavily involved” in mounting its iterations all over the world, including one in the Netherlands this fall, helping train the new companies for each. But that’s just one ongoing project on his slate lately. At the 2024 Tony Awards on Sunday, he’s nominated in three categories for his work on The Outsiders, making him one of the most-nominated individuals at this year’s ceremony. One of those nominations (for best original score) is in the same category as another major show whose music team he worked on this past year, Here Lies Love. And in May, Levine returned to one of his more glamorous jobs in recent years: overseeing the musical elements of the fashion world’s landmark event, the Met Gala.
“I just wanna make music, but I also want to perform that music, I want to create music for others,” says Levine, who studied theater in college but says he doesn’t have a formal musical background. Actually, add one more goal to that list: providing a place for others to do all of the same and more. Amid all he has going on, Levine says, the project he’s actually most excited about is far from New York City: He’s in the process of turning a “real fixer-upper” of a house he bought an hour north into “a place that will foster creativity and inspiration” for other artists, where “art can be made but also where it doesn’t have to feel that way.” He imagines it as a less productivity-obsessed artist residency, where he’ll also be able to indulge in his latest creative hobby: vegetable gardening.
Below, Levine breaks down his work on three of his recent high-profile projects.
The Outsiders
The cast of The Outsiders on Broadway.
Matthew Murphy
For the intimate musical adaption of S.E. Hinton’s young adult classic, Levine occupied three roles: contributor to playwright Adam Rapp’s book; co-creator of the score with Jonathan Clay and Zach Chance of Jamestown Revival; and co-creator of the orchestrations with music director Matt Hinckley and Jamestown. “I used to play in bands, and played music that definitely feels in the same world as the score,” says Levine. “I have a wide and varied musical taste: I love American roots music, soul, early country, bluegrass and folk, Americana, gospel. When I first encountered John and Zach and listened to Jamestown’s music, it reminded me of some of my favorite music. Overall, the world of [The Outsiders] is both familiar and unique unto itself.”
Levine helped the Jamestown duo preserve the integrity of their music within a theater context, focusing on the ways in which it could be used most effectively within the show to build and advance the story and character development. With Rapp, who had never written the book of a musical before, “it was largely a matter of me from an early stage working with him on the structure of the book, stitching together the book and the songs, finding the most effective ways to trade those off. Adam and I did that together, and John and Zach were often part of that process.”
Here Lies Love
Conrad Ricamora, Arielle Jacobs and the cast of Here Lies Love on Broadway.
Billy Bustamante, Matthew Murphy and Evan Zimmerman
The immersive David Byrne and Fatboy Slim disco-driven musical about the rise and fall of Imelda Marcos in the Philippines had an unusually long and winding path to reaching Broadway in 2023, and Levine was the show’s original music director, involved since its early workshops in 2011. “I loved it from the moment I started working on it,” says Levine. “I learned so much from David.” As Here Lies Love was based on a concept album of the same name, Levine’s roles working on music production and additional arrangements meant helping the creators flesh out the show and figuring out how the album songs would be adapted to the stage.
“That involved working directly with the cast, with David, as far as bridging the gap between the pop and theater world,” Levine explains. “On the one side it was about the cast’s approach to singing the material, exploring the ways in which these songs could be performed with the Integrity of the style and the story telling; how they’re placed; where there’s vibrato vs a straight tone. The concept album itself has so many different styles of vocal technique.” Besides examining the ideal forms of those songs, Levine also worked with Byrne and Matt Stine [Levine’s collaborator on music production and additional arrangements] to find ways to “maximize the storytelling and [the songs’] viability in the context of a musical.”
The Met Gala
Ariana Grande performs onstage during The 2024 Met Gala Celebrating “Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion” at The Metropolitan Museum of Art on May 06, 2024 in New York City.
Kevin Mazur/MG24/Getty Images
Four years ago, Levine was approached with an unusual assignment: to create a musical medley celebrating the return of Broadway and theater in New York for the first post-pandemic Met Gala. Vogue’s Anna Wintour “didn’t call me or slide into my DMs,” he says with a laugh, “but she did request me because of my work on Moulin Rouge!” He admits that, prior to the invite, he “didn’t really know much about [the event],” but thought it “might be fun to build something with pieces of musical theater that have crossed over into the pop world, or been sampled, or just been a major piece of the fabric of popular culture.”
Since then, Wintour and her team have continued to invite him back, and his role has expanded to include everything from creating random musical moments throughout the spectacular evening to working closely with the headliner — this year, Ariana Grande — to build their setlist and starring performance. “She’s such a collaborative person — so enthusiastic and passionate and hardworking,” says Levine of Grande; he also worked closely with her “humble and brilliant” music director and producer Natural (aka Johnny Najera).
As for Wintour, who Levine calls “one of the biggest supporters of theater in New York,” she pays attention to every musical detail of the evening — and, Levine adds, “gives the best notes. But she’s very much a supporter and a fan of the arts; it never feels like she’s giving a note just to give one. It’s clear it comes from a genuine place and that there’s a real vision behind it.”
When Aaron Tveit meets fans at a Broadway stage door, or at the concerts he’s performed at rock clubs and symphony halls alike, it’s always a surprise where they know the actor from.
They might have seen him in his career-making role in the acclaimed modern musical Next to Normal, or perhaps from his more recent Tony-winning turn in Moulin Rouge! They might remember him as Nate’s hot cousin Tripp van der Bilt on the original Gossip Girl, or as a hilarious send-up of numerous musical theater hero tropes on the late, great Apple TV+ comedy Schmigadoon! Or maybe they recall his scene-stealing turn as Enjolras, leading “Do You Hear the People Sing?” in the feature film of Les Misèrables.
Sufficed to say, Tveit has range – as he most recently proved when he replaced Josh Groban in the acclaimed Broadway revival of Stephen Sondheim’s masterpiece Sweeney Todd, playing the Demon Barber of Fleet Street opposite Sutton Foster’s Mrs. Lovett (the two just co-hosted the Drama Desk Awards together). Now, he’s moving to a smaller but no less prestigious stage as he kicks off his first Café Carlyle residency in New York City. The run of shows at the storied cabaret venue was extended practically as soon as it was announced (running through June 29). Prior to its kick-off Tuesday night (June 11), Tveit spoke to Billboard about his bucket-list Sondheim roles, the possible future of Schmigadoon!, and why his Carlyle audiences could hear a little Taylor Swift in his set.
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The degree of deafening audience screaming for both you and Sutton the night I went to see Sweeney was truly at boy-band hysteria levels. What was your experience on the other end of that?
Honestly, it was fascinating and very unexpected. I went back to Moulin Rouge! for 12 weeks about a year ago, and there were similar responses at that time, and I thought it was a product of that show and how it encourages the audience to be kind of participatory. But I really did not expect that type of audience to carry over at Sweeney. When it started, we looked around and said, “Well, this will go away,” but it didn’t. A lot of younger people seeing Sweeney take in Broadway shows in a different way – they like to feel like they’re a part of it and they get excited. But the thing we took away from it that I think was the most amazing was: What would Steve Sondheim think, to hear his material being appreciated and taken in in that way by a very young audience? I think a similar thing is happening at Merrily [We Roll Along, also on Broadway now], and I just felt so thrilled to be a small part of his material being taken in by this new audience.
When you were first announced for Sweeney, there was a lot of chatter about the idea of a tenor playing the role (which is traditionally sung by a baritone or bass-baritone). When you were offered the role, was it an immediate yes for you?
It was a role I’ve always looked at and said, “Wow, if I ever get the chance, I’ll jump at the challenge and also be terrified.” And when they did call, I was very surprised … and immediately terrified and excited. For me, vocally, I knew it would be a challenge – it’s definitely a different type of vocal part than I’ve traditionally done. But I started my training in classical voice before I switched to theater; I was confident that with enough work I could [do it], and I’m proud of where it landed.
And the little bit of backlash, if you want to call it that, I understand there are a lot of tenor roles in musical theater and I think for people who aren’t tenors, they might have thought [the role] would be changed in some way, but I tried to keep everything as is. That show is such an acting piece, to me, and I felt it more as a play, so once I realized I could do the singing, everything I was concerned about was acting the show.
Aaron Tveit during his first curtain call in Sweeney Todd on Broadway at The Lunt-Fontanne Theatre on Feb. 9, 2024 in New York City.
Bruce Glikas/WireImage
You’ve done some bucket-list Sondheim roles now, including Bobby in Company, Booth in Assassins and Sweeney. What’s next on your wish list?
The big one I’d love to do still is Sunday in the Park With George — I’d really love to play George. That vocal part may fit me better on paper than this one did, but I think it’s equally such a complicated and wonderful story. I bow down to Mandy Patinkin and Bernadette [Peters, the original stars of the show] – she came to see Sweeney toward the end, which was really special for me. I also sometimes feel like I missed Tony in West Side Story in my professional life, and now maybe I’ve aged out, but that’s OK.
You can also be very funny, as we saw on Schmigadoon! What stood out about that experience for you?
When the first season of Schmigadoon! came up, I got to live out my Billy Bigelow [from Carousel] dreams as well as a bit of Annie Get Your Gun … and those are very traditional musical theater roles, which is not something I’ve gotten to do a lot of. I’d never done a revival at that point or a traditional musical, so I was very excited to jump in. We all felt so grateful to be part of that first season – it was 2020, Broadway was still a year out from being back. And then we got to go back [for season 2], and Cinco [Paul, the show’s composer] played “Doorway to Where” for me and I was like, “Oh, that’s ‘Corner of the Sky.’” And he was like, “Yeah, this season you’re gonna be a weird version of Pippin and Claude [from Hair] and Jesus from Godspell and Jesus and Judas from [Jesus Christ] Superstar.” And I thought well, I’ve not played any of those roles either!
The thing that was so fun was the tongue-in-cheek nature of it — but at the same time, we were never making fun of the musicals because we all love them so much. My friends know I’m a very silly person, so it was nice to bring a lot of aspects of myself to the work in a way I don’t ever get to.
It’s so tragic that it’s over!
We’ll see. I know Cinco has hopes; season 3 is completely written, so someone could pick it up. It’s available!
Aaron Tveit in Schmigadoon!
Courtesy of Apple TV+
Your upcoming shows at the Café Carlyle mark your debut there. How did you conceive of the setlist?
I’ve done a lot of concerts in the last 10 or so years, and I have running lists of the shows I’ve done, and a note in my Notes app of running lists of dream songs, and I’m always sending myself emails about songs I hear. But for this, it just feels very fancy, you know? [Laughs] I talked abut that a lot with my music director: how could we do our version of fancy? I’ve done pop-rock cover shows at lots of House of Blues across the country and Irving Plaza and Webster Hall, and a lot of more traditional cabaret sets, and the venue usually dictates the setlist. So it’s like, “OK, what does the Carlyle say to me?”
I immediately thought “old New York,” standards, jazz – but also, New York is my theater world and career, more contemporary and traditional musical theater. So the show seems to have three sections. I try to not take myself seriously, but I take the music seriously.
You’re a big pop fan too. Who are you listening to right now?
I’m very into Billie Eilish the last couple years. The songwriting she and her brother are doing is just incredible. Hozier is a really inspirational artist for me; he keeps having moments because the music he makes is just incredible and clearly meaningful to him. Same thing with Noah Kahan — I’ve listened to him a lot, and his songs are clearly really personal as well. This young guy Sam Fender is a great guitar player and songwriter and vocalist. And then there are the things I’m just always listening to, like Bon Iver and Donny Hathaway.
Years ago, you were very well known for covering Taylor Swift’s “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together” at your more pop-rock concerts. I have to ask if it’ll be part of the set – or if any other Taylor might be…
On New Year’s last year, I did a concert with a bit of a medley, and “Anti-Hero” made it in. We have our setlist, but I have an idea to have a rotating song that changes every night or couple nights, a slot for something. … I’d be remiss to say one of those wouldn’t slot in.
That’s a very Eras Tour move for you.
Exactly! I’m just taking cues from the greats.
For decades, the production power of a concert tour was measured in the number of trucks it took to haul its gear across the country.
But bigger isn’t always better, especially in a theater environment where the space across the proscenium arch has to support loudspeakers that maximize coverage without distracting from the look and feel of the show. For The Outsiders musical at the Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre on Broadway in New York City, that has meant experimenting with the new, lighter, more compact L-Series line source loudspeakers from L’Acoustics.
The speaker deployment is a first for Broadway and part of Sound Designer Cody Spencer’s use of L’Acoustics L-ISA immersive audio technology for The Outsiders. The new show is nominated for 12 Tony Awards, including Best Musical and Best Sound Design of a Musical.
Announced last year at L’Acoustics’ keynote event at the Hollywood Bowl, the L-Series speakers are being deployed at a number of new activations in the touring world, including their recent installation at First Avenue in Minneapolis. The L-Series speakers use up to 60% less material to construct, compared to speakers with similar sound power and coverage, and 30% less space. Unlike traditional line array configurations that must be hung at a J-shaped angle, the L-Series can be installed in a fixed configuration, requiring less physical space to deploy while allowing crew to make sound adjustments without mechanical ones.
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The loudspeakers are the latest of the line array speaker system first developed by L’Acoustics founder Christian Heil 40 years ago. Thanks to Heil’s work on Wavefront Sculpture Technology (WST) theory, line array technology has improved sound reinforcement for live performances and become the standard for sound coverage and clarity at large venues and festival spaces, allowing fans in the back to hear vocals and higher frequencies without the sound being distorted.
The new L Series speaker, starting with the L2, a 10-inch progressive ultra line source long-throw speaker “is the ultimate accomplishment of 30 years of technology improvements on the line array,” L’Acoustics CEO Laurent Vaissié said in a statement.
Laurent Vaissié
Hal Horowitz Photography
“When Christian started thinking about this back in the late 80s and early 90s, the idea was to create a fully coherent speaker configuration that was able to get uniform coverage from front to back,” Vaissié said. “With the L series, we’re able to eliminate more of the material and the physical boundaries between the different parts of the speaker and line array to make it even more compact.”
“We did this,” Vaissié explained, “by physically removing the articulation between the parts of the line array and creating the L2’s very specific shape.”
That shape was the result of analyzing “thousands of different shows where we looked at the audience configuration,” Vaissié continued. “We realized if we start with that shape already, we’re almost there in terms of coverage. We realized could eliminate the articulation of the line array and fine tune the coverage with electronics and software. And that’s the reason why I say it’s the ultimate evolution because 10 years ago, we could not have done the L2 because the electronics and the software were not yet at the level it needed to be. But today we finally got to the point where the mechanical design, software and electronics are converging so that we can have an optimized design for the L2, eliminate all the physical material that we didn’t need, make it smaller, and then adjust with software and electronics to get perfect coverage in the vertical domain.”
Spencer said the L2 speakers helped The Outsiders solve an issue created by the production’s use of a rain curtain, which pushed the show’s front-of-house speakers downstage.
The Outsiders
Cody Spencer
“I plugged them into our Soundvision model,” Spencer said in a press release, adding that he found that the L-series speaker “gave us three more rows of coverage in front of the orchestra over traditional line array loudspeakers.”
The L-Series speakers are currently on tour with Italian hip-hop duo Coez & Frah Quintale and will be used on Sarah McLachlan’s 2024 tour.
“We are sold out of L2 right now through the first quarter of next year. We could have more, but we’re trying to balance between the needs for the rental companies and the needs for the installation project,” says Vaissié. “The market has been responding very well and the demand is much higher than we anticipated.”