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One of the most acclaimed new musicals on Broadway right now has all the charm of a corpse — literally.
The unlikely subject of Dead Outlaw is the life — and death — of Elmer McCurdy, a late 19th-century ne’er-do-well who came to an early end but whose corporeal form enjoyed a bizarrely long afterlife as a well-preserved (well, for a time) traveling oddity. On paper, it might not sound like typical musical fare, but thanks to an expert creative team — led by co-composers David Yazbek and Erik Della Penna, director David Cromer and writer Itamar Moses — Elmer’s tale becomes not just strangely humorous and poignant but deeply thought-provoking.
Yazbek has a résumé stacked with great musical adaptations of films — including The Full Monty, Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, Tootsie and The Band’s Visit, the latter of which won him the Tony for best original score. But Dead Outlaw is an increasingly rare breed of show on Broadway these days, based on no pre-existing intellectual property and not driven at the box office by celebrity names above its marquee.
So far, that’s working out well: Dead Outlaw just received a best musical nomination for the 2025 Tony Awards, one of seven nods for the show also including best score for Yazbek and Della Penna’s music, which is performed by a crackerjack band onstage. Yazbek is rarely working on one show at a time — among many overlapping projects, he’s also creative consultant on the Tony-nominated Buena Vista Social Club — but he and Della Penna took the time post-opening to talk to Billboard about Dead Outlaw and why often, on Broadway, smaller is better.
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How did you become aware of McCurdy’s crazy story in the first place, and how did you know it would lend itself well to musical form?
David Yazbek: The answer to the second part of that question is not until basicallyopening night (laughs). I heard the Elmer McCurdy story like 30-something years ago; when his body was discovered in 1976 by The Six Million Dollar Man TV crew it was a national story briefly, and I think a college friend’s mother sent him clippings about it. He told me the story and it really stuck, especially the themes of identity and death and mortality and greed and fame. For years and years, anyone who heard the actual true story was just amazed that it actually happened. And one of the people I told it to eventually was Erik, who I was in a band with and had written some songs with, and he got hooked.
Erik Della Penna: It was just such an odd story that it’s immediately compelling — anybody I tell this story to is immediately interested. I consider myself a student of American music and of history in general, so this kind of hit all my buttons for those interests
Yazbek: And those factors don’t make it an obvious thing for a musical or a play or whatever, but…
Della Penna: I feel like a musical is sort of the best way to tell the story. Theater really succeeds when it in some way represents an otherworldly environment, and there’s only scant facts in the Elmer McCurdy story. So it’s the perfect way to present them and to really show the depth of it, and not just the cold facts — to bring some humanity to it and relatability.
Yazbek: We both had the instinct that that would be the way to tell the story, and that we could write the songs to tell the story. And, you know, I guess we’re right. So far.
Erik Della Penna (left) and David Yazbek
Jennifer Small
The ideas it brings up about achieving fame and notoriety at any cost — about this very American obsession with being remembered for something, anything — feels especially timely…
Yazbek: I have his memory of when I was maybe 15, I wrote a short story for a class, and it was kind of about that ephemeral idea that for some reason being remembered will afford you some degree of immortality. It’s just another f–king illusory comfort, but it really does drive people, sometimes for their entire lives — this idea of, “Oh sh-t, I’m gonna die. But wait a minute, I’ll be remembered! I’ll have a legacy!” Even the word legacy is dangerous. It’s why some people amass much more wealth than they should and put their name on buildings.
Della Penna: It doesn’t even work with buildings. Like, [New York’s] Alice Tully Hall is now David Geffen Hall, so what happened to Alice Tully? Now we all forget about her?
The onstage band is central to the show. Did you have a particular sonic palette or influences you were drawing upon in writing the music?
Della Penna: I think Yazbek asked me because my musical interests were in early 20th century American music…
Yazbek: That’s pretty accurate. I don’t read reviews, but people keep throwing little bits at me, and [the New York Times review] was referencing an album of mine called Evil Monkey Man, and Erik is all over that album, and just like in this show, he’s playing lap steel, different electric and acoustics, and there’s some banjo. That’s sort of at the root of all of this: Erik and I are both capable of being very eclectic in our songwriting. We both love this genre — I don’t want to call it Americana, but like you just said, that early 20th century American music…
Della Penna: And that includes Cole Porter, Irving Berlin, Jimmy Rogers…
Yazbek: And all of that stuff is very apropos for this show. The show is 100 years of American history. And from the very beginning, we sort of said, “Let’s Lennon and McCartney this” — in other words, let’s not be counting bars and who wrote what, let’s go all in, and that was part of the fun of it.
Though you do have two standout performances in central roles — Tony nominees Andrew Durand as Elmer and Jeb Brown as the narrator and bandleader — this truly feels like an ensemble piece. The cast is a band too, in a way.
Della Penna Absolutely — the cast as a band, that’s right. We were thinking about that for a while, getting a star in there [as] the narrator. I thought that would be more guaranteed juice for this to move [to Broadway]. But I also felt bad that it was sort of a cop out for the quality of the piece and the quality of the music. So I’m glad where it landed.
Yazbek: Yeah, me too. I was talking to somebody, maybe one of our producers, about how there’s the artistic currency of a show, but then there’s also, like, the currency for marketing the show itself. And to me, the currency for marketing the show is quality with a capital Q. The star of the show is how great everyone is who’s in it, and its uniqueness and its depth. Like, can’t you market that? (laughs)
Dead Outlaw
Matthew Murphy
Dead Outlaw started out at New York’s Minetta Lane Theater as part of Audible’s theater series there. How did that help launch the show?
Yazbek: There are several independent theaters, regional and local, that should have just immediately said, “Oh, the Band’s Visit guys. Oh, this music, oh, this story. Yeah, sure, here’s a slot.” And for some reason, I guess because we didn’t have a star and it wasn’t [preexistent] IP, they didn’t do it. I’ve had at least two artistic directors tell me how much they regret not doing it, which is very satisfying. But it was [Audible’s] Kate Nathan who said, “Oh, I think we can do this. I think we want to do this.” And as the budget grew, she just saw us through the development. That takes vision.
David, you’ve done big, splashy shows, and you’ve done smaller shows like this one. As creators, does doing a smaller-scale show allow you to do something that a big budget spectacle doesn’t as much?
Yazbek: Part of it is like independent film versus studio films. There are producers out there who don’t really understand how to bring quality, other than just bringing the big flying helicopter or whatever the money can buy. There are economic exigencies to putting up a show on Broadway and keeping it running. And from the very beginning [with Dead Outlaw], I had that in my head. When we first were thinking, “Oh, well, let’s just do this as a band show with one narrator, and that narrator’s in the band” — to me, that was like, how could you say no to that? It’s just got to be good, but it’ll also be so inexpensive that you could put it in a playhouse and it could run as long as people want to see it without us having to charge $800 a ticket. Sometimes great art is done with a limited palette, as opposed to with anything you want. How much value is there in seeing these eight performers do 60 parts, and they’re great? Like, that’s f–king theater right there.
When romantic comedy 10 Things I Hate About You was released in 1999 — a seminal time for the Shakespeare adaptation-as-teen-movie — it was a watershed pop cultural moment. The winning take on The Taming of the Shrew cemented the star power of actors Heath Ledger, Julia Stiles and Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and boasted a spunky […]
Composer and lyricist Stephen Schwartz will host two events at the 2025 ASCAP Foundation Musical Theatre Fest, which is returning for a third year at the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts in Beverly Hills, Calif., May 5-6. The fest offers a glimpse into the process and craft of musical theater with some of Broadway’s biggest composers.
On Monday, May 5, the fest will present “Songs From the Cutting Room Floor,” a look at unheard gems that didn’t make it into some of Broadway’s biggest shows. Schwartz, together with composers, lyricists and librettists Irene Sankoff & David Hein (Come From Away) and Karey Kirkpatrick (Something Rotten!, Mrs. Doubtfire), will perform and tell stories about songs that had to be sacrificed to better serve the musical. Additional performers will be announced.
The evening is presented with support from the Gary Geld Musical Theatre Foundation.
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On Tuesday, May 6, Schwartz hosts The ASCAP Foundation Musical Theatre & Librettist Workshop, featuring a double bill of new musicals. Composers will present excerpts from their new musicals. Following each presentation, Schwartz will host a feedback session with the writers and other masters of the craft.
The workshop will kick off with the creative team of Roslyn Catracchia and Peter Seibert, who will present an excerpt of their new musical Piney Needlesmith and the Road Less Traveled. For the second show, Julian Hornik, Khiyon Hursey and Mark Sonnenblick will present selections from their new musical, WEEKEND.
The concert and workshop double bill are free and open to the public. Reservations are required for both nights and are available at The Wallis’ website. The event is supported by the Kenward Elmslie Fund.
Schwartz, who wrote both music and lyrics to all the songs in Wicked, is set to receive the 2025 Johnny Mercer Award at the Songwriters Hall of Fame Induction and Awards Gala on Thursday, June 12, at the Marriott Marquis Hotel in New York City.
The award presentation will come near the midpoint between the November 2024 release of Wicked, which quickly became the highest grossing film ever based on a Broadway musical, and the November 2025 release of a sequel, Wicked: For Good. Both films are based on the 2003 stage musical Wicked.
TLC’s story is heading to the stage. Bill Diggins’ Diggit Theatrical Group is producing a musical about the beloved Grammy-winning trio that will premiere in 2026.
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CrazySexyCool – The Musical will tell the “mostly true” story of Tionne “T-Boz” Watkins, Lisa “Left Eye” Lopes, and Rozonda “Chilli” Thomas, as they formed TLC and broke barriers as women in the music industry. Diggins is producing the musical, with Stephen Gabriel serving as executive producer.
Kwame Kwei-Armah (One Love: The Bob Marley Musical) wrote and directed the piece, while Chloe O. Davis created the powerful choreography to some of TLC’s biggest hits that will be featured in the musical, including “Ain’t 2 Proud 2 Beg,” “Waterfalls,” “Creep,” “Unpretty,” and “No Scrubs.”
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“TLC completely changed the game,” Diggins said in a press statement. “Their music gave a voice to women everywhere, empowering them to be confident and unapologetic. But this isn’t just a story about the music; it’s about the sisterhood between these women and what kept them together through both unimaginable challenges and chart-topping success.”
T-Boz added, “Bringing this story to the stage is a dream come true. We have performed in a lot of different venues all over the world throughout our career, but bringing our story and music to the theater is a totally new and exciting challenge.”
Chilli agreed, noting, “We have some of the best people in the business working on this project. Audiences will get to hear our story – mostly fact with a sprinkle of fiction – told in our own way, and of course it’s set to all your favorite hits!”
CrazySexyCool – The Musical will host its world premiere at Arena Stage in Washington, DC, in June 2026 for eight weeks as part of the venue’s 75th anniversary season. For more information on the show, check out its official website here.
One is a Broadway veteran; the other a debutante. Natalie Venetia Belcon and Isa Antonetti are the stars playing legendary singer Omara Portuondo at different stages of her life in BUENA VISTA SOCIAL CLUB, the new Broadway musical about the Cuban artists who brought the acclaimed Grammy-winning album of 1997 to the world.
With Broadway credits including Matilda (Mrs. Phelps) and Rent (Joanne), Belcon is a Trinitarian-American actress and singer best known for originating the role of former child television star Gary Coleman in the Tony Award-winning Broadway musical Avenue Q. She had already played the Cuban icon knows as “La Novia del Filin” (“The Bride of Feeling”) during the BUENA VISTA SOCIAL CLUB off-Broadway run, receiving the 2024 Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Lead Performer in a Musical and a nomination for a Drama Desk Award for the role.
Meanwhile, Antonetti is a “Latinx, indigenous, mixed race LGBTQIA+ actress and singer from the Greater Rochester, New York area,” as stated in the show’s playbill, and is currently completing her BFA in Musical Theatre at Carnegie Mellon University. With credits including Evita (NYCC), Macbeth (CMU), and A Chorus Line (OFC Creations), she recently made her film debut in Gift of Fear, and is excited to make her Broadway debut in BUENA VISTA SOCIAL CLUB — “as it reflects her own experiences growing up performing with her father’s Latin band, Orquesta Antonetti.”
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Buena Vista Social Club was formed in Cuba in 1996, as a project organized by World Circuit executive Nick Gold, produced by American guitarist Ry Cooder and directed by Juan de Marcos González, who named the group after a popular music venue in Havana in the 1940s. To showcase popular styles of the time, such as son, bolero, and danzón, they recruited a dozen veteran musicians, some of whom had been retired for years.
The group’s eponymous debut album was released in September 1997 and quickly became an international sensation. On the Billboard charts, it reached No. 1 on Tropical Albums, where it stayed at the top for 24 weeks and spent a total of 266 weeks on the chart. It also reached No. 1 on Top Latin Albums and World Albums, and spent 19 weeks on the Billboard 200. In 1998, it won the Grammy for Best Tropical Latin Album, and the Billboard Latin Music Award for Tropical/Salsa Album of the Year by a Group. The Buena Vista Social Club album was also voted into the National Recording Registry in 2022 and the Grammy Hall of Fame last year.
With a book by Marco Ramirez, the Saheem Ali-directed Broadway show is inspired by true events, and features a band of international musicians to narrate the legendary story of the artists who brought the original album to life, going back and forth between the mid-90s and the 1950s. The company also features Julio Monge as Compay Segundo, Mel Semé as Ibrahim Ferrer and Jainardo Batista Sterling as Rubén González — with Da’von Moody, Wesley Wray and Leonardo Reyna as their younger versions, respectively. Renesito Avich plays Eliades Ochoa, and Ashley De La Rosa a young Haydee. Also performing are Angélica Beliard, Carlos Falú, Hector Juan Maisonet, Ilda Mason, Marielys Molina, and Sophia Ramos, among others.
Last Tuesday afternoon (March 19), dressed to the nines for the musical’s official Broadway premiere, Belcon and Antonetti sat with Billboard Español to share their experience giving life to one of the most beloved singers of Cuba. (Hours later, Omara Portuondo herself, now 94, would pay the cast a visit at the Gerald Schoenfeld Theater in New York City ahead of opening night. She was not available for press).
What did you know about Buena Vista Social Club before joining this musical?
Natalie Venetia Belcon: I have musicians for parents, and they introduced me to Buena Vista Social Club, the album. I was 26, 27, something like that.
Isa Antonetti: I also have musicians for parents, and they would play the music [with their band] or the music would play it in the background and I would never know what I was listening to, until my dad told me: “You should do some more research on this on this Cuban band that we love to play sometimes.” And I was like, “Okay.” So I heard [the song] “Chan Chan” and I heard a couple of their songs and I was just humming them all over the place. And then they kind of just stayed in my Spotify and I would listen to them once in a while.
In the musical, you speak in English but sing in perfect Spanish. Are you fluent? How did you achieve the accent?
Antonetti: I’m not fluent, but I do speak.
Belcon: My father’s side of the family is Spanish, [but] I don’t speak Spanish. When we moved up to this country, we moved to the South Bronx, which is, you know… [heavily Puerto Rican]. So I am used to hearing it. I just never had to speak it. But I treat languages like I would music — I go off of the sounds and the dialect coach, so I’m good like that, just repeating and recording and putting my earphones in and you know, listening to it all the time is how I learned, anyway.
Antonetti: I always think musicians have the ear. You could give me some sheet music and I could make my way around it, but I learned best by our dialect coach, you know, speaking it and sending us voice memos, making sure I’m pronouncing it the way that is authentic to this show.
Beyond the Spanish, how did you both prepare to play Omara at these two stages in her life?
Belcon: I’m lucky in the sense that the stuff that you see of her is of her older. And so I watched “Adiós” quite a few times and listened to the stuff a lot. I mean, I can’t even help it now, it’s just kind of, you know, on repeat, basically.
How about you, Isa? There’s not so much of Omara from that era.
Antonetti: It’s so funny because I was thinking about it and I remember in the rehearsal room when they had the pictures up, it’s just like one picture of Omara when she was younger. I would do some research, I would look to see if there’s some videos of her when she was younger with like her sister and with her quad. And so I would use that, and I would also talk to [Associate Music Director] David Oquendo and ask what is the essence of someone who’s 19 in Cuba? You know, and I would try and bring that to her as well.
What was the biggest challenge of portraying a vocalist known as “La Novia del Filin” [The Bride of Feeling]?
Belcon: Well, today, it’s going to be [hard] to not pass out when I meet her. I hope my understudy is ready, ’cause I might be in the ER with IV (Laughs). The challenge is, even though this is a fable, to make sure that we are still being respectful and not making up somebody entirely. And to have a semblance of who she is, to have it resemble her as much as possible.
Antonetti: Absolutely. I could just quote what she said. All of it!
But this is your Broadway debut so, for you, what was the biggest challenge?
Antonetti: Besides the genuine general things about Broadway being exhausting through the rehearsals and the previews — you know, that it’s challenging in its own way. I think for the show specifically, it’s keeping making sure the time period stays in your body when you step on stage. I’m playing someone in the 1950s, so that’s different than how I would play someone else. I think the challenging part is remembering when you step on stage that you are a different person and you’re being respectful and you’re bringing life to something. It’s challenging and rewarding and all of the above.
At some points during the musical, your characters meet, creating really emotional moments. Any favorites for you?
Belcon: I think it might be [Ibrahim Ferrer and Portuondo’s duet] “Silencio,” when the younger two are up top on the malecón (pier) and Ibrahim comes in and then I’m having all the memories of things. That and, not necessarily my favorite but I think in my head the most important, which is how it all starts when she — again, it’s a “Do I go left or right?” It’s a crossroads: “Do I make the album or not?” Then she chooses and it’s a butterfly effect; it kind of affects everything and everybody else.
Antonetti: I would say “Chan Chan” — it’s had different iterations since we started rehearsal and I’m so grateful that I get to be a part of that number even longer because it’s so emotionally devastating, but I love the moment and I only get to see it from behind the stage of the malecón. I get to see Natalie come in and Angélica [Beliard] do this beautiful dance move where she transfers the trauma into Natalie. Just remembering it, that moment, I’m telling you, I need like three hours to recoup.
Belcon: I need three drinks! (Laughs)
What did you both learn from Omara Portuondo in this process, as a person and as an artist?
Belcon: I mean, to say that she’s strong is an understatement. There needs to be a better word — maybe it needs to be “I am Omara,” right? You know, she’s been through a lot, just a lot, and came through it all and succeeded. More than succeeded. Just the time period, what was happening [in Cuba], and she not only survived that, she thrived regardless.
Antonetti: As a person, as an artist… She is more than just those words. Whenever I think of her, it’s like what you said, strong is an understatement. She is just this powerful being that can take my breath away.
After months of rehearsals, how does it feel to see the whole show finally come together on Broadway?
Belcon: I had a little bit of a heads-up cause I’ve done it once before [off-Broadway.] I think it is different in the bigger space, definitely, but that’s always a fantastic payoff moment. All the hard work and the not sleeping and all the rest of it, when you see everything fall into place, you know, those moments when you see the younger and the older [characters together], it’s always the payoff. They’re emotional moments. They are.
Antonetti: There are moments where I just have to hold myself back because I am an emotional person. And I was like, “This is a dream and it’s coming true and I have to be grounded in that or I’ll freak out.” It’s like what I told someone else outside: It has been exhausting, but it is worth every inch and ounce of that exhaustion. Absolutely.
Actors Natalie Venetia Belcon and Isa Antonetti on the red carpet as they arrive to the Buena Vista Social Club musical opening night on Broadway on March 19, 2025, in New York City.
Andy Henderson
As an artist, Joy Huerta says she likes a good challenge. So when the producers of Broadway‘s upcoming adaptation of Real Women Have Curves reached out to her in early 2020 to see if she could write the songs for the musical, she was swept off her feet.
“I said, ‘For sure!’,” the Grammy Award-winning singer of Mexican pop duo Jesse & Joy — who had never composed music for theater before — tells Billboard Español. “I saw [the 2002 movie] and said, ‘I love the idea, of course, let’s do it.’ I think it was the weekend before we went into lockdown.” She adds: “You dream of challenges, but you don’t know what those challenges are going to look like.”
Five years later, Real Women Have Curves: The Musical is finally giving a glimpse of Huerta’s work ahead of its spring Broadway opening. First, the production released an acoustic performance video of “If I Were A Bird” three weeks ago, in which she sings with fellow Mexican actor and singer Aline Mayagoitia. Now, on Thursday (Jan. 9), arrives “Flying Away,” which Huerta — who is not part of the cast — performs in the clip accompanied by Nadia DiGiallonardo, Rich Mercurio and Yair Evnine. “They gave up so much so I could have more/ And if I don’t go what was all of it for,” say part of the lyrics.
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“’Flying Away’ is a song of longing of this teenage girl becoming a woman, who is growing up in a double culture [as the daughter of Latin American immigrants.] She’s becoming her own person while she’s trying to discover who she wants to be, who she is supposed to be, and who her family need her to be,” Huerta explains. “It’s a big struggle for her, and I think she doesn’t wanna let anyone down, but she ultimately has to think about her, without forgetting about her family. ‘Flying Away’ is that type of song about, how can I spread my wings, how can I fly, how can I be who I was born to be without leaving everyone behind.”
Additionally, fans can stream four demo tracks from the show, including “Make It Work,” “Flying Away,” “Daydream,” and “Real Women Have Curves,” all performed by Huerta, here. All songs were written by the Mexican star along with composer/lyricist Benjamin Velez, whom she calls “a very talented guy.”
Known for Hot Latin Songs hits including “Corre!”, “Me Soltaste” and “Ecos de Amor” as part of Jesse & Joy, the duo she shares with her brother, Huerta — who could relate to the story as the Mexican daughter of an American mother — has enjoyed learning the craft of writing songs for a different form of art in this project.
“Also understanding in what way you are telling the story, because the way I tell stories is in 3 minutes. Here, I especially had time to strike a certain nerve, knowing that what I did or said was going to have a domino effect half an hour, 45 minutes later,” she says enthusiastically. “And that’s been phenomenal because for me now writing songs for Jesse & Joy, knowing what I know after five years of working on this project, it’s been fascinating — it’s like I’m stealing little tricks from different sides for both worlds, and it’s been quite fun.”
Based on the play by Josefina López and the HBO’s movie adaptation, Real Women Have Curves: The Musical is set in East L.A. in 1987 and follows 18-year-old Ana García, a daughter of immigrants who struggles between her ambitions of going to college and the desire of her mother for her to get married, have children, and oversee the small, rundown family-owned textile factory. The 2002 movie, directed by Patricia Cardoso, put a young America Ferrera on the map.
Now Huerta hopes the show helps people see real immigrants in a different light.
“Something that’s really affected me with this story is that all these issues that were happening in the 80s are still happening today, and you would think no, it’s 2025, so many things have changed, it should be easier, and it’s not,” the artist says, wiping tears from her eyes.
“I have dual citizenship, I feel very privileged, but it is very difficult for those who are going to live right now in this new change of government,” she adds. “One of the reasons I’m very excited about this play is that I feel like, whenever you try and tell the story through a family perspective, a family point of view, I feel like maybe we can stop looking at our differences and we can start looking at each other as people. And when that happens, I think change really starts happening.”
As for her aspirations not only to write but also to perform on Broadway, Huerta would love to do it one day, but right now she is enjoying the ride behind the scenes. “I would definitely love to do it at some point. I would also love writing more for musicals,” she says. “This has been such a rewarding and such a beautiful experience.”
Real Women Have Curves: The Musical is produced by Waitress producers Barry and Fran Weissler, and Jack Noseworthy. It has a book by Lisa Loomer with Nell Benjamin, music supervision by Nadia DiGiallonardo, and direction & choreography by Tony and Olivier Award winner Sergio Trujillo. Cast and additional creative team will be announced at a later date.
It arrives on Broadway following its 2023 world premiere at American Repertory Theater (A.R.T) at Harvard University, with previews beginning on Tuesday, April 1, and an opening night set for Sunday, April 27 at the James Earl Jones Theatre (138 West 48thSt). Tickets can be purchased online now at Telecharge.com or by calling 212-239-6200.
Watch Joy Huerta singing “Flying Away” from Broadway’s Real Women Have Curves: The Musical above.
Jonathan Groff has endeared himself to huge audiences playing some of the most beloved (and different) roles in modern musical theater: breaking hearts as the original Melchior in Spring Awakening; cracking up as King George in Hamilton; and most recently turning in his most complex performance yet as Franklin Shepard in Stephen Sondheim’s Merrily We Roll Along, for which he won his first Tony award.
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Now, Groff is adding to that diverse resume of roles with perhaps the most unexpected of all. In the new musical Just in Time, he’ll play Bobby Darin, the iconic crooner known for his renditions of songs like “Beyond the Sea,” “Dream Lover” and “Mack the Knife.” Developed and directed by Alex Timbers, the show features Groff anchoring a cast of 16 in one of Broadway‘s most unique and intimate theaters, the Circle in the Square. Previews begin March 28, 2025 in advance of an April 23 opening — but you can hear Groff singing as Darin for the first time here, as Billboard premieres his recordings of “Beyond the Sea,” “Dream Lover” and “Just in Time.”
As Groff tells Billboard, his preparation process for the role began seven years ago, when he was researching the singer while putting together a concert of his music for the 92nd St. Y in New York. “We’ve been developing this musical about his life ever since then,” Groff says. “Bobby Darin was the consummate performer. And he was way ahead of his time. He had this chameleon ability to jump styles and genres way before it became popular for pop artists to do that. Having this opportunity to play him, I get to push myself to places I’ve never gone before as a singer or performer. My heart races just thinking about it.”
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Timbers — who won a Tony for his direction of Moulin Rouge! The Musical and has brought his vision to shows ranging from Here Lies Love to The Pee-wee Herman Show — calls Darin “a singular talent whose music lives on today,” but notes that “what was so memorable to the people who knew him was his connection with an audience.” With Just in Time, “We’re doing everything we can to try to transform our Broadway theater to evoke a 1960s club,” he tells Billboard, “and allow our audience to experience what it was like to be in a room, up close, with one of that generation’s most electric performers.”
Just in Time features a book by Tony-winner Warren Leight (Side Man) and Isaac Oliver (The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel); music supervision and arrangements by Andrew Resnick (Parade); choreography by Shannon Lewis; and is based on an original concept by Ted Chapin. Along with Groff, the cast includes Joe Barbara (A Bronx Tale The Musical), Tony-winner Michele Pawk (Wicked), Lance Roberts (The Music Man), Caesar Samayoa (Come From Away), Christine Cornish (Kiss Me, Kate), Julia Grondin (Funny Girl), Valeria Yamin (Moulin Rouge!), John Treacy Egan (My Fair Lady), Tari Kelly (Mr. Saturday Night), Matthew Guy Magnusson, Khori Michelle Petinaud (Lempicka), and Larkin Reilly (Bad Cinderella).
Incredibly, it’s been twenty years since JC Chasez released his debut solo album, Schizophrenic — his first and only solo foray following his time in *NSYNC. But after all that time — during which Chasez has explored various creative outlets, from judging America’s Best Dance Crew to, more recently, reuniting on two songs with his former bandmates — Chasez is back with an unexpected release.
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Playing With Fire is the concept album for a musical based on Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, which Chasez co-wrote with longtime collaborator Jimmy Harry — and the singer stopped by Billboard News to discuss the project and how it pushed him creatively.
“We knew we wanted to write a musical, we just didn’t know what about,” says Chasez of the seeds of the project. “[Jimmy and I] come from pop music — we write different styles of pop music, but essentially our strengths are in pop music. [But] we’re more mature, we have more ideas than just the typical pop song, and this gave us the opportunity to express those ideas — to do something that’s bigger than three minutes and is a bit more focused but allows us to dream in different ways.”
Chasez is a deep theater fan who admits, “I could go to a show every night if I was lucky enough,” and he says Jesus Christ Superstar was their biggest inspiration for Playing With Fire. “They started with a concept album, and that’s kind of what inspired us to release it as an album first. If someone as smart and talented as Andrew Lloyd Webber thinks [it’s a good idea] is to release the music for a show first, why don’t we give it a shot?”
He also opens up about reuniting with *NSYNC for both “Better Place” (from Trolls Band Together) and “Paradise” from Justin Timberlake’s Everything I Thought I Was. “We’re all great friends, and we’re always talking,” says Chasez. “The conversation has been a little more open — right now I’m focusing on Playing with Fire, Justin’s on tour, Joey’s about to do & Juliet [on Broadway], but we’re always talking and anything’s possible in the future. It’s always gotta be for the right reasons.”
And speaking of potential reunions, he speaks about celebrating the 25th anniversary of fellow former Mouseketeer Christina Aguilera’s debut album with her — and the potential for them to do a duet someday: “If it was the right thing and organic, I’d be happy to sing with her anytime,” he says with enthusiasm.
Watch the full interview — including the story behind “Better Place,” how *NSYNC’s performance with Timberlake earlier this year in Los Angeles came together, and how Playing With Fire pushed Chasez vocally — above.
As a longtime songwriter, artist and musical theater enthusiast, JC Chasez knows the power of a good story that strikes an emotional chord.
That’s why he was floored when his friend and Golden Globe-winning musician Jimmy Harry showed him a theatrical adaptation of Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein by his late mother, playwright Barbara Field. “What I found really appealing and very inspiring about the piece is her ability to make it more direct and accessible in terms of the emotion,” the *NSYNC star tells Billboard. “It wasn’t just about a big monster and this kind of, like, growling thing that I initially had the impressions of in films and when reading Frankenstein. I guess I was just young, and just didn’t really have the time to settle in and really dig into the material. Recently, I was able to spend some time with the material and really get a good read and a good understanding of how emotional it was.”
From there, Chasez and Harry took the story’s themes of love, responsibility, loss and the human condition and channeled it into a major creative project: a 16-track musical theater concept album called Playing With Fire, which adds to Fields’ theatrical adaptation that originally written as a play and not a musical. “I was a little bit apprehensive at first. It’s like, you start messing with somebody family,” Chasez says with a laugh of musically building off of Harry’s mother’s project.
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JC Chasez and Jimmy Harry
Michael W. Abbott
Chasez brushed off those nerves soon enough, as Playing With Fire is, in a lot of ways, a culmination of the superstar’s creative talents. In addition to writing the project, Chasez also lends his vocals to a number of tracks on Playing With Fire, alongside singers Cardamon Rozzi and Lily Elise. The album marks his first major musical project since his 2004 solo album, Schizophrenic. “Playing With Fire touches on almost everything that I like,” he happily admits. “I love a good sci-fi film, so you get that aspect, and I love how music can make you so emotional in a different way. Obviously, I love pop music, so I love the fact that you can sing and dance together in musical theater. It was just a great opportunity to bring all of these things that I’ve really enjoyed together into one space.”
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Furthermore, he was pleasantly surprised at how a centuries-old story touches on themes that still exist today, contributing to just how unifying the human experience is — even if Frankenstein’s monster isn’t human, per se. “Shelly was communicating these points hundreds of years ago that we’re still wrestling with today. I was just going, ‘How did you know?’ How did she write something that is so appropriate for now and then? Then, how did Barbara Fields make this so accessible to me? I felt like I had a direct line to the emotions that Shelly was trying to convey because of the way that Barbara framed it.”
He continued, “When we first started writing, we thought that this is about humanity, technology and the dangers and the morality of ‘Just because you can create something, should you?’ We’re still dealing with all of these for questions with encountering different technologies and AI and all that. We were tinkering with the idea, but we started becoming interested in the way Barbara framed it, as a conversation between the creator and his creation, which we framed as a conversation between a father and son getting to the bottom of their issues, their denials, their neglect and the consequences of those things.”
Ultimately, Playing With Fire is a story of growth and real connection, and in accordance with that, Chasez has ambitions for the project to reach as many people as possible. “This is the beginning of a journey to make something that will hopefully end up on a stage that people can sing live every night and communicate to audiences,” he says. “That’s why this technological discussion is so relevant now. I love the fact that real people will be singing these songs. I want it to connect to humanity.”
Playing With Fire is out via Center Stage Records on Oct. 25.
Two years after making his acting debut in the miniseries Once Upon a Time… But Not Anymore, Sebastián Yatra is taking a leap to Broadway, where he will close out 2024 starring in the musical Chicago. The Colombian star will spend four weeks playing the charmingly corrupt lawyer Billy Flynn, from Monday, Nov. 25 to Sunday, Dec. 22.
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“It’s news that I’ve been eager to share for a long time,” Yatra tells Billboard Español on Wednesday (Sep. 4) from Medellín. “This is not only big for me but for Colombia, big for Latinos to keep doing these kinds of things.”
Set in the 1920s, Chicago —the longest-running American musical on Broadway after almost three decades— is a scathing satire of how show business and the media make celebrities out of criminals. With a book by Fred Ebb and Bob Fosse, music by John Kander and lyrics by Ebb, it includes killer songs like “All That Jazz,” “Cell Block Tango” and “Mr. Cellophane”.
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The role of Billy Flynn — famously played by Richard Gere in the 2002 film adaptation — will receive the Latin treatment from Yatra, who hopes to bring some of his contemporary and tropical flair.
“Latinos have something special even when we are speaking English, there is a lot of love within us, a lot of passion,” says the singer-songwriter, known for No. 1 hits on the Billboard Latin Airplay chart like “Tacones Rojos,” “Un Año” with Reik and “Robarte un Beso” with Carlos Vives. “I think I can offer a perspective from someone who is living in 2024 at almost 30, how he sees that world, also knowing that I could have perfectly been a lawyer and could be that person standing there. Thank God Billy and I don’t share the same values, because that would be messed up!” he adds with a laugh.
Over the years, Chicago has invited various Latin stars to join the musical for brief seasons. The list includes Colombian actress Sofia Vergara, who in 2009 played Matron “Mama” Morton, and Mexican singer and actor Jaime Camil, who in 2016 portrayed Billy Flynn.
Yatra says that he received the invitation to join the cast about six months ago via email, and, although he was very surprised, he did not hesitate to accept this new challenge immediately.
“Many times you get a proposal like this and it’s easy to get scared and say, ‘Oh no, I’m not an actor, better leave it for another time, in a couple of years’. But opportunities come when they come in life and if you don’t dare to take them, you don’t know if they’ll come again,” he says, adding that now, “it’s the right moment” as he is just starting working on his fourth studio album, whose first single, “Los Domingos,” was released last week.
The artist, who said he was fascinated 12 years ago when he saw Ricky Martin performing as Che in the Broadway musical Evita, has already received the endorsement of his Puerto Rican friend and colleague, who commented on Wednesday on Yatra’s Instagram post about his foray into the theater Mecca of New York: “That’s it 🙌 We will be there, little brother. Absolutely. Congratulations.”
Currently preparing remotely, learning his lines and taking acting classes, Yatra is due to arrive in New York City to start in-person rehearsals a month prior to his debut. It’s an experience he is really looking forward to.
“Living in New York in December, with the snow, doing Broadway, is something I really want to live very much in the present, enjoy it, learn from it,” he said. “There are a million things to learn from all these people — the actors, the crew, the directors, the production. It’s impeccable. I was watching the play in New York City recently and it really runs like clockwork, so being able to adjust to become one more piece of that clock is going to be beautiful.”
Chicago is presented at the Ambassador Theatre (219 W. 49th St.) For more information and to purchase tickets, visit www.ChicagoTheMusical.com.