DEBUT MUSICALS, CLASSICAL THEATRE, NEW PLAYS, AND A return to CARNEGIE HALL
Showcasing eight works in different stages of what it takes to bring a play or musical to fruition—from first reading to opening night—our 2024/25 season has a little something for everyone!
SEPTEMBER 5-8
TICKETS ON SALE NOW!
Co-production with the New London Barn Playhouse
Split tells the story of Lilian, a former research scientist at Los Alamos during WWII, and her daughter Amy as they embark on a road trip to the Grand Canyon in the summer of 1953. Though bound by family ties and a love of science, mother and daughter have different ideas about their futures: Lilian’s secret goal is to set her daughter’s life on a new course. But by the end of the journey, it will be Amy who changes her mother’s life forever.
MAY/JUNE 2025
Co-production with Classic Stage Company & The National Asian American Theatre Company
On a snowy night in Kansas, a diner can be an oasis, a prison, a place to hide, or a place to discover yourself. When a bus is forced to take shelter from stormy weather outside, a mismatched group of dreamers and cowboys, waitresses and outcasts finds unexpected warmth in one another. In William Inge’s 1955 classic, the great playwright of the American Midwest gives voice to memorable characters who will linger in the mind like the perfect cup of diner coffee.
This production of Bus Stop will mark the conclusion of our decades-long examination of Inge’s work, making us the only theatre company in New York to have produced all of his major plays, including OBIE-winning productions of The Dark at the Top of the Stairs, Picnic, and Come Back, Little Sheba.
BEAUTIFUL JOLIE GABOR, HER GLAMOROUS THREE DAUGHTERS, AND ALWAYS THE HAPPINESS IS LIFE
A new musical with words & music by Michael John LaChiusa
Starring Mary Testa
Expansive and lush, Beautiful Jolie Gabor, Her Glamorous Three Daughters, and Always the Happiness Is Life is a musical fantasy that traces the history of the first family who became famous for being famous. Examining society’s fascination with celebrity culture, Beautiful Jolie Gabor… centers on family matriarch Jolie Gabor, a Hungarian WWII immigrant who voraciously creates a life where persecution can never affect her family again. In the choices she makes and the not-so-truthful stories she spins, Jolie must answer the most telling question: What is the cost along the way? And, then, what is the cost at the end? Much like the real-life Gabor Family, Michael John LaChiusa’s newest work, starring Mary Testa as Jolie Gabor, absolutely mesmerizes.
1939
A new work conceived by Jack Cummings III
Starring John Cariani & Kelly McAndrew
This experimental work tells the story of a middle-aged couple trying to escape Europe at the beginning of the Second World War. Using only dialogue from major Hollywood films of the most revered year in cinema history, 1939 explores the psychological fractures that occur when human beings are stranded indefinitely between life and death.
THE SEA & THE STARS
A new play by Harrison David Rivers
Simon is a lifeguard. Finn is terrified of water. Both are adrift, with broken hearts, returning to the tiny beach town of Jupiter and to families who need them. A story about love, karaoke, and the sea, The Sea & The Stars is a romantic comedy that examines the universal need for connection and closeness.
OUR TABLE
A new play by Kirsten Guenther
Stranded on a table in the wings of the McCarter Theatre in 1938, a group of props attempt to process some devastating news: They’ve just been fired from up-and-coming playwright Thornton Wilder’s new play Our Town. What will they do now? Where will they go? Will Wilder see the error of his ways and change his mind? A whimsical new take on an American classic, Our Table explores what happens when we’re no longer deemed necessary or useful.
MOURNING SONGS
A new musical by Ryan Langer
An autobiographical one-man musical, Mourning Songs tells the story of a 35-year-old composer who, after the tragic murder of his father, must move back home to help his mother and family heal—and to grow up, possibly for the very first time.
THE PET PROJECT
A new musical
Book by Laurie Graff
Music & lyrics by Nancy Shane
On the coldest night of the year, a handful of New Yorkers brave the elements to attend a pet bereavement meeting, each reeling from the recent loss of a warm, furry friend, but grief gets derailed when the group sniffs out the truth about its leader.
This slate of development is made possible by the Joanna & Steven Sanders New Works Program.
SAVE THE DATE!
JUNE 26, 2025
Our 2024/25 Season will be capped by a return to Carnegie Hall for a one-night-only concert of a classic American musical performed by an all-star cast following the sold-out success of Follies this past June!
Each installment in our annual Anne L. Bernstein Concert Series celebrates a classical musical from our past so we can create musicals for the future—like Split, Beautiful Jolie Gabor…, and Mourning Songs. This important benefit event plays a significant and direct role in ensuring the future of the American Musical Theatre canon.