From the Tony Award winners to new tours being announced, this edition of The Playback will provide the details and much more.
IDEAS
JULY
- New Shows
- Completed tours
- Show Score intro
- New Surveys
NEW TOUR ANNOUNCEMENTS
Although we typically see a majority of new tours directly associated with the current shows on Broadway announce tours after the Tony Awards, this season has provided us with several pre-ceremonial announcements over the past few weeks, including Some Like It Hot, New York, New York, and Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street.
Based on the 1959 film of the same name, Some Like It Hot is the story of two musicians forced to flee the Windy City after witnessing a mob hit. With gangsters hot on their heels, they catch a cross-country train for the life-chasing, life-changing trip of a lifetime. The National Tour will launch in fall 2024.
New York, New York, with music written by legendary composer John Kander, tells the story of singers, dancers and musicians trying to make it in post-war New York. The North American Tour, slated to begin in January 2025, will be launched in a city in New York State to be announced at a later date.
Lastly, the musical revival of Stephen Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd will begin a two-season National Tour starting in early spring 2025. The tour, featuring Jonathan Tunick’s original orchestrations, will be touring with a 26-piece orchestra. The musical tells the tale of a resourceful pie shop owner and a vengeful barber out for blood.
Cities and dates for these tours, along with casting and other information, will be announced at a later date.
Tony Awards
On Sunday, June 11, the winners of the 76th Tony Awards were announced in a streamed and televised event. The ceremony also featured 11 performances from shows spanning from currently on Broadway to currently on tour, providing a sampling into each show’s identity.
Several of the new shows that have announced a tour starting in the 2024/2025 season won some of the evening’s major awards, including:
Kimberly Akimbo – 8 nominations, 5 awards:
- Best Musical
- Best Book of a Musical
- Best Original Score
- Best Leading Actress in a Musical
- Best Featured Actress in a Musical
Some Like It Hot – 13 nominations, 4 awards:
- Best Leading Actor in a Musical
- Best Costume Design of a Musical
- Best Choreography
- Best Orchestrations
Sweeney Todd – 8 nominations, 2 awards:
- Best Lighting Design of a Musical
- Best Sound Design of a Musical
New York, New York – 9 nominations, 1 award for Best Scenic Design of a Musical
Notable as well is & Juliet, which was nominated for 9 Tony Awards, but came away empty handed. The show will launch a multi-year tour in the fall of 2024, including engagements in Charlotte, NC, Los Angeles, CA, San Francisco, CA & Washington, DC in its first year.
In addition, the revival of Into the Woods, which is currently on tour, was nominated for six Tony Awards, but also won zero awards.
A Beautiful Noise, which will begin touring in Providence in the fall of 2024, did not receive any nominations.
For more, and to see the list of winners for both musicals and plays, visit TonyAwards.com
COME FROM AWAY DELAYED
In early June, notices were starting to be distributed to the public by venues concerning their 2023/2024 engagements of the new non-equity tour of Come From Away. Some of the venues with 2023 dates have already rescheduled their engagements to 2024 while a few have been outright cancelled.
The reason behind the changes stem from stalled negotiations between the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE) and certain production companies, including Big League Productions, Crossroads Live North America, Work Light Productions, and NETworks Presentations, the latter of which is producing the second national tour of Come From Away.
According to the IATSE, the main area of concern are wages and working conditions, and a new contract won’t be ratified unless these are addressed. Specifically, the IATSE is seeking a contract that includes, “better wages, per diem, and single occupancy lodging to ensure these devoted workers can rest and recover between stops.”
A deadline for agreement of a new contract has been set at June 30, 2023. Should a new contract not be ratified by the deadline, further cancellations and rescheduling of engagements may occur.
The tours that could be affected include the aforementioned Come From Away, as well as Pretty Woman, My Fair Lady, Annie, The Cher Show, and Little Women.
At the time of publication, only Come From Away‘s tour has seen any public modifications. It appears that efforts to will made to have the tour start around November or December 2023. So, not every venue that has an engagement will be affected at this time. However, if affected venues haven’t done so already, please consult your respective venue regarding your options concerning tickets.
The production companies have yet to respond to our queries for a comment. As this is a fluid situation, be sure to visit our Log for further developments and any additional modifications.
Closing Curtain
Last, but not least, it’s time to bid a fond adieu to the Anastasia, Cats, Fiddler on the Roof and Legally Blonde national tours.
With the closing of Cats, the only Andrew Lloyd Musical produced on either Broadway or on tour is Jesus Christ Superstar, which is scheduled to continue through the 2023/2024 season.
With the exception of Legally Blonde, which was expected to only last for one season, the other shows were carryovers from pre-Covid seasons. With a few repeat engagements, both Fiddler on the Roof and Anastasia visited around 160 venues, while the current tour of Cats played at almost 140 venues since beginning in the 2018/2019 season.
Additional adieus are coming up in the next couple of months as we wind down the 2022/2023 season.
In the next edition of The Playback, we’ll introduce the Show Scores feature, and discuss the new shows surveys distributed by Broadway organizations as we look at wrapping up the 2022/2023 season.
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