Broadway Journal

LUFTIG WINS LATEST ROUND IN ‘KINKY BOOTS’ BATTLE

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EXCLUSIVE: A federal bankruptcy judge has approved a reorganization plan for Hal Luftig Co. that gives the busy producer breathing room in his six-year court battle against a deep-pocketed investor.

The litigation involves the 2013 Tony Award-winning musical Kinky Boots, which Luftig produced with Daryl Roth. (Roth isn’t involved in the dispute.) In 2022, an arbitrator found that Luftig and his company breached an agreement with the Reno, Nevada-based investor Warren Trepp regarding proceeds from the blockbuster. Continue Reading

NEW YORK EXTENDS $3 MILLION BROADWAY TAX CREDIT; DISNEY’S ‘ALADDIN’ APPROVED

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New York State extended the New York City Musical and Theatrical Production Tax Credit, a subsidy of up to $3 million per Broadway show, as the industry struggles with rising costs and subpar sales.

On May 3, Gov. Kathy Hochul announced the two-year extension through 2025 and said commercial Off-Broadway shows will also be eligible, albeit for a smaller credit. The Broadway League trade association lobbied for preserving the program. It was designed to jumpstart the industry, which contributes billions to the economy, and encourage productions “to begin performances sooner and come back stronger” as the city recovered from Covid-19.Continue Reading

BEN PLATT TO LEAD $6.5 MILLION ‘PARADE’ (EXCLUSIVE)

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Parade, the 1998 Broadway musical featuring a Tony Award-winning score by the-then 28-year-old Jason Robert Brown, will be revived this spring by Greg Nobile’s Seaview Productions and Ambassador Theatre Group, according to a pitch deck distributed to investors.

Ben Platt (Dear Evan Hansen) will star in the dark historical drama, following an acclaimed weeklong tryout at New York City Center in November. Platt will reprise the role of Leo Frank, a Jewish Brooklynite transplanted to Marietta, Georgia, where he was falsely accused of murder and lynched by a mob in 1915. Micaela Diamond (The Cher Show), who earned stellar reviews playing Leo’s loyal wife, Lucille Frank, also returns to the cast. Platt, who like Diamond is Jewish, has spoken eloquently about the story’s timeliness amid rising antisemitism. Continue Reading

JASON ROBERT BROWN ON HAL PRINCE, ARIANA GRANDE & GOING HIS OWN WAY

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INTERVIEW: The last five weeks have been busy for Jason Robert Brown, the 48-year-old composer, lyricist, arranger, orchestrator and performer. There was an acclaimed Encores! run of his 1995 song cycle, Songs for a New World, at City Center; a workshop of an original musical, The Connector, written with Jonathan Marc Sherman, at Vassar College via the nonprofit New York Stage & Film; and a new album, Brown’s first since 2005, How We React and How We Recover. He spoke by phone from his home on the Upper West Side. (The conversation has been condensed.)

Q: How has the political climate affected what you do?

JRB: I don’t want to watch anything that feels frivolous or create anything that feels frivolous.

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JASON ROBERT BROWN DECRIES ‘INSANE’ GUN VIOLENCE EPIDEMIC

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Jason Robert Brown said a tweet from a fan inspired the Sept. 12 benefit concert of his two-character musical The Last Five Years.

The composer, lyricist and performer has worked independently with Joshua Henry (Aaron Burr in Hamilton in Chicago) and Cynthia Erivo, a Tony Award winner for The Color Purple on Broadway. About a year ago, “Somebody tweeted, ‘Oh my god, you have to do The Last Five Years with Cynthia and Joshua,” Brown, 46, recalled in an interview. Continue Reading

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