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Romeo + Juliet, the just-closed Broadway production starring Kit Connor and Rachel Zegler, recouped its $7 million capitalization during its extended, sold-out 20-week limited engagement at Circle in the Square, producers announced today.

According to lead producer Seaview, the play, directed by Sam Gold, also had the youngest ticket buying audience in recorded Broadway history, with 14% of purchasers aged 18-24, compared to the current industry average of 3%. The run is the highest grossing limited engagement in Circle in the Square Theatre history and broke the Circle in the Square Theatre single performance gross record three times, all according to Seaview.

Romeo + Juliet played its final performance at Circle in the Square on Sunday, February 16. It officially opened on Thursday, October 24, 2024.

With the announcement today, Romeo + Juliet becomes just the second production of the current Broadway season to confirm recoupment, following Oh, Mary!, which announced its $4.5 million recoupment in November.

The upcoming Broadway reimagined revival of Romeo And Juliet starring Heartstopper‘s Kit Connor and West Side Story‘s Rachel Zegler has extended its run by four weeks due to strong advance ticket sales.

Directed by Sam Gold and produced by Seaview, the revival, which features music by Grammy winner Jack Antonoff, begins previews at Circle in the Square Theatre on Thursday, September 26, and opens Thursday, October 24, and will now run through Sunday, February 16, 2025.

In announcing the extension, Seaview says the production broke the venue’s on-sale ticket day record when sales began in May. The extension is “due to astonishing advance demand.” Sales figures were not disclosed.

Hopeful ticket-buyers who have signed up on the show’s official website will have early access to tickets for the extension weeks beginning Wednesday, August 28. Tickets for the general public will be on sale beginning Thursday, August 29.

Billed as a Romeo And Juliet...

Tony Award nominee Gabby Beans (Skin of Our Teeth) and 13 Reasons Why’s Tommy Dorfman are among the complete cast for Romeo & Juliet, Sam Gold’s new Broadway production of William Shakespeare’s Romeo + Juliet, starring Kit Connor and Rachel Zegler. Rehearsals began today for the production, which is set to open this fall.

Beans will play ‘Mercutio/The Friar and Dorfman will portray The Nurse/Tybalt in her Broadway debut. Rounding out the cast are Nihar Duvvuri (Broadway Debut) as ‘Balthazar,’ Sola Fadiran (Camelot) as ‘Capulet/Lady Capulet,’ Daniel Bravo Hernández (Broadway Debut) as ‘Abraham,’ Taheen Modak (Broadway Debut) as ‘Benvolio,’ Jasai Chase Owens (Broadway Debut; The Expanse) as ‘Gregory,’ Gían Pérez (Sing Street) as ‘Samson/Paris/Peter’ and understudies Missy Malek (Broadway Debut), Timothy Oh (Broadway Debut), Susannah Perkins (The Wolves) and Daniel Velez (Broadway Debut).

“I couldn’t be more thrilled to be starting today with this brilliant ensemble,...

Jennifer Hudson, who guest starred on NBC’s Smash, is now joining the producing team of its upcoming stage musical adaptation.

Hudson, a Grammy, Oscar, Tony, and Emmy winner, announced her participation today on her daytime talk show The Jennifer Hudson Show. (Watch the announcement below.)

Smash is expected to arrive on Broadway in spring 2025. Executive producers included Steven Spielberg, Neil Meron and Craig Zadan, Marc Shaiman, Scott Wittman, Darryl Frank, Justin Falvey, David Marshall Grant, and Joshua Safran.

Hudson’s participation reunites her with Smash composers Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman, and producers Robert Greenblatt and Neil Meron, the team behind NBC’s 2016 Hairspray Live!, the musical special in which she played the role of Motormouth Maybelle.

The Broadway production will be directed by five-time Tony-winning director Susan Stroman, with a score by the Tony- and Grammy- winning duo Shaiman and Wittman, who were most recently on Broadway with Some Like It Hot.

Actors’ Equity will hand out leaflets outside a workshop of the Broadway-bound Smash musical this week, “warning of the possibility of a strike” in light of ongoing negotiations with the Broadway League regarding compensation for work on shows in development.

Equity President Kate Shindle is expected to be in attendance when the union leaflets the Smash developmental workshop Thursday morning and Friday afternoon outside the Kaye Playhouse at Hunter College on Manhattan’s Upper East Side.

The union’s Development Agreement with Broadway League producers covers the development of new works, usually prior to an intended Broadway engagement. Equity and the Broadway League have been in negotiations since January 22, 2024. The current agreement expired on Sunday, February 11.

Last week, the union, which represents more than 51,000 professional actors and stage managers in live theater, voted to authorize a strike against The Broadway League if ongoing negotiations fail. Equity is currently in the...

We’re getting closer and closer to the Smash musical coming to Broadway!

A musical version of the beloved NBC series has been in the works for years and it is expected to debut during the upcoming 2024-25 Broadway season, which is anytime between May 2024 and April 2025. Katharine McPhee, Megan Hilty, and other cast members are sadly not attached and a plot has not been revealed yet.

Well, some lucky fans are going to see an early version of the show very soon.

A six-week workshop will begin this month in New York City and it will culminate in five fully staged and choreographed performances in front of “recruited audiences.”

Keep reading to find out more…

Producer Bob Greenblatt told Variety, “This workshop/rehearsal process will give the creative team a chance to get reactions from real theatergoers who will experience it for the first time in a theater setting.