EMPIRE: THE MUSICAL set for New World Stages beginning in July

[jacobsnchz14]

Posted: 5/30/24 at 2:49pm

https://www.broadwayworld.com/article/EMPIRE-THE-MUSICAL-to-Premiere-at-New-World-Stages-in-July-20240530

EMPIRE: The Musical, will premiere in its hometown, New York City, July 1 for a 12-week limited engagement at New World Stages. The production, with Book, Music & Lyrics by Caroline Sherman & Robert Hull, will be directed by Tony Award winner Cady Huffman. This elevated new musical celebrates the world’s most iconic tower: The Empire State Building.
 
Told through the lens of three generations of dreamers and doers spanning New York City in the Roaring Twenties, the Great Depression, and the Bicentennial Year of 1976, this original story shines new light on one of history’s greatest feats of will and desire. With a desperate city pinning its hopes on this seemingly impossible project, only skyscraper-high levels of grit and determination could keep it climbing. In EMPIRE, audiences will take the thrilling ride to the sky with the brave Mohawk Skywalkers, industrialist visionaries, and can-do immigrants, all of whom had the guts to go up when everyone else was down.
 
The cast of EMPIRE includes Danny Iktomi Bevins, Monique Candelaria, Devin Cortez, Morgan Cowling, Kaitlyn Davidson, Joel Douglas, Joseph Fierberg, Alexandra Frohlinger, Matt Gibson, Albert Guerzon, Julia Louise Hosack, Kiana Kabeary, Howard Kaye, TJ Newton, April Ortiz, Kennedy Perez, Paul Salvatoriello, J Savage, Robbie Serrano, and Ethan Saviet.
 
The creative team includes choreography by Lorna Ventura, scenic design by Walt Spangler, costume design by Tina McCartney, lighting design by Jamie Roderick, sound design by Shannon Slaton, music supervision & orchestrations by Lena Gabrielle, arrangements by Robert Hull & Lena Gabrielle, music direction by Gillian Berkowitz, props design by Brendan McCann, casting by tbd casting co. General Management is Visceral Entertainment, Company Manager is Tim Sulka for Visceral Entertainment, Production Management is by Tinc Productions. EMPIRE is produced by Gayla Merle Fossett & William G. Dean Theatricals and YuGu Productions, in association with The Rivet Gang (Lynne Walder, Esq., Katy Kinney Harris, J. Joanna Jung), and executive produced by Jennifer Dowd. 
 
The Empire State Building name and image are registered trademarks of ESRT Empire State Building, L.L.C. and are used with permission.

[Someone in a Tree2]

Posted: 5/30/24 at 7:01pm

So no Cookie Lyon, I guess?

Updated On: 5/30/24 at 07:01 PM

[Jonathan Cohen]

Posted: 5/30/24 at 9:00pm

Yeah, the first association with that title is not about a building. Especially because it's a musical and the TV show was about music.

[tomwsjr]

Posted: 5/30/24 at 10:35pm

This has “flop” written all over it. 

[sewwwwwww]

Posted: 5/30/24 at 11:56pm

It’s been worked on for a long while now but this is finally the New York premiere. Heard the demos and they’re great! Looking forward to this summer, always love a NYC centric story!

[CoffeeBreak]

Posted: 5/31/24 at 12:24am

The show had potential at one time then was reworked poorly for the Los Angeles production.

Cady Huffman acted in a '11 workshop during its stronger incarnation.  There have been several creative teams developing this project over years that did not include Huffman.  All have left the project.  Huffman has now taken over due to their departures.  New World Stages was the last shot at NYC - Broadway was uninterested after the LA run.

https://playbill.com/article/empire-readings-to-feature-cady-huffman-michael-rupert-eric-william-morris-and-ashley-brown-com-183665

Updated On: 7/12/24 at 12:24 AM

[MezzoDiva47]

Posted: 5/31/24 at 9:08am

tomwsjr said: "This has “flop” written all over it."

 

after 25 years baking in the development oven

what could go wrong

 

[ErmengardeStopSniveling]

Posted: 5/31/24 at 9:24am

Why does the key art look like it's titled "EmpAre"?



"A NEW MUSICAL BASED ON A TRUE BUILDING" may be one of the worst taglines I've ever read, in any medium.

[Listener]

Posted: 6/1/24 at 1:37am

This sounds like a tourist trap show, and after seeing the pitiful New York, New York crash and burn, I'm not sure why they'd attempt this unless they were 200% certain the score and story were going to make audiences cheer.

So weird. New Yorkers aren't going to get excited about their own landmarks. Are they staging it just to see it through?

[bigbelterbaby]

Posted: 7/1/24 at 8:30am

This opens tonight! Anyone going this week ? 

[CoffeeBreak]

Posted: 7/1/24 at 5:04pm

It appears Ms. Huffman staged a cheesy high school production.

https://www.broadwayworld.com/article/Photos-Get-a-First-Look-at-EMPIRE-THE-MUSICAL-at-New-World-Stages-20240701

 

Updated On: 7/12/24 at 05:04 PM

[MezzoDiva47]

Posted: 7/9/24 at 1:23am

lol

this musical has received so much buzz

one week since opening night and zero posts

after 20+ years of development

the empire state itself only took 1 year and 45 days to build

 

[sewwwwwww]

Posted: 7/9/24 at 10:48am

Opening isn't until Thursday night, they're still in rehearsal and previews. Their IG shares a lot of theatre influencers posts and stories though!

[DiscoCrows]

Posted: 7/9/24 at 10:53am

Has anyone been yet? I’m curious how it is.

[MayAudraBlessYou2]

Posted: 7/9/24 at 2:52pm

I went for act 1....

Enough said.

[CoffeeBreak]

Posted: 7/12/24 at 4:38am

VULTURE

https://www.vulture.com/article/theater-review-empire-musical-new-world-stages.html
Empire: The Musical Stacks Up 102 Stories, Every One a Cliché.  
"I won’t compare the ambitious, expensive-looking new Empire to community theater, because the insult would be the wrong way around. If by some money-related miracle, Caroline Sherman and Robert Hull’s moldy lemon of a musical makes good on the billing of its L.A. run as a “pre-Broadway engagement,” that should be all the proof any of us require for the fact that midtown is not the be-all, end-all of the theatrical impulse. Or perhaps, with its current run at the Broadway-adjacent New World Stages, Empire considers its dreams of the Great White Way close enough to fulfilled."

"Empire offers no struggle, no broader awareness, no transcendence. Its edifice is built with bricks of banality and mortar of treacle, and it melts before our eyes."

THEATERMANIA 
https://www.theatermania.com/news/review-empire-the-musical-falls-way-short-of-its-monumental-subject_1744810/

"The capable cast acquit themselves spiritedly, but they are all let down by their director, acting veteran Cady Huffman. Though scenic designer Walt Spangler’s mess of scaffolding, beams, and one moving windowpane is conceptually clever—the seams of the building made visible—Huffman seems clueless in using those visual elements to tell this story, leading to moments of confusion (the tragic climax of the first act is completely botched). And Lorna Ventura’s choreography essentially comes off as Newsies redux in ensemble numbers."

Updated On: 7/12/24 at 04:38 AM

[ErmengardeStopSniveling]

Posted: 7/13/24 at 8:08am

Holdren is so brutally articulate. 

[Sutton Ross]

Posted: 7/13/24 at 3:01pm

So, I was away from NYC for a while dealing with a family health issue in Florida (ew), so I really, really wanted to see something NY centric and fun. I am aware I was one of five people who loved New York New York and all of Colton's weird rambling, so I thought I would give this a try. 

It looked gorgeous. And then the show started. At one point, I wanted Cookie Lyon to come out and verbally abuse me because that would have been more fun.

 

[MezzoDiva47]

Posted: 9/27/24 at 4:47pm

any word on when this transfers to broadway

 

 

[ErmengardeStopSniveling]

Posted: 9/27/24 at 4:53pm

MezzoDiva47 said: "any word on when this transfers to broadway"

It's going to play in rep with REBECCA and a revival of MOOSE MURDERS.