Good morning (or afternoon) world!
Welcome to the latest edition of the Broadway DNA newsletter! In pulling the latest international musical theatre IP headlines, I focus on illuminating post-premiere lifecycles for what commercial theatre creators value: what titles are successful, where, by who, and why? Some of the how, the nuts and bolts of licensing and producing, I dip into in asides mixed in with the news. Natalie-isms, if you will. Whether you're a producer, artist, or simply a theatre enthusiast interested in how IP grows global, this bulletin is your ticket to staying informed and getting globally inspired!
Interested in supporting new works go global?
BDNA’s innovative new play production pipeline begins with “Home’s Kitchen,” a new play being developed intentionally toward global licensing via two different productions in two different cities. Testing the work’s community and spacial adaptation in new markets and communities is key to identify the play’s potentially universal DNA. Our Mardi Gras fundraiser ends Tuesday!
Looking for the perfect date-night programming?
A send-up of reality dating shows, “Unmarried Man” by Alice Nora and Emmy Kuperschmid centers on a local TV station presenting a one-night special where a hometown hunk will try to find local love. But can true love really be found on primetime television? “Unmarried Man” is a fun, quirky play on popular reality dating shows that investigates the tropes we force upon the contestants and makes them real again— in hilarious, heart-warming, and surprising ways.
GERMAN PREMIERE OF “COME FROM AWAY” IN REGENSBURG 2025
Directed by Intendant & Opera Director Sebastian Ritschel and translated by Sabine Ruflair, the premiere at Theater Regensburg has been announced for February 22, 2025. The casting call can be viewed here.
The Theater Regensburg is Bavaria's largest municipal multi-discipline theater with its own ensembles for musical theater, drama, dance and young theater, orchestra, and opera. Their approximately 700 performances reach about 180,000 spectators per year across five venues, which are regularly supplemented with additional outdoor venues.
The current season (dubbed thematically as “Identities”) includes the first opera about a trans woman, a BroadwayWorld Germany award-winning German premiere operetta, a Ritschel-directed “Rocky Horror Show,” and (in keeping with the theme of the last newsletter) the world premiere of UK writer Stephen Keeling’s family musical “The Return of Peter Pan” licensed by Concord Theatricals Berlin. Last season featured the German premiere of “Parade”— check out video here for a taste.
EUROPE
Broadway’s “Jagged Little Pill” gearing up for European licensed premiere at Iceland’s Reykjavík City Theatre on February 23, directed by Álfrún Helga Örnólfsdóttir.
Gender-Swapped “Company” Will Premiere in Sweden This Year— Because apparently we have to perpetuate the forced commerciality of the recent West End-Broadway production instead of licensing more work genuinely by or about women.
The 1998 French-language cult (and my personal)-favorite musical “Notre-Dame de Paris” is currently traveling through numerous arenas in the Francophone world on its major 25th anniversary tour. In addition to this favorable Swiss review, this week also featured cast members performing as part of China’s prominent Spring Festival Gala, a Chinese New Year special produced by China Media Group (CMG). The Gala has the largest audience of any entertainment show in the world and is recognized by Guinness World Records as the world's most watched television program. The 2018 edition of the Gala attracted more than one billion viewers.
JAPANESE PREMIERES
"In the Heights" will be performed for the third time in Japan — This year marks the 10th anniversary since the local language licensed show premiered in Japan, and the second remount after performances in 2014 and 2021. Performances will play Tokyo, Kyoto, Aichi, and Kanagawa this September-October.
Following in the (problematic, yeah I said it) footsteps of the global impact of “Tootsie” (now playing in Japan), the cross-dressing 1948 Broadway musical “Where’s Charley” will make its Japanese premiere this April from Avex Live Creative.
Matthew Lopez’s Tony Award-winning play “The Inheritance” to make Japanese premiere at the Tokyo Metropolitan Theater Playhouse from February 11th to 24th, directed by Hirotaka Kumabayashi (trailer here). The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Fund for the Global Fund are supporting this production through grants to the Global Fund Japan Committee.
TREND: AUIXILLARY PROGRAMMING
(In conversation with this feature on Broadway’s recent “post-show programming”)
OCESA Teatro’s “Anastasia” in Mexico held a “Create Your Own Destiny” panel, featuring thought leaders, athletes, artists, and the first Mexican-born woman in space.
Korean producer Live Co. held special invitational performances of K-musical “Marie Curie” (now In its third season) for 150 female scientists and engineers across ages and experiences. Available Sponsorship Tickets (30% discount on all seats) allowed for 10% of the ticket purchase to be donated to foster the next generation of female scientists and engineers.
Korean producer Shownote released information on their “Student Report Cards,” a promotional punch-card for repeat viewers of American author Joe Calarco’s all-male revisionist play “R&J.” (Since the Korean premiere in 2018, the play has been remounted a few seasons and seen by over 50,000 audience members, not to mention other licensed productions across the U.S., Australia, Brazil, Japan, and China.) Fans receive discount rewards after 4 and 8 viewings.
Excitingly, Broadway’s “Six” has just announced a similar loyalty rewards program. While other Broadway loyalty programs, such as Audience Rewards, exist that are applicable to a variety of shows, a program specific to a single show is rare. However, the “SIX Royalty Program” is the second show-specific rewards program to be announced in the 2023-2024 season after “Here Lies Love.”
In an eerie repeat of 2020 (is America just going through massive deja vu?), TikTok is currently (which in Internet time means soon-to-be-not-anymore) spawning a new UGC musical, this time about Groundhog Day (the actual holiday, not the 2016 musical). First started with this song (5M views in 6 days), users have flocked to the show that’s “giving Sondheim” and writing their own contributions to an imaginary show some have ingeniously dubbed “In His Shadow.” I have previously written extensively to legitimize the topic of a true TikTok musical’s decentralized, multi-authored DNA as a “Playlist Musical” here, here, and here.
Have a show or idea you want to expand abroad? Consider working with Natalie at Broadway DNA, just reply to this email and let’s chat!