Previews Begin March 31, 2017
Opens on Broadway on Wednesday April 26, 2017
Starring Tony Award nominee Laura Osnes and Corey Cott
The producers of Bandstand are pleased to announce that the new musical will play the Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre this spring with previews beginning March 31, 2017 in advance of an April 26 opening night. As previously announced, Bandstand will star Tony Award nominee Laura Osnes (Rodgers + Hammerstein’s Cinderella) and Corey Cott (Gigi).
Directed and choreographed by Tony Award winner Andy Blankenbuehler (Hamilton, In the Heights), Bandstand features music by Richard Oberacker and a book and lyrics by Robert Taylor and Richard Oberacker.
Additional casting and creative team will be announced shortly.
Set in the smoke filled, swing fueled night clubs of 1945, Bandstand brings the against-all-odds story of singer/songwriter Donny Novitski (Cott) and his band of mismatched fellow WWII veterans to the stage.
When a national radio contest to find America’s next big swing band offers a chance at instant fame and Hollywood fortune, Donny must whip his wise-cracking gang of jazzers into fighting shape. Teaming up with the beautiful young war widow Julia (Osnes) as their singer, they struggle to confront the lingering effects and secrets of the battlefield that threaten to tear them apart.
Playing for every voiceless underdog in a world that has left them behind, they risk everything in the final live broadcast to redefine the meaning of victory. With an explosive original score and choreography inspired by the high energy swing rhythms of the era, Bandstand is a truly American story of love, loss, triumph and the everyday men and women whose personal bravery defined a nation.
Bandstand played a critically acclaimed world premiere engagement at Paper Mill Playhouse last fall.
Bandstand will be produced on Broadway by Tom Smedes, Gabrielle Palitz, Terry Schnuck, Tom Kirdahy and Roger Horchow.