Seven more Broadway tours on the way
Waterbury’s Palace Theater has announced the seven shows in its 2023-24 Broadway Series, bringing the next theater season more fully into focus.
The Bushnell in Hartford and the Shubert Theatre in New Haven both announced their seasons in recent weeks.
All but one of the shows coming to the Palace (“The Kite Runner,” based on the Khaled Hosseini novel) have played Connecticut before (or, in the case of “To Kill a Mocking Bird,” are about to), but the casts will likely be different.
The Waterbury lineup includes “Pretty Woman the Musical” on Oct. 10-12, the non-musical drama “Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird” Nov. 3-5, “On Your Feet! The Story of Emilio & Gloria Estefan” Dec. 15-16, “Jesus Christ Superstar” April 2-3, 2024, “The Book of Mormon” April 26-28, 2024, “Mean Girls” May 18-19, 2024, and “The Kite Runner” June 4-6, 2024.
The Palace’s 2022-23 season had five shows. The 2021-22 season had seven, four of which were part of a novel experiment in co-booking with the Shubert, with those shows playing at both theaters in the same weeks.
“Pretty Woman” and “Mean Girls” are both based on famous comedy movies. “Mean Girls” was created by Tina Fey, who wrote and appeared in the movie, with her composer husband Jeff Richmond. “Pretty Woman” has songs by pop star Bryan Adams. There are also two shows based on great novels: “To Kill a Mockingbird” is the recent stage version of Harper Lee’s classic, freshly adapted by Aaron Sorkin. “The Kite Runner,” adapted by Matthew Spangler, was on Broadway in 2022.
The “Jesus Christ Superstar” tour, based on an acclaimed British production of the 54-year-old rock opera, was launched shortly before COVID. The tour played at The Bushnell in February 2020 and was at the Shubert in April. “The Book of Mormon,” one of the biggest hit musicals of the past dozen years, has played the Palace before and has been at The Bushnell and Shubert several times each.
The 2023-24 Bushnell season, announced at the end of March, includes the first Connecticut visits of “Frozen,” “Beetlejuice,” “Mrs. Doubtfire,” “Moulin Rouge” and “The Cher Show,” plus the return of “Wicked.” The Shubert will be offering “Come From Away,” “Chicago,” “Company,” “Annie” and “Hadestown.”
Additional details for the Palace’s upcoming season can be found on the website at palacetheaterct.org.