Oklahoma City gets it shot at ‘Hamilton’
Just you wait until summer 2019, musical theater fans.
OKC Broadway will close its 2018-19 season with the Oklahoma premiere of the pop-culture phenomenon
“Hamilton,” as the national tour of Lin Manuel-Miranda’s musical smash will come to Oklahoma City July 30-Aug. 18, 2019, at the Civic Center Music Hall.
The partnership of the Nederlander Organization and Civic Center Foundation, OKC Broadway revealed Thursday the lineup for its third season, which also will include multiple titles by legendary impresario Andrew Lloyd Webber, two new shows inspired by acclaimed movies and a jukebox musical biopic about a pair of groundbreaking Latin music stars.
Love and music
The six-show subscription season will launch Nov. 13-18 with “Love Never Dies,” Webber’s sequel to “The Phantom of the Opera,” one of the most successful musicals of all time. The follow-up is set in 1907, a decade after The Phantom’s disappearance from the Paris Opera House. Having established a new life on New York’s Coney Island, the haunted anti-hero seeks to reunite with his musical protege Christine Daae.
The subscription season will “Conga” into 2019 with the Feb. 5-10 run of the Tonynominated show “On Your Feet!,” the jukebox musical based on the life story of 26-time Grammy Award-winning husband-and-wife team Gloria and Emilio Estefan, from their humble beginnings in Cuba to their trailblazing pop music success. Directed by two-time Tony Award winner Jerry Mitchell (“Kinky Boots”), with choreography by Olivier Award winner Sergio Trujillo (“Jersey Boys”) and an original book by Academy Award winner Alexander Dinelaris (“Birdman”), it features some of Gloria Estefan’s biggest hits, including “1-2-3,” “Rhythm Is Gonna Get You” and “Get On Your Feet.”
From the movies
The season will continue
2019 with two musicals inspired by respected films: “A Bronx Tale,” running March 5-10, and “Waitress,” serving up shows March 19-24.
The coming-of-age story “A Bronx Tale” is based on the autobiographical one-man play by writer-actor Chazz Palminteri, who also starred in and wrote the screenplay for the 1993 movie. The musical is directed by Oscar winner Robert De Niro, who co-starred in and directed the film version, and Tony winner Jerry Zaks, who helmed the one-man show on Broadway.
Set in the 1960s, the street-wise musical centers on a boy whose loyalties are divided between his hardworking father and a charismatic local gangster. It features music by Alan Menken and lyrics by Glenn Slater, the team behind the musicals “The Little Mermaid,” “Sister Act” and “Leap of Faith."
The four-time Tony nominated musical “Waitress” is inspired by the late Adrienne Shelly's beloved 2007 film about a pregnant server and pie-maker dreaming of a way out of her small-town life and loveless marriage. The hit show was brought to the stage by a rare all-female creative team, with original music and lyrics by six-time Grammy-nominated pop star Sara Bareilles, a book by acclaimed screenwriter Jessie Nelson (“I Am Sam”), choreography by Lorin Latarro (“Les Dangereuse Liasons”) and direction by Tony Award winner Diane Paulus (“Hair,” “Pippin”).
Legendary titles
If the 2018-19 OKC Broadway season isn’t already better than “Cats,” the famous feline musical comes to town May 21-26, 2019. Back on tour in North America, the record-breaking seven-time Tony-winning show about a tribe of "Cats" features the iconic original score by Webber, original scenic and costume design by John Napier (“Les Miserables”), new lighting design by Natasha Katz (“Aladdin”), new sound design by Mick Potter, new choreography by Andy Blankenbuehler (“Hamilton”) and direction by Trevor Nunn (“Les Miserables”).
While most OKC Broadway shows run for eight performances, “Hamilton” will close the season with a three-week engagement in summer 2019.
“We’re so excited to bring the Oklahoma premiere of ‘Hamilton’ to OKC! And accompany it with seven other amazing productions,” said Elizabeth Gray, executive director of the Civic Center Foundation and general manager of OKC Broadway, in an email to
The Oklahoman. “We’re definitely fulfilling our promise to the longtime theatre patrons of bringing the hit Broadway shows to Oklahoma City sooner!”
Current subscribers have first access to “Hamilton” tickets when they renew their subscription for the 2018-19 season. Gray said the best way to guarantee tickets to “Hamilton” is to purchase a season subscription. Plus, subscribers will attend “Hamilton” on July 30-Aug. 4, so they will be first to see the revolutionary show in OKC.
With book, music and lyrics by Miranda (“In the Heights,” the Disney animated movie “Moana”), including a score that fuses hip-hop, jazz, blues, rap, R&B and show-tune stylings, the biopic of American founding father Alexander Hamilton earned a record-setting 16 Tony nominations — it won 11, including best musical — and set a record for the most money ever made in a single week by a Broadway show.
It also won the 2016 Grammy Award for best musical theater album, earned the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for drama and is set to be adapted into a movie.
Add-on shows
Along with the subscription season, OKC Broadway will bring back two well-loved titles as special productions that can be added on to season ticket packages.
Coming this fall, producer Cameron Mackintosh will present the new production of Alain Boublil and ClaudeMichel Schönberg’s Tony-winning musical “Les Miserables,” following a celebrated 2 ½-year Broadway revival. The famed musical adaptation of Victor Hugo’s story of love, mercy and redemption set during the French Revolution, “Les Mis” will play in OKC on Sept. 18-23.
And OKC Broadway will start 2019 with an add-on presentation of Webber’s dramatic tale of obsessive love and tortured genius, “Phantom of the Opera.” Following the sequel “Love Never Dies” on the schedule, Mackintosh’s lavish new production returns to Oklahoma City on Jan. 9-20, after last running here in 2014.
Current OKC Broadway season ticket holders automatically will have the chance to renew their current date, time and seat locations and make change requests for the 2018-19 season.
New subscribers can go to www.okcbroadway.com, email info@ okcbroadway.com. or call 877-737-2929.