New Jersey’s Paper Mill Playhouse has announced details of its 2023–2024 season of five musicals, including a world premiere, a Tony Award winner, and an electrifying new musical inspired by real events in post-emancipation Texas.
World Premiere
THE GREAT GATSBY
12 October to 12 November 2023
A soul-stirring, glamourous, and sizzling world premiere musical. F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby is one of the most beloved tales of all time.
Set in the Roaring Twenties, the story follows eccentric and mysterious millionaire Jay Gatsby, who will stop at nothing in the pursuit of the lost love of his youth, Daisy Buchanan. Through its fascinatingly nuanced characters, driven by complex inner lives —with passions and longings that boil, and then erupt — The Great Gatsby has always been destined to sing.
Featuring an electrifying jazz and pop-infused score written by Tony Award nominees Nathan Tysen (Paradise Square) & Jason Howland (Beautiful: The Carole King Musical – Grammy Award winner), a book by Kait Kerrigan (The Mad Ones), and direction by Marc Bruni (Beautiful: The Carole King Musical), this world premiere musical is set to roar The Great Gatsby into the 21st century. By special arrangement with Chunsoo Shin – award-winning Korean theatre producer and OD Company president.
FIDDLER ON THE ROOF
6 December 2023 to 7 January 2024
This beloved classic is sure to charm and captivate the entire family. The Tony Award–winning musical is set in a Russian village in the home of Tevye, a Jewish husband and father striving to uphold his family’s religious and cultural traditions.
Directed by Paper Mill Producing Artistic Director Mark S. Hoebee with the original choreography of Jerome Robbins, FIDDLER ON THE ROOF’s timeless score includes such favourites as “Tradition,” “Matchmaker, Matchmaker,” “If I Were a Rich Man,” “To Life (L’Chaim!),” and “Sunrise, Sunset.”Based on Sholem Aleichem‘s stories by special permission of Arnold Perl, FIDDLER ON THE ROOF has a Book by Joseph Stein, Music by Jerry Bock, and Lyrics by Sheldon Harnick.
AFTER MIDNIGHT
31 January to 25 February 2024
This electrifying musical revue transports you to the Cotton Club of the Harlem Renaissance, an unparalleled time in New York City when jazz and swing were king.
AFTER MIDNIGHT intertwines the poetry of Langston Hughes with songs from big-band legends Duke Ellington, Jimmy McHugh, Harold Arlen, Dorothy Fields, and more.
The exhilarating set list features such hits as “I Can’t Give You Anything but Love,” “Stormy Weather,” “On the Sunny Side of the Street,” and “It Don’t Mean a Thing.”
New Musical
GUN & POWDER
4 April to 5 May 2024
GUN & POWDER is a new musical inspired by the true story of Mary and Martha Clarke, African American twin sisters who take extraordinary measures to settle their mother’s sharecropper debt and save her home.
In 1893 Texas, the Sisters Clarke—passing as white—embark on a remarkable Wild West adventure that examines race, family, and identity with two electrifying women who transformed from farm girls to outlaws to legends.
Featuring book and lyrics by Angelica Chéri (a real-life descendant of Mary and Martha Clarke), music by Ross Baum, and direction by Obie winner Stevie Walker-Webb (Ain’t No Mo’).In association with P3 Productions.
BEAUTIFUL: THE CAROLE KING MUSICAL
5 to 30 June 2024
This Tony-nominated musical follows the early life and career of Carole King on her journey from teenage songwriter to chart-topping solo artist.
King wrote for many of the biggest names in music, often alongside her husband, but it wasn’t until she made the leap from the writer’s room to the stage that she truly found her voice.
This inspiring story of love, heartbreak, and empowerment features over two dozen hits, including “One Fine Day,” “Will You Love Me Tomorrow,” and “Natural Woman.”
Casey Hushion (Clue, A Jolly Holiday) returns to direct.
