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Start Spreading the News... We're leaving FRIDAY...

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  We’re so excited about our Stellar 2024-2025 Season and we’ve been super busy working on Renewals, New Season Ticket subscriptions, Mini Seasons, and Pick 3+ orders. But it turns out we already need to start thinking about our 2025-2026 Season too. That’s ok because we love to multitask here at BTL. There are THIRTEEN new shows opening on Broadway this month alone. And many of those shows will be sending out National Tours. So that means we need to start vetting these shows for all of you. Translation: ANDREW, LISA, AND I ARE HEADED TO THE BIG APPLE TOMORROW!! We really will be living our best theatre lives over the weekend! Do you want to know which shows we are seeing in NYC? (This is one of the many reasons working at Broadway Theatre League Huntsville is just the best job). Ok, without further ado, here’s our list of shows for this trip: The Notebook the Musical Water for Elephants a New Musical The Great Gatsby a New Musical Mother Play The Who’s Tommy Stereophonic a Broad
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Broadway Tours "leave their mark" with Backstage Murals...

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  You may or may not know that the Broadway touring companies, more often than not, will leave behind a "Thank-You Note" of sorts backstage for BTL. In fact, it's quite the tradition for these tours to leave these love letters in the form of a gorgeous backstage mural in theaters all across the country. And this has been going on for decades. So my advice to you is if you ever have the opportunity to go backstage at any of the big touring houses, go and seek out these time capsules of artistry. It's great fun to take that walk down memory lane, checking out the dates and reading the signatures of all the people that were part of these beautiful shows.  So this is how it usually works: A member of the props team will take the lead by using a stencil to create the show image and integrate the color palette of the show into their mural. After it has fully dried the entire company will sign it and the rest is history. Literally, it becomes history for all the future shows
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Broadway veteran (& Kip's BFF) Betsy Werbel gives her "hot takes" on our 2024-2025 Season

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  As you all know we announced our “Stellar” 2024-2025 Season last week. I thought it would be interesting to get an unbiased opinion about our new season from someone outside of BTL. Cue Broadway veteran Betsy Werbel, who also works for Broadway Plus: The world’s first and only Broadway experience company, connecting you to the magic of theater through custom experiences that go above and beyond the ticket. For more information on Broadway Plus: www.broadwayplus.com In full transparency, Betsy and I have been best buddies for over 20 years and were roommates for a long time during our Les Misérables touring days. In fact, she also played Huntsville with me when the show was here in 2004. How serendipitous is that?! Before I ask for Ms. Werbel’s opinion on our new season, here a little information about her: Betsy spent nine years in “Oz” as the Madame Morrible understudy/ensemble in Wicked on Broadway and on the National tour. Prior to Wicked, she performed for seven years in L
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Broadway Theatre League and OASYS, Inc. welcome you to a STELLAR 2024-2025 Season!

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We are extremely grateful for our community, patrons, sponsors, and supporters. And we all agree y'all are "Simply The Best"! Thanks for your guesses for our new season during our SIX day countdown of CLUEs we left you on our social media channels. (wink wink) So without further ado, here's the final (and quick) countdown to our 2024-2025 Season. Full Announcement Video below...
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That's a Wrap on SUPERSTAR!

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  The picture above was taken by yours truly, between shows on Saturday, March 16. Back in my touring days (well years), one of my favorite things to do was sit in the house of an empty theater, just looking at the stage. I did a lot of my soul-searching doing just that. There is an energy there, some magic, that only seems to exist on that different plane. It had been a long time since I had done this in a theater until Jesus Christ Superstar was here this past weekend. And guess what? The magic is still there. It was good for my soul. For me, seeing the 50 th Anniversary Tour of Jesus Christ Superstar  was very exhilarating, and very nostalgic. I had forgotten how much I love that glorious score. This version exceeded my expectations and brought me back to my younger self who was full of dreams but hadn’t set out to accomplish them yet. The phenomenal singing, the contemporary and athletic choreography and the electrifying guitars, drums and keyboards came together in such a way
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PART TWO: Tony-nominated for Jesus Christ Superstar, Josh Young reveals “What’s the Buzz”

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  I’m happy to report that my buddy Josh Young, Tony-nominated for Judas in Jesus Christ Superstar, is back home from NYC now and graciously set aside some time to chat with me for Kip’s Korner. Remember, last week I shared with you that Josh brought his 14 students from Missouri State University’s Musical Theatre Program to NYC to perform in their Senior Showcase for Broadway Creatives, Agents, Managers, etc. Well, it was a huge success, and this Class of 2024 had a record-breaking 170 callbacks from this showcase. “Bear Up” is the rallying cry of Missouri State University and that’s exactly what Josh’s students did in NYC! If you haven’t read PART ONE of my blog post about Josh, please go back to Kip’s Korner on March 6, before proceeding here. For everyone else let’s get to my interview with Josh right now: Let’s go back to your audition for Jesus Christ Superstar. Walk us through the process of that audition and everything else that led to you booking the role of Judas. Actually
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Tony-nominated for Jesus Christ Superstar, Josh Young reveals “What’s the Buzz” (Part One)

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  It’s a reunion of the “Barricade Boys,” and I get to put the spotlight on the uber-talented, and my friend, Josh Young. I won’t annoy you with a #IYKYK, but rather explain that if you were ever a male member of the Marius Company Tour of Les Misérables then you were also an official member of the “Barricade Boys.” I believe Josh and I met in September of 2003 when he joined the tour in Atlanta as Marius. He also has the distinction of playing Marius in more subsequent productions than any other actor. As you know I could talk about Les Misérables all day long but let’s skip ahead to the Jesus Christ Superstar part. Making it to Broadway is an incredible feat in and of itself, but can you imagine also being nominated for a Tony Award for your Broadway debut? Well Josh can because that’s exactly what happened for him when he played Judas in the Broadway Revival of Jesus Christ Superstar in 2012. And I will be giving you the insider’s scoop on all of that and more in PART TWO of “T
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