The 1961 Broadway musical Carnival! has replaced Richard Rodgers and Stephen Sondheim's Do I Hear a Waltz? on the 2026 season schedule for Off-Broadway's J2 Spotlight Musical Theater Company.

Do I Hear a Waltz?, as previously reported, was cancelled due to changes in a licensing agreement with Concord Theatricals. Carnival!, with a book by Michael Stewart and music and lyrics by Bob Merrill, will instead be presented April 30-May 10, 2026, joining Milk and Honey, which will open the season, and The Mystery of Edwin Drood, which will be the final offering of the year.

Carnival! will feature direction by Artistic Director/Co-founder Robert. W. Schneider with music direction by Liz Hastings and choreography by Kaitlyn Frank. Casting, by Holly Buczek, will be announced at a later date.

Based on the 1953 film Lili by Helen Deutsch, Carnival! follows Lili, a naïve and abandoned young woman whose desperate search for the magician who promised marriage leads her to join a traveling carnival, where she learns to discern illusion from reality and discovers unexpected love and independence.

Premiering on Broadway in 1961, Carnival! ran a total of 721 performances.The production was nominated for seven 1962 Tony Awards, winning two, including Best Actress in a Musical for Anna Maria Alberghetti. The musical has never been revived on Broadway, but has been produced by New York City Center in 1968, and again in 2002, the latter for the Encores! series starring Anne Hathaway, Brian Stokes Mitchell, and Douglas Sills. 

“Talk about landing on your feet!” said Jim Jimirro, executive producer/co-founder, in a statement. “Just a few days ago, we were informed that, because of a licensing glitch, our rights to Do I Hear a Waltz? were terminated. In less than a week, we were able to secure the rights to an equally worthy show, Carnival! For this show, Bob Merrill has written a bevy of memorable songs and paired them with lyrics that are as clever and well-crafted as any you will have heard. And the story… well, it is filled with all the emotion and heart that you have come to expect from Broadway’s Golden Age. In one short week, all of us at J2 have gone from despair to elation. We couldn’t be more excited.”

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