Off-Broadway's MCC Theater has revealed its 2023-2024 season, which will include world premieres from Tony winners Gavin Creel, Jason Robert Brown, and more.
Creel will star in his self-written musical Walk On Through: Confessions of a Museum Novice, with Linda Goodrich directing. The work will take the Susan & Ronald Frankel Theater in November, with specific dates to be announced. Developed and previously presented at The O’Neill National Musical Theatre Conference, the work is inspired by Creel's time wandering the collections at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, which commissioned the work. The musical features 17 original songs written by Creel, who makes his theatrical songwriting debut with the production. Creel has previously released albums featuring his pop songwriting, including 2006's Goodtimenation and 2012's Get Out.
Brown's musical, The Connector, features a book by Jonathan Marc Sherman (Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice, Clive) and will premiere at the Newman Mills Theater in January 2024. The work explores the media landscape of the 1990s, centering on two journalists working at fictional magazine The Connector. Ambitious Ethan Dobson will do anything for the next big scoop, while Robin Martinez might have to go just as far to stop him. Daisy Prince is directing the world premiere, a reunion between her and Brown after she staged the original Off-Broadway productions of Brown's Songs for a New World and The Last Five Years. Brown, Sherman, and Prince previously developed the work with students at Princeton University.
The season will open with a world premiere from company-in-residence The Playwrights Realm: Emma Horwitz's Mary Gets Hers. Running September 11-October 7 in the Susan & Ronald Frankel Theater, the work takes place in the 10th century as a plague rages in Germany. Two hermits scheme to protect the purity of an abandoned orphan they find, but it turns out she has her own plans. The new play is inspired by Hrosvitha of Gandersheim’s Abraham, or the Rise and Repentance of Mary.
Beginning in April 2024, the company will present the New York premiere of The Lonely Few, featuring music and lyrics by Zoe Sarnak and a book by Rachel Bonds. Performing in the Newman Mills Theater, the rock musical follows touring musicians who find love on the road. Trip Cullman and Ellenore Scott will co-direct.
MCC's Youth Company will present its annual Uncensored in April 2024 as well. The event puts NYC teens on the MCC Main Stage to speak their truth in student-written monologues, scenes, and ensemble pieces.
For more details on the season, visit MCCTheater.org.
