A film capture of John & Jen will soon be available to stream again. The London production at Southwark Playhouse, starring Olivier nominee Rachel Tucker (currently on Broadway in Come From Away) and Lewis Cornay, will arrive on BroadwayHD December 15.
Andrew Lippa and Tom Greenwald’s musical, set across multiple decades in America, offers a look at the complexities of familial relationships. The show has been updated since the last revival to reflect modern times, starting off in 1985 with John and Jen, brother and sister, who were born seven years apart and grow up together totally inseparable. It then fast forwards to 2005, where Jen lives alone in Canada with her baby boy whom she has named John, a living memorial to the brother she failed to protect.
The staging was directed by Guy Retallack and produced by Bray Productions. Filmed in summer 2021, the digital capture is directed by Austin Shaw with orchestrations by Jason Robert Brown and Lippa.
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“What struck me immediately was how much John & Jen is a musical for now, despite being written almost 30 years ago,” said Retallack. “Andrew’s haunting score and Tom’s incisive narrative capture contemporary America. I felt inspired to ask the writers to update the timeline, because of what I saw happening all around us, families being torn apart for the beliefs they hold, and I’m delighted they agreed.”
For more information, visit BroadwayHD.com.
