Following buzzy productions at Williamstown Theatre Festival and La Jolla Playhouse, the new musical Lempicka has announced a Broadway bow. Eden Espinosa will star as real-life Polish painter Tamara de Lempicka in the pop-infused tuner, which begins previews March 19, 2024 and opens April 14.
Directed by Tony Award winner Rachel Chavkin, Lempicka features book, lyrics, and original concept by Carson Kreitzer, book and music by Matt Gould, and choreography by Raja Feather Kelly.
Meet the creative team below in this exclusive portrait shoot and read on to see why they wanted to bring this art deco artist to the stage.
Rachel Chavkin, Director
"I'm obsessed by stories that balance the epic with the intimate, and how personal journeys fit within the great landscape of history. Lempicka is both the incredibly thorny, sexy, deep story of this artist, and also a sweeping portrait of the first half of the 20th century, and particularly Paris between the wars—one of the most yummy and terrifying times that has ever been."
Chavkin is a 2019 Tony winner for her direction of the musical Hadestown. She was also nominated for her Broadway directorial debut, Natasha, Pierre, and the Great Comet of 1812. She was last represented on Broadway with the Second Stage premiere of The Thanksgiving Play.
Raja Feather Kelly, Choreographer
"Lempicka is bold, Lempicka is sharp, Lempicka is a survivor, Lempicka is sexual, sensual and sophisticated—and that’s exciting for me as an artist."
A frequent collaborator of composer Michael R. Jackson, Kelly made his Broadway debut in 2022 with A Strange Loop. He will also make his playwriting debut this season with The Fires at Soho Rep.
Carson Kreitzer, Book, Lyrics, and Original Concept
"As a playwright, I have spent my whole life telling the stories of women who have been written out of history, women who I wish I’d known about growing up. A director friend of mine suggested Lempicka to me and said, 'She is one of your women.' She's bold, uncompromising, a powerhouse, a survivor—reinventing herself over and over, as her life intersected with the great upheavals of the 20th century."
Lempicka marks the Broadway debut for Kreitzer. She is a Guggenheim, MacDowell, and McKnight Fellow, and received a 2016 Jonathan Larson Grant for Lempicka. Other works include the award-winning The Love Song of J. Robert Oppenheimer and The Slow Drag, which appeared Off-Broadway and in the West End.
Matt Gould, Book and Music
"Tamara’s paintings sing. There’s something about the way that her work is so perfect. The veneer is so clean. And you think you’re just looking at a beautiful painting of someone. But when you get up close you see that there’s a human being trapped behind those eyes."
Lempicka is also the Broadway debut for the composer. His work Witness Uganda, co-written with Griffin Matthews, made its New York premiere Off-Broadway at Second Stage in 2015 under the title Invisible Thread. Gould is a two-time recipient of the Richard Rodgers Award. His original musical television series, Insignificant, is currently being developed by MGM Studios.
