Broadway is back! Playbill, in partnership with The Broadway League, the Times Square Alliance, and title sponsor Prudential announced the lineup of talent that will appear throughout the Curtain Up! Festival, a three-day outdoor experience in Times Square from today, September 17 through Sunday, September 19. Twenty-two unique events will take place on stages in Duffy Square (Seventh Ave. & 47th St.) and between 45th & 46th Streets.
Broadway star Jelani Alladin will host Curtain Up: This is Broadway! on September 19 at 11:00 a.m. in Duffy Square, marking the culmination of the Curtain Up! Festival. The concert will spotlight marquee talent from returning and new Broadway productions. Current shows and performers participating include 18 Broadway musicals: Ain’t Too Proud – The Life and Times of The Temptations; Aladdin; Caroline, or Change; Chicago; Come From Away; Company; Dear Evan Hansen; Diana the Musical; Girl from the North County; Hadestown; Jagged Little Pill; The Lion King; Mrs. Doubtfire; The Phantom of the Opera; Six; Tina-The Tina Turner Musical; Waitress and Wicked, joined by five Broadway plays: Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, Lackawanna Blues, Pass Over, Thoughts of a Colored Man and To Kill A Mockingbird.
The event will begin today at 12:00 p.m. with Curtain Up! Kick-Off Event, featuring speakers from Playbill, The Broadway League and Times Square Alliance, and featuring special performances. Other concerts will take place throughout the weekend, honoring Black and Latinx artists.
Throughout the celebratory weekend, Broadway fans will have the unique opportunity to join with a wide variety of interactive experiences and intimate concerts peppered throughout the festival, including Broadway sing a-longs, The Sing For Hope Piano, variety shows, after dark events and Broadway Podcast Network recordings. Details for all events can be found at playbill.com/CurtainUp as they are announced.
“Broadway’s reopening is like a huge welcome mat for New Yorkers and visitors to return to Times Square, which has the brightest lights in NYC and is an international symbol for the city as a whole,” said Tom Harris, president of the Times Square Alliance. “With Broadway’s return and theatres bringing back live entertainment and artists to their stages, it will also create a domino effect and help to continue to bring back guests to neighborhood restaurants, hotels, retailers and independent businesses which have all been waiting for Broadway’s return.”
