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The already unbelievably busy final week of the Broadway season just got even busier: The producers of Illinoise announced today that the show will sneak under the wire to open at the St. James Theatre on the afternoon of Wednesday, April 24.
A dance musical built around songs from singer-songwriter Sufjan Stevens's moody 2005 concept album Illinois—roughly in the mode of Twyla Tharp's 2002 Billy Joel dance musical Movin' Out—the show has been a sold-out hit in its current Off Broadway run at the Park Avenue Armory, where it closes this weekend. It is directed and choreographed by New York City Ballet resident choreographer Justin Peck, who also created the dances for the 2018 Broadway revival of Carousel and the 2021 film remake of West Side Story.
Three vocalists and an 11-piece band perform the music while 16 dancers move through a story of heartbreak and community, devised by Peck with playwright Jackie Subblies Drury. The cast includes Ricky Ubeda, Ben Cook, Gaby Diaz, Ahmad Simmons and An American in Paris star Robbie Fairchild. Singers for the Broadway run have not yet been confirmed.
The reason Illinoise is scrambling to transfer so quickly is that the cutoff date for Tony Awards eligibility this year is April 25. Since the St. James Theatre is occupied by the Spamalot revival through April 7, Illinoise will have very almost no time to adjust to its new venue. In a highly unusual move, it will open cold on its first performance, with no previews on Broadway at all.
Just how crammed is that final stretch of April on Broadway? Well, with the addition of Illinoise to the schedule, there will now be 12 shows opening between April 17 and April 25. To put that in perspective: There will have been 36 Tony-eligible Broadway productions in the yearlong 2023–24 season, and a full third of them will open in those final nine days. What's more, there will now be 15 original musicals (the most in literally decades) competing for just five slots in the Best Musical category at the Tonys—and that's not counting the six musical revivals whose performers and creative teams will be jostling for room in the other categories.
So spare a kind thought for your good friends, the theater critics, as we gird our loins for this difficult time. Meanwhile, you can buy tickets for Illinoise here.
