State Theatre New Jersey 2023-24 Broadway Season Preview

(NEW BRUNSWICK, NJ) — State Theatre New Jersey has announced its 2023-24 Broadway Season, featuring eight fantastic shows. The 2023-24 Season includes Tony® Award-winning hits, Broadway fan favorites, and multiple State Theatre debuts. Season tickets for the 2023-24 Broadway Series are now on sale.

October 7-8, 2023 – Pretty Woman: The Musical. Pretty Woman: The Musical, based on one of Hollywood’s most beloved romantic stories of all time, springs to life with a powerhouse creative team led by two-time Tony® Award-winning director and choreographer Jerry Mitchell (Hairspray, Kinky Boots, Legally Blonde).

Brought to the stage by lead producer Paula Wagner, Pretty Woman: The Musical features an original score by Grammy®-winner Bryan Adams and Jim Vallance (“Summer of ’69”, “Heaven”), and a book by the movie’s legendary director Garry Marshall and screenwriter J. F. Lawton. Pretty Woman: The Musical will lift your spirits and light up your heart.

Featured in the musical is Roy Orbison and Bill Dee’s international smash hit song “Oh, Pretty Woman,” which inspired one of the most beloved romantic comedy films of all time. Pretty Woman the film was an international smash hit when it was released in 1990. Now, 30 years later, Pretty Woman: The Musical is “Big romance and big fun!” (Broadway.com). Pretty Woman: The Musical delivers on all the iconic moments you remember. Get ready to experience this dazzling theatrical take on a love story for the ages. Are you ready to fall in love all over again?

November 18-19, 2023 – Chicago, The Musical. After 25 years, Chicago is still the one musical with everything that makes Broadway shimmy-shake: a universal tale of fame, fortune, and all that jazz, with one show stopping song after another and the most astonishing dancing you’ve ever seen. No wonder Chicago has been honored with six Tony® Awards, two Olivier Awards, a Grammy®, and thousands of standing ovations. As we celebrate its 25th anniversary…you’ve got to come see why the name on everyone’s lips is still…Chicago.

January 5-7, 2024 – Come From Away.  This New York Times Critics’ Pick takes you into the heart of the remarkable true story of 7,000 stranded passengers and the small town in Newfoundland that welcomed them. Cultures clashed and nerves ran high, but uneasiness turned into trust, music soared into the night, and gratitude grew into enduring friendships.

Don’t miss this breathtaking musical written by Tony® nominees Irene Sankoff and David Hein, directed by Tony®-winning Best Director, Christopher Ashley and musical staging by Tony®-nominee Kelly Devine. The tour is directed by Daniel Goldstein with musical staging by Richard J. Hinds, based on the original Broadway direction and choreography.

On 9/11, the world stopped. On 9/12, their stories moved us all.

February 2-4, 2024 – Annie. Leapin’ Lizards! The world’s best-loved musical returns to State Theatre New Jersey with all your favorite songs including “Tomorrow,” “It’s the Hard-Knock Life,” and “Maybe.”

Holding onto hope when times are tough can take an awful lot of determination, and sometimes, an awful lot of determination comes in a surprisingly small package. Little Orphan Annie has reminded generations of theatergoers that sunshine is always right around the corner, and now the best-loved musical of all time is set to return in a new production…just as you remember it and just when we need it most.

Annie, directed by Jenn Thompson (Anne of Green Gables world-premiere), features the iconic book and score, written by Tony® Award-winners Thomas Meehan, Charles Strouse, and Martin Charnin. This celebration of family, optimism, and the American spirit remains the ultimate cure for all the hard knocks life throws your way.

February 9-11, 2024 – The Cher Show. Superstars come and go. Cher is forever. For six straight decades, only one unstoppable force has flat-out dominated popular culture…breaking down barriers, pushing boundaries and letting nothing and no one stand in her way.

The Cher Show is the Tony® Award-winning musical of her story, and it’s packed with so much Cher that it takes three women to play her: the kid starting out, the glam pop star, and the icon. The Cher Show is 35 smash hits, six decades of stardom, two rock-star husbands, a Grammy®, an Oscar®, an Emmy®, and enough Tony® Award-winning Bob Mackie gowns to cause a sequin shortage in New York City, all in one unabashedly fabulous new musical that will have audiences dancing in the aisles!

April 27-28, 2024 – Clue. Murder and blackmail are on the menu when six mysterious guests assemble at Boddy Manor for a night they’ll never forget! Was it Mrs. Peacock in the study with the knife? Or was it Colonel Mustard in the library with the wrench? Based on the cult 1985 Paramount movie and inspired by the classic Hasbro board game, Clue is the ultimate whodunit that will leave you dying of laughter and keep you guessing until the final twist.

May 3-4, 2024 – The Kite  Runner. Based on Khaled Hosseini’s beloved, international best-selling novel, The Kite Runner is a powerful new play adapted by Matthew Spangler that follows one man’s journey to confront his past and find redemption.

Afghanistan is a divided country, and two childhood friends are about to be torn apart. It’s a beautiful afternoon in Kabul and the skies are full of the excitement and joy of a kite flying tournament. But neither of the boys can foresee the incident which will change their lives forever. Told across two decades and two continents, The Kite Runner is an unforgettable journey of forgiveness, and shows us all that we can be good again.

May 11-12, 2024 – Mean Girls. Direct from Broadway, Mean Girls is the hilarious hit musical from an award-winning creative team, including book writer Tina Fey (30 Rock), composer Jeff Richmond (Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt), lyricist Nell Benjamin (Legally Blonde), and director Casey Nicholas (The Book of Mormon).

Cady Heron may have grown up on an African savanna, but nothing prepared her for the vicious ways of her strange new home: suburban Illinois. Soon, this naïve newbie falls prey to a trio of lionized frenemies led by the charming but ruthless Regina George. But when Cady devises a plan to end Regina’s reign, she learns the hard way that you can’t cross a Queen Bee without getting stung.

State Theatre New Jersey is offering season tickets to its Broadway Series. Season ticket holders can order their series tickets now before single tickets go on sale to the general public on July 21. They are also able to secure some of the best seats in the historic theater and those seats will remain theirs, year after year, for as long as they remain season ticket holders. Season tickets also come with many added benefits such as 20% savings off single ticket prices, a Broadway season lidded cup that can be used on all Broadway shows for half price drinks at their concessions, ticket exchanges within the series, and a bring your friends discount that allows single tickets (once on sale) to be added on at a 15% savings off single ticket prices.

Broadway show tickets are currently only available through their season ticket program. Single tickets to the Broadway shows will go on sale on July 21. For Broadway Season Tickets, visit STNJ.org/SeasonTickets, email Concierge@STNJ.org; call their Season Ticket Hotline at 732-247-7200, ext. 555; or schedule an appointment at STNJ.org/Concierge.   

The 2023-24 Broadway Series media sponsor is Magic 98.3.

After major renovations, State Theatre New Jersey has reopened and celebrated its 100th Anniversary in December 2021 in a fully renovated theater including newly renovated lobbies, all new restrooms, upgraded HVAC systems, a new elevator for access to all levels, and brand-new theater seats. Originally built as a silent film and vaudeville palace, State Theatre’s historic significance was honored by PBS by featuring it in its documentary series, Treasures of New Jersey, in the fall of 2018. “Treasures of New Jersey: State Theatre New Jersey” can be streamed online. Today, State Theatre is the largest performing arts center in Central New Jersey and has welcomed more than six million people through its doors since reopening as a non-profit performing arts center in 1988. State Theatre New Jersey is a cornerstone of the cultural vitality of Middlesex County and averages a total economic impact on New Brunswick and the surrounding area of more than $18 million a year. The mainstage programs have featured high-caliber artists such as Diana Ross, Tony Bennett, Kevin Hart, Ringo Starr, Melissa Etheridge, John Leguizamo, Harry Connick, Jr., Diana Krall, and Crosby, Stills & Nash. Program offerings include Broadway, orchestra, family, dance, comedy, rock/pop, jazz, Performances for Schools, and Sensory-Friendly Performances.

State Theatre New Jersey’s programs are made possible by funds from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, a partner agency of the National Endowment for the Arts. Grant funding has been provided by the Middlesex County Board of County Commissioners through a grant award from the Middlesex County Cultural and Arts Trust Fund.