Todrick Hall’s new muscial, “MIDNIGHT,” tackles prejudices and complicated relationships in the Civil War-era south, but it could just as easily resonate in today’s cultural climate.
The production received generally positive reviews during two sold-out workshop performances in London, and is moving to the Off-Broadway Daryl Roth Theatre in September for a month-long run (Sat., Sept. 12 to Sun., Nov. 8).
The show just announced its full cast and it includes some well-known names in New York theater and television, among them Tony Award nominee Sidney DuPont (Paradise Square, Beautiful)
Hall will reprise the lead role as Rail, with co-star Jeremy Beloate (The Voice) as Richard, two young men living in the American South who come together to build Richard’s house.
The project is the backdrop for an exploration of “love, identity, empathy, and the humanity that connects us across the boundaries of race, class, and expectation,” according to the show’s snyopsis.
The sung-through score (musical with no spoken dialogue) is multi-genre, from blends gospel, rhythm and blues, pop, rock, folk, opera, and musical theatre.
The show will feature six Black characters and six white characters, “whose relationships challenge the worlds they have inherited and the assumptions they carry.”
“As friendships deepen, romances blossom, and beliefs are tested, the characters of MIDNIGHT are forced to confront what it truly means to understand another person’s experience,” the snyposis says.
“Six years ago, frustrated by the state of the world and a level of division I had never experienced in my lifetime, I sat down to write the show I wanted to see,” said Hall in a statement.
“I wanted to create a story that felt as timeless as it was timely, a truly original musical that I hoped could change hearts, minds, and lives.”
As the characters’ friendships deepen, “romances blossom, and beliefs are tested. The characters are forced to confront what it truly means to understand another person’s experience.”
While the musical is not explicitly about gay romance, it’s one of the varied themes that the show will explore, according to a source. We’ll stop there to avoid spoilers.
The 28-member company, a mix of Broadway veterans and rising talent from television and music, includes:
• Sidney DuPont (Paradise Square, Beautiful)
• Kolbi Jordan, a Top 10 finalist from Season 23 of “American Idol”
• Jeremy Beloate, a finalist on “The Voice” subsequently signed by Snoop Dogg
• Autumn Hurlbert, most recently Tammy Faye Bakker in Elton John’s Tammy Faye.
• Ayana George, who originated Katherine Jackson in Broadway’s MJ
• Ndaya Dream Hoskins, from the original Broadway company of Smash
• Jimmy Brewer and Dwayne Clark of Shucked
• JJ Niemann, Hamilton, Back to the Future and The Book of Mormon
• Brayden James Newby, Death Becomes Her and Moulin Rouge!
• Omar Madden, Real Women Have Curves
• Charlotte Odusanya, The Wiz national tour
• Jaylon C. Crump, Hermes on the Hadestown national tour
Hall wrote, directs and coreographed the musicial.
The creative team includes Laurence Stannard (Music Supervisor, Arranger, Co-Orchestrator, Music Director), Mark Crossland (Co-Original Orchestrations), Morgan Large (Set Designer), Beck Jones (Costume Designer), Jake DeGroot (Lighting Designer), Lawrence Schober (Sound Designer), Charles G. LaPointe (Wig & Hair Designer), Sujotta Pace (Casting Director) and Stephen Kopel (Casting Director).
The official opening night set for Sunday, Sept, 27. Tickets are currently available through an exclusive presale with registration at midnightoffbroadway.com.
General public tickets are on sale now. Click here: Telecharge to purchase.
(Photo Credits: Autumn Hurlbert, Yellowbelly; Dwayne Clark, Veronica-Gonmiah; Jeremy Beloate, Luke Fontana, Ndaya Dream Hoskins, Lamont Brown, Sidney DuPont, Jeff Mosier; Other credits unavailable.)
Keith Girard has four decades of experience as an award-winning reporter, editor-in-chief, and senior media executive. Keith’s career began in Washington, D.C., where he was a reporter for The Washington Post and a contributing editor for Regardie’s and Washingtonian magazines. He also worked as a writer/producer in CNN’s Washington Bureau and has written non-fiction books on the U.S. Marines in the Gulf War and Donald Trump and two novels, “The Heidelberg Conundrum” and “The Curse of Northam Bay.”