Millennials Are Killing Musicals World Premiere at Colony Theatre
Broadway stars Emma Hunton, John Krause, and Diana Huey lead the world premiere of Millennials Are Killing Musicals at Burbank's Colony Theatre this May.
The Colony Theatre in Burbank will host the world premiere of Millennials Are Killing Musicals, an original musical comedy that is scheduled to play a limited engagement May 2–17, with preview performances on April 30 and May 1, before the production moves to New York.
The show comes with a cast that carries serious Broadway credentials. Emma Hunton, who appeared in Spring Awakening and Next to Normal on Broadway and played Elphaba in the national tour of Wicked, will take the role of Brenda, a single millennial mom trying to navigate adulthood against the backdrop of social media pressure. Hunton is also known to television audiences from the Hulu series Good Trouble. John Krause, whose stage credits include Hadestown on Broadway, the Wicked national tour, and Jesus Christ Superstar at the Hollywood Bowl, will play Nate and Atlas. Diana Huey, known for Disney’s The Little Mermaid, rounds out the principal trio as Katrina, Brenda’s younger, pregnant, and entirely unprepared influencer sister.
The premise centers on these three women working to strip away what the show describes as the Greek Chorus of social media filters on their lives. Writer Nico Juber, who holds a spot on the Broadway Women’s Fund’s Women to Watch on Broadway list, wrote the book, music, and lyrics. The score is described as contemporary pop-rock.
The production has a documented development trail before arriving at The Colony. It received support from New York Theatre Barn’s New Works Series and mostlyNEWmusicals, an Off-Broadway developmental production through Out of the Box Theatrics, and a workshop at IAMA Theatre Company. An Off-Broadway cast album was released on the Yellow Sound Label and Brainstorm Records.
Directing is Tony Award nominee Kristin Hanggi, best known for Rock of Ages, which became a Broadway hit and spawned productions worldwide. Anthony Lucca, a Colony Theatre veteran who previously worked on Calvin Berger and The Civility of Albert Cashier at the venue, will serve as music director, arranger, and orchestrator. Choreography is by Michelle Elkin, whose credits include associate choreographer on Wonderland on Broadway and The Wedding Singer at The Colony. Casting is by Michael Donovan, CSA, and Richie Ferris, CSA. Additional design team members and casting have not yet been announced.
For The Colony, which operates out of a 276-seat house on Magnolia Boulevard, landing a world premiere with this level of pedigree ahead of a New York run represents exactly the kind of project the theater has built its reputation around. The venue has functioned for years as a development house with professional production values — close enough to the industry infrastructure concentrated in Burbank and the broader Los Angeles area to attract talent, yet sized for the kind of intimate storytelling that new musicals require before they scale up.
The subject matter should land with a specific cultural fluency in Burbank. The entertainment industry workforce that fills offices and soundstages throughout the Media District skews heavily millennial, and the show’s satirical take on social media performance and identity won’t require much translation for that audience.
Tickets and additional production details are available through The Colony Theatre’s website. The run closes May 17.
