New Musical Premieres at Colony Theatre in Burbank

Rehearsals are underway at The Colony Theatre in Burbank for a new original musical that spent years bouncing between coasts before finding a home on Magnolia Boulevard. Millennials Are Killing Musicals, written by Los Angeles-based writer Nico Juber, begins previews April 30 and May 1, with opening night set for May 2.

The show takes a premise most people over 30 have heard a hundred times, that millennials are killing everything, and builds something sharper out of it. At the center is Brenda, a single mother trying to reclaim her creative voice while raising her daughter and holding down work. When her influencer sister shows up eight months pregnant and buried in followers, filters, and content calendars, Brenda gets pulled into a system that quietly starts rewiring how she sees herself. The Filters and The Algo aren’t just background noise in this world. They drive the action, shaping what characters want, post, and believe.

The score is pop rock, fast-moving, and built for momentum. Funny, too, by most accounts from those who’ve seen earlier versions of the work.

The production’s path to Burbank is the kind of story that says a lot about how original musicals survive right now. Juber developed the show through a workshop at Off-Broadway’s Out of the Box Theatricals and a staged reading at LA’s IAMA Theatre Company. From there, he started talking to artistic directors around the country about which theater could serve as the launch pad for a full production aimed at New York. The Colony became the best fit.

That’s not a coincidence. Producing Artistic Director Heather Provost is a Tony Award-nominated Broadway producer herself, and she’s built The Colony’s programming around a specific philosophy: musicals that are engaging, accessible, and genuinely fun to watch. She’s also pushed that idea into the community, with programs like “Tunesday,” an open mic night operating under a simple principle. No Judgment: Just Joy.

So the match between this show and this theater makes sense.

The director is Kristin Hanggi, herself a Tony Award nominee, who most Burbank theater people will know as the director who shepherded Rock of Ages from Los Angeles all the way to Broadway. She knows the path this production is trying to walk, and she knows what it takes to get there.

The cast assembled for this run reflects the kind of talent that tends to attach itself to a project with real momentum. Emma Hunton, a Broadway actress known for playing Elphaba in Wicked, is in. So is John Krause from Hadestown, and Jennifer Leigh Warren, an original cast member from Little Shop of Horrors. Hadestown, which won the Tony for Best Musical in 2019, gave Krause a platform that audiences here will recognize. TV actress Aynsley Bubbico rounds out part of the ensemble alongside Michael Thomas Grant, Lana McKissack, and others.

Music Director Anthony Lucca leads the musical side of the production.

MyBurbank first reported on the production’s arrival and the development history behind it.

The Colony Theatre itself, a landmark performing arts space in the heart of Burbank’s arts corridor, seats just under 300 people, which means every performance during this run will feel close. That intimacy works for a show about identity and visibility, two things that land differently in a room where you can see the actors’ faces.

Still, the New York ambition is real. The Colony isn’t being coy about it. This is a world premiere run with a clear next step in mind, and the creative team has structured it that way from the start.

For Burbank residents, the show lands during a stretch of spring when the city’s arts programming tends to pick up. Tickets are available now, and given the cast and the director attached, this one will sell. The Colony has earned a reputation for programming that rewards people who actually show up, and Millennials Are Killing Musicals looks like exactly the kind of bet that pays off for a local audience willing to get in early on something before it leaves town.

Previews start April 30. Opening night is May 2. The Colony Theatre is located at 555 N. Third Street in Burbank.