Telly Leung

Rent: Filmed Live on Broadway

Set in New York City's gritty East Village, the revolutionary rock opera RENT tells the story of a group of bohemians struggling to live and pay their rent. "Measuring their lives in love," these starving artists strive for success and acceptance while enduring the obstacles of poverty, illness and the AIDS epidemic.

Tom Jones & Harvey Schmidt: Simple Little Things

60 years ago, on May 3, 1960, at the tiny Sullivan Street Playhouse in Greenwich Village, The Fantasticks opened on the sparsest of budgets and ran uninterrupted for nearly 42 years, closing on January 13, 2002 after a record 17,162 performances. Its elegance and simplicity endured four decades of the chaotic world going “Round and Round” while its creators continued their evolution into several uptown successes. Including 110 In the Shade and I Do! I Do!, the jewel box of creativity that is the Jones and Schmidt collaboration is perhaps the most steadfast of its kind.

25 Years of Rent: Measured in Love

A quarter century ago, Jonathan Larson’s groundbreaking musical, RENT, opened at New York Theatre Workshop. From its humble beginnings at NYTW, this rock musical went on to shape a generation. What began in the East Village traveled to Broadway, across the nation and around the world. On March 2, 2021, NYTW held its biggest fundraising event of the year, 25 YEARS OF RENT: MEASURED IN LOVE. This virtual celebration of RENT and its impact on the collective cultural consciousness featured a selection of iconic songs by some of today’s most beloved recording and theatre artists, exclusive content uncovering how RENT came to life, and reflections on the driving force of Jonathan’s legacy in the American theatre.

Bongee Bear and the Kingdom of Rhythm

A young orphan bear named Bongee befriends Princess Katrina. When the witch Bandrilla casts a spell on the people of the Kingdom preventing them from doing what they love most, dancing, Bongee Bear set out to break the spell.

Elegies for Angels, Punks and Raging Queens

Elegies for Angels, Punks and Raging Queens is a celebration of the lives lost to AIDS told in free-verse monologues with a blues, jazz and rock score.

George Gershwin: Bidin' My Time

This program is set among excerpts of letters and archival interviews with George Gershwin and his brother and lyricist Ira Gershwin, his longtime musical collaborator Kay Swift, and the legendary pianist Oscar Levant. The words of Todd Duncan and Anne Brown, the original Porgy and Bess, provide an intimate perspective on the creation of Gershwin’s “folk opera” and the invaluable contributions of its performers. Peppered among hits like “Embraceable You” and “Love Is Here To Stay” are pieces of essays written by George Gershwin in which he pondered and pontificated on the meaning of “jazz” and the definition of “music” itself. Asserting his constant effort to eschew genres, Gershwin wrote: “From any sound critical standpoint, labels mean nothing at all. Good music is good music, even if you call it ‘oysters.’”

Allegiance

Inspired by the true-life experience of its star George Takei, Allegiance follows one family's extraordinary journey in this untold American story following the events of Pearl Harbor. Their loyalty was questioned, their freedom taken away, but their spirit could never be broken.

Rodgers, Rodgers & Guettel: Statues and Stories

The groundbreaking works of Richard Rodgers, most famously in his collaborations with Lorenz Hart and Oscar Hammerstein II, gave us the foundation of the modern musical form. But Rodgers also left a family lineage that has enriched the craft in abundant fashion. In a loose song cycle format, this program will weave his work with the charming and witty creations of daughter Mary Rodgers (Once Upon a Mattress) and the complex and extraordinary palette of grandson Adam Guettel (The Light in the Piazza, Floyd Collins), as we look toward the progression of musicals over the decades and into the future.