New Jersey Stage logo
New Jersey Stage Menu



 

Paper Mill Playhouse presents "After Midnight"

originally published: 12/24/2023

(MILLBURN, NJ) -- Paper Mill Playhouse presents After Midnight from January 31-February 25, 2024. Conceived by Jack Viertel (former Artistic Director of City Center Encores!), this Jazz Age rhythm and dance extravaganza is an electrifying musical revue that transports you to the Cotton Club of the Harlem Renaissance, an unparalleled time in New York City when jazz and swing were king. The production is  co-directed by Dominique Kelley and Paper Mill Playhouse’s Associate Artistic Director Jen Bender and choreographed by Kelley.

After Midnight intertwines the poetry of Langston Hughes with songs from big-band legends Duke Ellington, Cab Calloway, Harold Arlen, Dorothy Fields, and more. The exhilarating score features such hits as “I Can’t Give You Anything but Love,” “Stormy Weather,” “On the Sunny Side of the Street,” and “It Don’t Mean a Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing).”

After Midnight will star Angela Birchett (PMP & Broadway: The Color Purple), Sasha Hutchings (Broadway: Hamilton, My Fair Lady), Joshua Lamar (Lyric Opera: West Side Story; HBO Max: “Legendary”), James T. Lane (Broadway: Chicago, The Scottsboro Boys), Stanley Martin (Broadway: Disney’s Aladdin; International Tour: West Side Story), Aramie Payton (Broadway: MJ: The Musical; National Tour: Dreamgirls), Destinee Rea (PMP: Disney’s Hercules; Broadway: Tina: The Tina Turner Musical), Awa Sal Secka (Signature Theatre: Ragtime, Gun & Powder), Liv Symone (Broadway: Disney’s Aladdin; Starz: “Power Book III: Raising Kanan”), Harris Matthew Turner (Broadway: MJ: The Musical, Disney’s Frozen), Jasmine Pearl Villaroel (Centre Theater: Tuck Everlasting; Fulton Theatre: Grease), and Anthony Wayne (Broadway: Tina: The Tina Turner Musical, Once on This Island).

The production features music direction by Sean Mayes (Broadway: MJ: The Musical, Hadestown), scenic and lighting design by Adam Honoré (Broadway: Purlie Victorious, Ain’t No Mo’), costume design by Azalea Fairley (Broadway: Hamilton, A Strange Loop), sound design by Sadah Espii Proctor (Broadway: Trouble in Mind; Off-Broadway: Daphne), and hair and wig design by Alfreda Howard (Netflix: “Mystery Science Theatre 3000;” Off-Broadway: Mrs. Murray’s Menagerie). Casting is by Tara Rubin Casting. RL Campbell is the Production Stage Manager.

Paper Mill Playhouse’s 2024 lineup also features Fiddler on the Roof (through January 7, 2024), Gun & Powder (April 4– May 5, 2024), and Beautiful: The Carole King Musical (June 5 – 30, 2024).




Follow New Jersey Stage on social media
Facebook, Threads, Instagram, Twitter, Bluesky



Paper Mill Playhouse offers its audiences the opportunity to enhance their theater experience with behind-the-scenes views of mainstage productions, including Q&As held live in the theater with cast members. Paper Mill Prologues and The Director’s Viewpoint will be available to everyone on-demand in the Paper Mill Playhouse mobile app.

Award-winning access programs and services are available at all Paper Mill Playhouse productions, including audio-described performances, American Sign Language interpreted and open-captioned performances, Braille and large-print programs, and assistive listening devices.

Paper Mill Playhouse offers three-show subscription packages, starting at just $111. Each subscription package includes a different level of special benefits. Accessibly priced youth subscriptions are available for children under 18 with the purchase of an adult subscription. Tickets and subscriptions may be purchased by calling 973-376-4343, online at www.PaperMill.org, or at the box office.

Programs, dates, and artists are subject to change.

Paper Mill Playhouse, recipient of the 2016 Regional Theatre Tony Award, is a nationally renowned not-for-profit theater under the direction of Mark S. Hoebee (Producing Artistic Director) and Michael Stotts (Executive Director). A beloved New Jersey arts institution since 1938, Paper Mill creates and produces groundbreaking new musicals and reimagined classics. Several productions have gone on to Broadway and launched national tours, including Disney’s NewsiesLes Misérables, Honeymoon in VegasA Bronx Tale, and Bandstand. The theater is also the home to an award-winning center for musical theater education and artist training, with outreach programs that impact thousands of students each year.

As one of the nation’s premier musical theaters, Paper Mill fosters a creative environment to advance the art form, educate students, develop future theater lovers, nurture inclusion, and provide access for all. They acknowledge that their theater stands on the traditional land of the Lenni-Lenape, and they honor the Indigenous people who inhabited it for thousands of years before European settlers arrived.

Paper Mill Playhouse programs are made possible, in part, by funds from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, a partner agency of the National Endowment for the Arts. Paper Mill Playhouse is a member of the National Alliance for Musical Theatre, the Council of Stock Theatres, and the New Jersey Theatre Alliance.




Follow New Jersey Stage on social media
Facebook, Threads, Instagram, Twitter, Bluesky




 

EVENT PREVIEWS

Magnolia

Magnolia Productions presents the Northeast US premiere of "Ladies in Waiting: The Judgement of Henry VIII"

(ATLANTIC HIGHLANDS, NJ) -- Magnolia Productions, a Monmouth County based all-female theater company is presenting the Northeast US premiere of James Cougar Canfield's Ladies in Waiting: The Judgement of Henry VIII from May 30-June 6, 2025 at the Navesink Library.



Magnolia

Magnolia Productions presents James Cougar Canfield's "Ladies in Waiting: The Judgement of Henry VIII"

(ATLANTIC HIGHLANDS, NJ) -- Magnolia Productions presents the North East United States premiere of James Cougar Canfield's Ladies in Waiting: The Judgement of Henry VIII across two weekends from May 30 - June 7, 2025. The play finds the infamous king in a strange afterlife where he is confronted by the six women he married. Truths are revealed, scores are settled, and legacies are challenged.



American

American Theater Group to present "Broadway Tales and Tunes" Musical Revue at Grand Opening of Union Arts Center

(UNION, NJ) -- American Theater Group (ATG) will participate in the Grand Opening Weekend of the new Union Arts Center with its presentation of Broadway Tales and Tunes, a unique "behind-the-scenes" look at Broadway with veteran theater critic Peter Filichia on Saturday, June 7, 2025 at the Arts Center located at 1980 Morris Avenue in Union. Showtime is 7:00pm.



2025

2025 Next Step Festival to Take Place May 27 through June 8

(NEW YORK, NY) -- The 2025 Next Step Festival launches this spring at the Gural Theater (502 W 53rd St, NYC) with a weeklong lineup of boundary-pushing performances designed to spotlight emerging artists and urgent contemporary storytelling. Produced as a collaboration, this year’s festival offers a dynamic platform for theatrical innovation, social dialogue, and unfiltered creative expression.



Gateway

Gateway Playhouse presents "South Pacific"

(SOMERS POINT, NJ) -- Gateway Playhouse in Somers Point opens its first musical of 2025, South Pacific, by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II. The show runs on weekends from May 30 to June 8, 2025.



FEATURED EVENTS

ART | COMEDY | DANCE | FILM | MUSIC | THEATRE | COMMUNITY

To narrow results by date range, categories,
or region of New Jersey
click here for our advanced search.


Just

Just Off Broadway: Lights Camera Action

Saturday, June 07, 2025 @ 6:00pm
Bergen Performing Arts Center (bergenPAC)
30 North Van Brunt Street, Englewood, NJ 07631
category: theatre


 

Just

Just Off Broadway: Lights Camera Action

Saturday, June 07, 2025 @ 2:00pm
Bergen Performing Arts Center (bergenPAC)
30 North Van Brunt Street, Englewood, NJ 07631
category: theatre


 

Epic

Epic Actors’ Workshop presents the 20th South Asian Theatre Festival

Friday, June 13, 2025 @ 7:00pm
New Brunswick Performing Arts Center (NBPAC)
11 Livingston Avenue, New Brunswick, NJ 08901
category: theatre


 

Hedwig

Hedwig and the Angry Inch

Friday, June 13, 2025 @ 8:00pm
Bell Theater
101 Crawfords Corner Road, Holmdel, NJ 07733
category: theatre


 

Epic

Epic Actors’ Workshop presents the 20th South Asian Theatre Festival

Friday, June 13, 2025 @ 7:00pm
New Brunswick Performing Arts Center (NBPAC)
11 Livingston Avenue, New Brunswick, NJ 08901
category: theatre