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originally published: 11/22/2022

(NEW YORK, NY) -- Out of the Box Theatrics will produce an Off-Broadway developmental production of Millennials Are Killing Musicals, written by Drama League songwriting contest and NAMT Challenge winner Nico Juber. The production, to be directed by Ciara Renée (Waitress, Frozen), will play a limited engagement from May 9-28, 2023, at Theatre 71 at the Church of the Blessed Sacrament (152 West 71st Street). Opening night is May 15.

Millennials Are Killing Musicals has been in development for four years. The show was an O’Neill NMTC Semifinalist in 2021 and 2022, seen in a recent NYC industry reading, and songs showcased through New York Theatre Barn's New Works Series and sold-out concert presentations at Feinstein’s/Vitellos (mostlyNEWmusicals) and 54 Below.

Millennials Are Killing Musicals is an entirely original, irreverently funny, and heartfelt musical about reclaiming authentic happiness in a social media filtered world. Meet Brenda: a single Millennial mom who wants to do better “adulting” like the seemingly perfect Jake’s Mom at her daughter’s school. Brenda is finally ready for love and creativity in her life when her younger #influencer sister Katrina shows up at her house, eight months pregnant, totally unprepared for motherhood. The three women must shed the Greek chorus of social media filters on their lives to achieve their dreams.

The creative team also features Ted Arthur (Moulin Rouge, Diana) as Music Supervisor and Arranger and Devyn Rush as Vocal Arranger. Aaron Grant Theatrical is consulting General Manager, with casting by tbd casting co.  

New York Theatre Barn serves as Associate Producer.

 

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Casting and additional production creative team will be announced in coming weeks. 

Nico Juber (she/her) is an award-winning musical writer, playwright, Millennial mom, and twenty-year lymphoma survivor. Her original comedy, Millennials Are Killing Musicals (O'Neill NMTC Semifinalist ’21 & ‘22), was seen in a spring 2022 NYC industry reading (directed by Ciara Renée), and songs have been showcased through New York Theatre Barn's New Works Series and sold-out concert presentations at Feinstein’s/Vitellos (mostlyNEWmusicals) and 54 Below. Her short sci-fi musical, Holo, won one of the top awards in the 2020 NAMT 15-Minute Musical Challenge, had its premiere at the Beck Center for the Arts (with Baldwin Wallace Music Theatre, directed by Ciara Renée) in February 2021, and was selected for the 2021 Broadway OnDemand Short Film Festival. Along with collaborator Selena Seballo, she was one of the Drama League Light the Lights Challenge winners for their song "Our Next Act," performed by André De Shields at their benefit in October 2021. Other songs have been selected for and performed at the Arts Ignite Art of Wellness Benefit, A Little New Music, The Latest Draft, Green Room 42, with original song commissions for 54 Below programming and the play Stormé by Carolyn M. Brown (with collaborator Christie Chiles Twillie). As a playwright, her work was featured in the Live & In Color 24-Hour Play Festival and will be included in an upcoming short play series that showcases the right to health care and privacy with a focus on abortion called The a Chronicles. She is a proud member of ASCAP, Dramatists Guild, Ring of Keys, League of Professional Theatre Women, and current Maestra Moms affinity group co-chair. Nico holds a B.A. from Tufts University.

Ciara Renée is the director of and producing partner for Millennials Are Killing Musicals. After over a decade as an actress, known for such headlining Broadway roles as Jenna in Waitress and Elsa in Frozen, Off-Broadway roles like Esmeralda in Disney’s original production of The Hunchback of Notre Dame and Mariana in MCC Theater’s The Wrong Man (Lortel Award nominee) as well as TV roles like Hawkgirl in “Legends of Tomorrow,” Ciara has begun the transition to directing. Previously, Ciara directed a short film of another musical by Nico Juber, entitled Holo for NAMT's 5x15 Festival, in collaboration with BW and Beck Center for the Arts. She also co-directed (with Michael Dallatorre) the short documentary Beating the Odds – Children’s Defense Fund of California.  She is the writer, EP, and co-director of the short film Reddy Records (Post prod). Most recently, Ciara directed a ground-breaking electronic one-man musical entitled The Runaround by Stewart Tabler, as well as a sold-out 54 Below concert and industry reading of Millenials... Ciara is passionate about changing the landscape of what stories get to be told and who gets to tell them by amplifying women's, queer, and racially diverse stories. And though she is a millennial, she quite misses having a doorbell!

Out of the Box Theatrics (OOTB) is an Off-Broadway not-for-profit committed to lifting the voices of marginalized communities through the stories they tell. OOTB also produces site specific theatre to provide a more intimate and challenging experience to our audiences' expectation of theater. Out of the Box Theatrics was founded in 2015 by Elizabeth Flemming. Recent nominations include 2020 Off Broadway Alliance Best Musical Revival and 2022 Drama Desk for Outstanding Revival of a Musical (Baby) and 2021 Drama League Outstanding Digital Theater, Individual Production and 2022 Antonyo Award, Best Digital Theater Production (The Last 5 Years).

New York Theatre Barn is a Manhattan-based non-profit theatre company that serves as an inclusive home for original culture shifting musicals during incubation. Since 2007, New York Theatre Barn has been providing space, funding, and a safe opportunity to experiment in front of live audiences often for the first time. The company serves underrepresented artists and audiences in their commitment to anti-racist, equity, and anti-oppression ideologies while adopting a decolonial approach to theatre making and practice. For artists, the support of NYTB means investment in process. For audiences, NYTB offers a glimpse inside the blueprint of an original musical being developed in real time by living writers. NYTB believes that there is no formula for musical theatre, except authenticity.