(MILLBURN, NJ) -- Paper Mill Playhouse (Mark S. Hoebee, Producing Artistic Director; Michael Stotts, Executive Director), recipient of the 2016 Regional Theatre Tony Award, has announced its 2023–2024 season of five musicals, including a world premiere, a Tony Award winner, and an electrifying new musical inspired by real events in post-emancipation Texas.
Paper Mill Playhouse’s 2023–2024 lineup features The Great Gatsby (October 12–November 12, 2023), Fiddler on the Roof (December 6, 2023–January 7, 2024), After Midnight (January 31–February 25, 2024), Gun & Powder (April 4–May 5, 2024), and Beautiful: The Carole King Musical (June 5–30, 2024).
“We are thrilled to invite audiences to experience the variety of musicals that Paper Mill Playhouse has to offer in its 85th season,” said Mark S. Hoebee. “We launch our 2023–2024 season with the world premiere of a new musical based on one of the most widely read novels in the American canon, The Great Gatsby, with a Jazz Age–inspired score by a Tony Award–nominated team. The holiday season will find us with Tevye and his daughters of the beloved family classic Fiddler on the Roof on the Paper Mill stage for the first time in 40 years. We’ll kick off 2024 at the swinging Cotton Club with After Midnight, immersed in the sounds and eye-popping dance moves of the Harlem Renaissance. We can hardly wait to introduce audiences to the Clarke sisters of Gun & Powder, African American twins who defy racial boundaries to seize what is rightfully theirs. Finally, we close the season with the irresistible, uplifting music of an American icon in Beautiful: The Carole King Musical.”
Michael Stotts commented, “This is a Paper Mill season with something for every theatergoer, as well as for people who may not think theater is for them. We aim to tell a variety of stories through many musical genres, from the legendary fortitude of two African American women after emancipation, to the traditions and warmth of a Russian Jewish family’s love, to the grandeur of the Jazz Age, all the way to Hall of Fame pop music. Patrons can dive even deeper into these stories through our behind-the-scenes audience enrichment programs, including cast Q&As, Paper Mill Prologues and The Director’s Viewpoint. This season exemplifies the rich history and significance of Paper Mill Playhouse through its 85 years.”
Paper Mill Playhouse offers three-, four- and five-show subscription packages, available now starting at just $111. Each subscription package includes a different level of special benefits – see www.PaperMill.org for details. Accessibly priced youth subscriptions are available for children under 18 with the purchase of an adult subscription. Tickets to individual shows will be on sale beginning August 14, 2023. Tickets and subscriptions may be purchased by calling (973) 376-4343, online, or at the box office.
Paper Mill Playhouse’s 2023–2024 Season
World Premiere - The Great Gatsby from October 12–November 12, 2023. Book by Kait Kerrigan; Music by Jason Howland; Lyrics by Nathan Tysen; Based on the Novel by F. Scott Fitzgerald; Music Direction by Daniel Edmonds; Choreographed by Dominique Kelley; Directed by Marc Bruni.A soul-stirring, glamourous, and sizzling world premiere musical. F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby is one of the most beloved tales of all time, having sold over 30 million novels and adapted to an acclaimed blockbuster film. Set in the Roaring Twenties, the story follows eccentric and mysterious millionaire Jay Gatsby, who will stop at nothing in the pursuit of the lost love of his youth, Daisy Buchanan. Through its fascinatingly nuanced characters, driven by complex inner lives—with passions and longings that boil, and then erupt—The Great Gatsby has always been destined to sing. Featuring an electrifying jazz and pop-infused score written by Tony Award nominees Nathan Tysen (Paradise Square) & Jason Howland (Beautiful: The Carole King Musical – Grammy Award winner), a book by Kait Kerrigan (The Mad Ones), and direction by Marc Bruni (Beautiful: The Carole King Musical), this world premiere musical is set to roar The Great Gatsby into the 21st century.
By special arrangement with Chunsoo Shin - award-winning Korean theatre producer and OD Company president.
Fiddler on the Roof from December 6, 2023–January 7, 2024. Book by Joseph Stein; Music by Jerry Bock; Lyrics by Sheldon Harnick; Original Choreography by Jerome Robbins; Directed by Mark S. Hoebee. This beloved classic is sure to charm and captivate the entire family. The Tony Award–winning musical is set in a Russian village in the home of Tevye, a Jewish husband and father striving to uphold his family’s religious and cultural traditions. Directed by Paper Mill Producing Artistic Director Mark S. Hoebee with the original choreography of Jerome Robbins, Fiddler on the Roof’s timeless score includes such favorites as “Tradition,” “Matchmaker, Matchmaker,” “If I Were a Rich Man,” “To Life (L’Chaim!),” and “Sunrise, Sunset.”
Based on Sholem Aleichem stories by special permission of Arnold Perl
Produced on the New York Stage by Harold Prince. Original New York Stage Production Directed and Choreographed by Jerome Robbins.
This production of Fiddler on the Roof was licensed by Music Theatre International.
After Midnight from January 31–February 25, 2024. Conceived by Jack Viertel; Selected Text by Langston Hughes; Music by Duke Ellington, Jimmy McHugh, Harold Arlen and others. This electrifying musical revue transports you to the Cotton Club of the Harlem Renaissance, an unparalleled time in New York City when jazz and swing were king. After Midnight intertwines the poetry of Langston Hughes with songs from big-band legends Duke Ellington, Jimmy McHugh, Harold Arlen, Dorothy Fields, and more. The exhilarating set list 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.”
New Musical - Gun & Powder from April 4–May 5, 2024. Book and Lyrics by Angelica Chéri; Music by Ross Baum; Directed by Stevie Walker-Webb. Gun & Powder is a new musical inspired by the true story of Mary and Martha Clarke, African American twin sisters who take extraordinary measures to settle their mother’s sharecropper debt and save her home. In 1893 Texas, the Sisters Clarke—passing as white—embark on a remarkable Wild West adventure that examines race, family, and identity with two electrifying women who transformed from farm girls to outlaws to legends. Featuring book and lyrics by Angelica Chéri (a real-life descendant of Mary and Martha Clarke), music by Ross Baum, and direction by Obie winner Stevie Walker-Webb (Ain’t No Mo’).
In association with P3 Productions.
Beautiful: The Carole King Musical from June 5–30, 2024. Book by Douglas McGrath; Words and Music by Gerry Goffin & Carole King and Barry Mann & Cynthia Weil; Directed by Casey Hushion. This Tony-nominated musical follows the early life and career of Carole King on her journey from teenage songwriter to chart-topping solo artist. King wrote for many of the biggest names in music, often alongside her husband, but it wasn’t until she made the leap from the writer’s room to the stage that she truly found her voice. This inspiring story of love, heartbreak, and empowerment features over two dozen hits, including “One Fine Day,” “Will You Love Me Tomorrow,” and “Natural Woman.” Casey Hushion (Clue, A Jolly Holiday) returns to direct.
Music by Arrangement with Sony/ATV Music Publishing.
This production of Beautiful was licensed by Music Theatre International.
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.
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 Newsies, Les Misérables, Honeymoon in Vegas, A 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. We acknowledge that our theater stands on the traditional land of the Lenni-Lenape, and we 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.
