THE FESTIVAL SCORECARD

This past weekend, producers Josh Saltman and David B. Schwartz took a very big shot in producing The Festival at Hutton Brickyards in New York. So how was The Festival? Here’s my scorecard.

Over three days they had three stages of performances with a rotating schedule of Broadway stars performing. There were also meet-and-greet opportunities, merchandise (of course), food for purchase and other vendors.

Anyone who has had big dreams knows that there is a big learning curve with the first realization of that dream.

As hockey great Wayne Gretzky said, “You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.”

I attended all three days and here are my thoughts. Note that it would have been impossible to see every show.

THE SHOWS

FRIDAY:

Disney Songbook: This was my first indication of the expected audience for The Festival. Every song that was performed in this hour-long show came from an animated film or the Broadway version of an animated film. But the oldest title was The Lion King (1994). There was one Broadway song, A Change in Me, which was added to Beauty and the Beast in 1998.

Perhaps films like Snow White, Pinocchio, Mary Poppins, Winnie the Pooh, The Jungle Book and more are just too old.

Reeve Carney and Eva Noblezada: The married co-stars of Hadestown proved to be immensely likeable in their hour-long set. They should take their show on the road. The music was great. The shtick was funny (watching them do Money Money from Cabaret was a hoot). More importantly, they truly have a great time and that translated.

Friday’s Big Show: A Weekend in the Country: This is where the production values got kicked up significantly. It felt like a genuine Broadway show. Alex Newell was, without question, the star of this show. They performed songs from Once on This Island, Chicago, Dreamgirls and Shucked.

Mandy Gonzalez having a reunion with Christopher Jackson, who then had a reunion with Javier Muñoz could serve as inspiration for other programming. (See Duet to Me One More Time below.)

Amy Jasmine Rogers singing Something to Shout About and Christopher Jackson singing Aquarius (with the rhythm track of George Benson’s On Broadway accompanying him) were also standouts.

SATURDAY:

Seth Rudetsky and Friends: I only saw Kelli O’Hara briefly at the top of this show. She performed Getting to Know You from The King and I. But she performed it in various styles: as she did in her Tony-winning performance, as Julie Andrews might have sung it, as Joan Roberts (who played Heidi Schiller in the 2001 revival in which O’Hara played Young Hattie) and as Christina Aguilera. Quite impressive and entertaining.

80’s Jukebox: Broadway stars singing their favorite songs from the 80s. Not 80s musicals, mind you. Favorite moments were Norbert Leo Butz singing Peter Gabriel’s Sledgehammer with Renée Elise Goldsberry and Lena Hall as his back-up singers. Goldsberry singing Alone with Kelli O’Hara as a backup singer. The wildest thing of the entire festival, and something you wouldn’t find on anyone’s bingo card:

O’Hara singing LL Cool J’s I Need Love with Goldsberry.

Lena Hall: Though she can sing Broadway material as well as anyone, she leaned into her amazing rock ’n’ roll side for this one-hour show that included two Radiohead songs (Karma Police and Exit Music for a Film), Smells Like Teen Spirit (dedicated to O’Hara), The House of the Rising Sun and two songs from Hedwig and the Angry Inch (Tear Me Down and Midnight Radio.) I’ve long been a fan and there was more to come later in the day.  

Jason Robert Brown and Friends: He opened with Kindness, Patience and Respect and Shed It. The latter was cut from his musical Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. Not knowing either, this was a great start. Special guests included O’Hara singing To Build a Home from The Bridges of Madison County, Jenn Colella singing Mr. Hopalong Heartbreak from Urban County and Butz singing If I Didn’t Believe in You from The Last Five Years. (This was quite the reminder of how much I’ve missed Butz being on stage.)

The reunion of the cast of Rent was notable for how much they were genuinely appreciative of the love from the audiences since day one and up through the festival itself. Many of the songs were performed. Most impressively, La Vie Boheme required the participation of the entire company. Even if Taye Diggs didn’t remember all his lines, this was the highlight.

Perhaps no one enjoyed the Rent reunion more than moderator Jennifer Ashley Tepper. She’s on the right side of the photo and that smile never left her face the entire time.

Saturday’s Big Show – Saturday Night: Many of the day’s participants also performed in this show. O’Hara opened with Sondheim’s What More Do I Need? from the musical that gave this show its title. That was followed by Not Funny written for the sorely-missed Rebecca Luker. Her set closed with the title song from The Light in the Piazza.

Butz sang Fight the Dragons from Big Fish. Colella came out to sing Melissa Etheridge’s Come to My Window and Me and the Sky from Come From Away.

The wow moment was hearing Solea Pfeiffer sing The Way I Am from the upcoming musical Wanted. A contemporary torch song, this made me want to see the show when it opens later this year.

Hall came on stage to sing The Origin of Love from Hedwig and Matt Rodin sang Getting Married Today from Company.

O’Hara came back to perform This Nearly Was Mine from South Pacific. She was joined by Goldsberry for You’ll Never Walk Alone from Carousel.

Goldsberry closed the show with Unimaginable and Satisfied from Hamilton.

SUNDAY:

Rent stars Adam Pascal and Anthony Rapp performed a mostly rock show with songs by U2, David Bowie, Superchunk, Radiohead and Queen with Bowie. I didn’t see the whole show but found it thoroughly entertaining.

Duet To Me One More Time: This show, as structured, should be inspiration for next year’s festival. (Yes, they announced the return of The Festival in 2027). Two singers would perform together, then one would leave and another singer would join the first singer. This round robin, of sorts, worked quite well.

My favorite moments were The Next Ten Minutes by Lauren Patten and Jenn Colella; Andrew Barth Feldman and Tyler Joseph Ellis singing Hey Little Songbird from Hadestown (with each singing in the style of original stars Patrick Page and Noblezada); co-host Patti Murin and Will Reynolds singing Ease from The Violet Hour and Mitch Wood singing the insipid song Tomorrow from Annie as both Josh Groban and Ben Platt.

Sunday’s Big Show – Sunday in the Park: Feldman sang For Forever from Dear Evan Hansen. Patten got the crowd going with Ironic and You Oughta Know from Jagged Little Pill. Denée Benton sang What Baking Can Do from Waitress.

Brian Stokes Mitchell gave us some older material. He opened with Man of La Mancha (I, Don Quixote). That was followed by How to Handle a Woman from Lerner and Loewe’s Camelot. Even though he made fun of Les Misérables at first, he sang Stars (and realized what there was to admire in the musical). It Ain’t Necessarily So from Porgy and Bess and The Quest (aka the Impossible Dream) closed out his set.

The last performer was Audra McDonald who opened with I Am What I Am from La Cage Aux Folles. She then performed Brown’s Stars and the Moon and Gershwin’s Summertime.

The something strange, but likely planned, happened. Seth Rudetsky interrupted her set to tell a story about young Audra asking the director of the school play, Hansel and Gretel, to add a song for her character, the witch, after she dies.

The song? The Rose.

Rudetsky then auctioned off three places to sing the song with Audra as a fundraiser for Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS. The three and McDonald all seems to have a great time. Plus they raised $9,000 for BC/EFA.

Back to the setlist: Crazy He Calls Me by Gershwin performed both as Billie Holiday and in her own voice.

Benton joined for the duet of Happy Days Are Here Again/Get Happy. This is the second time I’ve seen her perform this duet. The first was with Patti LuPone at the Hollywood Bowl. Audra followed with a brilliantly arranged version of the title song from Cabaret. Andy Einhorn did the arrangement and it was terrific.

The show closed with Stokes and Audra coming together again, “smoke ‘em if you got ‘em” she said, to sing Wheels of a Dream from Ragtime.

ROOM FOR IMPROVEMENT:

Overall, The Festival worked quite well for a first-time event. However, there are a few areas that could be improved:

Wi-fi must be improved for next year. The event was advertised as cashless, yet vendors couldn’t process orders in a timely manner because credit card approvals weren’t happening quickly. This created long wait times to get food in the breaks offered between shows.

As for those breaks themselves, 30 minutes proved to be insufficient time to get food, eat it without shoveling it in your mouth and getting back to the venue. This particularly applies to the mainstage shows. Apart from my own experiences, I heard from countless people how there just wasn’t enough time to eat between shows.

Camera operators and security personnel must be given and required to use earpieces while in a performance space. Countless times they weren’t using them and their walkies were announcing to anyone nearby what was being discussed. This was a significant distraction from the performances. Particularly those who kept their walkies turned up.

My seats were on the right side of the mainstage house. There was no respite from the sun once 4:30 or so came around. We were hit in the faces with sun for over an hour and most people in this section found themselves sweating profusely as a result. This impacted quite a few people who were seated there as well.

Certainly some kind of barrier to protect people paying hundreds of dollars to be there can be erected while still maintaining the ability to get people in and out on that side.

Customer comfort should be made a priority here.

SUGGESTIONS FOR 2027:

Clearly reunions are very popular. Finding an anchor event around a reunion is a great idea that should be continued for next year. However, other smaller reunions can be built into the programming. A few of those happened this year within the context of various shows and fans were talking excitedly about those. Schedule more!

Composer’s and Friends is also a winning idea. I personally found Jason Robert Brown’s set more interesting than Tom Kitt’s. Hearing songs straight from the composers and cast members who appeared in his shows should be part of each day, when possible. Imagine having Marc Shaiman, Adam Guettel, Jeanine Tesori for next year.

The audience spanned all age ranges. The Disney Songbook was a great idea that can serve as the foundation for other such programs. For instance, how about a Rodgers & Hammerstein Songbook? A Gershwin Songbook? Alan Menken Songbook? Have younger performers sing music from earlier times in Broadway’s history would inspire younger audiences to check out these songs and songwriters.

APPLAUSE:

Great use of the Festival Apprentices and giving them their own showcase. This idea should continue.

Major kudos to the musicians who zig-zagged their way across Hudson Brickyards to perform all day long. That was a herculean task they handled brilliantly.

Lastly, I know how challenging this festival was to put together. Particularly with last minute cancellations, illnesses and weather. Josh Saltman and David B. Schwartz should be congratulated for pulling off The Festival.

Will I be going next year? With a mostly outstanding scorecard, I will just reply like this:

Leave you? Leave you? How could I leave you? Sweetheart I have to confess! Could I leave you? Yes. Will I leave you? Will I leave you? Guess!

If you attended The Festival, let me know your thoughts in the comments section.

Main Photo: The Big Show (photo by Austin Ruffer/Courtesy The Festival)