SEVEN NEW MUSICALS TO BE SHOWCASED AT “THE FESTIVAL” – LOTTERY TICKETS NOW AVAILABLE!
Press Contact:
Rick Miramontez / Kendall Edwards / Ellie Detweiler
rick@omdkc.com / kendall@omdkc.com / ellie@omdkc.com
212 695 7400
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, PLEASE
SEVEN NEW MUSICALS TO BE SHOWCASED AT
“THE FESTIVAL”
THE FIRST-OF-ITS-KIND
THREE-DAY OUTDOOR BROADWAY MUSIC FESTIVAL
TAKING PLACE AUGUST 14 -16 IN KINGSTON, NY
AT HUTTON BRICKYARDS
“AUTOPILOT”
BY LEXI WEAKLEY AND JEREMY JACOBS
“BLUDLINE: A HIP-HOP ODYSSEY”
BY FERMIN SUERO JR. AND PETE WHITE
“HUZZAH!”
BY NELL BENJAMIN AND LAURENCE O’KEEFE
“LOVE SOMEBODY”
BY REHANA LEW MIRZA, MIKE LEW, AND BETTY WHO
“REGENCY GIRLS”
BY JENNIFER CRITTENDEN, GABRIELLE ALLAN, CURTIS MOORE, AND AMANDA GREEN
“SOMEDAY SOON”
BY NEENA BEBER, JEREMY LLOYD-STYLES AND JOCELYN MACKENZIE
AND
“STAR MACHINE”
BY HOLLEE TEMPLE, JOHN TEMPLE, HANK TEMPLE AND GIDEON TEMPLE
LIMITED LOTTERY TICKETS NOW AVAILABLE THROUGH BROADWAY DIRECT!
New York, NY (July 30, 2026) – Today, The Festival announced that seven highly anticipated new musicals will be showcased during the Previews of New Musicals program taking place at 2:00pm on Saturday, August 15 on the Broadway Direct Main Stage. The program, which will be hosted by NY1’s Frank DiLella, will showcase an exclusive sneak speak of selections from the new works, all in various stages of development, performed by Festival performers or performers currently attached to the projects. The complete list of new musicals can be seen below.
Additionally, it was announced today that limited number of lottery tickets for The Festival are now available through the Festival Digital Lottery powered by Broadway Direct. Fans can enter to win limited single day passes for $59 (Friday and Sunday) or $89 (Saturday) inclusive of all fees.
The lottery is now open and will close at 9am ET on Monday, August 3. Once the lottery closes, winners will be notified within minutes and will have three hours to claim and pay for tickets. Additional standby winners will be drawn at 12pm and 3pm ET on August 3. The number of passes awarded by the lottery are subject to availability. Limit one entry per person per each festival day and limit of two passes per entry. To enter and for more specifics, please visit https://lottery.broadwaydirect.com/show/the-festival-kingston/.
As previously announced The Festival will take place at Hutton Brickyards Riverfront Hotel + Venue in Kingston, New York. The first-of-its-kind celebration of Broadway’s greatest hits and brightest stars will feature three days of non-stop musical theater performances and activations from August 14 – 16, 2026.
PREVIEWS OF NEW MUSICALS
Autopilot
Book, Music and Lyrics by: Lexi Weakley, additions by Jeremy Jacobs
Directed by: Matt DiCarlo (Moulin Rouge, Associate Director)
Performers: Zal Owen (Harmony), Clair Rachel Howell (Wicked), Rachel Simone Webb (&Juliet), Laura Stracko (Suffs Tour), Jacob Jackson (Office! A Musical parody), Cecily Dowd, Christian McQueen (Anastasia Tour), Will Riddle
Autopilot isn’t just a phrase we use to describe going through the motions—it’s often a survival mechanism. Inspired by a moving true story, “Autopilot” follows Betty, whose inner turbulence is too much to navigate – until she finds the strength to confront her emotions and chart a new course. For more information, please visit www.autopilotmusical.com.
BLUDLINE: A Hip-Hop Odyssey
Book, Music and Lyrics by: Fermin Suero, Jr. & Pete White
Performers: Fermin Suero, Jr., Pete White (music director: Kinky Boots West End, Les Mis 25th Anniversary US & UK tour), Alaman Diadhiou (La Cage Aux Folles, City Center), Taylor Fagins, Ladibree, Safa
BLUDLINE: A Hip-Hop Odyssey reimagines Homer’s epic through live Hip-Hop and R&B as Trojan War hero Odysseus battles monsters and temptations to reach home, while his son Telemachus must find his own strength in the shadow of a father who may never return.
BLUDLINE is the recipient of the prestigious 2026 Richard Rodgers Award, a Rhinebeck Writers Retreat, Pipeline Arts Foundation Grant (Grand Prize) and will be featured in the 2026 NAMT festival this fall. For more information, please visit https://www.bludlineodyssey.com.
Huzzah!
Produced by: No Guarantees Productions
Book, Music and Lyrics by: Nell Benjamin (Mean Girls, Legally Blonde) and Laurence O’Keefe (Legally Blonde)
Directed by: Annie Tippe
Performers: Liisi LaFontaine (Moulin Rouge West End, Dream Girls West End), Cailen Fu (Mean Girls)
Huzzah! takes audiences to the Kingsbridge Midsummer Renaissance Faire, where two sisters are working to save the family business from financial ruin. When they gamble the payroll to hire the greatest swordsman on the whole Ren Faire circuit, will things go fair or foul at the Faire?
Love Somebody
Produced by: Halcyon Theatricals (Hal Luftig, Cathy Dantchik, and Kevin Connor)
Book by: Rehana Lew Mirza and Mike Lew
Music and Lyrics by: Betty Who
Performer: Betty Who
A musical that takes the competing, the wit and the vinegar of Mean Girls, the anxiety and betrayals of Dear Evan Hansen and the endless strategizing of Netflix’s “Sex Education:” who is getting it and who isn’t.
Sam has written a musical, Ros didn’t like it and said so in the school newspaper.
Christian has fallen for Ros, but Ros is not interested in a relationship – and certainly not with a jock. Ros is struggling with her own identity and is not ready to take on another. Sam is forced to hunt for the key to unlock Ros’s heart and connect her with Christian. That search and the discovery of the riches that Ros’s heart holds forces Sam to confront her cynicism and discover that she herself has connected with Ros. In this reversal of the Cyrano triangle, a young woman takes charge.
Regency Girls
Produced by: Robyn Goodman, Josh Fiedler, Nicole Hudson
Book by: Jennifer Crittenden and Gabrielle Allan
Music by: Curtis Moore
Lyrics by: Amanda Green (Hands on a Hardbody)
Directed by: Josh Rhodes (Samalot)
Costumed By: David Reynoso
Performers: Isabelle McCalla (Schmigadoon, Water for Elephants, The Prom), Krystina Alabado (Mean Girls)
Elinor Benton is in a predicament: she’s pregnant, unmarried, and living in 19th-century England. What’s a young woman to do? Facing certain ruin, she gathers up her ride-or-dies and sets off on the ultimate road trip to find the one woman who might offer a chance to change her fate. This epic journey transforms each of them as they try to shape their own futures.
Regency Girls features a book by Emmy Award winners Jennifer Crittenden & Gabrielle Allan (“Veep,” “Seinfeld,” “Scrubs”), lyrics by two-time Tony and GRAMMY nominee Amanda Green (Mr. Saturday Night, Bring It On: The Musical), and music by three-time Emmy nominee Curtis Moore (“The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel”), with direction and choreography by Josh Rhodes (Spamalot!). For more information please visit https://regencygirlsmusical.com.
Someday Soon
Produced by: Amy Langer and David Schwartz – Lead, Tony Award winner Cody Lassen (Spring Awakening, Indecent) – Executive Producer
Book by: Emmy Award nominee Neena Beber (“The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel”)
Music and Lyrics by: Jeremy Lloyd-Styles and Jocelyn Mackenzie of the band Pearl and the Beard
Directed by: Tony Award nominee Marcia Milgrom Dodge (Ragtime, 2009 Revival)
Performers: Jocelyn Mackenzie, Jeremy Lloyd-Styles, Delaney Brown (Jagged Little Pill, 1st National), Lana Schwartz (Rutka), Ayden Weinstein (Rutka)
Someday Soon is a bold new indie-rock musical inspired by the unforgettable true diary of fourteen-year-old Rutka Laskier. Funny, romantic, rebellious, and unmistakably fourteen, Rutka wants what every teenager wants: friendship, first love, and the chance to dream about tomorrow. But living inside a Nazi-occupied ghetto, where the world is trying to erase her, even ordinary dreams become acts of courage. Through an unlikely friendship across the divide, Rutka risks everything on a secret plan to preserve her diary so that her story will live on and impact the future.
Featuring a deeply moving book by Neena Beber (Writer and Executive Producer of “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel”) and a soaring indie-rock score by Jocelyn Mackenzie & Jeremy Lloyd-Styles of the band Pearl and the Beard, Someday Soon is a powerful contemporary theatrical experience that captures the urgency, humor, longing, resistance, and fierce hope of a teenage girl determined to make her life matter. The musical premiered at Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park under its original title, Rutka, continued its development at the Rhinebeck Writers’ Retreat, and will debut as Someday Soon in Fall 2027, Directed by Tony Award nominee Marcia Milgrom Dodge. For more information please visit www.somedaysoonmusical.com.
Star Machine
Produced by: Vandalia Entertainment, Hollee Temple, Gideon Temple
Book by: Hollee Temple & John Temple
Music and Lyrics by: Hank Temple & Gideon Temple
Directed by: Hank Temple & Gideon Temple
Performers: Nadia Richardson, Avery Fahey, Sydney Quildon (The Book of Mormon), Jeffery Walker, Danny Feldman, Tristan Altobelli, Amy Nicole, Patrick Higgins (West Side Story, Spielberg 2021), Derek Bedell, Monique Churchill, Samantha Marchena
In this new comedy by The Temple Family, Star Machine follows Jaz and Nikki, ambitious sisters who land on an outrageous TV talent show. Infused with early 2000s pop energy, Star Machine is a reflection on ambition that poses universal questions about the creative life. How does an artist define success? And in the end, is the journey actually the destination? For more information, please visit https://starmachinemusical.com.
A limited amount of single day general admission tickets to The Festival are now available for purchase. For more information, please visit BroadwayFest.com.
As previously announced, The Festival will kick off on Friday, August 14 with doors opening at 2PM and programming from 3pm ET – 11pm ET. The lineup for Friday will include Christopher Jackson, Adam Pascal, Alex Newell, Amber Ardolino, Betty Who, Cara Rose DiPietro, Eva Noblezada, Gianmarco Soresi, Javier Muñoz, Mandy Gonzalez, Matt Rodin, Mitch Wood, Reeve Carney, Seth Rudetsky, Solea Pfeiffer, Tommy Bracco, Tyler Joseph Ellis, and Tess Soltau.
Friday programming includes Broadway Rave, a Broadway dance party celebrating the best in showtunes in musical theater; The Festival Sings Disney featuring Mandy Gonzalez, Alex Newell and more singing their favorite Disney songs; Broadway Inspirations featuring Mitch Wood, Alex Newell, Mandy Gonzalez and more as they perform songs that helped them get their start, dream roles, and favorite musical theater classics; a cabaret from Reeve Carney and Eva Noblezada; The Big Show: A Weekend in the Country featuring Alex Newell, Mandy Gonzalez, Christopher Jackson, and more; Don’t Quit Your Night Job, a Broadway comedy improv variety show featuring sketches, games and Musical Madlibs (oh my!) with Steve Rosen, David Rossmer, Sarah Saltzberg, Dan Lipton on the keys, and your favorite stars performing without a net; and a Campfire Singalong hosted by Betty Who, featuring Christopher Jackson, Mandy Gonzalez and more.
Saturday’s programming will run from 12pm ET – 11pm ET with doors opening at 11am ET and will feature a line up including Kelli O’Hara, Renée Elise Goldsberry, Christopher Jackson, Andrea McArdle, Amber Ardolino, Betty Who, Cara Rose DiPietro, Jason Robert Brown, Jenn Colella, JJ Niemann, Lauren Patten, Lena Hall, Matt Rodin, Mitch Wood, Norbert Leo Butz, Seth Rudetsky, Solea Pfeiffer, Tommy Bracco, Tyler Joseph Ellis and a 30th Anniversary RENT reunion featuring nearly the entire original Broadway cast including Adam Pascal, Aiko Nakasone, Anthony Rapp, Byron Utley, Daphne Ruben-Vega, Fredi Walker-Brown, Gilles Chiasson, Gwen Stewart, Kristen Lee Kelly, Rodney Hicks, Taye Diggs, Timothy Britten Parker, and Wilson Jermaine Heredia.
Saturday programming includes Seth Rudetsky and Friends, a concert hosted by Seth Rudetsky; ’80s Jukebox, featuring Kelli O’Hara, Jenn Colella, Betty Who, Norbert Leo Butz, Amber Ardolino and more singing their favorite ‘80s songs; What I Did For Likes featuring Amber Ardolino, JJ Niemann, Tommy Bracco, Cara Rose DiPietro, Tyler Joseph Ellis, Matt Rodin and Mitch Wood performing their greatest hits; Previews of New Musicals, featuring snippets of various Broadway bound new musicals, giving festival goers an exclusive first look; Jason Robert Brown and Friends, featuring various artists singing through his catalogue; a sketch comedy performance by The Broadway Beat; a 30th Anniversary RENT Reunion; The Big Show: Saturday Night featuring Kelli O’Hara, Norbert Leo Butz, Renée Elise Goldsberry, Jenn Colella, Betty Who and more; Club Cumming, where the iconic East Village cabaret space will travel up the Hudson for a night of singing, stories and hijinks, with Henry Koperski at the piano; a Campfire Singalong hosted by Matt Rodin featuring Kelli O’Hara, Norbert Leo Butz, Lauren Patten, Jenn Colella, Adam Pascal and more; and a screening of Renée Elise Goldsberry’s feature film, Satisfied.
Sunday’s programming will run from 12pm ET – 6:30pm ET with doors opening at 11am ET and will feature a lineup including Audra McDonald, Brian Stokes Mitchell, Adam Pascal, Anthony Rapp, Andrew Barth Feldman, Betty Who, Denée Benton, Jenn Colella, Lauren Patten, Matt Rodin, Patti Murin, Seth Rudetsky, Solea Pfeiffer, Talia Suskauer, Tom Kitt, Tyler Joseph Ellis, and Tess Soltau.
Sunday programming includes Broadway’s Next Generation, where you can be among the first to see the Broadway stars of tomorrow, today, performing your favorite Broadway hits; Patti Murin: Here I Go Again, an intimate hour of songs and stories from Hudson Valley resident Patti Murin’s life on stage; Adam Pascal & Anthony Rapp: Celebrating Friendship and History, featuring the iconic duo as they bring their friendship and history together for an unforgettable and celebratory set of music, stories and fun; Duet to Me One More Time, Broadway stars singing your favorite Broadway duets featuring Denée Bentson, Adam Pascal, Talia Suskauer, Lauren Patten and more; Tom Kitt and Friends, featuring Tom Kitt and guests singing through his catalogue; and The Big Show: Sunday in the Park, the show-stopping finale to our weekend featuring Audra McDonald, Brian Stokes Mitchell, Denée Benton, Lauren Patten, Talia Suskauer, and more.
All programming and talent are subject to change.
Designed as a true destination event, The Festival will bring together an extraordinary lineup of Broadway artists and will be choreographed by Tony Award winner Jerry Mitchell and Jon Rua; and directed by Mitchell and D.B. Bonds. The creative team also includes musical supervision by Dan Lipton, musical direction by Julie McBride, creative direction and experience design by Michael Downs, lighting design by David Rees, sound design by Cody Spencer, video design by Caite Hevner, costume design by Ryan Park, and direction of The Festival Apprentices by Lana Schwartz. Chris Gratton serves as Production Manager, Technical Director, and Site Manager. Lisa Iacucci is the Production Supervisor.
Food for The Festival will include local Hudson Valley restaurants and vendors including Oyster Party Inc, The Hungry Traveler, The Lemon Drop Co, Ground Up By Brooke, Mindful Matcha, Santorini, Ginger Love Cafe, Santa Fe Uptown, Vonsalad’s Woodfired Pizza, Kogemeya Authentic Japanese Street Cuisine, Irresistible Gourmet Caramel Apples LLC, Samosa Shack, From The Ground Up, Pura Vida Popcorn, and Rolling Cones.
The festival will feature three stages throughout the weekend, plus a fourth stage in the evenings. The Main Stage presenting partner will be Broadway Direct. The Broadway Direct Stage will serve as the centerpiece of The Festival weekend, hosting headline performances from Audra McDonald, Kelli O’Hara, Renée Elise Goldsberry, Christopher Jackson, and more. The Broadway Direct Stage will feature reserved seating for all of our Main Stage performers and programs, plus general admission seating as well. Concept art of The Broadway Direct Stage can be seen here.
Broadway Direct is The Festival’s Official Broadway Ticketing Sponsor.
Overlooking the Hudson River, the New 42 Stage will feature exciting outdoor performances throughout the weekend featuring some of our biggest stars. Concept art of the New 42 Stage can be seen here.
New 42 Studios is the Official Rehearsal Home of The Festival. Help New 42 bring NYC students to the New Victory Theater through their “Give a Kid a Seat” initiative. Learn more here.
The Campfire Stage will feature the nightly sing-along performances, plus fun and exciting performances throughout the day. Concept art of the Campfire Stage can be seen here.
And, at night, the airconditioned Hutton Hall will host cabaret-style performances that are not to be missed.
To download headshots, click here.
To download key art, click here.
The Festival will also include special events benefitting the wonderful work done by Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS. Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS is the philanthropic heart of Broadway, helping ensure those affected by HIV/AIDS and other life-threatening illnesses, as well as those within the theater industry, receive medication, healthy meals, counseling and emergency assistance.
The Festival works with Access Broadway NY to ensure that the venue and event are accessible for all.
Additional programming for the three-day festival will be announced shortly. For more information including ticket packages and lodging and shuttle offerings, please visit www.BroadwayFest.com.
Three-day and single-day general admission passes to the Festival experience are now available (General Admission, Reserved Seating, Premium Reserved Seating and VIP Premium Reserved Seating). All passes give guests access to all of the stages and performances plus access to Food & Beverage, brand activations, Vendor Village, daytime and nighttime programming and restrooms. VIP passes include private lounge spaces, upgraded facilities, one meet & greet and more. Add-ons for additional experiences will be available for purchase at a later date.
The Festival is produced by A Weekend in the Country.
ABOUT A WEEKEND IN THE COUNTRY
A Weekend in the Country, LLC is an all-new live production company founded by Josh Saltman, entertainment industry executive, theater fan, and music festival devotee. Josh and David B. Schwartz, a theater producer and former Disney colleague of Josh’s, have assembled a diverse team of theater-industry professionals to present The Festival, a Broadway music festival combining the genius and passion of Broadway with the immersive excitement of a music festival experience.
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