Broadway in Bryant Park 2024 Ends on a High Note (Literally)

The final Broadway in Bryant Park performance of 2024 ended this year’s series of free, outdoor lunchtime Broadway concerts on a high note — literally.

Hosted by LITE FM and iHeartRadio Broadway, the Aug. 1 show saw performances from four current Broadway shows, and one set to begin performances in October. The concert itself was co-hosted by LITE FM’s Delilah, and Didi Romero from “SIX: The Musical,” who would later perform as well.

Things started with a “Mean Girls” pre-show from the AMDA College of the Performing Arts, before the hosts introduced James Monroe Iglehart and DeWitt Fleming Jr. to perform “When You’re Smiling” from the upcoming Louis Armstrong bio-musical, “A Wonderful World.” Midway through the performance, Fleming Jr. revealed that he was actually wearing tap shoes, and started tap dancing right onstage at Bryant Park.

As he tapped, Iglehart demonstrated the low, scratchy voice he will use when playing Armstrong at 54 Below when the show begins performances in October.

After that sneak peek into the 2024-2025 Broadway season came the first of three songs performed by the cast of “& Juliet.” As a jukebox musical made up of modern pop songs, “& Juliet” was able to bring some music more familiar to the less-Broadway-informed audiences at the park. Maya Boyd (Juliet) kicked things off with a rendition of “Baby One More Time,” originally by Brittaney Spears. Of course, in the context of “& Juliet,” the song is far slower and more emotional than its pop counterpart.

Then, Paulo Szot (Lance) and Jeannette Bayerdelle (Angelique) performed a mash-up of Katy Perry’s “Teenage Dream” and Ariana Grande’s “Break Free.” It was particularly entertaining to see the number’s over-the-top (in the best way) staging, mixed with Szot singing modern-day lyrics like “Let’s go all the way tonight / No regrets, just love / We can dance until we die / You and I / We’ll be young forever” in the Shakespearean-era, theatrical voice he uses for Lance. Finally, members of the show’s ensemble, led by Ben Jackson Walker (Romeo), Daniel Assetta (understudy for Shakespeare at Bryant Park), and Boyd, all sang the show’s version of “It’s My Life” by Bon Jovi, with Walker particularly embodying the song’s pop-rock origins in his performance.

Next to take the stage was the fourth longest-running musical in Broadway history, “Wicked.” Audiences—including host Delilah, who revealed she has seen the show at least seven times—have been mesmerized by the “Wizard of Oz” prequel since it opened at the Gershwin Theatre in 2003, and the crowd at Bryant Park proved no different. First was Alexandra Socha (Glinda) performing “Popular,” including some hints of the staging fans can see in the full production. Socha amused the crowd at the end by thanking the audience, and proclaiming, “I’ve been Ariana Grande.” This is, of course, a reference to Grande’s role as Glinda in the upcoming “Wicked” and “Wicked: Part Two” films.

Then, Mary Kate Morrissey (Elphaba) and Jordan Litz (Fiyero) sang the second act’s romantic duet “As Long as You’re Mine.” The song is riddled with emotional and romantic tension, culminating in the iconic line, “For the first time / I feel wicked.” It seemed like Morrissey played up that line with a little extra cheesiness — a bit more so than would ever be allowed during an actual performance of “Wicked” on Broadway — adding an extra charm to the Bryant Park performance. She then finished out the “Wicked” segment of the show with a performance of the iconic showstopper “The Wizard and I.”

Nearing the 2024 event’s end, “SIX: The Musical” was the first of the final two Broadway in Bryant Park performances this year. The six-person cast performed two numbers, both of which were transitioned into with short segments of dialogue. “SIX: The Musical” lends itself extremely well to the Broadway in Bryant Park setting, as the show is written and performed at the Lena Horne Theatre as more of a concert than a traditional musical anyway. In addition to performing in three ensemble numbers, the structure of “SIX: The Musical” sees each performer lead one song and act as backup in the others.

For Broadway in Bryant Park, Khalia Wilcoxon first led the others in her signature number, “No Way.” Then, the full cast—Wilcoxon, Storm Lever (Anne Boleyn), Jasmine Forsberg (Jane Seymour), Olivia Donalson (Anna of Cleves), Romero (Katherine Howard) (who paused her hosting duties to perform with “SIX: The Musical,”), and Gabriela Carrillo (Catherine Parr)—performed a mash-up of the opening and closing numbers, “Ex-Wives” and “Six” respectively. Both numbers featured full-on choreography, making for a particularly energetic penultimate performance.

Finally, Broadway in Bryant Park 2024 closed out with this year’s Best Musical Tony winner, “The Outsiders.” The hit musical, based on the novel written by S.E. Hinton and the movie directed by Francis Ford Coppola, brought three songs to Bryant Park, all performed by the understudies for the principal cast. This gave Broadway in Bryant Park audiences the chance to see these numbers performed in a way very few others will, as it is unlikely that the entire principal cast will be absent for the same performance at the Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre.

First, Trevor Wayne (understudy for Ponyboy at Bryant Park) and Maggie Kuntz (understudy for Cherry at Bryant Park) sang “I Could Talk to You All Night,” a duet from midway through the show’s first act. Wayne’s and Kuntz’s voices blended seamlessly in every harmony, allowing the show’s Bryant Park performance to start off strong. Next, Wayne was joined by Victor Carrillo Tracey (understudy for Daryl at Bryant Park) and Dan Berry (understudy for Sodapop at Bryant Park), and the three performed the fan-favorite song “Throwing in the Towel.” After this emotional trio about brotherly love and loyalty, Berry and Jordan Chin (understudy for Two-Bit at Bryant Park) led the rest of the present cast (Wayne, Kuntz, Tracey, and Josh Strobl (understudy for both Ponyboy and Johnny)) in the upbeat “Hoods Turned Heroes.” With this final song, “The Outsiders” finished 2024’s Broadway in Bryant Park series with all the enthusiasm and love demonstrated across all four weeks of outdoor shows.

Once the song reached its end, audiences left the park with skips in their steps and catchy melodies stuck in their heads, already starting the countdown to Broadway in Bryant Park’s return next summer.