Free Broadway Performances Return to Bryant Park this Summer

The annual Broadway in Bryant Park event is returning this year, bringing four free performances from award-winning Broadway shows to the Midtown park on select Thursdays this summer.

Hosted by LITE FM, this year’s four lunchtime events will feature performances from 18 shows, eight of which debuted during the 2023-2024 Broadway season. Also included in this 18 is one show which closed more than four years ago, and one show which will not debut until October.

The weekly concerts will each last one hour (12:30 p.m. to 1:30 p.m.), though Bryant Park recommends arriving as early as 11 a.m. to secure your spot.

The first 2024 concert will be on Thursday, July 11. The five shows set to perform, all of which debuted this season, are: Back to the Future, Hell’s Kitchen, The Who’s TOMMY, The Wiz, and WATER FOR ELEPHANTS. There will also be a pre-show performance by students from AMDA College of the Performing Arts.

Broadway in Bryant Park will be one of the last chances for audiences to catch a performance from the Tony-nominated revival of The Who’s TOMMY, as the show will close just 10 days after the July 11 performance.

This first concert’s lineup includes two Tony nominees for Best Musical, Hell’s Kitchen and Water for Elephants the former of which saw wins at the June ceremony for both the Leading Actress and Featured Actress categories.

Thursday, July 18 is the only concert to feature exclusively veteran shows and is arguably the most family-friendly lineup of the four. Showcasing various Disney on Broadway offerings, the concert will include performances from Aladdin, Frozen, The Lion King, and Disney on Broadway as a larger whole.

While Aladdin and The Lion King are currently running on Broadway, with the former celebrating its 10th anniversary this year, Frozen closed back in March 2020. It is the only closed show set to perform over the course of the four events.

The third concert of free Broadway performances at Bryant Park will be on Thursday, July 25. Three long-running favorites (Chicago, Moulin Rouge! The Musical, and The Book of Mormon) will perform, and so will two of 2023-2024’s several new book-to-musical adaptations (The Notebook and The Great Gatsby).

Since the closure of Phantom of the Opera, the current production of Chicago is the longest-running musical currently on Broadway. Other familiar favorites The Book of Mormon and Moulin Rouge! The Musical each won Best Musical in previous ceremonies, the former in 2011 and the latter in 2020.

As for The Notebook and The Great Gatsby, both are financial successes that did not see nominations for Best Musical. The Notebook was nominated in three categories but won none. The Great Gatsby, however, did win Best Costumes, but had no additional nominations.

The fourth and final Broadway in Bryant Park performance will be on Thursday, Aug. 1, and will feature performances from & Juliet, A Wonderful World, SIX The Musical, The Outsiders, and Wicked. There will also be a Mean Girls pre-show by AMDA College of the Performing Arts students.

The Outsiders is Broadway’s newest Best Musical winner and won an additional three awards including Best Direction. While not award winners this year, & Juliet and SIX The Musical are particularly conducive to the concert setting of Broadway in Bryant Park, as they both take inspiration from modern pop and rock music in their storytelling.

A Wonderful World is a particularly noteworthy inclusion in the lineup, as it does not even begin previews on Broadway until October. As such, Bryant Park audiences will be among the first to hear from this new Louis Armstrong bio-musical.

More information on the event can be found on Bryant Park’s website https://bryantpark.org