Flying Over Sunset begins performances on Broadway

Flying Over Sunset is currently set for an official opening at the Vivian Beaumont Theater on April 16, 2020.

UPDATE: Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, The Broadway League has ordered a month-long shutdown of all Broadway theaters and tonight's first preview of Flying Over Sunset will not be going ahead as scheduled.

What a trip! Lincoln Center Theater's Broadway premiere of new musical Flying Over Sunset begins preview performances at the Vivian Beaumont Theater tonight, ahead of an official opening on April 16.

The LSD-themed tuner features a book by Pulitzer Prize and three-time Tony Award winner James Lapine (who also directs), music by Pulitzer Prize and two-time Tony Award winner Tom Kitt, and lyrics by Tony Award nominee Michael Korie.

Synopsis: "Set in the 1950's, Flying Over Sunset is a work of fiction inspired by the lives of three extraordinary and accomplished people - writer Aldous Huxley; playwright, diplomat, and congresswoman, Clare Booth Luce; and film legend Cary Grant - each of whom in real life experimented with the drug LSD. At a crossroads in their lives the three come together, and under the influence of the drug, take a trip and confront the mysteries of their lives and their world."

As previously reported, the cast of Flying Over Sunset is led by Tony Award nominee Carmen Cusack (as Clare Boothe Luce), Tony Award nominee Harry Hadden-Paton (as Aldous Huxley), and Tony Award nominee Tony Yazbeck (as Cary Grant), alongside Erika Henningsen, Jeremy Kushnier, Emily Pynenburg, Michele Ragusa, Robert Sella, Laura Shoop, and Atticus Ware.

The creative team behind Flying Over Sunset features choreography by Michelle Dorrance, orchestrations by Michael Starobin, music direction by Kimberly Grigsby, scenic design by Beowulf Boritt, costume design by Toni-Leslie James, lighting design by Bradley King, sound design by Dan Moses Schreier, and projection design by Jeff Sugg.

Broadway fans will remember Ms. Cusack from her Tony-nominated performance as Alice Murphy in the 2016 Broadway premiere of Bright Star and she was most recently seen on the New York stage in the 2019 Encores! production of Call Me Madam at New York City Center. Mr. Hadden-Paton made his Broadway debut as Professor Henry Higgins in Lincoln Center Theater's 2018 revival of My Fair Lady, earning a Tony Award nomination for his efforts, and is perhaps best known for his TV roles as Martin Charteris on Netflix's hit series "The Crown" and as Bertie Pelham in the British smash hit "Downton Abbey" (which he reprised in the recent 2019 film). Mr. Yazbeck's many Broadway credits include Prince of Broadway, Finding Neverland, Irving Berlin's White Christmas, Gypsy, A Chorus Line, Never Gonna Dance, Oklahoma!, Chicago, and a 2015 Tony-nominated turn as Gabey in On the Town.

Flying Over Sunset is produced on Broadway by Lincoln Center Theater in association with Jack Shear.

Flying Over Sunset Tickets are available now for performances through June 28, 2020.

^{(Photo by Joan Marcus)}