The Broadway premiere of Bandstand played its final performance at the Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre on September 17, 2017.
(Photo by Jeremy Daniel)
This show has now closed. See our list of theatre tickets for shows currently on sale.
Set in the smoke filled, swing fueled night clubs of 1945, Bandstand brings the against-all-odds story of singer/songwriter Donny Novitski and his band of mismatched fellow WWII veterans to the stage. When a national radio contest to find America's next big swing band offers a chance at instant fame and Hollywood fortune, Donny must whip his wise-cracking gang of jazzers into fighting shape. Teaming up with the beautiful young war widow Julia as their singer, they struggle to confront the lingering effects and secrets of the battlefield that threaten to tear them apart. Playing for every voiceless underdog in a world that has left them behind, they risk everything in the final live broadcast to redefine the meaning of victory. With an explosive original score and choreography inspired by the high energy swing rhythms of the era, Bandstand is a truly American story of love, loss, triumph and the everyday men and women whose personal bravery defined a nation.
Bandstand is a musical that treads the razor’s edge – is it a romance or is it a veterans’ salute? It is both, and makes no apologies. At times it also makes no sense, but the underpinning, which is the cost of war, carries the day. The opening number "Just Like It Was Before" puts us on notice that the world is filled with double meanings. Set in Cleveland in the latter half of 1945, this is... Read more
