MSM Musical Theatre alumna Sarah Thorn (BM ‘21) is the understudy for several roles in the off-Broadway production of This World of Tomorrow: Cyndee/Woman Cashier/”ELMA”/Sylvia/Honoria/Late-Night Cabbie.

This World of Tomorrow is a new play featuring Tom Hanks and Kelli O’Hara that opened in late October at the non-profit cultural center The Shed in Hudson Yards, located at 535 West 30th St. The closing date is Dec 21. The play is the story of a disenchanted scientist from the future written by Tom Hanks and James Glossman based on short stories written by Tom Hanks, and directed by Tony Award winner Kenny Leon (A Raisin in the Sun, Fences).

Earlier this year, Sarah Thorn was an ensemble member of the Broadway production of Othello starring Denzel Washington and Jake Gyllenhaal. Regionally in the U.S., she has received two BroadwayWorld nominations (Best Leading Actress in a Musical; Performer of the Decade) for Sally Bowles in Cabaret with Peregrine Theatre Ensemble.

More about the production here.
More about Sarah Thorn here.

MSM Musical Theatre faculty member Andrew Gerle has published a book with Joseph Zellnik: The Periodic Table of Broadway Musicals: An illustrated Guide to 118 Essential Shows (Union Square Publishing, 2025).

Writes Broadway World: “Andrew Gerle and Joseph Zellnik imagine the classic periodic table of elements—but instead of Chromium and Rhodium, it’s A Chorus Line and Rent!… This delightful and informative gift book, based on the bestselling viral poster series is a stunning showcase of art and content sure to thrill lovers of  show tunes and everything Broadway and beyond.”

Learn more and purchase the book here.

Musical Theatre Alumni Kianna Kelly-Futch (BM ‘24) is performing through April 2026 as swing for the roles of Zelma, Bodacious Lady, Alline, and the Ikettes, as well as working as Assistant Dance Captain in the Broadway national tour of Tina: The Tina Turner Musical. 

More information about the musical here.

Ariela Pizza Hindley stars in the production as Elle Woods and also serves as a producer of the production. The cast features current MSM Musical Theatre students Gianna DiTucci (BM ’26) in the ensemble; Aidan Olma (BM ’27) as Warner Huntington III; and Victoria Walker (BM ’26) as Serena.

Ariela helped transform Sceneworks from a family-run production house into a “full-blown local powerhouse.” Produced in partnership with Bergen Community College, previous to opening night, the production had just fourteen days or “two weeks to tumble, fly, memorize lines, harmonize, jump rope in sync, and rehearse with live dogs.” This time even included a master class with the original Broadway Elle Woods, Laura Bell Bundy.

Read more about the production and purchase tickets here.

MSM Musical Theatre alumna Jasmine Amy Rogers (‘19) won a Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Lead Performance in a Musical for her role in BOOP! THE MUSICAL at the Drama Desk Awards 2025, presented on June 1.

Jasmine plays the iconic 1930s cartoon character Betty Boop in the production; she tied for the award with Audra McDonald, the star of GYPSY.

Jasmine is also nominated for a Tony Award for Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Musical; the awards will be presented in New York on Sunday, June 8.

Read the full list of Drama Desk award winners here.

MSM Musical Theatre alumna Jasmine Amy Rogers (‘19) has been nominated for a Tony Award for “Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Musical” for her role as iconic 1930s cartoon character Betty Boop in BOOP! The Musical. The awards take place on June 8.

Jasmine has also received a Drama Desk Award nomination for “Outstanding Lead Performance in a Musical”; BOOP! The Musical leads the number of Drama Desk nominations at 11.

Read our blog post showcasing raves from the press for Jasmine’s performance here.

Essential Voices USA has released a new choral album entitled Listen to the World. The ensemble Essential Voices USA is led by Music Director and Conductor Judith Clurman, who teaches voice and ensemble voice for the MSM Musical Theatre program.

The recording features compositions by Judith Clurman, Matthew Sklar, and Robert Sirota, with texts by William Schermerhorn and Victoria R. Sirota, and as themes, addresses pressing global challenges including environmental preservation, immigration, and human connection.

The recording on Albany records can be streamed on all platforms. It was produced and engineered by Silas Brown. The published scores will be available at Hal Leonard this summer.

Learn more here.

MSM Musical Theatre alumna Jasmine Amy Rogers (’19) plays the title role in BOOP! The Musical, based on the iconic cartoon character Betty Boop; Jasmine is reprising the role she originated in the successful Chicago run of the production that opened in December 2023.

Writes The New York Times about her Broadway debut: “As Betty, the flapper of early talkie cartoons, Jasmine Amy Rogers is immensely likeable. She sings fabulously, sports a credible perma-smile, nails all the Boop mannerisms.”

Read the review here.
Read our blog post about four MSM alumni currently performing on Broadway here.

MSM Musical Theatre alumni Alesha Nicole Jeter (BM ’23) (in photo taken backstage, on right) and Lars Hafell (BM ’20) (on left) are currently performing in the ensemble of the Book of Mormon national tour with stops in Arkansas, Florida, Virginia, Tennessee, Georgia, Louisiana, and other states through early June, with other dates being added.

Lars Hafell is a Kentucky native now based in NYC. Alesha Nicole Jeter’s most recent role was as Auntie in the Kennedy Center’s TYA National Tour of Show Way The Musical.

Learn more about the tour here.

MSM Musical Theatre alumna Sarah Thorn (BM ’21) has been named an ensemble member of the Broadway production of Othello starring Denzel Washington and Jake Gyllenhaal that is opening at the Barrymore Theater on February 24 for a 15-week run. This is the Broadway debut for Sarah who is based in New York City and in London. Regionally in the U.S., she has received two BroadwayWorld nominations (Best Leading Actress in a Musical; Performer of the Decade) for Sally Bowles in Cabaret with Peregrine Theatre Ensemble.

Sarah studied voice at MSM with Judith Clurman.

Learn more about the production here.
Learn more about Sarah Thorn here.

MSM Musical Theatre alumnus Galvin Yuan (BM ’23) recently completed his first national tour as an ensemble member of Elf: The Musical.

The production opened on November 6 at the Fox Theatre in Detroit, Michigan, completing its run on December 29 at the Belk Theatre in Charlotte, NC.

Earlier in 2024, Galvin appeared in the production Catch Me If You Can with the Mountain Theatre Company at the Highlands Performing Arts Center in Highlands, NC,

Born in San Francisco, Galvin moved to Guangzhou, China at 9 months old to be with the rest of his family. After living there for 13 years, he moved back to the San Francisco bay area in 2014 for high school. During high school, Galvin started doing Olympic recurve archery and in 2017 he got into the Junior Dream Team, a team comprised of the top young archers in the country training year-round at the Olympic Training Center in Chula Vista, California.

More about Galvin here.

MSM Musical Theatre faculty member Judith Clurman invited a group of MSM Musical Theatre students to perform with her Essential Voices USA (EVUSA) ensemble for her two Carnegie Hall holiday concerts Merry and Bright on December 21. Both concerts were sold out.

Judith Clurman’s Essential Voices USA (EVUSA) is one of New York’s preeminent choral ensembles. EVUSA performs in many of the city’s iconic venues and events, and records and premieres works by America’s finest composers and lyricists. The ensemble is comprised of a talented roster of seasoned professionals and auditioned volunteers, dynamically fitted to the unique needs of each project.

Photo above: MSM Musical Theatre students pose backstage at Carnegie Hall with Judith Clurman.

Learn more about Essential Voices USA and Judith Clurman here.

Two MSM Musical Theatre students, Ishita Bansal (BM ’27) and Madeline Kimmel (BM ’26), were cast in the 29-hour reading of the new musical The Turning at Theatre Row on December 10 attended by a full house of industry professionals. Starring in the reading were Anthony Rapp (star of Rent in both the film and Broadway versions), Ali Louis Bourzgui, and Lola Tung.

Last year, The Turning was part of the MSM Musical Theatre Lab Series season. “The creative team included director Sammi Canold who was so impressed with our students that she cast two of them in the 29-hour reading,” explains MSM Dean of Musical Theatre Liza Gennaro.

“I cannot overstate the value of the MT Lab Series,” she says. “It provides our musical theatre students with experience working on new musical theater material and puts them in the room with musical theater creators, giving them professional theater experience.”

Learn more about the reading here.

Kianna Kelly-Futch (BM ‘24) will play the role of Janelle Woods and one of the singers in the musical group the Shirelles in the musical Beautiful: The Carole King Musical during its scheduled run at the Asolo Repertory Theatre in Sarasota, Florida, from November 16 to January 5.

The Asolo Reperatory Theatre is the largest Equity theatre in Florida, and the largest Repertory theatre in the Southeastern United States.

Read our MSM Spotlight on Kianna when she studied at MSM, here.
More about the Asolo Reperatory Theatre production here.

Ayanna Nicole Thomas (in photo on bottom left) is joining the cast of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child on November 12 at the Lyric Theatre, playing the role of Rose Granger-Weasley as one of 9 new cast members. Ayanna studied Musical Theatre at MSM from 2020 to 2023, when she took a leave of absence to join the Broadway cast of How to Dance in Ohio.

Harry Potter and the Cursed Child first opened on Broadway as a two-part experience April 22, 2018. The production would go on to be nominated for 10 Tony Awards, winning five, including Best Play.

The condensed, one-part production of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child opened December 7, 2021, at the Lyric Theatre following the COVID-19 pandemic.

Learn more about the new casting here.

MSM Musical Theatre alumnus Willie Clyde Beaton (BM ‘20) will make his Broadway debut as part of the ensemble and as a swing/ understudy in this new musical based on the life of Louis Armstrong. Tony Award winner James Monroe Iglehart stars as the jazz legend and American icon Louis Armstrong.

Previews at Studio 54 begin October 16 with opening night on November 11.

More information on the musical here.

MSM faculty member Andrew Gerle is a composer/lyricist, librettist, pianist and author whose most recent production Whisper Darkly, set at the height of Prohibition in 1928, is “the world’s first eclectro-swing musical,” he says, an immersive theatre experience that follows the lives of three women living their lives on their own terms. The music and lyrics are by Andrew Gerle; the book and concept is by librettist DJ Salisbury.

The video teaser for the production was recorded in The Back Room, one of the last Prohibition era speakeasies still operating in NYC.

For more on the musical and to see both the production and recording teaser, visit the production’s website here.

Learn more about Andrew Gerle here.

MSM Musical Theatre student Jake Koch (BM ’25) and MSM alumnus Neil Devlin (BM ’23) are among 30 semifinalists in The American Pops Orchestra NextGen National: Finding the Voices of Tomorrow competition for 2023-2024.

Ten finalists will be named and will compete in the NextGen National Finals round on Sunday, Feb. 11, at 2 p.m., in the Lincoln Center.

Finding the Voices of Tomorrow is a vocal competition created by he American Pops Orchestra that gives collegiate vocalists the opportunity to learn from industry professionals while competing for a chance to win scholarship money and paid performance opportunities with APO.

Learn more about the competition here.

The 2023 Kurt Weill Book Prize for an outstanding scholarly book on music theater since 1900 has been awarded to Making Broadway Dance, by Liza Gennaro, Dean of Musical Theatre at the Manhattan School of Music, who is also a choreographer.

Her book, published by Oxford University Press, was selected by the Kurt Weill Book Prize advisory panel as the unanimous top choice for this year’s distinction.

The panel praised Liza’s book as a “remarkable work, that is as approachable and engaging as it is carefully researched,” and lauded the inclusion of “many illuminating and overdue corrections to misconceptions about the authorship of some pieces of choreography, and the provocative questions raised about the legacies of certain Golden Age musicals as a result.”

Learn more about the book here.

Jasmine Amy Rogers (’19) is being called a “rising star” by the Associated Press after being cast as the iconic flapper Betty Boop in a new musical BOOP! The Betty Boop Musical set for an initial run in Chicago from November 14 to December 24.

“I always dreamt that I would get to do something like this and bring to life somebody as important and as loved as Betty,” says Rogers. “But I never dreamt that in a million years that it would be Betty herself. So it’s really crazy!”

The musical has songs by multiple Grammy Award-winning composer David Foster, Tony Award-nominated lyricist Susan Birkenhead and a story by Tony Award-winning book writer Bob Martin (The Drowsy Chaperone, The Prom).

The musical is directed and choreographed by Jerry Mitchell, who discovered Rogers while he was directing the musical Becoming Nancy at the Alliance Theatre in Atlanta in 2019.

Mitchell is a two-time Tony Award-winning choreographer and director whose shows include Kinky Boots, Legally Blonde, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Hairspray and La Cage aux Folles.

Learn more about the casting of Jasmine Amy Rogers here.

Lyda Jade Harlan (BM ’24) will be performing in the new musical Scouts, opening on July 26 at The Players Theater in Greenwich Village. She is currently a senior musical theatre major at Manhattan School of Music and studies in Samuel McKelton‘s voice studio.

The new musical was conceived, written, and workshopped entirely during the pandemic and is an original story of gender, inclusivity, and a giant Moth.

Lyda has been performing since the age of 7 and has been writing music since the age 12. She aspires to perform for the rest of her life and believes that “telling stories through musical theatre is one of the most efficient ways to enact change and inspire others through music, dance, and intricate book-writing,” she says.

Video preview about the musical here
More about the musical here.
More about Lyda here.

MSM Musical Theatre “Acting the Song” instructor LaDonna Burns is an understudy performing in White Girl in Danger, the latest musical from Tony- and Pulitzer-Prize winner Michael R. Jackson.

The Off-Broadway production will have its world premiere when it opens on April 10 in New York City at the Tony Kiser Theater and is a co-production by Second Stage Theater and Vineyard Theatre.

Learn more here.

MSM Musical Theatre program Music Director David Loud is vocal arranger for the upcoming Broadway show New York, New York which opens in previews on March 24.

David recently authored his autobiography, Facing the Music.

Learn more about the new musical here.

MSM Musical Theatre junior Victoria Baroni (BM ’24) is a semi-finalist in the The American Pops Orchestra Next Gen Vocal Competition. The vote for advancing to the finals at Lincoln Center will take place on November 19.

Victoria performed the role of June Mathis in the MSM Musical Theatre production of the new musical Valentino’s Tango that took place at The Riverside Theatre in October.

Learn more here.
Learn more about Victoria here.

The New York Times features the esteemed multi-award-winning playwright, novelist, and composer Rupert Holmes (’67, HonDMA ’21) – who studied at MSM in the 1960s – in the publication’s “At Home With” section. Mr. Holmes has written a soon-to-be-produced new play about the late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg as well as a new novel.

MSM Musical Theatre performed The Mystery of Edwin Drood, his musical adaptation of the unfinished Dickens novel, in an online production in February 2021. Mr. Holmes called the production, which took place roughly one year into the COVID-19 pandemic, a “triumph of innovation.”

Read The New York Times article here.
Read Rupert Holmes’ response to the MSM production of Edwin Drood here.

Recent MSM Musical Theatre alumna Torinae (BM ’22) is part of the cast of the 2nd National Tour of Lincoln Center Theater‘s production of My Fair Lady. The critically acclaimed production is touring Missouri, Colorado, and Texas from October 28 to December 7.

Torinae is in the ensemble, plays Clara Eynsford-Hill, and understudies the role of Eliza Doolittle.

Learn more about the production here.
Learn more about Torinae here.

Recent MSM Musical Theatre graduate Alysia Velez (BM ’22) is making her Broadway debut as Rapunzel in the critically acclaimed, star-studded revival of Into the Woods. The hit production of Stephen Sondheim’s and James Lapine’s beloved musical officially opened on July 10, with its initial limited run now extended through October 16.

The cast includes Sara Bareilles, Gavin Creel, Joshua Henry, Bryan d’Arcy James, Patina Miller, and Phillipa Soo.

“I’m grateful to go into the woods each night with these people,” writes Alysia on a post of photos from opening night on her Instagram account.

The show famously combines elements of fairy tales like Cinderella, Rapunzel, Little Red Riding Hood, and Jack and the Beanstalk into a unique musical whole.

Read about the production here.
Learn more about Alysia here.

Recent MSM Musical Theatre graduate Alysia Velez (BM ’22) has been cast as Rapunzel in the upcoming Broadway revival of the Stephen Sondheim – James Lapine musical Into The Woods on Broadway opening June 28 at the St. James Theater for an eight-week run.

Information about the production here.

Learn more about Alysia here.

Legendary Broadway musical director and arranger David Loud, who is the Musical Director of the MSM Musical Theatre program, is releasing his memoir on March 22.

His publisher describes Facing the Music: A Broadway Memoir as David’s “wildly entertaining and deeply poignant trek through the wilderness of his childhood and the edge-of-your-seat drama of a career on, in, under, and around Broadway for decades. He also reveals his struggle against the ravages of Parkinson’s and triumphs repeatedly. This memoir is also a remarkable love letter to music.  Loud is the ‘Ted Lasso’ of the theater business, ever the optimist. An inspiration to all!”

Buy the book in advance here.

Congratulations to Liza Gennaro! Her book landed the #1 position on two of Amazon’s key book charts: Dance Hot Releases, and Music Hot Releases during the week of December 3, 2021!

Aimed at students, academics, and anyone who loves musical theatre and dance, the new publication Making Broadway Dance (Oxford University Press) by MSM Associate Dean and Director of Musical Theatre Liza Gennaro gives valuable insights into how Broadway dance is made.

Learn more about the book here.