March 17th, 2024
WATER FOR ELEPHANTS is frozen. Which means, after eight years of literal and figurative elephantine effort, we can no longer change a word, a note, no longer reorder the beats, investigate the logic, or question an impulse. We open on Thursday. What a wild ride. The preview process on Broadway has taught me more than I was ready to learn. About the ground we stand on as artists, the energy of creation, the temptation of doubt, the wonder of imagination. But mostly: about expectation. I haven’t fully processed my feelings on all that yet, but I want to say what an honor and a privilege and a joy this journey has been. This creative team never stopped working, never stopped learning some new skill, we were always pushing some familiar technique into an unknown arena in the collective pursuit of getting closer to the best version of a good idea. We did this for eight years. Like a habit. Over coffee. Over email. Over borders. In workshops. In warehouses. In rehearsals. In previews. On the ground. In the air. We morphed and we made, together. But now it’s frozen. Now we let it go. Now the glorious performers, our unicorn cast of amazeball human beings, will bring it to life, every night, for you. And this thing that was once ours becomes yours.
March 21st, 2024
WATER FOR ELEPHANTS opens on Broadway tonight. You have to see the way this company trusts each other. I want to remember it forever. These people do what only they can do. The balancing act of this show is pure madness. One wrong move and the momentum of our imagination machine isn’t the only thing suddenly at risk. But they pull it off. Every. Single. Night. The songs, the story, the backflips (both literal and figurative). It is astonishing to witness. Because they are human — and in some ways much more. A childhood dream somehow made real. Our music is mythic in their mouths. This is Broadway! How lucky we are! How grateful I am.
April 30th, 2024
SEVEN TONY NOMINATIONS INCLUDING BEST MUSICAL. What is there to say? Deep gratitude. And joy. And shock. The feelings are overwhelming to the point of being surreal. Deep gratitude to the ones who taught me how to tell a story: Alex, Ben, Dan, Curtis, Matt, and Ryan AKA my PigPen Theatre Co. brothers. I love you. The seventeen years on the road, on this ride together, have been the formative experience of my artistic life. Deep gratitude to the producing and creative team of wonderful human beings bringing WATER FOR ELEPHANTS to life on Broadway. What a privilege to work alongside y’all.
June 16th, 2024
A quick story to put today in perspective. Today is Father’s Day and it is also The Tony Awards and, for me, the two are intrinsically linked. Over the course of the eight years of working on WATER FOR ELEPHANTS, it’s strange to say that I was only brought to tears once. It was two hours before our opening night curtain on Broadway. We were at a hotel bar a few blocks away and my dad took a deep breath said “I can’t believe it, baba. It’s surreal”. He told me to take it all in, to be proud, because millions of people all over the world want this and very few people get to experience it. And it hit me hard, because this is not a man that rests on laurels. This is the man that taught me that anything is possible and the work never stops. That no matter what happens, you keep striving. You keep building. You keep going. There is no mountain too tall to climb. But I could tell that he was genuinely in disbelief that his son had made a Broadway show. It hit me because something bigger was happening here, much much bigger than me. See when my dad moved to America, he flew through JFK. He spent the night in New York City. But he told me that never left the airport that night because he said “the city scared him.” Which baffles me, because I’ve never known my father to be afraid. Since I’ve known him, he’s been nothing but supportive of my every ambition. He’s taught me bravery and confidence — by example. But in this moment, nearly 50 years after the night he spent sleeping in the JFK airport, his son’s dream was being celebrated in the most famous block in the same city that scared him so long ago. The scale of that moment caught us both off-guard. And I’ll never ever forget it. We took the second photo below just a few minutes later. I am so grateful for you, Baba. You made the impossible possible. I’ve already won.
