Variety asked the Tony nominees what they'd put on Broadway with unlimited money. Marla Mindelle, Joshua Henry and more, answers the call.
‘I Punched a Hole in the Box and Got Out’: Nathan Lane, Laurie Metcalf and a Tony-Nominated ‘Death of a Salesman’ Revival for the Ages Inside the 2026 Tony Nominees Event: Carrie Coon Calls for Universal Childcare, Brandon Uranowitz and Stephanie Hsu Want a Better Broadway: With unlimited money, unlimited power, and no obligation to turn a profit — what would they bring to Broadway tomorrow?
The answers are mostly split into two tiers. Some named a show, while others built a new ecosystem. And one was answered before the question even finished.
“Rocky Horror Show” lead actress nominee Stephanie Hsu spent her imaginary infinite resources on access. “Every public school student in New York City should be able to see a Broadway show, any Broadway show,” Hsu says. “If there’s an empty seat, a young person should get to just be there.
” The directing duo of the musical revival “Cats: The Jellicle Ball,” Zhailon Levingston and Bill Rauch, arrived independently at a near-identical instinct: the thing they would fund is the thing they already made, because “this culture of ballroom deserves everything,” Levingston shared.
“Ragtime” star Brandon Uranowitz went imperial. He fantasized about building a much-needed new theater near Lincoln Center, then taking over the Times Square theater district and rotating Stephen Sondheim revivals through every house, “Follies,” “Company,” “Sweeney Todd” and on. The Lost Boys ” has always wanted Paulo Coelho’s novel “The Alchemist” to be a musical.
“That whole story is about Andalusia, southern Spain and northern Morocco. There’s something really ripe there, combining those musical traditions and bringing it to the stage,” he tellsComing off her Oscar nomination this year, “Fallen Angels” lead actress nominee Rose Byrne wants to bring “Cloudstreet” to the theater district, the Australian classic she grew up on.
At the same time, “Ragtime” lead actress Caissie Levy wants her U.K. version of “Next to Normal” to finally bow in New York, having played Diana Goodman in the London production and earned an Olivier nomination for best actress in a musical. Then there was the seven-word answer.
Veteran stage performer and “Death of a Salesman” nominee Laurie Metcalf named something she swears will never happen: “I would like to be in ‘Gypsy'” she says with a smile and a chuckle. Her co-star Nathan Lane would build an American national theater on the London model.
“You try to find a company of actors, and then have guests coming in and doing new plays, and great classics. It would be a wonderful thing,” he said.
“Whether it could be subsidized by the government, I don’t think that could happen. But if I had unlimited money, I would. ”, looked inward first.
“What needs to come to Broadway is the next musical that I’m writing,” she says with a wink, declining to name the celebrity it will feature. She then followed with another project she’s working on — Mindelle is co-writing a stage musical of the 1998 comedy “There’s Something About Mary” with the film’s co-director and co-writer Peter Farrelly. Pressed for something already established, she went, in her word, “obscure”: a revival of “Zorba!
,” the 1968 Greek musical she grew up listening to.
“Giant” actor John Lithgow deflected entirely, trusting other people’s bright ideas over his own. Tony winner Danny Burstein turned the question back on theinterviewer as a joke, pitching a story about a working-class kid from Brooklyn who ends up an awards editor. “Ragtime” featured nominee Ben Levi Ross, who reached for a friend’s work, Amy Herzog’s “4000 Miles,” which ran off-Broadway in 2011 and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Drama.
He also floated a Harold Pinter project, though not one of Pinter’s own famed written plays. Instead, an adaptation of Jean-Paul Sartre’s “No Exit,” which Pinter starred in. And of every nominee inventing a Broadway production on the spot, none was faster than “Ragtime” star and Tony nominee.
“‘Goddess,’ starring Amber Iman,” he declares at lightning speed. “Why ‘Goddess’ is not on Broadway in 2026, I don’t know. Bring us ‘Goddess.
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