Cotton Club Parade Becomes After Midnight; Musical Sets Dates at Broadway’s Brooks Atkinson Theatre

So long Cotton Club Parade, hello After Midnight. The musical celebrating Duke Ellington’s years at Harlem’s famed Cotton Club will begin performances at Broadway’s Brooks Atkinson Theatre October 18, with an official opening set for November 3. Formerly known as Cotton Club Parade, After Midnight will be directed and choreographed by Warren Carlyle.

Conceived by Jack Viertel, After Midnight examines the original Jazz Age through a contemporary lens. The musical revue is a celebration of Duke Ellington’s years at the Cotton Club using his original arrangements and performed by a big band of 17 musicians hand-picked by nine-time Grammy Award and Pulitzer Prize winner Wynton Marsalis. The timeless tunes set against a narrative of Langston Hughes poetry will provide an authentic backdrop for an array of cutting-edge performances by 25 sensational vocalists and dancers, including special guest stars. No word yet if Fantasia Barrino will lead the production as casting is to be announced.

After Midnight includes classic songs like “Stormy Weather,” “I Can’t Give You Anything But Love,” “I’ve Got the World on a String,” “Black and Tan Fantasy,” and “Creole Love Call.”

The Broadway production will include costumes by Isabel and Ruben Toledo, sets by John Lee Beatty, lighting by Howell Binkley and sound by Peter Hylenski.

Cotton Club Parade began at New City Center's Encores! in November 2011 and then played a return engagement in November 2012.