Odds and Ends: New Music From Beaches, A Wallace Shawn-athon Off-Broadway & More

Here's a quick roundup of stories you might have missed.

A Beachy-Keen Duet

Beaches is headed to Broadway this spring, with powerhouse performers Jessica Vosk and Kelli Barrett playing best friends Cece and Bertie, respectively. The production has released a first look music video for the song “Wish I Could Be Like You,” a jazz-inflected duet about the central characters' contrasting personalities. Based on the bestselling Iris Rainer Dart novel, Beaches was also the basis for a 1988 film with Bette Midler and Barbara Hershey. This version features music by Grammy winner Mike Stoller and lyrics by Dart, who co-wrote the show’s book with Thom Thomas. Audiences will get to experience the iconic friendship in song-and-dance form when previews begin March 27. The official opening night is set for April 22 at the Majestic Theatre.

We Wish to Go to The Festival

Move over, Coachella! It has just been announced that the Hudson River waterfront will be the site of "The Festival," a first-of-its-kind three-day outdoor celebration of Broadway’s greatest hits and brightest stars taking place August 14–16, 2026. The Festival will bring together a jaw-dropping lineup of theater artists including Audra McDonald, Kelli O’Hara, Renée Elise Goldsberry, Christopher Jackson, Brian Stokes Mitchell, Amber Ardolino, Julie Benko, Denée Benton, Tommy Bracco, Jason Robert Brown, Norbert Leo Butz, Jenn Colella, Cara Rose DiPietro, Tyler Joseph Ellis, Mandy Gonzalez, James Monroe Iglehart, Tom Kitt, Casey Likes, Eva Noblezada, Lauren Patten, Seth Rudetsky, Ben Levi Ross, Talia Suskauer, Adrienne Warren and Joy Woods, with more stars to be announced at a later date. There will also be a 30th Anniversary Rent celebration featuring original cast members Wilson Jermaine Heredia, Jesse L. Martin, Adam Pascal and Anthony Rapp. Beyond the stage, The Festival will offer lesson, lectures, panels and masterclasses. The event is directed by Tony winner Jerry Mitchell and D.B. Bonds.

Gavin Creel Remembered

The Broadway community is keeping the memory of Gavin Creel alive. Creel, who passed away in the fall of 2024, filmed a documentary about the connection between mental health and art before his death. The documentary, entitled Common Denominator, will be screened at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts on February 2. The screening will be followed by a panel discussion with Tony winner Celia Keenan-Bolger, Patti Murin, Seth Rudetsky, broadcast journalist Maurice Dubois and Harris Schwartzberg. Schwartzberg founded the mental health advocacy group Two Bridge, who have partnered with the New York Public Library on this event. A beloved theater mainstay, Creel starred in Broadway productions of Hair, She Loves Me and Hello, Dolly!, for which he won a Tony Award. After the screening takes place, Common Denominator will be available to stream on YouTube for a limited time.

Shawnathon

Multihyphenate Wallace Shawn is embarking on a theatrical double venture this winter at the Greenwich House Theater. The celebrated actor and playwright will perform his Obie Award-winning solo show The Fever in repertory with the world premiere of his latest play, What We Did Before Our Moth Days. Shawn will perform in The Fever two times a week (Sunday and Monday evenings) beginning Monday, February 16, while What We Did Before Our Moth Days—directed by Shawn’s longtime collaborator André Gregory—runs concurrently. In The Fever, a nameless narrator questions his complacency in the political repression that lies beyond the window of his ramshackle hotel room. What We Did Before Our Moth Days stars Hope Davis, Maria Dizzia, John Early and Josh Hamilton as a middle-class family making sense of their entanglement with one another.