New Broadway shows are hitting the stage in Louisville.

PNC Broadway in Louisville announced its newest season, and it includes five premieres of shows that have never visited Louisville before.

Our Christine has more, and this arts and culture segment we call tapestry.

Leslie Brucker, the president of PNC Broadway in Louisville, is here, and you all just had a big season announcement.

What are the shows coming in this upcoming season?

We are so excited.

You know, Louisville supports us so much.

The entire state reaches out and so we're getting shows fast.

We'll kick off the season with two that have been here before, Jersey boys, which it's been about 15 years, and The Lion King will be here for three weeks.

Everybody's all time fun, family favorite then.

Then we launch into all of the new shows coming direct from Broadway.

We have Boop.

Based on the Betty Boop comic strip, Betty Boop lives in a black and white world, and she wants to leap to color and fun.

And that's what she does.

Huge tap dancing show fun for the whole family.

We do a little bit of a throwback with a beautiful noise, which is the Neil Diamond musical, tells his life.

And I always think when you see these shows that are based on musicians or performers or artists, if you enjoy them, you enjoy it more because you get more depth out of that.

We have maybe Happy Ending was, which was the Tony Award winning Best musical last season, still playing to sell out houses on Broadway along with its main competitor, which will be coming, which is Death Becomes Her and death becomes, based on the 92 movie, if you drink the potion to live Forever, what are the consequences?

And it's it's, you know, a hilarious lots of physical comedy show.

And then we've got Hell's Kitchen, which was from the season before.

It's Alicia Keys new musical loosely based on her life growing up in Hell's Kitchen, and how music sort of found her and and saved her and, and gave her purpose and whatnot.

So it's all the big hits from Broadway.

We're so very lucky.

Yeah.

What an exciting lineup.

Okay, you mentioned the Tony winner.

So this is the second year that you've been able to get the Tony winner here in Louisville.

Why is that important?

Well, it's important because I think our audiences are smart.

They want current.

This year we'll have The outsiders in the current season which won the year prior.

Then with maybe happy endings.

So I think it demonstrates Louisville's love for the arts, love for Broadway, and the producers like to bring their shows here.

Okay.

And, you know, you also have Lion King and Jersey boys.

Now, these are favorites, fan favorites here, especially in Louisville.

Why is it important to keep bringing them back?

Well, I think that when you've got a show that strikes a chord and is is fun, Jersey boys, I always say, is a great girls night out.

People like to I mean, people sing along.

And then when you've got The Lion King, that's a cross-generational, shared experience and an adult enjoys it as much as a child.

The artistry of the puppetry and all of the magic that the show brings.

So I think bringing those shows back, really enhances the opportunity to share the experience.

And Lion King is staying.

It has an extended stay.

What's the thought behind that?

Why is that important?

Well, we know how many people want to see it.

And also we moved many seats in the orchestra.

So there's a lower capacity each night that we have to have tickets for in order to do the animal parade down the aisles will remove about 200 seats, so that everybody is up close and personal to those animals.

So to extend the run just means more people get to see it.

It also is a huge show to build, so I hate to build it on a Tuesday and take it out on a Sunday.

That's right.

You were telling me how you got to move seats, right?

So it's a big lift.

It is a big leap.

Okay.

So it might as well stay for a while.

What is the show that you are most looking forward to?

Well, I'm looking forward to maybe happy ending.

I think it was a sleeper show on Broadway.

It started slow.

Now it's a huge hit.

It's magical.

It's brand new, new music.

And it's about an interesting couple of robots in Korea.

They don't look like robots.

They look like people and their service robots.

And I just think, the relationship that they build is an amazing thing, and it's warm and fun, and I think it will be the sleeper of the season.

Oh, that's awesome.

Okay, how do people get tickets or tickets on sale yet?

Tickets will go on sale, in early April to brand new subscribers.

Just give us a call or go to the website.

Right now.

We're renewing all of our season ticket holders.

And once that's finished, then we release all of those seats and open them up to the general public.

Okay, great.

Leslie, broker from PNC in PNC Broadway in Louisville.

Thank you so much for your time.

Thank you.

Thank you Christy.

Lots to do.

Those new tickets are available beginning April 3rd, and you can also join a waitlist for some of the most popular shows at Broadway and Louisville.

Dot com.