Video: Travel Back to the 60s in Rehearsal for A SIGN OF THE TIMES

Hi place, I'm going to be

for Broadway World, a sign of the Times, the new musical which features classic pop hits of the 1960s

will begin performances on February 7th at New World Stages and we drop by the

rehearsal room to bring you a sneak peek and to meet the company. Downstairs just the tables and chairs

Even if this were the first time we're doing the show, it would be thrilling. But we have had two other incarnations of this show

2016 at the Goodspeed Opera House, where I'm very lucky to have worked a lot. And 2018 at the Delaware Theater Company

So this has been in gestation for a long time. What's really amazing, though, is the synchronicity of where we are in this moment in history, 2024

and this show that takes place in 1965 and how even more strongly these times parallel each other right now

So I don't think there's actually been a better time for us to bring the show to New York

and we couldn't be more excited with the entire team, the cast which you just saw

examples of, and our design team, which is extraordinary. And we're going to be in the 500-seat New World Stages

a theater which is the perfect envelope for this show It really is and so I really excited and looking forward to hopefully a healthy long run I very excited I love I mean I love stylistically where this lives

For me, it's in my world. It's in my DNA. But I love it because it's, you know, it's catalog music

Yes, it is. But I feel like Lindsay's done a great job in the story, making it a parallel universe to now, to the 60s

the Renaissance of the 60s, the rebirth of the 60s. we're having to rebirth ourselves again

But I love it. And I love our company. I love our company. I love pretty much every

I'm very lucky that I get to work with great and kind and fun people

So I'm having a great time. And I like the room full of dancers is, you know, it's my dream

I've been working on it for like seven, eight years. You know, Crystal and Ryan and I, we've been together working on this for a very long time

And I think it just keeps getting deeper. Like the more we work on it, the longer time goes by

I think that the message just keeps deepening. And you know, like, I think during the pandemic

we kept asking like, why? Why are we telling these stories? Why now? And I think right now is the perfect time

to be telling the story. And so I just have so much history with it, that I'm kind of in love with it

And I'm so proud of where it started and now where it's gotten to

And yeah, and great music. I mean, listen, it's worth the price of admission

just to hear those songs or some of my favorites. The collaborative process with this team

has been just incredible. I mean, you know, my favorite part of development

a new show is getting to sit down with the creative team and really discover and play and they allowed all of that to happen every single day And it really unveiled a lot of fun textures and colors in this piece

which is definitely something that is important to this team and to the show, I think, right

Well, you know, my parents would be loving it because, you know

it is the music that I in a sense grew up because they still loved it

and they were playing it all the time. So when I came to rehearsals, I knew all the songs

And they're still popular songs. You know, they still work. They still, you know, they can still play

and they still have audience members that are newly discovering them. My daughter is now 11, which I can't believe I can say that

But she loves it. Like, she's discovering Abba and Petula Clark. And, like, it just is cyclical, you know

Great music lives on forever. So that's why I think this show is going to be so well-received

because people know and love these songs but don't know the story that we're telling them

calling them with, you know? I'm very, very excited. First of all, Crystal Lucas Perry is like right there

You know what I mean? I'm so excited to be working with her and to be singing some of this music that, honestly

I didn't know a lot of this music before I came into the show and now I'm like, what have

I been doing? Plus I get to sing a very iconic song if I can dream. Why? Why? Why? Why? Why

That song of me. We gave presentations at the beginning and one of the things that I got to speak to was actually the music especially of the black women like Tanya and the show and how you know they were it wasn just for entertainment There were messages through their music you know For example

Nina Simone, that she was never just singing, she was, she was sending a message, she was reaching

a community, reaching people, and hoping for that kind of change. So that's really what's so

beautiful about it is there's already so much within the music that is already kind of, uh

living inside of us and we get to just kind of lift that to the surface and share that with all of you

Keep in my heart there's a dwelling question. Still I am sure that the answer's gonna come somehow

Out here in the dark. We can stand in, we can walk

We, we can dream, we can dream. We, we can dream. Our dreams's gonna come

Right now. We're gonna dream. We're gonna dream. Oh