The line-up of 10 musicals includes six that have never been presented in Orange County.

Segerstrom Center’s 2024-25 Broadway Series Signals Confidence — "& Juliet" is one of the new Broadway tours scheduled for the upcoming Broadway season at Segerstrom Center for the Arts. Photo courtesy of SCFTA/Matthew Murphy

April 1, 2024

The Segerstrom Center for the Arts’ 2024-25 Broadway Series, announced today, reflects the growing confidence the institution places in Orange County’s musical theater fans. Robust attendance since the pandemic, and strong attendance at newer musicals, has resulted in several bolder-than-usual choices and an usually large number of Orange County premieres: six out of ten shows coming next season have never been presented before at Segerstrom Hall.

Segerstrom Center president Casey Reitz and his team spend months carefully selecting shows, according to SCFTA senior communications director Carla Cruz.

Segerstrom Center works with Broadway Across America, a major presenter of touring Broadway shows, to determine which touring productions will be presented. Reitz and other members of SCFTA’s staff travel frequently to New York City to watch as many Broadway shows as possible. “The process begins a year out,” Cruz said.

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The 2024-25 season stands in sharp contrast to 2020-21, which saw pandemic-related postponements and significant revenue losses as a result. But attendance for the Segerstrom Center’s Broadway shows has topped pre-pandemic totals in some cases, Cruz said.

“‘MJ The Musical’ sold quickly,” Cruz said. (The biomusical about Michael Jackson, part of the current Broadway season at the Segerstrom Center, is running through March 31.) “We’ve had a very good season overall.”

The Segerstrom Center’s strong Broadway series attendance contrasts sharply with New York’s fortunes. Broadway is still struggling to find its mojo four years after COVID-19 upended its world, according to a sobering report that appeared in the New York Times on March 12.

“On Broadway, overall attendance is still down about 17 percent (from pre-pandemic levels): 9.3 million seats have been filled in the current season as of March 3, down from 11.1 million at the same point in 2020. Box office grosses are down, too: Broadway shows have grossed $1.2 billion so far this season, 14 percent below the level in early March of 2020.”

But the Segerstrom Center’s post-pandemic success is in line with other parts of the country outside of New York. “One bright spot (of the current musical theater season) has been the touring Broadway market, which has been booming,” the New York Times reported in the March 12 article.

Clearly, Reitz is interested in newer musicals developed after the pandemic that have found audiences on Broadway: “MJ” and “& Juliet,” an alternative-universe retelling of Shakespeare’s tragic love story that’s coming to the Center in the fall of 2025, are two examples.

Of course, the 2024-25 season will have its fair share of the tried-and-true as well: “Annie,” Mamma Mia!” and the enduringly popular “Hamilton” are in the line-up.

Here is the Segerstrom Center’s 2024-25 Broadway season (*Orange County Premiere):