The Big Gay Jamboree, New Musical from Titanique Creator Marla Mindelle, Will Open Off-Broadway

A new musical comedy created by Marla Mindelle, the writer and original star of the off-Broadway hit Titanique, will open off-Broadway. The Big Gay Jamboree, directed and choreographed by Connor Gallagher, features a book by Mindelle and Jonathan Parks-Ramage, with music and lyrics by Mindelle and Philip Drennen. Performances will begin at the Orpheum Theatre on September 14 with an official opening night set for October 1.

In The Big Gay Jamboree, Mindelle plays Stacey, who wakes up hungover in an off-Broadway musical. With no memory of how she got there, Stacey is forced to put her BFA in theater to use, belt her face off and figure out how to escape this 1940s Golden Age musical while a live audience watches.

The creative team includes dots (set design), Sarah Cubbage (costume design), Brian Tovar (lighting design), Justin Stasiw (sound design), Aaron Rhyne (projection design), and Leah J. Loukas (hair/wig design). Musical supervision and arrangements are by David Dabbon. Further casting will be announced at a later date.

Mindelle won the 2023 Lucille Lortel Award and Obie for her portrayal of Céline Dion in Titanique. On Broadway, she has starred in Cinderella and Sister Act. She also starred in the first national tour of The Drowsy Chaperone.

Drennen is an Ohio-based singer-songwriter; Big Gay Jamboree is his first full-length musical. Gallagher directed Beetlejuice and The Robber Bridegroom off-Broadway, as well as the Disney Cruise Line version of Beauty and the Beast. Parks-Ramage is a Los Angeles based writer who made his novelist debut with Yes, Daddy. His second novel It’s Not the End of the World will be released in summer 2025.

The Big Gay Jamboree will be produced by Sue Wagner, John Johnson and LuckyChap—the production company founded by Margot Robbie, Tom Ackerley, Josey McNamara and Sophia Kerr—in its theater debut. “We’ve been admiring Marla Mindelle’s work for quite some time and our adoration only grew when we were blown away by Titaníque," LuckyChap commented in a statement. "We’ve been wanting to find a way into the theater space and couldn’t be more thrilled for this to be our first foray alongside the incredible team involved.”