Sesame Street: The Musical

Sesame Street: The Musical is an off-Broadway stage production featuring songs and characters from Sesame Street. It was announced in a press release exclusively reported to Variety on June 7, 2022.

In the show, the Sesame Street Muppets are putting on their own musical, but have forgotten to get a special guest star. A lost human audience member is wrangled into the proceedings and taught how to sing and dance for the show's big final number.

The show first opened on September 22, 2022 (with previews beginning Sept 8) at Theater Row on West 42nd Street, and ran through November 27. Musical numbers consist of established songs from the show's history as well as new material written especially for the production. The new songs are by Tom Kitt, Helen Park, and Nate Edmondson.

The cast of characters appearing via live puppetry include Elmo, Cookie Monster, Grover, Abby Cadabby, Rosita, Bert, Ernie, Oscar the Grouch, Count von Count, Gabrielle, "and a host of Honkers, Martians, and other favorites." The show was announced to feature "special guest stars from Broadway and beyond." In the show as opened, the only human actor is Stephen Fala, playing an audience member who joins the show. The show also features a Muppet Sheep stage manager, referred to on the show's website as "Barry," who interacts with the special guest and encourages them as they prepare to perform.

In June 2023, the show was announced to mount a second run at Theater 555 starting on July 29; it was originally announced to run through October 29, but was later announced to extend its run through December 31. Genevieve Joers features as the human lead for this run.

In November 2023, it was announced that following its New York run, the musical would begin touring in 2024. It was initially announced to begin its tour in Fort Worth, Texas in February, but that was later rescinded. In April 2024, it was announced that the tour would instead begin at the Center for Puppetry Arts in Atlanta, Georgia, from June 4 to August 5.

Songs

1. "Sesame Street Theme"
2. "Hey! We're in a Musical!" (original song)
3. "C is for Cookie"/"Me Am What Me Am"
4. "Elmo's Got the Moves"
5. "Sing After Me"
6. "I Love Trash"
7. "Rubber Duckie"
8. "The Batty Bat"
9. "Number of the Day"
10. "Imagination" (original song)
11. "Fuzzy and Blue (and Orange)"
12. "Belly Breathe"
13. "Pinball Number Count"
14. "But I Like You"
15. "Believe in Yourself"
16. "You Can Be a Star" (original song)
17. "Hey Friend"

Credits

• Directed & Written by Jonathan Rockefeller
• Score & Orchestration by Nate Edmondson
• Puppet Consultant: Tyler Bunch
• Puppets & Costumes: Jim Henson's Creature Shop
• Props & Set Dressings: Rockefeller Productions

Cast

• Voices:
  • Leslie Carrara-Rudolph: Abby Cadabby
  • Ryan Dillon: Elmo
  • Eric Jacobson: Bert, Grover, Oscar
  • Peter Linz: Ernie
  • Carmen Osbahr: Rosita
  • Megan Piphus Peace: Gabrielle
  • Martin P. Robinson: Blue Martian
  • David Rudman: Cookie Monster
  • Matt Vogel: Count, Orange Martian

• Off-Broadway Casts:
  • Stephen Fala (2022), Genevieve Joers (2023)
  • Puppeteers: Mecca Akbar, Mia Castillo, Chris Coleman (2022), Yanniv Frank, Joe Newman-Getzler, Joshua Peters, Rebecca Russell, Dustin Scully, Matteo Villanueva, Anthony White (2023)

• Atlanta Cast:
  • Molly Penny, Chris McKnight
  • Puppeteers: Latoryah Alexander, Beau Brown, Sarah Beth Hester, Kristina Hopkins, Alexander Hudson, Reay Maxwell, Anna Oakley, Evan Hill Phillips, Amy Sweeney

Performances

• September 8 (previews)/September 22 (official opening) - November 27, 2022: Theater Row, New York
• July 29 - December 31, 2023: Theater 55, New York
• June 5 - August 4, 2024: Center for Puppetry Arts, Georgia
• July 10 - August 31, 2025: Terrace Theatre at the Kennedy Center, Washington, D.C.

Promotional spoofs

Parody posters promoting the show were shared weekly across the production's various social media accounts, riffing on current and established musical theater productions. The same posters, along with others not shared on social media, were also displayed in the theater lobby and appear onstage during the opening number.

Several of the parodies were sold in a printed collage on the musical's website shop as a benefit poster.

Waiter
(Waitress)

Come From Very Far Away
(Come From Away)

Les Macarons
(Les Misérables)

The Fraction of the Opera-ah-ah!
(The Phantom of the Opera)

Little Shop of Hooper's
(Little Shop of Horrors)

Elmoklahoma!
(Oklahoma!)

Five: The Muscal
(Six)

Slice of Pie
(Life of Pi)

Some Like to Honk
(Some Like It Hot)

Once Upon a Monster
(Once Upon a Mattress)

Magical: The Abby Cadabby Musical
(Beautiful: The Carole King Musical)

Furry Girl
(Funny Girl)

School of Rocco
(School of Rock)

Groverton
(Hamilton)

Grouchytown
(Hadestown)

Lament
(Rent)

Bath to the Future
(Back to the Future)

Furrily We Roll Along
(Merrily We Roll Along)

Slimeyjuice
(Beetlejuice)

& Gabrielle
(& Juliet)

Hello, Abby!
(Hello, Dolly!)

Errata

The commemorative program for the show sold at the gift stand contains some misinformation:

• Elmo's profile lists him first appearing on the show in Season 15, while he made his first named appearance in Season 11.

• "But I Like You" is attributed to Joe Raposo rather than Jeff Moss.

See also

• Bert & Ernie, Goodnight!

External links

• Official site
• Playbill Video - Get a Sneak Peek of Off-Broadway’s Sesame Street: The Musical