Why Gen Z are suddenly flocking to Broadway productions like Sam Gold’s Romeo + Juliet
By telling young adult stories and with stars like Rachel Zegler, new Broadway plays are pulling in younger audiences like never before
Kimberly Belflower knew John Proctor is the Villain needed its final cathartic scene to work – and for that it needed Lorde’s 2017 song “Green Light”.
“I literally told my agent, ‘I would rather the play just not get done if it can’t use that song,’” the playwright laughed.
She wrote Lorde a letter, explaining what the song meant, and got her “Green Light”.
Starring Sadie Sink, the staggering play about high schoolers studying Arthur Miller’s 1953 play The Crucible as the #MeToo movement arrives in their small town in the US state of Georgia earned seven Tony nominations.
It is among a group of Broadway shows that have centred on the stories of young people and attracted audiences to match.