by The hip-hop improv comedy group now known famously for featuring Lin-Manuel Miranda as its frontman used to play for audiences at Ars Nova more than a decade ago.
They moved on to dates at Comix and Joe’s Pub, performed at Super Bowl Week for ESPN, and a TV series on the old Pivot cable channel. Then Hamilton happened. And FLS’s director, Thomas Kail, got busy directing live TV musicals, too. Eventually, the various stars realigned this past year for an off-Broadway run. And now they’re ready for Broadway.
Miranda announced it on Tuesday night’s Tonight Show.
Freestyle Love Supreme will open for previews Sept. 13, 2019 at the Booth Theatre, just a block away from Hamilton. It officially opens Oct. 2, scheduled for a 16-week run. Tickets begin going on sale Friday.
Regular performers will include Andrew Bancroft “Jelly Donut,” Arthur Lewis “Arthur The Geniuses,” Bill Sherman “King Sherman,” Chris “Shockwave” Sullivan, Anthony Veneziale “Two-Touch,” and Utkarsh Ambudkar “UTK.” Miranda will join for some performances, as will past FLS members and Broadway stars James Monroe Iglehart, Daveed Diggs and Chris Jackson.
Kail will direct.
“Fifteen years ago, when Freestyle Love Supreme was first developed, the idea of bringing our little improv show to Broadway seemed completely out of the realm of possibility,” Kail and Miranda said in a statement. “But it is out of that improbability that FLS has found this new home, thanks to legions of loyal fans—first at Ars Nova, at various festivals around the world, then with one-off shows, and most recently with our off-Broadway run last winter. We’ve had many of our happiest and most fulfilling creative moments working on FLS and are excited to see its next chapter unfold at the Booth Theatre. It is a show that consistently surprises us: we have no idea what to expect any time we do it— and isn’t that the true beauty of live theater? Freestyle Love Supreme wouldn’t want or have it any other way!”
