Red Carpet Roundup: Richard Ridge Chats Up the Stars at Opening Night of BANDSTAND

The brand new musical Bandstand, directed and choreographed by Tony Award winner Andy Blankenbuehler(Hamilton) with music by Richard Oberacker and a book and lyrics byRobert Taylor and Richard Oberacker, opens tonight at The Bernard B. JacobsTheatre. See all the action from opening night with Broadway correspondent, Richard Ridge, below!

Set in the smoke filled, swing fueled night clubs of 1945, Bandstand brings the against-all-odds story of singer/songwriter Donny Novitski (Cott) and his band of mismatched fellow WWII veterans to the stage. When a national radio contest to find America's next big swing band offers a chance at instant fame and Hollywood fortune, Donny must whip his wise-cracking gang of jazzers (Bender, Carroll, Ellis, Hopkins, Packard) into fighting shape. Teaming up with the beautiful young war widow Julia (Osnes) as their singer, they struggle to confront the lingering effects and secrets of the battlefield that threaten to tear them apart.

Playing for every voiceless underdog in a world that has left them behind, they risk everything in the final live broadcast to redefine the meaning of victory. With an explosive original score and choreography inspired by the high energy swing rhythms of the era,Bandstand is a truly American story of love, loss, triumph and the everyday men and women whose personal bravery defined a nation.

Bandstand stars Tony Award nominee Laura Osnes (Rodgers + Hammerstein's Cinderella) and Corey Cott (Gigi) featuring Tony Award winner Beth Leavel (The Drowsy Chaperone),Alex Bender (Broadway debut), Joe Carroll (Rodgers + Hammerstein's Cinderella),Brandon J. Ellis (Once), James Nathan Hopkins (What's It All About: Bacharach Reimagined), and Geoff Packard (Matilda).