Darren Criss, Patti LuPone & More Set for Rufus Wainwright's OPENING NIGHT Concert

Rufus Wainwright will release an original West End cast recording of John Cassavetes’ Opening Night. To celebrate the release, Broadway's Sara Bareilles, Darren Criss, Laura Benanti, Patti LuPone, and Elizabeth Teeter will star in a one-night-only concert at Town Hall on September 15th. Pre-orders for the physical CD are available now. Tickets can be purchased here. A minimum of $30 per ticket sold will be donated to the ACLU's LGBTQ & HIV Project.

For the concert, Wainwright will join this cast of talented performers and sing some of the songs himself, and act as the MC, leading through the evening and explaining the story of the musical. Jason Hart, who was in Rufus' band for many years, is the music director and is leading the 13-piece band that will perform Wainwright's original West End arrangements.

Wainwright says, “I could not be happier to bring the music from my first stage musical Opening Night to a New York audience. Town Hall has been a musical home to me and my family in New York for decades and to be on stage with Sara, Patti, Darren, Elizabeth, and Laura is going to be a great thrill. To have all these Broadway legends agree to bring the songs from Opening Night in their original orchestration to life is a great honor and I am thrilled that we are raising money for the ACLU at the same time.”

The live album features Wainwright’s songs written for the original London West End production performed by the cast including Sheridan Smith, Nicola Hughes, and Benjamin Walker recorded over the last 4 performances of the play at London’s Gielgud Theater. Details and a first single will be released soon. 

John Cassavetes' Opening Night is the first stage musical with music, lyrics, and orchestrations by Rufus Wainwright. It premiered in London at the Gielgud Theater in the spring of 2024. The book and direction were by Ivo van Hove and is based on the 1977 movie Opening Night by American avant-garde director John Cassavetes.

It tells the story of an actress, Myrtle Gordon, who is premiering a play written for her that is about a woman coming to terms with aging. Myrtle does not come to terms with her own aging and rebels against the play and throws the entire production into jeopardy. A young female fan asking her for an autograph at the stage door gets killed by a car as she runs off onto the street. Myrtle is being haunted by the ghost of the young girl. On opening night, she arrives completely drunk but ultimately does what she does best: act and improvise. Part "All About Eve" Opening Night is the story of an actress who risks madness for her truth.  

Rufus Wainwright Photo Credit: Julien Benhamou
Darren Criss Photo Credit: Tony Moux
Patti LuPone Photo Credit: Emilio Madrid