SHUCKED, PARADE, and More Set For Des Moines Performing Arts' 2024-25 Season

The lineup has been announced for the 2024-25 Willis Broadway Series in Des Moines! The season will include six highly anticipated first-run national Broadway tours, plus the return of some beloved crowd favorites.

BACK TO THE FUTURE

October 15 – 20, 2024

Great Scott! Back to the Future, the beloved, cinematic classic is now a Broadway musical with its destination set for Des Moines in 2024.   

Winner of the 2022 Olivier Award for Best New Musical, four WhatsOnStage Awards, including Best New Musical, and the Broadway World Award for Best New Musical, Back to the Future: The Musical is adapted for the stage by the iconic film’s creators Bob Gale (Back to the Future trilogy) and Robert Zemeckis (Forrest Gump) and directed by the Tony Award®-winner John Rando with original music by multi-Grammy® winners Alan Silvestri (Avengers: Endgame) and Glen Ballard (Michael Jackson’s “Man in the Mirror”), alongside hit songs from the movie including “The Power of Love,” “Johnny B. Goode,” “Earth Angel,” and “Back in Time.” 

When Marty McFly finds himself transported back to 1955 in a time machine built by the eccentric scientist Doc Brown, he accidentally changes the course of history. Now he’s in a race against time to fix the present, escape the past, and send himself... back to the future. When Back to the Future hits 88mph, it’ll change musical theatre history forever. 

SHUCKED

January 28 – February 2, 2025

SHUCKED is the Tony Award®–winning musical comedy The Wall Street Journal calls “flat out hilarious!” And nobody knows funny like economists. Featuring a book by Tony Award winner Robert Horn (Tootsie), a score by the Grammy® Award–winning songwriting team of Brandy Clark and Shane McAnally (Kacey Musgraves’ “Follow Your Arrow”), and directed by Tony Award winner Jack O’Brien (Hairspray), this corn-fed, corn-bred American musical is sure to satisfy your appetite for great musical theater. 

LIFE OF PI

February 25 – March 2, 2025

A THEATRICAL EVENT UNLIKE ANYTHING ELSE! 
Winner of three Tony Awards® and the Olivier Award for Best Play, the Broadway and West End sensation LIFE OF PI is “an exhilarating evening of theater” (The Wall Street Journal).  

Based on the novel that sold more than 15 million copies and became a worldwide phenomenon, LIFE OF PI is an epic story of perseverance and hope that speaks to every generation and “gives new life to Broadway” (The Today Show).  

After a shipwreck in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, a sixteen-year-old boy named Pi survives on a lifeboat with four companions— a hyena, a zebra, an orangutan and a Royal Bengal tiger.  

Told with jaw-dropping visuals, world class puppetry and exquisite stagecraft, LIFE OF PI creates a breathtaking journey that will leave you filled with awe and joy.  

SOME LIKE IT HOT

March 18 – 23, 2025

Winner of 4 Tony Awards®, including Best Choreography and Best Costumes, and the Grammy Award® for Best Musical Theater Album, SOME LIKE IT HOT is “A Super-Sized, All-Out Song-And-Dance Spectacular!” - The New York Times 

Set in Chicago when Prohibition has everyone thirsty for a little excitement, SOME LIKE IT HOT is the “glorious, big, high-kicking” (Associated Press) story of two musicians forced to flee the Windy City after witnessing a mob hit. With gangsters hot on their heels, they catch a cross-country train for the life-chasing, life-changing trip of a lifetime. 

& JULIET

May 6 – 11, 2025

Created by the Emmy®-winning writer from “Schitt’s Creek,” this hilarious new musical flips the script on the greatest love story ever told. & Juliet asks: what would happen next if Juliet didn’t end it all over Romeo? Get whisked away on a fabulous journey as she ditches her famous ending for a fresh beginning and a second chance at life and love—her way.  

Juliet’s new story bursts to life through a playlist of pop anthems as iconic as her name, including "Since U Been Gone‚" "Roar," "Baby One More Time," "Larger Than Life‚" "That’s The Way It Is,“ and "Can't Stop the Feeling!"—all from the genius songwriter/producer behind more #1 hits than any other artist this century. Break free of the balcony scene and get into this romantic comedy that proves there’s life after Romeo. The only thing tragic would be missing it.  

PARADE

July 29 – August 3, 2025

Winner of the 2023 Tony Award® for Best Revival of a Musical, PARADE has been proclaimed as “a work of art! As commanding as any musical revival to hit Broadway in years” (Deadline). 

Leo and Lucille Frank are a newlywed Jewish couple struggling to make a life in the old red hills of Georgia. When Leo is accused of an unspeakable crime, it propels them into an unimaginable test of faith, humanity, justice, and devotion. Riveting and gloriously hopeful, PARADE reminds us that to love, we must truly see one another. 

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