Broadway stars campaign to get out the vote

A new video encouraging Broadway fans to vote has being popping up on social media feeds lately.

Set at a workers’ rally at the turn of the last century, the musical number called “Carrying the Message” plays off the 1990s musical Newsies, about a group of disenfranchised newsboys.

The original creators of Newsies, including composer Alan Menken and director Kenny Ortega, are behind this new take for the 2024 election. It also features a slew of Broadway talent such as Nikki M James, who starred in the Tony Award-winning political musical Suffs.

This music video is one of a number of ways — both online and on stage — in which the new nonprofit Broadway Votes has been working to inspire Broadway audiences to head to the voting booth.

“Because Broadway in particular is a commercial industry, very little partisan work gets done, it felt like this incredible opportunity to leverage the talents of people who work in the industry and encourage people across the country to get out and vote,” said Catherine Markowitz, theater producer and co-founder and director of Broadway Votes.

Broadway Votes has also been mobilizing New York’s stages and stars to engage audiences lately through curtain-call announcements about the importance of voting at shows like Once Upon A Mattress, Hadestown and Little Shop of Horrors.

The nonprofit also organized a get-out-the-vote concert in New York’s Times Square, a music video featuring Tony Award winning performer Alex Newell and the Broadway Inspirational Voices singing group in a performance of a new arrangement of “Keep Marching” from Suffs, and various online giveaways and contests, including a costume contest judged by Broadway celebrities Betsy Wolfe, J Harrison Ghee and Rachel Bloom. The winner will be announced on election day.

Data shared via email with NPR from the arts-focused voter registration nonprofit Headcount shows these efforts have so far led to thousands of voter registrations.

Broadway Votes has also inspired some formerly reticent theater insiders to become politically engaged.

“I’ve always found myself in between two worlds,” said performer Tommy Bracco, who said he divides his time between his mostly red-leaning family on Staten Island and blue-leaning entertainment industry colleagues in Manhattan. “And because so many people close to me are so passionate about this, I have kind of felt afraid to use my voice [for political causes].” 

Now he’s playing one of the leads in the “Carrying the Message” music video.

“Broadway Votes encouraged me to use my voice for the first time ever,” Bracco said. “In a world where everything is so divided, Broadway Votes is bringing people together.”