The Tony-nominated revival of the 1964 musical She Loves Me is set to make history as the first Broadway production to be live-streamed.
Nominated for eight Tony awards, the Roundabout Theater Company show is scheduled to end its run on the Great White Way on 10 July. The broadcast will be telecast live on 30 June, from Studio 54 in New York, reports Deadline.
She Loves Me, which stars Laura Benanti, Zachary Levi and Jane Krakowski, is being made available to watch online via a partnership between the Roundabout and BroadwayHD, an online theater streaming service that most recently live-aired a behind-the-scenes show for the 70th Tony awards. The stream is priced at $9.99 in the US.
Off-Broadway shows have in recent years begun to embrace digital distribution, with Daddy Long Legs in 2015 becoming the first to jump on the live-streaming bandwagon. Its broadcast was reportedly watched by more than 150,000 people, in 135 countries worldwide.
The UK’s National Theater meanwhile has been live-streaming many of its most high-profile shows across the world since launching National Theater Live in 2009. Recent successes include Danny Boyle’s production of Frankenstein, starring Benedict Cumberbatch and Jonny Lee Miller, as well as Sam Mendes’ King Lear, with Simon Russell Beale.
New York’s Metropolitan Opera also partners with AMC Theaters for live broadcasts of its operas.
She Loves Me, with a book by Joe Masteroff, lyrics by Sheldon Harnick and music by Jerry Bock, is adapted from the play Parfumerie by Hungarian playwright Miklós László. The source material also served as the basis for the 1998 romantic comedy You’ve Got Mail, starring Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan.