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The MUPPETS are going to Broadway! | Magic show to feature Muppets as guests, prior to more?
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James Richardson
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Mickey Jo
Unbelievable.
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This.
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Mickey Jo
This is an objectively fantastic day for me as a lifelong Muppets fan, and a horrible day for me as someone with an irrational fear of magicians. I will explain. Oh my God. Hey, welcome back to my theatre themed YouTube channel. Or hello to you if you are listening to this on podcast platforms. My name is Mickey Jo and I am obsessed with all things theatre. I am a professional theatre critic and content creator here on social media and today I bring you the very exciting news that the Muppets are finally heading to Broadway. Yes, it is time to play the music. It is time to light the lights because the Muppets are taking Manhattan irl. It was announced earlier this week that a new special Broadway production would be playing a festive run at the Broadhurst Theatre. This is going to be Rob Lake doing magic with special guests, the Muppets. So it's not an entirely the Muppets show. It's not like the Muppets Christmas Carol on stage or anything like that. But it does mean that for what I believe is the first time ever, the Muppets are going to appear live in front of audiences on a Broadway stage, which is huge news and something that the creative minds behind the Muppets have been working on if rumors are to be believed for some time now. And the journey of the Muppets to the Broadway stage is one of the many things that we are going to talk about in today's theatre news recap video. We're going to talk about this newly announced show, exactly what it's going to be as well as the precedent that it might set for the possibility of the Muppets on stage more in the future and why this is so exciting to me and also just a little bit scary and why I love the Muppets so much, but I know that I'm not alone in that. And I would love to hear from you in the comments section as well. Who is going to be heading to the Broadhurst Theatre this festive season to go and see the Muppets? Let me know. And if you enjoy listening to this and you want to stay up to date with all of the Broadway and West End theatre news, make sure to subscribe to my theatre themed YouTube channel. Turn on those notifications so you don't miss any new video updates or go follow me on podcast platforms. In the meantime, let us talk about it. The Muppets going to Broadway. What a time to be alive.
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Rob Lake
Hi, I'm Rob Lake. You may know me from my many television appearances, my world renowned touring, or even as the guy who made Adele magically disappear. Well, I'm here today to announce I'm bringing my death defying and mind blowing illusions to Broadway.
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Kermit the Frog
Hey, ho there, Rob.
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Rob Lake
Kermit the Frog. What are you doing here?
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Kermit the Frog
Well, I wanted to congratulate you on your new Broadway show.
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Rob Lake
Well, thanks, Kermit. I'm really, really excited.
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Kermit the Frog
You'll love it. There is nothing like live theater in New York City.
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Rob Lake
Well, Kermit, you and the Muppets, you inspired me to pursue a career in show business. Ever since I was a kid, I wanted to be just like you. Hey, wait a minute. Would you and the guys like to tag along and be part of my Broadway show and perform an illusion with me?
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Mickey Jo
Well.
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Kermit the Frog
Are you kidding me, Rob? We'd love to.
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Rob Lake
That's amazing. Well, what would you need?
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Kermit the Frog
Well, most of us are pretty low maintenance. Gonzo just needs a bucket of tapioca pudding and an oversized spool of twine. Do you have that?
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Rob Lake
Not a problem.
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Mickey Jo
Good.
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Kermit the Frog
And Fozzie loves to keep bananas around because they're appealing. You're gonna fit right in.
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Rob Lake
Well, that's amazing, Kermit. Well, what should your billing be?
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Kermit the Frog
Hmm. How about we call the show Rob Lake Magic with special guests of Muppets.
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Rob Lake
Will Miss Piggy be okay with that? Just a special guest appearance?
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Kermit the Frog
Maybe we just don't tell her it's a guest appearance.
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Rob Lake
Understood. Come see us on Broadway starting this October. Get your tickets before they disappear. See what I did there?
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Mickey Jo
Aha.
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Kermit the Frog
He sure did. Because you do magic.
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Rob Lake
I sure do.
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Mickey Jo
So, first of all, let's talk about the headline news, which is this newly announced show. I am reading from the official Muppet inclusive press release. Best day of my life. And the show is officially called Robb Lake Magic with special guests the Muppets I know who the Muppets are. I don't know who Rob Lake is and before I find out, here are some of the most important details. The show is going to play Broadway's Broadhurst theatre for the 2025 holiday season. It's a 12 week limited ENG beginning previews on Tuesday, October 28th for an official opening night of Thursday, November 6th, playing through Sunday, January 18th, 2026 only. Tickets are going on sale to the general public in a few weeks time. That's Thursday, September 4th and you can find out more information from roblakebroadway.com now. Rob Lake has been called the world's greatest illusionist by NBC and he commented, I've been performing magic my entire life and it has always been my greatest dream to perform my show on Broadway and magic and illusion on Broad makes a lot of sense, the grandeur and the spectacle of it. My personal feelings about magicians notwithstanding, I will explain, I promise. Give me a moment on the Muppets. Of it all, it has been confirmed that joining Rob for show stopping moments on stage is none other than Kermit the Frog, who will be joined by some of his friends from the Muppets to help bring their own wacky humor and magic to the illusions. Lake continued, like so many people around the world, I grew up with the Muppets. To work with them and create new illusions for them to appear in my show has been the most rewarding and surprisingly fun, familiar moment. It's like I have known them my entire life and I'm sure many of us feel similarly and that's a really lovely sentiment. The producers have also shared a statement after years of touring the world, we are so excited that Broadway audiences will finally get to marvel at the exceptional talents of Rob Lake. Pairing his mind blowing illusions with the Muppets and their singular classic humor is truly a dream come true for all of us. Rob Lake is currently in residence at the Atlantis Bahamas with performances running through Sunday, August 31st. He will make a return engagement to the Arched center in Miami, Florida on Saturday, September 13th, and we have a little bit of information about the creative team here. Some additional creative team members are going to be announced at a later date, but Bethany Pettigrew and Kevin Zak will serve as creative consultant and script consultant to the production respectively. Now my immediate thoughts right off the bat. I am so excited that the Muppets are coming to Broadway and while it's not obviously a full the Muppets on Broadway show, I Think this tentative first step towards that is just that. I think it is a testing of the waters. There's a lot of logistical questions around how the Muppets can appear or on a Broadway stage. It sounds as though, I mean, the press release can imply we are going to see at least three. You would assume Miss Piggy and I feel like you would also assume Fozzie Bear and maybe Gonzo based on the nature of the event, because it's a magic show. They have specified Kermit the Frog, they said, and some of his friends, which means at least two additional Muppets. I don't want to get my hopes up and hope for more Muppets than we are actually going to get, but, you know, this could be very exciting. And as a piece of producing, I also want to say this before I forget. I like that we have holiday shows being scheduled on Broadway, because here in London, if a theatre is vacant, something will go into that theatre. If a theatre is vacant for five minutes, somebody will put a show into that theatre. If a show closes a couple of weeks earlier than scheduled and there's still something coming in in two weeks time, something will fill that two week gap. Because it's so much cheaper to capitalize initial costs and get a production up and running here or transfer something. And it's so much faster for shows to recoup, especially if they are successful, especially if they are fairly inexpensive productions. But over on Broadway, meanwhile, if something closes early, Broadway houses can sit dark for up to a year or over a year in some instances. And as much as I'm aware of the reality that there aren't enough audiences to sustain simultaneous Broadway runs in every single Broadway theatre, it is also a little bit depressing to walk around the Midtown Manhattan theatre district and see so many vacant houses. So even though it's not a Broadway play or a Broadway musical, I celebrate shows being produced over the festive period. And you have to assume that the Muppets of it all are going to be a huge draw here and are going to, you know, make this show sell. Especially for those of us who didn't grow up local to somewhere like Orlando, Florida or. I don't know if the Muppets have any kind of a presence in Disneyland in California, but those who have never had the chance to see or experience the Muppets live before, I have been a lifelong Muppets fan and I have never had access to the Muppets in that kind of a way. But back to Rob Lake, I'm now reading from his multi paragraph biography here, which tells me he has dazzled millions on primetime network TV streaming services and sold out shows worldwide. In 2018 he appeared on NBC's America's Got Talent, reaching over 80 million YouTube and Facebook video views. Maybe after this video you can go and check that out right now. Maybe YouTube has been very clever and suggested it for you. Somewhere adjacent to my face. Wouldn't that be something? He also oh, this is a big deal. He served as creative consultant and illusion designer for Grammy Award winning artist Adele's sold out Las Vegas residency. And I have seen clips from Adele's Vegas residency and one of the most mind boggling was the moment at the end of the show when all of the flower petals fall and then in an instant Adele has disappeared. Would it not be amazing if they can do that with Miss Piggy? That's my immediate thought just right off the bat. That's what I want to see here anyway. Rob has performed in theaters, casinos, resorts and arenas in over 60 countries around the US, Europe, Australia, India, the Middle East, Australia. Australia is listed twice, apparently twice in Australia, Africa and Asia with notable sold out and return engagement performances in nyc, Atlantic City, Holly Lake, Tahoe, the Las Vegas Strip, South Africa, Dubai, Singapore, multiple Japan tours and a multi year, multi million dollar residency at the iconic Atlantis Bahamas Resort. He's been reasonably successful is what we're hearing here. He's done pretty well for himself. He has been named, as I mentioned before, the world's greatest illusionist by NBC and one of the world's top illusionists by ABC in 2008. See, this is fascinating here because obviously I am theatre obsessed and you know, Broadway and West End centric and I will tell you immediately if someone is a Tony winner or an Olivier winner. Did not know this was a thing. In 2008, Rob Lake became the youngest magician in history to receive the holy grail of the magic world, the Merlin Award. That's amazing. As International Stage Magician of the Year. This award is magic's highest honour and the industry equivalent of an Oscar. That's exceptional news that I have learned. I'm just. If nothing else, the fact that I have learned that piece of information, I feel enriched. I hope you do as well. And the Muppets collaboration of it all begins to make more sense because Rob has served as magic consultant and illusion designer for TV series, films, Walt Disney Imagineering Broadway shows, PR stunts and special events and has even created illusions for fellow famous magicians. And obviously Disney now own the Muppets. So the Disney Imagineering Connection makes a lot of sense. And I'm wondering specifically which Broadway shows Rob Lake has worked on as illusion designer. Surely we can find out that information somewhere. Does he have an IBDB page? Oh, he does. And it lists his upcoming appearance with the Muppets. Oh. Initial allusion contributions from Rob Lake for Death Becomes Her. There you go. The ongoing Broadway hit Death Becomes Her. Well, isn't that exciting? Now I want Miss Piggy as Madeline Ashton falling down a flight of stairs. And the best thing is, you know, you can. You can just throw her. I'll be honest. Now, we do have a bit of a bio for the Muppets here as well, as well as some specific insight into the working relationship between Rob Lake and the Muppets. The Muppet Studio continues to create family friendly content with its hundreds of beloved characters, including Kermit the Frog, Miss Piggy, Fozzie Bear, the Great Gonzo and many more. See, those were the four that I mentioned. I feel like they are the four biggest hitters at this stage. Notable projects include the feature film the Muppets, its follow up Muppets Most Wanted and years of films before that, for what it's worth, the Muppets television series for abc, Muppets now, and the award winning special Muppets Haunted Mansion and series the Muppets Mayhem for Disney Plus. Oh, I see. I think this is specifically about the Muppets Studio, which is a subsidiary of Disney Enterpr, put together after the acquisition of the Muppets by the Walt Disney Company from the Jim Henson Company in 2004. Which is why it's not listing more nostalgic screen projects like the original Muppet show and the earliest Muppet movies, the Muppets Take Manhattan, Muppets and the. What's the pirate one? Muppet Treasure Island. There you go. I wanted to call it Muppets from the Caribbean. Something went wrong there in my brain. I've seen that dozens of times. The underrated A Very Merry Muppet Christmas and one of my personal favourites, Muppets from Space. Anyway, Joe Quainkwa, I hope that's how you pronounce his name, is making his lead producing debut on Broadway with Rob Lake Magic with special guests the Muppets. He is a former longtime executive at Disney Theatrical Group and has been working with Rob Lake since 2018, shortly after his debut on America's Got Talent. Joe first worked with Kermit The Frog and Miss Piggy in 2011. Worked with them personally on their return to the big screen with their record breaking film, the Muppets while a part of Walt Disney Studios publicity team, where he joined as vice president in 2002. And there's a lovely line here where it says, introducing Rob Lake to the Muppets will forever be one of the major highlights of his career. That's lovely. And when you have a brand like Muppets, I feel like it's all just charming and delightful, but also, you know, not dangerous as such. But they have to be very careful with how they utilize the Muppets brand. You know, people really love the Muppets and I think you have to take care of them, literally and figuratively. So, carrying on, let's talk about the impact of what this is going to do with bringing the Muppets to a Broadway stage. Now, like I said before, if rumors are to be believed, and this announcement was in fact originally rumored, so it would suggest that many of them are. Are. The Muppets have been considered for a live stage performance for some time now. And you obviously have things like Muppet Vision 3D that brings some of the Muppets to life. But there have allegedly been workshops of versions of like Muppets Christmas Carol in an attempt to see if it was even possible to bring the Muppets to a Broadway stage. And the question here principally is logistics. And they wouldn't be the first puppet characters to appear on Broadway, Avenue Q having been a Tony Award winning Broadway success. But there is one explicit difference between Avenue Q and the Muppets, which is that you can see the puppeteers in Avenue Q. And for some years now, it has been clear that you cannot see the puppeteers when the Muppets are being portrayed. That is a big rule. And so then you begin to ask logistical questions about how you can puppeteer these characters while the puppeteers themselves are at all times obscured. Because it's one thing doing it for cameras, it's another thing doing it for a theatrical space. And particularly a theatrical space with multiple different tiers of seating, offering audience members different vantage points to the stage area. At that point, you have to come up with some very clever stage solutions. And the Sesame street characters have appeared off Broadway in Sesame street the Musical. I saw that in New York at Theatre555. And they managed to achieve that while obscuring the puppeteers. That was also a more intimate house. They didn't have multiple, like, balcony levels and mezzanines to consider. I'm trying to think of other examples where this has been achieved. And I've seen Basil Brush on stage at the Edinburgh Fringe hosting his own sort of talk show style icon of British media, Basil Brush. If you don't know who is a small sort of fox puppet. And at that performance, we did only see Basil, we didn't see how he was being brought to life on the stage. He was above a conspicuously large desk. And once again, this was a venue with only one level of seating, flat on the floor and just going back with a little bit of a rake, but not enough to offer, again, vantage points above and behind the desk, which some bigger theatres do. But what's interesting is that Basil Brush regularly appears in pantomime at theatres that do have higher seating sections that do have multiple tiers. I have never seen Basil Brush in pantomime, but chances are someone in this comment section must have seen Basil Brush in pantomime and can let us know how that was achieved on stage. Do you see the puppeteer or do you not? And as we embark on this conversation, I do also think it's important that you don't. With the Muppets, I think Avenue Q is one thing, but I think it would be really disappointing to have a live Muppets performance and to see the puppeteers. I think a big part of it is just being able to truly believe in these characters, which is a big part of what makes their imminent appearance so exciting. And you better believe that we are going to see them and we're not going to see the puppeteers when they appear with Rob Lake. It's also a magic show, so if anyone's going to be able to find a solution, it's the magicians. But the thing is, they are also performing with the explicit permission and collaboration of the Muppet Studio and the Walt Disney Company, which means this feels an awful lot like a test. It feels like they are going to use this process to figure out how they can stage it. And then once they've done that, with how much love there is for the Muppets, intergenerational love for the Muppets. Dare I say, it wouldn't surprise me if they explore newly the possibility of different Muppet stage projects. And while I would love to see some of their former stories adapted for the stage. And while you'd love to hear some of the greatest hits, a little bit of It's Not Easy Being Green as a torch song, all that jazz, Miss Piggy doing some sort of a spectacular, I also think there is room to develop something completely original for Broadway, like the Muppets on Broadway. And inevitably, it would probably be some sort of fourth Wall breaking show that Kermit hosting and they have to try and save the theater. The kinds of story lines that we've seen before, but exactly what audiences are going to want something in a variety show kind of a format, musical numbers, stuff going wrong, hijinks, celebrity guests. They could rotate Gutenberg style even. I see the entire vision, the Muppet vision, if you like. And I am deeply passionate about this because like I said, I am a lifelong fan of the Muppets. And this news has made me realize that a lot of my fellow theater content critics, creators also really like the Muppets. But I don't just like the Muppets. I love the Muppets. I have brought with me proof. This is what I fell in love with as a teenager. This is the Muppet Show Series 1 on DVD. It is a box set and bafflingly. And get ready for this piece of lore. I think from what I can remember, the Muppets are how I discovered Sondheim. Stay with me. It's not just because they have performed Sondheim songs like Comedy Tonight, which I heard first performed by the Muppets and later realized it was a song from A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum. But specifically I as something like a 13 year old, I was watching the Muppets show, discovered Bernardette Peters, searched for Bernadette Peters on YouTube, found the clip of her in concert singing no One Is Alone, found Into the woods and then blew my own mind in the process. And as a pipeline, it makes total sense to go from Muppets fan to musical theater fan or to go the other way. I am telling you, the crossover here is enormous. And I really hope that the Muppets not only do fantastic business when they get to Broadway and sell a whole bunch of tickets because people like me are really excited to go and see the Muppets on stage. But I hope that like when Hamilton first arrived, they can help to boost all of the Broadway shows in their proximity. I hope we get months of marketing campaigns of the Muppets going to visit other Broadway shows. I mean, Miss Piggy at O Mary is obvious, but also her backstage with Megan Hilty at Death becomes her needs to happen. I think it was Fozzie Bear who played Ziddler before in a parody version of Moulin Rouge within A Very Merry Muppet Christmas so that can happen again. Send Sam the Eagle to Hamilton. Send the Electric Mayhem to Hell's Kitchen. All of these CR crossovers are just waiting to happen. Now before I wrap this one up and pass it over to you in the comments section. I did promise that I would explain my irrational fear of magicians and it is just that it is entirely irrational. I have no issue with clowns, interestingly enough, because I know that is the the far more popular disposition. But there is something about magicians, and there always has been, that just unnerves me. And I have gone to see magic shows and I have seen Darren Brown and his projects. It's his brand of magician that scares me the most. It's the illusion and the mentalists. But I can ultimately cope with it if I am in a theater. If it is close up magic, one on one, then I'm really going to break out into a sweat. And you have to imagine my embarrassment when I have on multiple occasions in the past been emailed with press and reviewing opportunities by PRs that I collaborate with regularly who I email on a daily basis saying they are representing this magician. Do I want to come and do a one on one magic thing and make a video about it? And it's a great pitch, but unfortunately it just scares the hell out of me and I have to send the most embarrassing emails of my life back as a respected member of the industry saying so sorry, can't do this. Scared of magicians. But it is a testament to the extent of my love for the Muppets that I'm willing to make an exception for this particular show. And I think any magician collaborating with the Muppets is a less scary type of magician. To me, I think this is like family friendly magic. It's not going to be insidious. And honestly, I would go and see anything the Muppets do on stage like want a big splashy Muppet musical moment. But I would go and see the Muppets do. Chekov in fact, that sounds thrilling to me. I would go and see the Muppets do. I'd see the Muppets doing Waiting for Godot. I would see Waiting for Gonzo, the Muppet version, like text unaltered. I would still delight in going to see that. And that's perhaps my least favorite play anyway. That I think is everything there is to say about these iconic characters heading to Broadway. I know how I feel about it and I would love to know how you feel about it. Please share all of your thoughts, all of your excitement, all of your confusion if that's how you feel in the comments section down below. I hope to have the chance to cover this while it is on Broadway and let you know even more about which Muppets are making their Broadway debuts, thrilled for them, how it works and whether or not it seems as though this could build to something bigger and even more exciting in the future. In the meantime, thank you so much for listening to this theatre news recap. I hope that you enjoyed. Make sure to subscribe and turn on notifications right here on YouTube to stay up to date with all of the West End and Broadway theatre news. Or go follow me on podcast platforms or other social media apps. In the meantime, thank you so much. I hope that everyone is staying safe and that you have have a stagey day for 10 more seconds. I'm Mickey Jo Theatre. Oh my God. Hey, thanks for watching. Have a Stagey Day.
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James Richardson
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Mickey Jo
Hey, do.
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