Madison Wells Live Unveils Slate With New Projects From Trio of Buzzy Theater Directors

Madison Wells Live, the stage entertainment division of Gigi Pritzker’s Madison Wells (“The Eyes of Tammy Faye”), has emerged from theater’s lockdown phase with a lineup of brewing theater projects including a movement-based play with music, “The Thing About Jellyfish,” directed by Tyne Rafaeli and now gearing up for a developmental presentation in the spring, and a new musical about the Rev. Daniel Jenkins and the Jenkins Orphanage Band, directed by Whitney White (“What to Send Up When It Goes Down”) and co-produced by David and Jessica Oyelowo.

Courtesy of Madison Wells / Santiago Felipe.

Also on the docket is a new musical led by director Lear DeBessonet, whose Encores! production of “Into the Woods” has become a strong-selling hit on Broadway. The three projects, with creative teams led by three fast-rising directors, are the first to be initiated and shepherded in-house by MWL, which was established in its current iteration in 2019 under the leadership of executive producer Jamie Forshaw (pictured, right), a veteran of Cameron Mackintosh Ltd., Disney Theatrical and Really Useful Group.

“The live division’s mission, which aligns with Gigi’s and Madison Wells’ mission in general, is very much about raising voices that are lesser heard, particularly female voices,” Forshaw said.

MWL has also partnered on the Avett Brothers musical “Swept Away” and is now in talks with a nonprofit theater to bring the show to the east coast following its world premiere at Berkeley Rep earlier this year. Meanwhile, the organization is exploring future iterations of “Seven Deadly Sins,” the storefront theater event the company brought to New York with Tectonic Theatre Company, and guiding the touring and licensing of “Million Dollar Quartet Christmas,” a spinoff of 2010 Broadway musical “Million Dollar Quartet” (originally produced under Pritzker’s Relevant Theatricals banner).

The trio of new stage shows in the works are:

• “The Thing About Jellyfish,” a coming-of-age tale about a girl desperate to uncover the cause of her best friend’s drowning. The script is by Ali Benjamin, who adapted her own novel of the same name. The movement-based play will be directed by Rafaeli (“Epiphany” at Lincoln Center Theater) and choreographed by the Kuperman Brothers (“Alice by Heart”), and is aiming for a developmental presentation in spring 2023.

• “Jenkins,” about the Black pastor who founded an orphanage for Black children in Charleston, S.C. in 1891. The orphanage band he created toured the country and was influential in the development of American jazz as well as of the Charleston dance. York Walker, a playwright and story editor on “FBI,” is writing the script with White on board to direct. The composer of the original score remains to be locked in.

• An untitled new musical helmed by DeBessonet, now in early development.

Exact production trajectories for these shows haven’t yet been set. Forshaw said Broadway, regional, nonprofit and non-traditional venues are all possibilities for MWL titles, based on each show’s needs and potential. Two of the stage shows, “Jellyfish” and “Jenkins,” grew out of projects initially considered for the film division of Madison Wells; both are examples of the interdepartmental cross-pollination Pritzker and Forshaw aim to encourage.

Like all Broadway producers, Madison Wells Live faces an industry that’s still navigating the fallout of the pandemic and the 18-month lockdown it prompted. But Pritzker (pictured, left) said she still considers theater “a very important piece of our ecosystem and our entertainment landscape.”

“I’m super bullish on the theater business,” she added. “Especially if you define theater more broadly than the 42 venues that are Broadway, there’s a world of opportunity that’s very exciting.”

On Broadway, Madison Wells Live will be co-producers of the new musical “Shucked” and the play “Prima Facie” starring Jodie Comer. The company has previously been a part of the Broadway producing teams of “Hadestown,” “The Inheritance,” “Company” and “Pass Over,” as well as “The Ocean at the End of the Lane” for its West End run and UK tour.