A New Brain
Music and Lyrics by
William Finn
Book by
William Finn &
James Lapine
June 6–21, 2025
Broadview Heights Spotlights Cultural Arts Building
Buy TicketsBy the Tony Award-winning authors of Falsettos, here is an energetic, sardonic, often comical musical about a composer during a medical emergency. Gordon collapses into his lunch and awakes in the hospital, surrounded by his maritime-enthusiast lover, his mother, a co-worker, the doctor, and the nurses. Reluctantly, he had been composing a song for a children’s television show that features a frog — Mr. Bungee — and the specter of this large green character and the unfinished work haunts him throughout his medical ordeal. What was thought to be a tumor turns out to be something more operable, and Gordon recovers, grateful for a chance to compose the songs he yearns to produce.
A New Brain premiered off-Broadway at the Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater at Lincoln Center Theater on June 18, 1998. Directed by Graciela Daniele, the production featured Malcolm Gets, Kristin Chenoweth, Penny Fuller, Christopher Innvar, John Jellison, Keith Byron Kirk, Liz Larsen, Michael Mandell, Mary Testa and Chip Zien. In June 2015, the musical was presented as part of the Encores! Off-Center stage concert series. Directed by James Lapine, the production featured Jonathan Groff, Ana Gasteyer and Aaron Lazar.