Jordan Fisher will play The Kid in Purple Rain, the stage musical of Prince’s 1984 film, when it begins previews at the Majestic Theatre on March 12, 2027. It is the first role he has created in a new Broadway musical, and it hands the production’s heaviest load, a lead carrying more than 20 of Prince’s songs, to an actor whose Broadway career so far has been built in shows that already existed.
Producer Orin Wolf announced the casting on November 10, some seven weeks after tickets first went on sale. It is the only name the production has confirmed so far: the rest of the company will follow, and an alternate will take over The Kid on Tuesday evenings and at Wednesday matinees.
Fisher’s Broadway credits are Christian in Moulin Rouge!, Anthony in Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, Evan in Dear Evan Hansen and Laurens/Philip in Hamilton. He also played Bobby in New York City Center’s Urinetown, and was most recently Seymour in the Off-Broadway revival of Little Shop of Horrors. His screen work includes Netflix’s Hello, Goodbye, and Everything in Between, which he also produced, To All the Boys: P.S. I Still Love You, Work It, Rent: Live!, Grease: Live! and Disney/Pixar’s Turning Red, and he runs his own company, Jordan Fisher Productions.
“What’s been thrilling about watching him inhabit ‘The Kid’ is discovering the fire beneath the surface: the swagger, vulnerability and restless creative spirit we recognize in Prince,” said director Saheem Ali. “He’s finding something raw, surprising, and deeply human in this iconic character, and I can’t wait for Broadway audiences to experience it.”
Peter Duchan’s book keeps the film’s setting, Minneapolis in 1984, at the moment music television had started minting stars overnight. The Kid has the presence to front a band on its way up, but the history he has been running from threatens to take it all apart, and the only way through is the music. The score draws on more than 20 Prince songs, among them When Doves Cry, I Would Die 4 U, Take Me with You and The Beautiful Ones, from an album that won Grammys and a film that won the Academy Award for Best Original Song Score.
Ali, a Tony nominee for Buena Vista Social Club and Fat Ham, is associate artistic director of the Public Theater. Duchan wrote the book of Dogfight. Jason Michael Webb, who received a Special Tony Award for Choir Boy and is music director of MJ, handles music supervision, arrangements and orchestrations, and the choreographer is Ebony Williams, an Emmy winner for Sneakerella who contributed additional choreography to Beyoncé’s Renaissance World Tour. Two of Prince’s own musicians are music advisers: Bobby Z, drummer in The Revolution and in the film itself, and Morris Hayes, a member of The New Power Generation for almost two decades and for several years Prince’s musical director.
The design team is David Zinn (scenic), Nathan Amzi and Joe Ransom (video and projection), Montana Levi Blanco (costumes), Justin Townsend (lighting), Gareth Owen (sound), Cookie Jordan (hair and wigs) and Kyle Krueger (makeup). Casting is by The TRC Company, and Amanda Spooner is production stage manager.
The production filmed a short announcement spot with Fisher:
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Purple Rain begins previews on Friday, March 12, 2027, at the Majestic Theatre, 245 West 44th Street, and opens on Monday, April 12, 2027. Tickets are on sale through Telecharge, and more about the production is on its official website.
