The King’s Critique, an original musical comedy from Nat Zegree and Eric Holmes, went into rehearsal this week, and the first photographs from the room are out ahead of its limited Off-Broadway run at the Pershing Square Signature Center.
Performances begin Tuesday, November 3 in The Romulus Linney Courtyard Theatre, one of the three houses inside the Frank Gehry-designed center at 480 West 42nd Street, with opening night set for Thursday, November 12.
The show has been a while in the making. Zegree, who wrote the music and lyrics, and Holmes, who wrote the book and shares the lyrics, released five of its songs as a concept album on Joy Machine Records in 2025. Zegree’s earlier work includes From Mozart to Pop Chart; Holmes’s credits include the television series The Good Fight and Fly More Than You Fall. Catie Davis, whose credits include Beetlejuice and Moulin Rouge! The Musical, directs.
The premise is a royal decree and a plot to break it. King Benjamin (Justin Collette) has banned women from the stage; Josephine (Taylor Iman Jones) means to overturn the ban, and draws the tenor Sebastian (Sky Lakota-Lynch) into an elaborate scheme to do it. As the production itself points out, a plan hatched by theater people rarely runs to schedule.
Jones’s credits include Head Over Heels and Six, and Lakota-Lynch is a Tony Award nominee whose credits include The Outsiders and Dear Evan Hansen. Collette’s include Beetlejuice and School of Rock – The Musical, and Donna Lynne Champlin, of Sweeney Todd, Billy Elliot the Musical and television’s Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, is also in the company. They are joined by Matthew Patrick Quinn, Gabi Carrubba, Gilbert L. Bailey II, Bridget Beirne, Nick Cearley, Christian Fary, Timothy Matthew Flores, Amy Jo Jackson, Kamal Lado, Johanna Moise, Geena Quintos and Justin Sudderth, with Kyrie Courter, Brandon Stonestreet and Ryan Everett Wood as understudies.
Nancy Renee Braun choreographs, with sets by Paul Tate dePoo III, costumes by Emily Rebholz, lighting by Cory Pattak, sound by Jessica Paz and props by Oscar Escobedo. Lorenzo Pisoni is the movement director, Zegree is the music director and shares the orchestrations with Ian Chan, and casting is by The TRC Company.
The producers are Art Lab Productions (Meg Fofonoff) and Jordan Fisher Theatrics (Jordan Fisher), with Anthony Salamon, Ashton Clay and Courtney Peraza, and Lisa Dozier Shacket as executive producer.
Tickets are on sale now through the production’s own website, KingsCritiqueMusical.com.
