Astronaut Dr. Mae Jemison, science educator Bill Nye and astrophysicist Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson have joined the producing team of Galileo, the new musical due to begin previews at the Shubert Theatre on November 10.
None of the three has produced on Broadway before. They come in as co-producers under a team led by Amanda Lipitz, Henry Tisch and Jordan Roth, and Jemison, according to the production, has been part of it for months. The appointments were first reported by BroadwayWorld.
For a musical about the astronomer who put the sun at the center of the solar system, the billing now carries three of the country’s best-known explainers of science. Jemison, a former NASA astronaut, was the first woman of color in space. Nye, who created and hosted Bill Nye the Science Guy, is chief ambassador and vice chair of the board of the Planetary Society. Tyson directs the Hayden Planetarium at the American Museum of Natural History and has served on NASA’s advisory council.
Tyson called the story “a stark reminder that what is discovered to be objectively true in the universe is not always welcomed by cultural, political, or religious dogma.” Jemison, who took dance classes at Alvin Ailey while studying medicine at Cornell, put it this way: “science provides an understanding of a universal experience, and the arts provide a universal understanding of a personal experience.”
Danny Strong wrote the book, and Zoe Sarnak and Michael Weiner the score. The musical follows Galileo as he argues for a sun-centered cosmos and collides with a Catholic Church committed to the opposite view. Raúl Esparza plays Galileo Galilei, with Joy Woods as his daughter, Virginia, and Jeremy Kushnier as Bishop Maffeo Barberini.
Previews begin November 10 at the Shubert Theatre, ahead of an official opening on December 6. Tickets are sold through the production’s official website, GalileoMusical.com.
