On Oct. 6, the inaugural Bound for Boston, a collaboration between the SpeakEasy Stage Company and nonprofit Somerled Arts, will be held at WBUR CitySpace. The event will feature five new, in-development musicals and their creators.
The evening is hosted by Broadway actress Liz Callaway — known for her many stage and musical roles, as well as for providing the singing voice for the titular character in the 1997 animated musical “Anastasia.” Callaway also hosts the annual Bound for Broadway, a similar new musical showcase in New York.
New York-based Callaway told the Globe that she is “thrilled” that upcoming theater makers will have access to a “really important place to develop new musicals,” noting theater companies don’t often prioritize new shows over established ones, especially for musicals.
“There are a lot of jukebox musicals, and it’s hard for new writers to get a break,” Callaway explained. “That’s why it’s very important that there is a center that people can go to work on new works and develop an audience for them.”
Bound for Boston’s two-hour event features a live musical number preview from each show, followed by a panel with the production’s creators and writers. The five featured shows are currently in various stages of production, but all have undergone live readings in some capacity.
One show set to appear at Bound for Boston is “Finn,” a children’s musical about a shark who realizes he relates to other, more colorful fish in the sea.
The musical was originally commissioned by the Kennedy Center and premiered in D.C. with a sold-out, two-month run in late 2024. However, “Finn”’s scheduled tour was canceled after President Trump’s appointment to chair of the John F. Kennedy Center for Performing Arts in February. The center told Deadline that the decision was purely financial, but, when sharing the news on Instagram, the creators speculated the cancellation was related to “Finn”’s core message around acceptance, and “the fact that that extends to sparkly boys seems to be controversial.“
“We will not abandon the kids we wrote this show for,” the Feb. 13 post’s caption stated. “We will find a way to get Finn out to the audiences who need it most.”
Boston University alum Chris Nee, who co-created “Finn” with Chris Dimond and Michael Kooman, said that theater, like other arts industries, is in a “reckoning space,” and theaters that support and facilitate new programming are essential to maintain creative output.
“We got very lucky because the Kennedy Center was still a fully functioning entity at the time, and they were one of the few places that had the money to commission new shows,” Nee said in an interview with the Globe.
This year’s Bound for Boston will also feature performances and guests from “Hatchetation,” a musical about Carrie Nation, a pre-Prohibition, temperance activist who attacked alcohol-serving establishments with a hatchet; “Lewis Loves Clark,” a comedic retelling of the historical duo’s Corps of Discovery expedition; “Present Perfect,” about an English teacher who immigrates to the US and bonds with her fellow immigrant students; and “Proud Marys,” which features three Filipino-American daughters who are simultaneously pregnant out of wedlock.
In a press release, SpeakEasy said the night will mark the start of an annual collaboration with Somerled Arts. Nee stresses the importance of events, like Bound for Boston, that make audiences aware of new and emerging voices and original works for theater. Though the tour’s cancellation has brought challenges, she remains optimistic for what’s to come.
“What I hope is that [Bound for Boston] inspires new people to get into the world of doing musical theater,” Nee said. “It’s a chance to peek behind the curtain and see the process, which might give them the impetus to make sure they’re coming to see new works.”
BOUND FOR BOSTON: AN EVENING OF NEW MUSICALS
Oct. 6, 7 p.m. $20. WBUR CitySpace, 890 Commonwealth Ave. wbur.org
Ryan Yau can be reached at ryan.yau@globe.com.
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