Behind the Curtain: How Blumenthal Arts Helped Launch Some Of This Year’s Biggest Hits On Broadway - Including Tony-Nominated Contenders!
June 6, 2025 / Blog
By Liz Rothaus Bertrand If you tune into this year’s Tony AwardsⓇ (live broadcast this Sunday, June 8 at 8pm on CBS and available for streaming on Paramount+), feel free to brag a little on your hometown theater. Blumenthal Arts played a role in getting several of the nominees to Broadway.
The not-for-profit invests in many up and coming productions, including one of this year’s nominees for Best Musical, “Buena Vista Social Club,” which nabbed an impressive 10 total nominations!
“We're involved with many of these shows, not knowing whether or not they will land on Broadway, whether or not they will be successful and ultimately whether or not they will tour,” says Blumenthal’s president and CEO Tom Gabbard. “We get involved and frequently supply strategic advice and a little bit of money way before any of that’s known. So it is pretty speculative.”
Some of those investments come via the Independent Presenters Network, a consortium of 40 leading Broadway presenters, theaters and performing arts centers across North America, Asia and the U.K. Blumenthal manages the group, which invests jointly in promising productions. Gabbard is a past president of the organization. And occasionally, Blumenthal invests on its own in exciting new plays and musicals.
Here’s a look at some of the latest shows with a Blumenthal connection, including several Tony AwardsⓇ nominees!
Buena Vista Social Club (Broadway)
On sale through January 4, 2026
Hailed by Variety as “The most intoxicating and rapturous show of the Broadway season,” and nominated for 10 Tony Awards, “Buena Vista Social Club” is inspired by true events and the music legends behind the Grammy Award-winning album. Among its nominations are Best New Musical, Best Orchestrations and Best Choreography.
Real Women Have Curves (Broadway)
On sale through October 5
Nominated for two Tony Awards, including Best Original Score, this show recently opened on Broadway. Based on the play that inspired the hit HBO film, this show follows aspiring journalist, Ana García, who’s juggling her own big dreams alongside family expectations and her community’s needs when her family’s East L.A. garment business gets a make or break dress order.
Redwood (Broadway)
Now through August 17
The New York Times says “Idina Menzel is an awe-inspiring force of nature.” Hurry, if you want to catch it! This show about one woman’s life-changing journey into a redwood forest has a strictly limited run.
Smash (Broadway)
On sale through January 4, 2026
Nominated for two Tony Awards, including Best Choreography, it’s the show USA Today calls “Outrageously enjoyable.” “Smash” is perfect for anyone who loves everything Broadway. Inspired by the hit TV series, all the backstage drama that comes with opening a new Broadway show makes for one fantastic comedy.
All Nighter (Off-Broadway)
The Newman Mills Theater at the Robert W. Wilson MCC Theater Space
Limited run - closed May 18, 2025
This show has, unfortunately, now closed but two Blumey Awards alums, Thomas Laub of Runyanland Productions and Arella Flur (in her off-Broadway producing debut!), helped produce the new dark comedy. The play is set during finals week at a small liberal arts college, when a group of friends pull one last all nighter studying together and revealing their fears, secrets and true selves.
A Wonderful World: The Louis Armstrong Musical
October 16, 2024 - closed February 23, 2025
Filled with a dynamic cast of characters and beloved Louis Armstrong hits like “It’s a Wonderful World” and “When You’re Smiling,” this production traces the career of one of jazz’s greatest talents from New Orleans to international fame.
The show received one Tony Award nomination for Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Muscial, with James Monroe Iglehart nominated for his portrayal of Louis Armstrong.
October 29 - closed December 29, 2024
There’s a major North Carolina connection behind this production, which is nominated for a Tony Award for Outstanding Scenic Design of a Musical. “Swept Away” features the American folk rock tunes of The Avett Brothers, a band that got its start right outside of Charlotte, in Concord. Drawing particularly from the album, “Mignonette,” this harrowing tale was inspired by the real life story of a 19th century British shipwreck. It relates what a group of sailors, used to long hard days at sea, must do to try to survive after their ship capsizes.