If you follow Betsy Wolfe, Joy Mangano, or me on social media, you may have seen our news! JOY: A New True Musical is opening Off-Broadway this summer!

Performances begin June 21, 2025 and we only have 8 weeks in the Laura Pels Theatre!

And did I mention that it’s starring the very joyous, the very talented Betsy Wolfe as Joy?! Fun fact: she was a part of the very first reading we did in 2019 – so it’s been a joy to be reunited with her post-& Juliet!

I have received emails, DMs, and texts congratulating the team on this announcement and a few of you have asked me why we chose Off-Broadway as the next stop in Joy’s developmental journey.

It’s a fair question.

We had an out-of-town tryout in New Jersey in 2022 and we knew we needed another stop. And more than that – we WANTED another stop! We had more we wanted to work on.

And as I’ve done a hundred times in my career, I went to my mentors in the biz. They helped me evaluate our options and helped me decide on Off-Broadway. 

In this decision making, we looked at the current Broadway trends. What we noticed is that, unless you are a “giant” like Disney or have a massive IP (think The Outsiders or The Great Gatsby), it can be more difficult to get an audience in the seats of those first few preview performances. 

You need to generate awareness for your show to have a successful run in New York City – especially on Broadway.

We, of course, want to have a very long life (please knock on wood for us)! And choosing the Off-Broadway route as our next stop allows us to continue working on this show while also building awareness, growing the audience, etc. 

But there’s actually ANOTHER reason why we chose the Laura Pels Theatre.

1. I love that space.
2. As we started to talk to the creative team (I always want their opinion on where we’re going), we noticed that there were a lot of people on the Joy team who had kids, families – not unlike Joy herself. We knew that if we did it here, our team could bring their families!

So that’s why we decided to take JOY Off-Broadway! And that’s why we chose the Laura Pels Theatre!

So save these dates – performances begin June 21 and tickets go on sale February 25! 

And here’s a tip for all those who read this blog and enjoy ticket discounts: We are doing a very special pre-sale offer for JOY. If you go to joythemusical.com and sign up for their mailing list, you’ll receive an exclusive offer on 2/20 to get your tickets FIRST. 

I hope you sign up to get the offer. And I really hope you come see JOY Off-Broadway this summer. This show is an absolute joy (pun intended)!

See you this summer at the Laura Pels!