Promenade (2026)

Book and Lyrics by María Irene Fornés
Music by Al Carmines
March 5-28, 2026
Show Webpage
Production Photos

THE CAST
105 – Ronmal Mottley
106 – Tawaine Noah
Servant – Stephanie Merritt
Cake – Lauren Tenenbaum
Jailer – Ian McCreary
Miss I – Kathleen Dwyer
Miss O – Benni Jillette
Miss U – Chelsie Johnston
Mr. R – Chris Moore
Mr. S – Kent Coffel
Mr. T – Robert Doyle
Mayor – W. Smith III
Mother – Bee Mecey
Waiter, et al. – Nathan Mecey
Dishwasher, et al. – Michael Kramer


THE NEW LINE BAND
Conductor/Keyboards – Jason Eschhofen
Trumpet – Chris Dressler
Violin – Chuck Evans
Bass – John Gerdes
Trombone – Adam Levin
Reeds – Mary Wiley
Percussion – Joe Winters


THE ARTISTIC STAFF
Directors – Scott Miller, Chris Moore
Music Director – Jason Eschhofen
Choreographer – Livy Potthoff
Stage Manager – Rachel DeNoyer
Technical Director – Nathan Mecey
Sound Designer – Ryan Day
Costume Designer – Becca Rose Bessette
Scenic Designer – Dr. Rob Lippert
Lighting Designer – Eric Wennlund
Props Master – Beth Burton-Livorsi
Graphic Designer – Matt Reedy
Photographer – Jill Ritter Lindberg

REVIEWS

“This ridiculously hilarious romp is gloriously wacky. Audiences should set aside any expectations and go along for the ride. Giddy and wonderful, Promenade succeeds thanks to a stellar cast that relishes the ludicrousness of it all. Happily devouring scenery as they goof off, they deliver an infectious burst of musical theater. . . Raucous, crass, and gleefully off-kilter, New Line Theatre’s production of Promenade darts and weaves between the serious and the sublime. A funny and frivolous frolic, the show shows no signs of age as its critiques of social standing, wealth-driven buffoonery, and struggles of the poor and oppressed seem strangely relevant today. This is magical chaos.” – Rob Levy, BroadwayWorld

“New Line Theatre is up to its old tricks again, and we should all be grateful. The company’s last four fully staged musicals were revivals of successful shows from its past. These safe choices were understandable, given the financial challenges facing New Line and many other theaters. With its current staging of Promenade, however, New Line reclaims its place among the boldest producers of musicals. . . In taking a chance on a provocative, seldom produced work, New Line has lived up to its billing as ‘the bad boy of musical theater’. . . The opportunity to see this rare and historically important work should not be passed up.” – Gerry Kowarsky, Two on the Aisle

“New Line Theatre is known for shining light on off-beat and lesser known shows, and their latest offering is one of their quirkiest yet. Promenade is an experimental musical from 1969 that features a catchy score and a markedly absurdist style. It’s sharply satirical and surprisingly relevant to today, featuring a cast and creative team that have gone all-in on the absurdity, making for a thought-provoking, entertaining and challenging production that highlights the best of what New Line is about. . . Promenade is a show like you probably haven’t seen before. Although it does fit in musically and thematically with its 1960s origin, its themes resonate a great deal to notable topics of today. It’s a production that brings out the best of what New Line can do while satirizing some of the worst of what humanity has to offer in terms of economic disparity and abuse of power. It’s certainly a show that will make you think, and you just might find the songs playing in your head as you leave.” – Michelle Kenyon, Snoop’s Theatre Thoughts

“Delightfully absurd, 1965’s Promenade is a mad tea party in act one and a sprawling, nutty gadabout in act two. You keep shaking it like a Christmas present, going crazy trying to figure out what’s inside. But a playful nonsense rules the day. . . ‘What does it mean, and where is it going?,’ I kept asking myself during this production. Those questions become the ultimate joke in a show that’s gleefully evasive, where powerful idiots delight in flummoxing one another, as the powerless sneak in for a closer look. . . The whole show comes along at exactly the right moment, with its unexplained war and our own wealth gap at the worst it’s been since the French Revolution. And every wise word twisted into ridiculous nonsense. What a surprising relief, finally, to be able to laugh at it all.” – Richard Green, TalkinBroadway

“New Line’s production of Promenade is lighting in a bottle. If this were helmed by a lesser crew, it would have crashed and burned. . . New Line makes it look easy, effortless, accessible even. And it’s all thanks to an enthusiastic cast, a lush jazz combo, creative visuals, and great directing. . . If this is going to be the only chance to see Promenade, for at least a long while, I implore you to run, like a Maypole in a war zone, to the Marcelle Theater for this potentially once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.” – Jack Janssen, Jack Reviews Musicals

“Promenade is well-staged at New Line. The artistic choices and collaboration of the directors, actors, and designers enhance the colorfully aesthetic production.” – James Lindhorst, St. Louis Arts Scene

DIRECTOR'S NOTES

Promenade won’t tell you a story; it’ll take you on an odyssey. This show is different from any other musical we’ve produced in the last thirty-four years. Don’t expect a conventional plot. Don’t expect character development. Don’t expect a message or a point of view. This is Theatre of the Absurd. Just go for the ride. You’ll have fun.

Promenade was born in 1965 at the Judson Poets’ Theatre, one of the four pillars of the alternative, “off off Broadway” scene of the 1960s. It began as an absurdist one-act musical called The Promenade, with music by gay minister Al Carmines, and with book and lyrics by gay Cuban-American María Irene Fornés. Four years later in 1969, their expanded two-act rewrite, Promenade, opened off Broadway to rave reviews.

America was in the midst of terrible turmoil in 1965 when The Promenade opened, and in 1969 when Promenade debuted – and again today. So what can this 1960s musical still show us about our world today? A whole lot.

Theatre of the Absurd first emerged in the mid-1950s, as the increasingly complex, consumerist, postwar era – and America’s oppressive conformity culture – demanded a new kind of response to world events, a new kind of storytelling, a new kind of art-making.

Theatre of the Absurd has two basic premises. First, the world is inherently absurd, without meaning, logic, or purpose. The second premise is that language is untrustworthy, because words can never communicate exactly what another person thinks or feels. And language can be used to deceive. In an absurdist play, what happens is always more truthful than what is said.

Theatre of the Absurd is not interested in conventional notions of character, motivation, exposition, backstory, plot, or dramatic arc. It follows the rules of neither comedy nor tragedy, because it’s almost always both. Absurdist theatre is expressionistic, expressing emotion, not information.

Instead of imitating reality, the absurdists believed in showing us the essence of reality, its metaphysical truth, its present-ness. Author Martin Esslin explains, “For all its freedom of invention and spontaneity, the Theatre of the Absurd is concerned with communicating an experience of being, and in doing so, it’s trying to be uncompromisingly honest and fearless in exposing the reality of the human condition.”

And all that is why absurdism is so perfect for these befuddling times we live in today, when we’ve lost faith (again? still?) in our institutions, in our fellow humans, even in facts, and in language itself.

In this world stripped of certainties and rituals, only the most ancient form of storytelling can fill the void – live theatre. And it must respond to its times. Theatre isn’t a mirror; it’s a magnifying glass.