Will Sing Street Ever Make It “Back” to Broadway?
by Chris Peterson, OnStage Blog Founder
At this point, Sing Street might just be the great ghost of Broadway’s COVID era. It was all set to open in April 2020. The cast was rehearsed, the theatre was booked, and the buzz was real. And then... well, we all know what happened next.
The pandemic shuttered the world, and Sing Street, John Carney’s indie hit turned stage musical packed with heart, original music, and Irish charm, never made it to the stage it was promised. Now, five years later, the show is preparing to make its long-awaited UK debut, rather than returning to the city that nearly called it home.
It is both heartbreaking and, frankly, kind of baffling. This is a show that absolutely belongs on Broadway. It's a coming-of-age story set in 1980s Dublin, with a score that blends vintage synth-pop with gut-punch emotion. It is a love letter to making art with nothing but your friends, a basement, and a dream. What more could Broadway possibly be looking for right now?
The New York Theatre Workshop production in 2019 was not perfect, but it had energy. It had youth. It had life. Critics were mixed, yes, but it had that rare kind of scrappy potential that cannot be faked. There was a raw honesty to it, the kind of spark that could have grown into something electric with a little time and room to breathe. And the fanbase? Absolutely devoted. I remember seeing people leave the Off-Broadway run clutching their Playbills like they had just witnessed a memory from the best night of their adolescence.
But the window closed. And now, instead of reopening that window in New York, the show is heading to the UK this summer for what is being called its "world premiere." That’s right, after all these years, Sing Street will technically be premiering in Birmingham. The Broadway dream remains in limbo.
To be clear, the London run looks like it is in excellent hands. The cast is strong, Rebecca Taichman is back as director, and John Carney himself is involved. I have no doubt it will be a great production. But still, there is a quiet frustration in watching yet another show bypass Broadway, especially when it once stood so close to opening.
There is a painful irony here. Broadway keeps saying it wants to attract younger audiences. It talks about welcoming innovation, championing original scores, and promoting new voices. Yet when Sing Street came along—a show that checks every one of those boxes—it was left waiting in the wings. Meanwhile, other titles that feel like they were pulled out of a hat or run through a nostalgia filter just keep arriving on schedule.
This is not a knock on revivals or jukebox musicals. I actually enjoy many of them. But when Broadway keeps filling its houses with safe choices, it becomes hard to ignore the missed opportunities. Sing Street is not some half-baked concept. It is a fully developed musical, based on a beloved film, with an original score that already resonates deeply with fans. It is ready. Or at least, it was.
In many ways, Sing Street has become a symbol of everything Broadway lost during the pandemic. Think about the revival of Caroline, or Change, which finally opened a year late, or Company, which had to pause and then recalibrate its entire rollout. Sing Street was one of the few new musicals poised for a breakout moment. And it never got the chance.
So I will ask the question I have been asking since 2020: will Sing Street ever make it to Broadway? Or is it doomed to be one of those legendary "almost" shows, remembered more for what it could have been than for what it actually was?
I do not have the answer. But I do know this. If Broadway is truly serious about cultivating new work that speaks to a new generation, it needs to stop treating shows like Sing Street as afterthoughts. It needs to open its doors to the stories that are waiting to be told, the music that is ready to be heard, and the artists who just need a stage.
Because if Broadway is not careful, the band will break up for good.