"Disney's Aladdin,' 'Les Miserables," 'Jesus Christ Superstar' lead Lied Center 2023-24 musicals

For the 2023-24 season, that strong public support has translated into two changes in the runs of the touring shows that reflect the strength of the market and bode well for the future.

The first of those changes is the eight performance runs of “Disney’s Aladdin,” which will open the Lied’s Glenn Korff Broadway Series Oct. 3- 8 and “Les Miserables,” which will play the Lied Jan. 9-14.

“For the first time, we'll have two full weeks of different shows, a full week of ‘Aladdin’, and then a full week of ‘Les Miserables,’ eight performances of each,” said Deputy Director Matthew Boring. "With the success of ‘Book of Mormon,’ ‘Phantom (of the Opera)’, ‘Hamilton,’ having ‘Disney’s Aladdin’ for a week, that’s huge for Lincoln, that’s huge for the Lied Center.”

It’s huge, in part, because it makes the Lied an anchor booking for the shows, a notch up on the touring ladder from early-in-the-week two or three runs.

“Les Miserables” which played the Lied Center several times in first decade, will return to Lincoln for the first time in 20 years

“'Les Mis' really holds a special place in so many people’s hearts in Lincoln because it was the first Broadway show at the Lied,” said Director Bill Stephan. “For so many people it is their first Broadway show. I can't tell you how many people have shared with me that it's their favorite musical, that it was the first time they ever saw a Broadway show, the first time they saw something really big at the Lied. I think for a lot of people, it's gonna be like a homecoming.”

The production of “Les Miserables,” is a newly imagined lavish affair, along the lines of “The Phantom of the Opera” that the same company brought to Lincoln in 2019,

“Jesus Christ Superstar” which played the Lied in 2009 with Ted Neeley reprising his role as Jesus, will also return to Lied with another new production, which will run Feb. 1-4.

“It's the 50th anniversary production,” Stephan said. “It’s staged a little differently than the version when we had Ted Neeley here. It's more contemporary. It's kind of inspired by the musical when it was on TV. It’s trimmed a little. There’s no intermission. But it has all the songs you know and love.”

As for “Shrek: The Musical,” set for Feb. 29-March 3 and “Mean Girls,” April 12-14, each which will be making its Lied Center debut, the two popular musicals based on movies are aimed at continuing to grow the Lincoln audience for new productions.

“One of the things that this season builds on is our audience from ‘Hamilton,’” Stephan said. “With shows like 'Aladdin,' 'Mean Girls' and 'Shrek' it’s the next generation, while still having some traditional things for our primary patrons, like ‘Les Mis.'"

The second run-changing aspect of the success of and increasing demand for Broadway shows is that all five of the musicals will have at least five performances over four nights.

That will allow the Lied to sell another night in its Broadway packages, opening that ticketing option for hundreds of people as well as adding another 2,000 seats for each of the shows.

Those new season packages, which include the same seats to the five series shows, and priority access to add-on performances – so far “The Cher Show” on April 9-10 – go on public sale at 11 a.m. Thursday at liedcenter.org. All price zones will be available on the main floor for the Thursday performances, with the five-show packages starting at $205.

Season package renewals and upgrades are immediately available to current subscribers.

“If you're a subscriber, if you want to upgrade your seats, this is prime time because we have a whole new night.” Boring said.” So if you're seated in the upper balcony, you could move to the floor. If you've never been a subscriber, the other four packages are very full, almost sold out. So you can you can pick your seats for Thursday night, or you can put a seating request in, you'll be first in line for anything that opens up on the other four nights”

Individual show sales will be available this summer, after the Lied’s 2023-24 season has been announced in May and packages for it have been sold.

Friday’s announcement doesn’t include all the “Broadway” that will be coming to the Lied Center next season. An individual Broadway star will perform there, ala Bernadette Peters and Brian Stokes Mitchell the last two seasons and a play which has run on Broadway will each be part of the season announcement.