Everything You Don't Know About FLOYD COLLINS

Broadway will be singing a new ballad in 2025. As BroadwayWorld reported last week, Lincoln Center Theater is preparing for the Broadway premiere of Floyd Collins- the first major revival since the show's off Broadway premiere in 1996. Since then, the musical has gained a loyal fanbase, but remains largely unknown by musical theatre-loving audiences of today. What do you need to know...?

The musical started as a collaboration between Adam Guettel (music and lyrics) and Tina Landau (book)- both students at Yale University. Landau brough the idea to Guettel after reading about the real man whose story inspired the show. 

William Floyd Collins (born 1887) was an American cave explorer from Kentucky, who in the 1920s, took part in "the Kentucky Cave Wars," seeking out caves for commercial profit from tourists. Known today as Mammoth Cave National Park, the region is home to the longest known cave system in the world. Collins' story, as told in the musical, begins when he finds a small passage leading to Sand Cave. Collins becomes trapped in that passage, triggering a national media sensation (using the new technology of broadcast radio) and effort to rescue him. 

Early versions of Floyd Collins were called Deathwatch Carnival before it the duo renamed the show for its leading character. It premiered at the American Music Theater Festival, in Philadelphia, in 1994 before opening off Broadway at Playwrights Horizons. Directed by Landau, the cast included Christopher Innvar as Floyd Collins, Don Chastain as Lee Collins, Martin Moran as Skeets Miller, Jason Danieley as Homer Collins, and Theresa McCarthy as Nellie Collins, Cass Morgan as Miss Jane, and Brian d'Arcy James, Matthew Bennett and Michael Mulheren in the ensemble. It ran for just 25 performances.

Much of the original team discussed the early days of Floyd Collins in a 2021 Stars in the House reunion:

Ben Brantley wrote in his New York Times review: "Floyd Collins cannot and should not be dismissed. Ms. Landau and Mr. Guettel may be clunky wordsmiths, but they have other skills that gleam with promise. As she demonstrated in her open-air production of "Stonewall: Night Variations," Ms. Landau has a lyrical and lucid sense of stage imagery... And Mr. Guettel establishes himself as a young composer of strength and sophistication, weaving strands from the Americana of Copland and the uneasy dissonance of Sondheim into a score that projects the ambivalence the text and lyrics don't capture."

Despite the show's short run, it won the Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Musical in 1996. Due to its enduring cast recording, the musical has achieved a devoted following. The musical's final song, "How Glory Goes," has achieved its own special status as a much covered song by Broadway's best, including a version by Audra McDonald.

Floyd Collins will arrive on Broadway 30 years after its original premiere and 100 years after the incident on which it is based. 

The new Broadway company will feature Jeremy Jordan as Floyd Collins, Jason Gotay as Homer Collins, Sean Allan Krill as H.T. Carmichael, Marc Kudisch as Lee Collins, Lizzy McAlpine as Nellie Collins, Wade McCollum as Bee Doyle, Jessica Molaskey as Miss Jane, Taylor Trensch as Skeets Miller, Cole Vaughan as Jewell Estes as well as Kevin Bernard, Dwayne Cooper, Jeremy Davis, Charlie Franklin, Kristen Hahn, Happy McPartlin, Kevyn Morrow, Zak Resnick, Justin Showell, Colin Trudell, and Clyde Voce.

Floyd Collins will have sets by dots, costumes by Anita Yavich, lighting by Scott Zielinski, sound by Dan Moses Schreier, and projections by Ray Sun, with dance sequences by Jon Rua, casting by The Telsey Office, Patrick Goodwin, CSA and music direction by Ted Sperling. Bonnie Panson will be the stage manager. Lincoln Center Theater is producing FLOYD COLLINS  in association with Creative Partners Productions and Mark Cortale & Charles D. Urstadt.

While we await the show's much-anticiated Broadway arrival, get a taste of the musical's iconic score below: