New Line Theatre in St. Louis, Missouri, is an alternative musical theatre

Musical theatre

Musical theatre is a form of theatre combining songs, spoken dialogue, acting, and dance. The emotional content of the piece – humor, pathos, love, anger – as well as the story itself, is communicated through the words, music, movement and technical aspects of the entertainment as an...

 company producing challenging, adult, politically and socially relevant works of musical theatre. The company was created in 1991 and produces world premieres like Love Kills, Johnny Appleweed, Woman with Pocketbook, She's Hideous, In the Blood, Attempting the Absurd, and The AmberKlavier; lesser known Broadway and off Broadway shows like High Fidelity

High Fidelity (musical)

High Fidelity is a musical with a book by David Lindsay-Abaire, lyrics by Amanda Green, and music by Tom Kitt. Based primarily on the Nick Hornby novel rather than the subsequent film version it inspired, the plot focuses on Rob Gordon, a Brooklyn record shop owner in his thirties obsessed with...

, Passing Strange

Passing Strange

Passing Strange is a rock musical about a young African American's artistic journey of self-discovery in Europe, drawing on heavy elements of existentialism, metafictional comedy, and the Künstlerroman. The musical's lyrics and book are by Stew with music and orchestrations by Heidi Rodewald and Stew...

, bare

Bare

Bare means minimal or naked.Bare may also refer to:- People :* Bobby Bare , American country music singer and songwriter* Bobby Bare, Jr. , American musician and recording artist...

, The Wild Party

The Wild Party

The Wild Party may refer to:* The Wild Party , a 1928 epic poem by Joseph Moncure March* The Wild Party , a film with cinematography by Clyde De Vinna...

, Floyd Collins

Floyd Collins

William Floyd Collins was a celebrated pioneer cave explorer in central Kentucky, an area that is the location of hundreds of miles of interconnected caves, including the Mammoth Cave National Park...

, A New Brain

A New Brain

A New Brain is a musical with music and lyrics by William Finn and book by Finn and James Lapine.The musical was first produced Off-Broadway at the Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater at Lincoln Center, with previews beginning on May 14, 1998...

, March of the Falsettos

March of the Falsettos

March of the Falsettos is a musical with a book, lyrics, and music by William Finn.A sequel to In Trousers, the one-acter continues the story of Marvin and his journey in search of self-understanding, inner peace, and a life with a "happily ever after" ending...

, Passion

Passion (musical)

Passion is a musical adapted from Ettore Scola's film Passione d'Amore . The book is by James Lapine, with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim. Central subjects include obsession, beauty, power, manipulation, passion, illness, and love...

, The Robber Bridegroom

The Robber Bridegroom (musical)

The Robber Bridegroom is a musical with a book and lyrics by Alfred Uhry and music by Robert Waldman. The story is based on the 1942 novella by Eudora Welty of the same name, with a Robin Hood-like hero; the adaptation placed it in a late 18th century American setting...

, The Nervous Set, and Bat Boy

Bat Boy: The Musical

Bat Boy: The Musical is a musical with a book by Keythe Farley and Brian Flemming and music and lyrics by Laurence O'Keefe, based on a June 23, 1992 Weekly World News story about a half-boy, half-bat, dubbed "Bat Boy", found living in a cave....

; abstract musicals like Hair

Hair

Hair is a filamentous biomaterial, that grows from follicles found in the dermis. Found exclusively in mammals, hair is one of the defining characteristics of the mammalian class....

, Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris

Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris

Jacques Brel Is Alive and Well and Living in Paris is an American musical revue of the songs of Jacques Brel.-Original Off-Broadway Production:...

, and Songs for a New World

Songs for a New World

Songs for a New World is a work of musical theater written and composed by Jason Robert Brown. Its original off-Broadway production ran for 28 performances at the WPA Theater in New York City in 1995. The show sits on the boundary between musical and song cycle, but it is neither; it is an abstract...

; absurdist musicals like Reefer Madness

Reefer Madness

Reefer Madness is a well-known 1936 American propaganda exploitation film revolving around the melodramatic events that ensue when high school students are lured by pushers to try "marijuana" — from a hit and run accident, to manslaughter, suicide, attempted rape, and descent into madness...

, Attempting the Absurd, The Cradle Will Rock

The Cradle Will Rock

The Cradle Will Rock is a 1937 musical by Marc Blitzstein. Originally a part of the Federal Theatre Project, it was directed by Orson Welles, and produced by John Houseman. The show was recorded and released on seven 78-rpm discs in 1938, making it the first cast album recording.The musical is a...

, and Anyone Can Whistle

Anyone Can Whistle

Anyone Can Whistle is a musical with a book by Arthur Laurents and music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim. The story concerns a corrupt mayoress, an idealistic nurse, a man who may be a doctor, and various officials, patients and townspeople, all fighting to save a bankrupt town...

; concept musicals like Company

Company

A company is a form of business organization. It is an association or collection of individual real persons and/or other companies, who each provide some form of capital. This group has a common purpose or focus and an aim of gaining profits. This collection, group or association of persons can be...

, Assassins, Urinetown

Urinetown

Urinetown: The Musical is a satirical comedy musical, with music by Mark Hollmann, lyrics by Hollmann and Greg Kotis, and book by Kotis. It satirizes the legal system, capitalism, social irresponsibility, populism, bureaucracy, corporate mismanagement, and municipal politics...

, Chicago

Chicago

Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...

, Sunday in the Park with George

Sunday in the Park with George

Sunday in the Park with George is a 1984 musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and book by James Lapine. The musical was inspired by the painting "A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte" by Georges Seurat...

, and Cabaret

Cabaret

Cabaret is a form, or place, of entertainment featuring comedy, song, dance, and theatre, distinguished mainly by the performance venue: a restaurant or nightclub with a stage for performances and the audience sitting at tables watching the performance, as introduced by a master of ceremonies or...

; and reinterpretations of more mainstream works, like Evita, Man of La Mancha

Man of La Mancha

Man of La Mancha is a musical with a book by Dale Wasserman, lyrics by Joe Darion and music by Mitch Leigh. It is adapted from Wasserman's non-musical 1959 teleplay I, Don Quixote, which was in turn inspired by Miguel de Cervantes's seventeenth century masterpiece Don Quixote...

, Camelot

Camelot (musical)

Camelot is a musical by Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe . It is based on the King Arthur legend as adapted from the T. H. White tetralogy novel The Once and Future King....

, Pippin

Pippin (musical)

Pippin is a musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz and a book by Roger O. Hirson. Bob Fosse, who directed the original Broadway production, also contributed to the libretto...

, Sweeney Todd

Sweeney Todd

Sweeney Todd is a fictional character who first appeared as then antagonist of the Victorian penny dreadful The String of Pearls and he was later introduced as an antihero in the broadway musical Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street and its film adaptation...

, Grease

Grease (musical)

Grease is a 1971 musical by Jim Jacobs and Warren Casey. The musical is named for the 1950s United States working-class youth subculture known as the greasers. The musical, set in 1959 at fictional Rydell High School , follows ten working-class teenagers as they navigate the complexities of love,...

, and Into the Woods

Into the Woods

Into the Woods is a musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and book by James Lapine. It debuted in San Diego at the Old Globe Theatre in 1986, and premiered on Broadway in 1987. Bernadette Peters' performance as the Witch and Joanna Gleason's portrayal of the Baker's Wife brought acclaim...

.

New Line claims to take philosophical and practical inspiration from theatre models of the 1960s, including Caffé Cino, Cafe LaMaMa ETC, Judson Poets Theatre, Joan Littlewood

Joan Littlewood

Joan Maud Littlewood was a British theatre director, noted for her work in developing the left-wing Theatre Workshop...

's People’s Theatre Workshop in London, and to a lesser extent from the Living Theatre, the Open Theatre, and various theatre collectives in the US and Europe.

Past Shows

1991–1992

• A Tribute to the Rock Musicals*
• Attempting the Absurd *

1992–1993

• Smokin’ Santa *
• A Tribute to Stephen Sondheim *

1993–1994

• A Tribute to the Dark Side *
• Breaking Out in Harmony *
• Assassins **

1994–1995

• Pippin
• In the Blood *

1995–1996

• Company
• Out on Broadway *
• Sweeney Todd

1996–1997

• Passion **
• Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris
• The Ballad of Little Mikey **

1997–1998

• Extreme Sondheim *
• March of the Falsettos
• Woman with Pocketbook *
• Assassins

1998–1999

• Songs for a New World **
• Camelot
• Into the Woods

1999–2000

• A New Line Songbook *
• Floyd Collins **
• Out on Broadway 2000 *
• Hair

2000–2001

• A New Line Cabaret *
• Cabaret
• Anyone Can Whistle
• Hair

2001–2002

• The Cradle Will Rock
• A New Brain **
• Chicago

2002–2003

• The Rocky Horror Show
• A New Line Cabaret II *
• Bat Boy **
• Best Little Whorehouse in Texas

2003–2004

• Sunday in the Park with George
• The Nervous Set
• Reefer Madness **
• Hedwig and the Angry Inch

2004–2005

• Man of La Mancha
• She’s Hideous *
• The Robber Bridegroom
• Kiss of the Spider Woman

2005–2006

• The Fantasticks
• The AmberKlavier *
• A New Line Cabaret III *
• Bat Boy
• Jesus Christ Superstar

2006–2007

• Johnny Appleweed *
• Grease
• Urinetown

2007–2008

• Sex, Drugs, and Rock & Roll *
• Assassins
• High Fidelity **

2008–2009

• Hair
• A New Line Cabaret IV *
• Return to the Forbidden Planet **
• The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee

2009–2010

• Love KIlls *
• The Wild Party **
• Evita

2010–2011

• I Love My Wife **
• Two Gentlemen of Verona
• bare **

2011–2012

• Passing Strange **
• Cry-Baby **
• High Fidelity

An asterisk denotes world premiere; a double-asterisk denotes regional premiere