#hunter bell

2026 disney upfront

first off, anon, thank you for asking! always happy to talk about [tos] and have been waiting for when i actually had time to respond in detail.

so [title of show] is a musical about four friends writing a musical by four friends who wrote a musical. the show is about them writing and creating the musical for a musical theatre festival where it premiered, and then as it gained fame was adapted to include it’s journey to off- and then broadway. in fact, it adapts to every new performance from college shows to local productions. it’s sort of the “little musical that could,” being entirely aware of itself and with minimal set, costumes, etc (as is sung, four chairs and a keyboard). the fact that it got to broadway is incredible, and it 100% admits that.

it’s mostly a comedy, but it also hits some key points about what it means to be an Artist, what Broadway includes and what it should include, procrastinating and fear of failure. i think that’s what really sets it apart: it could have been a goofy “we’re making a ~musical!~” comedy (cough cough, something rotten), but at its core it tries to establish the real relationships between the friends (specifically Two Nobodies in New York and Secondary Characters) as well as try to say something about art and why its important to keep trying at it (listen to ‘Die, Vampire, Die!’). it’s such a love letter to musical theatre and it’s also a lot of fun to listen to.

and talking about [title of show] wouldn’t be complete unless i talk about Susan Blackwell, who is one of the funniest people in the broadway community. she has a show on broadway.com called Side by Side with Susan Blackwell where she hangs out with various bway actors and gets them to do fun stuff like Danielle Radcliffe cleaning her house. check her out!

also Heidi Blickenstaff has the voice of an angel, and Hunter Bell and Jeff Bowen are comedic geniuses that work off each other exceptionally well.

they also wrote an off-bway sort-of sequel call Now.Here.This. which is a little bit more serious and dramatic but still has a lot of fun elements.