LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Broadway shows return to Louisville.

For the first time since 2019 a Broadway show is playing at the Kentucky Center for the Performing Arts. "Waitress," opens Nov. 9 and don't be surprised if shows sell out. 

What You Need To Know

  • Broadway touring shows return to Louisville

  • Waitress runs Nov. 9-14

  • It's been more than 600 days since Kentucky Center for the Performing Arts hosted a Broadway show

  • Louisville Ballet returns to The Brown Theatre Nov. 11-13

 

Ask any fan of live theater and they probably have a favorite, seat, row or section. Leslie Broecker prefers back-center in the mezzanine.

"I am short so I am a Row T kind of girl. That's where you see the rake is really good," Broecker tell Spectrum News 1.

Broecker is the President of PNC Broadway in Louisville and for more than 600 days Broadway shows have been absent from the Kentucky Center for the Performing Arts. Audiences will be back Tuesday night. “Waitress is the perfect show to come back because we lost it in 2018 to the fire so I think it’s the one everyone, pun intended, has been hungry for," Broecker says with a smile.

Broecker has been bringing in the best Broadway shows to Louisville for more than 30 years and since it’s the first musical in nearly two years Broecker is excited to see familiar faces in the red velvet seats. Speaking of center's longtime ticket holders Broecker says, “They are their seats and to be here in their theater seeing a Broadway show is going to be something certainly we’ve been dreaming about and never thought it would this long.”

Leslie Broecker on the Whitney Hall stage (Spectrum News 1/Jonathon Gregg)

It bears repeating: It's been more than 600 days since the Broadway show played Louisville.

While Broecker’s favorite seats are back-center, Christian Adelberg prefers a higher vantage point. 

“My happy spot is grand tier, first row, dead center," the VP of Marketing & Communications told Spectrum News 1. Adelberg says tickets are selling well. There are no capacity restrictions but several COVID requirements remain and they include:

  • Proof of vaccination 
  • Negative PCR test within 72 hours of show time 
  • Negative antigen test that's no older than 24 hours from show time.
  • Proof of vaccination or negative PCR TEST test is required 
  • Regardless of vaccine status masks are mandatory for every theatregoer.

“There are 2,479 seats and it’s been 616 since we’ve had them filled for an opening night of Broadway," Brocker says gleefully.

“Waitress” runs Tuesday Nov. 9 through Sunday Nov. 14 at Whitney Hall but that's not all.

This week also marks the return of the Louisville Ballet performing “Swan Lake,” Nov. 11 through 13 at the Brown Theatre.

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