New Line Theatre

New Line Theatre is an alternative musical theatre company in St. Louis, Missouri, producing challenging, adult, politically and socially relevant works of musical theatre. The company was created in 1991 and produces world premieres such as 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 such as High Fidelity, Passing Strange, bare, The Wild Party, Floyd Collins, A New Brain, March of the Falsettos, Passion, The Robber Bridegroom, The Nervous Set, and Bat Boy; abstract musicals such as Hair, Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris, and Songs for a New World; absurdist musicals such as Reefer Madness, Attempting the Absurd, The Cradle Will Rock, and Anyone Can Whistle; concept musicals such as Company, Assassins, Urinetown, Chicago, Sunday in the Park with George, and Cabaret; and reinterpretations of more mainstream works, such as Evita, Man of La Mancha, Camelot, Pippin, Sweeney Todd, Grease, and Into the Woods.^[1]

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'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.^[2]

New Line has produced the first productions after Broadway of the musicals High Fidelity, Cry-Baby, and Hands on a Hardbody,^[3] to enthusiastic reviews,^[4] redeeming them after their brief New York runs, giving them new lives in regional theatre.^[3][5]

New Line Theatre has been honored by the St. Louis Theater Circle with a special award for the company's body of work over the years,^[6] and feature stories in American Theatre (magazine)^[3] and The Riverfront Times.^[7]