“I try to really put all my focus into the project in front of me,” says Justin Levine. That may sound like a simple enough goal – but for Levine, Broadway ’s favorite musical polymath, it’s not so easy these days. Since 2009, when Levine was music director, co-orchestrator and also a performer in the genre-smashing off-Broadway rock musical Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson , more and more theater creators have called upon his various complementary talents to bolster their work.
As a music director, orchestrator and arranger, he’s most often found himself involved in the development of new musicals. “Sometimes I look at my résumé and feel like, ‘Oh wow, it has felt like there were twice as many projects as this,’ when in actuality it was about weaving in and out of each developmental step of a show,” Levine says with a laugh. Case in point: Eight years ago, Levine started work on the two biggest musical projects he’s had since — Moulin Rouge! The Musical and The Outsiders , both ultimately Broadway-bound — within mere weeks of each other.
Moulin Rouge! began performances in June 2019; was suspended due to the COVID-19 pandemic, reopening along with the rest of Broadway in mid-2021; and won 10 Tony Awards in 2021, including one for best orchestrations for Levine and his collaborators. Levine’s work on “the bullet train that is Moulin Rouge! ,” as he calls it, is still far from done — he’s been “heavily involved” in mounting its iteration.
