Todrick Hall’s Original Musical “MIDNIGHT” Heads to New York: ‘It Can Change Minds and Hearts’ (Exclusive)

Lily BrownThu, June 18, 2026 at 1:02 PM UTC

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Todrick HallCredit: Jake Stewart -

Todrick Hall's original musical MIDNIGHT explores class, empathy, and identity through interconnected characters in the 19th-century American South

Inspired by division and unrest, Hall spent six years creating the show to spark conversations without feeling overly preachy

Hall views MIDNIGHT's Off-Broadway debut as a personal milestone and hopes it inspires audiences to embrace empathy and connection

Todrick Hall has spent his career wearing just about every hat imaginable: performer, songwriter, choreographer, director, digital creator and producer. This fall, he's adding another title to the list: Off-Broadway musical creator.

Following two sold-out engagements in London, Hall's original musical MIDNIGHT will make its New York premiere at the Daryl Roth Theatre this September. Written and directed by Hall, 41, the sung-through production explores class, empathy, human connection, identity and race through the lives of 12 interconnected characters living in the American South during the 19th century.

For Hall, however, the journey to MIDNIGHT began long before rehearsals and opening nights. Six years ago, frustrated by the state of the world and a level of division he had never experienced in his lifetime, Hall sat down to write a show he wanted to see.

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"One of my dear friends and mentors, Michelle Visage, posted on social media, 'Artists, this is the time that you need to create,'" Hall recalls. "There was so much chaos. People were in the streets marching and advocating for what they felt. And I just started thinking, 'I've loved musical theater my entire life. It's my first love.' Sometimes words fail, but music never does. I want to be able to say what I feel in a form of a musical."

Rather than create a show designed to lecture audiences, Hall says he wanted to tell a story that could invite people into a conversation.

"I don't want it to be too heavy-hitting and I don't want anybody to come in and feel like they're being hit over the head with a woke stick," he says with a laugh. "I want it to be something where everyone, no matter where you come from or where you stand, can come into the room and be able to look at your neighbor in a way that maybe you hadn't. It can change minds and hearts."

That vision took years to fully realize. Hall says the first year of development produced only a single song as he spent time getting to know the characters and discovering the world they inhabited.

"The writing process starts long before you put pen to paper," he says. "I started thinking about the characters and sitting with them. I find inspiration in everything. It could be something as big as going to an opera or a ballet or some verbiage on the back of a cereal box."

As the project evolved, so did Hall's ambitions for what MIDNIGHT could become.

"When I started writing this show, the world was locked down," he says. "Something happened during that time that the Barbie movie was coming out and the Wicked movie came out. For the first time in my adult life, I felt like movies were becoming experiences."

Inspired by that cultural shift, Hall stopped thinking of MIDNIGHT solely as a musical.

"I decided I didn't just want to make a musical. I wanted to make a movement," he tells PEOPLE. "I wanted it to be an experience."

Of course, bringing an original musical to New York is no small feat. Hall admits there were plenty of moments when he doubted the show would ever make it to the stage.

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"Every day," he says when asked if he ever feared MIDNIGHT wouldn't happen. "I am starring in 'Imposter Syndrome: The Musical' in my head."

The experience also helped Hall embrace a dream he hadn't always felt entitled to pursue.

Todrick Hall's Original Musical 'MIDNIGHT'Credit: Pamela Raith Photography

"I haven't seen a lot of people who look like me in the Broadway Musical Composer Hall of Fame," he explains. "I've always been obsessed with Stephen Schwartz and Sondheim and the Rodgers and Hammersteins of the world. I was raised on those artists, but I've never seen someone who looks like me amongst those people. And it wasn't until the pandemic that I truly believed that a face like mine deserved to be in that Hall of Fame as well."

Now, Hall is preparing to introduce what he affectionately calls his "musical baby" to New York City audiences.

"It's a story that no one's heard before," he says. "The only way they can hear it is to go to the theater, turn their phones off, and go on this roller coaster with the characters in this story."

The show's emphasis on empathy is deeply personal for Hall, who says his own life experiences shaped many of the themes explored throughout MIDNIGHT.

"I have felt misunderstood in my entire life as a queer Black man growing up in Texas," he says. "As I get older, I look at those moments that might've made me cry in my adolescence as gifts that helped me create better art. I am able to speak to the people who are underdogs or who feel cast out. I'm able to inspire people who dare to color outside the lines."

For Hall, bringing the show to New York also represents a full-circle moment years in the making.

"You don't grow up a poor kid from Plainview, Texas of all places thinking that you're ever going to be able to even go to New York, let alone grace a Broadway stage," he says.

Having already appeared in five Broadway productions and multiple West End shows, Hall views MIDNIGHTs Off-Broadway premiere as a victory in itself.

"So many times in my life I've gotten to the finish line and not appreciated the journey," he says. "I'm making sure that every day I wake up and say, 'I'm so grateful for the hurdle I'm jumping today. This, in and of itself, is a humongous gift to me."

And if he could offer one message to the younger version of himself who once dreamed of a career in theater?

"Keep going, Little Toddy," Hall says. "People aren't going to understand you. You're going to spend a lot of time looking in the mirror and crying and wishing you could change so many things about yourself. But those scars are going to end up being your superpowers, and you're going to be able to change the world. One gay musical at a time."

Performances for MIDNIGHT begin on Sept. 12 with opening night set for Sept. 27. The limited engagement is scheduled to run through Nov.

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Source: “AOL Entertainment”