‘Bring It On: The Musical’ Gets Called Up to Broadway

Holding a rare summer opening, a musical adaptation of the 2000 film “Bring It On” is headed to Broadway this July.

The musical and the movie featuring battling high school cheerleading squads, will hold an opening night on August 1, and the limited engagement is scheduled to run through October 7. Uniquely, the musical undertook a national tour before coming to Broadway. Previews will begin July 12, but the show already has played in 13 North American cities including Los Angeles, Chicago, Toronto and Houston.

The new production features a different plot and different characters than those that appeared in the movie, and the main common ground is the cheerleader competition themselves. Actual cheerleaders will be used in the production, which will feature high-flying acrobatic sequences.

The show was created by a team of well-known Broadway artists, including Tom Kitt, Lin-Manuel Miranda and Amanda Green, who wrote the music and lyrics for the production. Kitt is known for his work on “Next to Normal,” while Miranda is perhaps best known for “In the Heights.” Andy Blankenbuehler will direct and choreograph the production. He also worked on “In the Heights,” and won a Tony Award for Best Choreography for that production.

The film version of “Bring It On” was released in 2000 and featured Kirsten Dunst and Eliza Dushku. The popular film inspired four sequels, though all were direct-to-video and featured none of the original cast.

The stage version of the film originally appeared in January 2011 at the Alliance Theatre in Atlanta. That production was nominated for eight Suzi Bass Awards and won for World Premiere Play or Musical, Choreography and Sound Design. The national tour of the musical did not begin until October of that year, when the first traveling performance was held at the Ahmanson Theatre in Los Angeles.