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New York Stage & Film’s new musical project Boom For Real will complete its 2026 Summer Season. Boom For Real, featuring music by EGOT winner John Legend, a book by Obie Award winner Marcus Gardley, and direction by Kamilah Forbes, will receive an in-process presentation, which will include selections from the show, musical demos, and artists discussing the work. The presentation will be Saturday July 25 at 4pm at Symphonic Hall at Marist University. Tickets are $50 and are available now.
Boom For Real is a new musical that tracks the meteoric rise and mysterious spirit of Jean-Michel Basquiat, the Brooklyn-born artist who became one of the most celebrated painters of the twentieth century. When Basquiat dies young, his soul is left unmoored — bound to this world by his father’s unspoken grief — and the only way forward is a negotiation with Baron Samedi himself.
Part elegy, part mystery, and part celebration, the show asks what it means to be chosen, to be seen, and to finally let go. With music and lyrics by John Legend, Boom For Real is a love letter to genius, to Black art, and to the radical act of mourning out loud.
