Acclaimed ‘Music City’ Musical Plans Move To Off Broadway Space Refashioned As Nashville Honky-Tonk

EXCLUSIVE: Music City, the acclaimed and popular jukebox musical featuring the songs of multi-platinum songwriter J.T. Harding that was extended three times at the Upper West Side’s West End Theater, will take up residence at a new venue near Times Square that is being custom-remade into a Nashville honky-tonk.

The venue, located on West 42nd Street near 10th Avenue and currently vacant but once home to New York’s Playboy Club, is being transformed into a fully functioning Nashville bar called the Wicked Tickle. The immersive space will invite audiences to step inside a country bar “where music, storytelling, and nightlife collide.”

Announced today by producer Gabrielle Palitz (Broadway’s Buena Vista Social Club, Our Town, Bandstand and others), Music City features a book by playwright Peter Zinn and the music of Harding, whose songs have been recorded by Darius Rucker, Keith Urban, Blake Shelton, Uncle Kracker, Dierks Bently and Florida Georgia Line.

Among the songs included in the musical are “Smile” (a hit for Uncle Kracker), “Somewhere In My Car” (Urban), and “Sangria” (Shelton), among others.

Casting for the transfer is to be announced.

Initially created and staged by the theater company Bedlam (a co-producer on the transfer, with Bedlam artistic director Eric Tucker directing ), Music City will begin preview performances at Wicked Tickle (512 West 42nd Street in Manhattan) on Monday, March 23, with an official opening on Wednesday, April 8.

“The Wicked Tickle feels like Nashville’s Broadway dropped right into the middle of Manhattan – loud, alive, and full of stories,” Harding said. “The run at Bedlam was a dream come true, and the great critical and audience response meant the world to us. Taking the show to midtown feels like opening the doors even wider, letting the music, the stories, and the heart of this show reach an even bigger audience.”

Music City follows two young singer-songwriters into the Wicked Tickle, an East Nashville bar “that serves up cheap beer, open mics, and dreams of big breaks.” Per the synopsis, the bar regulars “bravely pursue love and music in the face of addiction, poverty, and haunting pasts. But in Nashville, heartbreak is the only thing they hand out for free. Music City is an intimate, gritty, and thrilling take on the world of beers, guitars, sawdust, and sunshine.”

The original production, which began performances at Bedlam’s West Side Theatre on October 27, 2024, and extended three times to March 3, 2025, was nominated for two 2025 Drama Desk Awards, including Outstanding Musical, and a 2025 Off-Broadway Alliance Award for Best Musical.

Music City is produced by Gabrielle Palitz, with No Guarantees Productions and Bedlam.