The LA Phil opened its 2026 Hollywood Bowl season on June 20, 2026, with “The Best of Broadway,” featuring glittering stars of stage and screen, including host Billy Crystal and Halle Bailey (The Little Mermaid, The Color Purple) along with Tony winners Darren Criss (Little Shop of Horrors, Maybe Happy Ending), Renée Elise Goldsberry (Hamilton, The Color Purple), Brian Stokes Mitchell (Kiss Me Kate, Ragtime), and Lea Salonga (Miss Saigon, Les Misérables), taking the Bowl stage for a spectacular season kickoff with a salute to Broadway. The evening was capped with a fireworks display rivaling Broadway’s biggest and brightest marquees!
The Bowl celebrated the timeless melodies and breathtaking artistry of the American musical, from heartstring-tugging ballads to razzle-dazzle songs with dancers. The salute to musical theatre featured hit Broadway songs that everyone recognized from beloved shows like Les Misérables, West Side Story, Ragtime, Wicked, The Wiz, Mamma Mia!, A Chorus Line, Hamilton, Rent, Phantom of the Opera, Hello Dolly!, and more.
“The Best of Broadway” featured the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra, conductor Thomas Wilkins, musicians of YOLA (Youth Orchestra of Los Angeles), and California State University, Fullerton University Singers, under director Dr. Robert Istad. The concert’s musical director was Kevin Stites, and its choreographer and costumer, Spencer Liff.
Opening Night Co-Charis included Gregory A. Adams, R. Martin Chavez, Lisa Field, Robyn Field, Anthony O’Carroll, and Jonathan and Monique Kagan. Noted guests included U.S. Representative Laura Friedman, First District Supervisor Hilda L. Solis, Third District Supervisor Lindsey P. Horvath, Fourth District Supervisor Janice Hahn and Fifth District Supervisor Kathryn Barger; Director of LA County Parks Norma Garcia, LA Phil Board Chair Jason Subotky and Anne Akiko Meyers, and Tom and Judy Beckmen.
With nearly 12,000 guests in attendance, Opening Night at the Hollywood Bowl raised more than $2.3 million to support the LA Phil and its learning and community programs.
Wilkins and the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra opened the celebratory evening with the Hollywood Bowl tradition of “The Star Spangled Banner” and then immediately launched into the iconic opening dance number “I Hope I Get It” from A Chorus Line, which marked its 50th anniversary last year. Host Billy Crystal honored John Williams, noting the newly named stage dedicated to the composer. Crystal then introduced Williams’ arrangement of “That’s Entertainment” followed by Tony winner Brian Stokes Mitchell singing the musical theatre anthem, “There’s No Business Like Show Business” from Annie Get Your Gun. Act One ended with “Put On Your Sunday Clothes” from Hello, Dolly!
The evening reached a high point with Tony Award winner Brian Stokes Mitchell singing “Wheels of a Dream,” from Ragtime, that just won the Tony Award for Best Revival of a Musical. Stokes memorably created the role of Coalhouse Walker, Jr. in the original production of “Ragtime,” which performed prior to Broadway at the Shubert Theatre in Century City. Later in the evening, Stokes sang “The Impossible Dream” with YOLA.
Lea Salonga sang “I’d Give My Life for You,” which she introduced in the original West End and Broadway productions of Miss Saigon, catapulting her to international stardom – winning both the Olivier and Tony Awards for Best Actress in a Musical. Salonga, who recently appeared at the Ahmanson Theatre and on Broadway in Stephen Sondheim’s Old Friends, also performed the Sondheim classic “Send in the Clowns,” a medley from the hit ABBA musical Momma Mia!, as well as “Defying Gravity” from Wicked.
Salonga dueted with Darren Criss with “Suddenly Seymour,” from Little Shop of Horrors. Criss starred in television’s Glee, and won two Tony Awards in 2025 for Best Actor and as co-producer Best Musical for Maybe Happy Ending. Criss also sang “Music of the Night” from The Phantom of the Opera and “Something’s Coming” from West Side Story.
Renée Elise Goldsberry sang “Satisfied,” a song she performed in the role of Angelica Schuyler in the original Broadway production of the Lin-Manuel Miranda musical Hamilton, for which she attained stardom and acclaim. Goldsberry won the Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Musical, and the GRAMMY® Award for Best Musical Theater Album, for her portrayal. Goldsberry later sang “You’ll Never Walk Alone” from Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Carousel and then a medley of “Without You” and “No Day but Today” from Jonathan Larson’s musical Rent. Goldsberry played the role of Mimi Márquez in the final Broadway cast of Rent.
The Hollywood Bowl’s The Best of Broadway also included some very special performances – starting with Halle Bailey (Disney’s live action The Little Mermaid) singing “Part of Your World” from the film along with the moving ballad “Home” from The Wiz.
For this night, the Hollywood Bowl also held a “Broadway at the Bowl Spotlight Competition.” Soliciting amateur singers for a coveted spot singing on the program (and thereby making their Hollywood Bowl debut), there were more than 500 entries received – and Lucy Acũna of Cerritos, the winner chosen, sang “On My Own” from Les Misérables.
Billy Crystal also introduced the LA Phil’s Youth Orchestra of Los Angeles (YOLA) – one of the beneficiaries of this evening’s gala. YOLA provides young people, ages five through eighteen, with free instruments, intensive music instruction, and opportunities to perform on stages, in their communities and around the world.
Launched two decades ago, YOLA musicians have received more than six million hours of instruction and have performed for millions—from neighborhood concerts and community events to the Hollywood Bowl and the Super Bowl Halftime Show. The program operates at sites across the city, including the Judith and Thomas L. Beckmen YOLA Center in Inglewood, which opened in 2021 as YOLA’s first permanent, purpose-built home.
The evening concluded with Crystal introducing the beloved Hollywood Bowl fireworks display –as Wilkins conducted the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra in Leonard Bernstein’s famous Overture to the musical Candide. And the concert concluded with “One,” the finale from the musical that started the evening – A Chorus Line.
The Hollywood Bowl 2026 season runs through Wednesday, September 30, 2026 and tickets are on sale now. For more information, visit hollywoodbowl.com
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