There’s a growing connection between New York Comic Con, Broadway, and New York City. In 2021. despite the smaller pandemic-style con, there were several panels featuring Broadway theater actors being their nerdy selves. This year, the relationship is even more evident, with Playbill sponsoring four panels featuring plays and actors currently appearing on the Great White Way. (My theater-nerd son is currently dealing with his disappointment that he can’t make it until Friday night and will miss the Thursday and Friday panels.)
There’s also a panel that focuses on the ins and outs of how New York City is featured in entertainment media. That’s “Spider-Man, Only Murders in the Building, and More: Designing New York for Film and TV” on Saturday, a panel that promises to dive deeply into how the city ends up on screens. If you’ve ever wondered “where did they film this and how?” this would be the panel for you. This is my favorite but it conflicts with the Amazon Prime panel featuring Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power and my Tolkien-nerd self won that battle.
The overall presence of the culture of the city is a nice change. New York Comic Con has often felt disconnected from the city itself especially given the relative isolation of the Jacob Javits Convention Center. But that has started to change in recent years with more than the NYCC Broadway panels.
There’s the new subway stop right at the convention center at 34th Street/Hudson Yards and there is the presence of food trucks that have grown by leaps and bounds, offering a greater variety for con attendees. We’ll see if the return-to-normal crowd expected this year at NYCC 2022 will strain those resources. (Though masks will still be required. This seems to me a good thing.)
Here’s a list of the Broadway panels, featuring musicals to set design. The Sesame Street panel on Sunday is designed for the kids, as that’s the traditional kids’ day at the Con.
NYCC Broadway Featured Panels
Thursday, Day 1:
PLAYBILL presents “The Big Broadway Nerd Panel”
Thu, Oct 6, 2022, • 1:30 PM – 2:30 PM
Location: 406.2
Theatre is filled with passionate artists creating stunning new works and many of those artists are giant nerds! Playbill returns to NY Comic Con in 2022 even MORE of Broadway’s Biggest Nerds to share how fantasy, comic books, and science fiction have had in inspiring and engaging their performances, personas, & personal lives.
#BroadwayToHollywood: 2nd Annual Look at the New Age of Musicals
Thursday, October 6, 2022, at 6 p.m. ET in Room 408 at the Javits Convention Center: “#BroadwayToHollywood” is back at New York Comic Con with another exciting panel with creatives behind musicals like A Strange Loop, Annie Live!, Come From Away, Moulin Rouge, KPOP, Ratatouille: The TikTok Musical, and more! Learn what it takes to bring the magic of Broadway to the stage and beyond! Get insight from talented creatives as they discuss the impact Broadway has had on Hollywood productions and how Hollywood has been instrumental in expanding the audience!
Panelists include Charlie Rosen (Orchestrator; A Strange Loop; Moulin Rouge), Mia Neal (Hair and Wig Designer; Annie Live!; KPOP; West Side Story 2020 Revival), Ian Eisendrath (Executive Music Producer; Come From Away), Daniel Mertzlufft (Composer and Music Supervisor; Ratatouille: The TikTok Musical; TikTok’s For You, Paige), and Esin Aydingoz (Composer, Arranger, Pianist; DCappella). Moderated by actress Lorna Courtney (Juliet in & Juliet).
Friday, Day 2
Saturday, Day 3
PLAYBILL presents “The Broadway Bard Party”
Sat, Oct 8, 2022 • 10:45 AM – 11:45 AM
Location: 406.1
Returning to New York Comic Con with an all-new quest in 2022, audiences will join Broadway Actors/Stars as they inhabit characters, overcome conflicts, achieve exciting objectives…. then go and perform their 8 shows a week. Playing a D&D-style one-shot, audiences will watch, journey and laugh as the panel solves problems, entertains, and maybe even gets the “roll of their lives”!
Note: This is the one my younger son has bookmarked.
Spider-Man, Only Murders in the Building, and More: Designing New York for Film and TV
Saturday, October 8, 2022, at 6 p.m. ET in Room 408 at the Javits Convention Center
Creatives from Spider-Man: No Way Home, Only Murders in the Building, Pose, Bros, and more will come together to discuss how they make NYC come to life in their projects! Get a special inside look at the process of designing characters, visual effects, and more for projects based in the greatest city in the world!
Panelists include: Dana Covarrubias (Costume Designer; Only Murders in the Building), Sarah Wormsbecher (VFX Executive Producer at FOLKS; Spider-Man: No Way Home), Lisa Myers (Production Designer; Bros), Brian Kubovcik (Head of Studio/Sr. VFX Supervisor at FuseFX Atlanta; DMZ; Pose), and Emily Gunshor (Costume Designer; 13: The Musical; Halloween Ends). Moderated by actor Adina Verson (Poppy in Only Murders in the Building).
Sunday, Day 4
Playbill Presents: Sesame Street The Musical Panel
Sun, Oct 9, 2022 • 3:15 PM – 4:15 PM
Location: 401
Now playing Off-Broadway, Elmo, Cookie Monster, Abby Cadabby, Grover, Rosita, Bert, Ernie, Oscar the Grouch, The Count, Gabrielle, and a whole host of Sesame Street favorites have ventured onto the stage to appear in their very own musical– starring… well, themselves. Join us at NYCC as we discuss this all-new stage show featuring live puppetry and classic Sesame Street songs, plus new numbers by Broadway’s brightest songwriters! Participants and host will be announced shortly.
All these panels are a growing indication of how New York Comic Con is expanding its focus and how its’ reach has been recognized by Broadway. Not to mention the overlap between theater nerds and comic/pop culture nerds.
NYcc was always on the Hatcher bucket list but this sounds even cooler with the latest editions. I dare say I would have been alone for Sesame Street panel, but Greg and I would have for sure been at any of the other ones especially designing New York for movies and TV. Great article can’t wait to here everyones adventures there.
NYCC is so weird. Unlike San Diego, the Javits is at an isolated spot in NYC and, until recently, there were very few places to eat or hang out nearby. Despite the size of the Javits, this gave it a claustrophobic feel.
But they’ve also constructed a new, airy, wing of four stories with lots of windows, which helps, and they seem to be reaching out to other pop culture stuff with NYC. I expect crowds, though, similar almost to SDCC on the exhibit floor. It used to be that if you got 4-day tickets, Thursday all-day and Friday mornings were walkable and not jam-packed. But now that they sell single-day tickets, that’s not true anymore.
It’s a mixed bag, for certain, but I’m sure Greg would have loved Artist’s Alley, which is full of talented people. If you ever want to go, let me know, and we can split a hotel room, Julie.