BROKEA Powerful New Musical Odyssey of Poverty, Music, and Survival in a Vanished New York City

Helmed by an All-Star Creative Team of Broadway Alum and Award Winners, ‘BROKE’ Storms Theatre Row from September 14–20.

New York, N.Y. — Animal Stone Productions is proud to present a limited workshop presentation of BROKE, a sweeping, genre-defying new musical production running from September 14 through September 20 at Theatre 4 on Theatre Row (410 West 42nd Street, New York City).

Inspired by paramedic and poet Maggie Dubris’s critically acclaimed book BrokeDown Palace, BROKE features a libretto & lyrics by Maggie Dubris, music by Andy Teirstein, with direction & choreography by Guggenheim Fellowship recipient, Seán Curran.

Two Women. One Hundred Years. One Uncompromising City

BROKE is a love song to St. Clare’s—the eternally strange, always broke, but unfailingly kindhearted Hell’s Kitchen hospital that attended to New York City’s poor when no other institution would. The narrative seamlessly bridges a century through the lives of two fierce women fighting for their place in a world commandeered by men:

  • Katie Henry, an Irish farm-girl who steps off a ship in 1896 to forge a new life, eventually founding St. Clare's during the depths of the Great Depression.
  • Nikki Owen, a 1983 paramedic who spends 25 years driving the St. Clare’s ambulance through the frontline devastation of the AIDS crisis, the height of the crack and homelessness epidemics, and the tragedy of September 11th.

The piece delivers a visceral, roller-coaster ride tracking the hospital’s 20th-century rise to its eventual 2000s demise into rubble and luxury condos. It stands as both a raw portrait of survival and a deep meditation on memory, exploring how actions lost to a now-vanished past still echo profoundly in the present.

Masterful Soundscape and Movement

To capture "a city sick, broken, on its knees but still flailing at the ropes," the creative team blends an intricate language of music, prose, and raw movement.

The sound world of BROKE mirrors the vast, chaotic energy of Manhattan itself. Composer Andy Teirstein—a student of Leonard Bernstein who has performed alongside Paul Simon and Pete Seeger—infuses the score with driving Irish fiddle tunes, rhythmic drum patterns studied in Ghana and Cuba, and a sharp, modern asymmetry.

Meet the Award-Winning Creative Team

  • Andy Teirstein (Composer): Described by The New York Times and Village Voice as "magical" and "ingenious," Teirstein’s highly decorated career includes awards from the NEA, ASCAP, NYFA, a MacDowell Fellowship, and an opera composer fellowship with the American Lyric Theater. He is currently a professor in NYU’s Prison Education Program.
  • Seán Curran (Director/Choreographer): Spanning a 35-year career that began with traditional Irish step dancing, Curran is a veteran director and choreographer whose work has graced Broadway (James Joyce's The Dead), the Metropolitan Opera, and Shakespeare in the Park. He is a Bessie Award winner and an original NYC cast member of the global sensation STOMP!
  • Maggie Dubris (Librettist/Lyricist): An award-winning writer, sound artist, and NEA recipient, Dubris spent 25 years driving a 911 ambulance in Times Square and Hell’s Kitchen. Her book BrokeDown Palace was hailed by Lucy Sante as “a stunning poetic monument to a New York that no longer exists.”

Performance Details

  • WHAT: A Workshop Presentation of BROKE
  • WHEN: September 18 (preview); September 19 & 20 (performance)
  • WHERE: Theatre 4 on Theatre Row | 410 West 42nd Street, New York City