'Curtain Up' three-day outdoor festival celebrates Broadway

Summer's still here and the time is right for dancing in the streets of Times Square.

From Sept. 17 to 19, Playbill in partnership with the Broadway League and the Times Square Alliance will host "Curtain Up!," a free three-day outdoor festival celebrating the return of Broadway. The event, which is part of the League's "This Is Broadway" campaign to attract visitors from the Northeast back to Broadway, will include concerts, panel discussions, singalongs and more in Manhattan on Broadway from 45th to 48th streets.

The festival will kick off at noon on Sept. 17 with performances by Tony Award-winning Broadway veteran Brian Stokes Mitchell and singer Jessica Vosk. A Playbill Piano Bar will be set up between 45th and 46th streets, where patrons can sing along with theater talents including Garden City-based Joe Iconis, the composer for "Be More Chill" (3 p.m. Sept. 17).

Other highlights include "The Jimmy Awards Reunion Concert" (5:30 p.m. Sept. 17) featuring winners of the awards honoring the best in high school theater; "Black to Broadway — It’s 'Play' Time!," a discussion that explores the many new plays by Black talents opening this fall (12:15 p.m. Sept. 18); "The Playbill Variety Show" (3:30 p.m. Sept. 17 and 3 p.m. Sept. 18); and "¡Viva! Broadway When We See Ourselves Concert" (5 p.m. Sept. 18) celebrating the contributions of Latin and Hispanic performers.

The showstopper, though, is sure to be the "Curtain Up: This Is Broadway Finale Concert" (11 a.m. Sept. 19), which will feature performers from 18 musicals, including "Ain't Too Proud," "Hadestown," "The Lion King," "Mrs. Doubtfire" and "Wicked," and five plays — "Harry Potter and the Cursed Child," "Lackawanna Blues," "Pass Over," "Thoughts of a Colored Man" and "To Kill a Mockingbird."

Prudential will present the event, which is also being sponsored by Lexus, Netflix and United Airlines with additional support by Audible. For the full lineup, go to playbill.com/curtainup.