I've hit a bit of a milestone today: my first illustration in the Wall Street Journal. And it's a doozy! While it's only in the NYC area papers, it's most of the cover of their special pre-Tony Awards Broadway advertising section. Here 'tis!
They wanted a Times Squareish scene, and they wanted me to focus on shows they advertise for, so we included long-runners Aladdin, The Lion King, and The Book of Mormon and new shows An American in Paris, Hand to God, and Something Rotten. They were also planning on featuring A Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time, so that went in the showbizzy stew as well.
My take on it – as you can see – was to have the characters from the shows popping out of the billboards and interacting. Tyrone is not the kind of puppet Simba is used to seeing, and Elder Cunningham is thinking they must be in Africa. The Bottom Brothers are having it out while the Bard preens and Nostradamus is having a moment with the Genie. Jerry and Lise are dropping in from Paris which adds to the stimuli bombarding Christopher and his rat. Also, Hirschfeld once drew a Times Square scene and included a lone nun. He received many letters explaining that nuns never travel alone. Well, in tribute to one of my heroes, I drew a lone nun. Except this one is passing out fliers. A new Times Square.
It's just a fun melange of the bold and buoyant on the Broadway, and I'm so happy I got the chance to draw it.