Billy Porter, Billy Zane and Jessica Vosk are heading to Broadway for a corporate musical with an intentionally literal hook: Bill Pay The Musical, a one-night-only, fully staged original musical comedy produced by financial technology company Ramp to promote its bill-pay platform.
The production will play a single performance on September 25 at Broadway’s Broadhurst Theatre. The venue was, until recently, home to Cats: The Jellicle Ball, which closed early on August 8.
Described by producers as a musical comedy “about bills,” Bill Pay The Musical has been created for Ramp by director Keaton Wooden, book writer Kevin Zak, and composer and lyricist Jason Michael Snow. According to producers, the show will include “original music, sharp comedy, and playful references to Ramp’s AI-powered bill pay product.”
The project is a distinctive entry in the current Broadway landscape because it openly embraces the format of a branded stage event. Ramp is positioning the show as a throwback to the corporate-sponsored “industrials” of the mid-20th century, when companies mounted large-scale musicals tied to products and business categories. The concept also recalls the more recent Skittles Commercial: The Broadway Musical, the half-hour live Super Bowl commercial starring Michael C. Hall that was staged at Manhattan’s Town Hall on Super Bowl Sunday in 2019.
Eric Glyman, Co-Founder and Co-CEO of Ramp, framed the production in exactly those terms in a statement.
“Ramp made a real Broadway musical starring Billy Porter and Billy Zane,” Glyman said. “It’s a show about bills, by Bills, starring Bills — with original songs, full choreography, and an actual Broadway playwright. In the 1950s and ’60s, America’s biggest companies staged lavish musicals about cars, appliances, and soda. Somewhere along the way, we lost our nerve. We’re bringing back the industrial musical.”
Ramp’s announcement described the motive behind the project with the same comic spirit: “Bill Pay The Musical began with a simple belief: paying bills should not require this much drama. So Ramp made it a Broadway musical instead. The production brings Ramp’s signature sense of humor to the stage.”
The company also noted that it has previously turned financial operations into “unexpected cultural moments” through campaigns including Brian’s Office, Funeral for the Penny, and Brian’s Hair.
Porter, Zane and Vosk lead a cast that also includes Rema Webb, Karli Dinardo, Katie Griffith, Indya Lincicome, Drew Minard, Shannon Mullen, Cole Newburg, Will Porter and Brandon Stonestreet.
The producing team includes Ramp producers Kendall Tucker and Amber Layne, along with Ryan Bogner, Tracey Stroock McFarland and Zachary Thomas Hedner.
The creative and design roster includes choreographer Antoinette DiPietropolo; music director Adam Laird; music supervisor, orchestrator and arranger Ben Cohn; scenic designer Paul Tate de Poo III; costume designer Andrea Hood; lighting designer Karen Spahn; sound designer Sun Hee “Sunny” Kil; and wig, hair and makeup designers J. Jared Janas and Dotty Petersen.
Production partners on the event are Broadway & Beyond Theatricals, DR Theatrical Management, Tandem Production Partners, 7 Miles Global and Super Awesome Friends.
What Happens Next?
Bill Pay The Musical is currently set for one performance only: September 25 at the Broadhurst Theatre. With its Broadway venue, established stage talent and overt corporate premise, the show will test just how much theatrical spectacle Ramp can build around the business of paying bills.