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‘The Team Wanted It to Be the Next Mamma Mia!’: Corey Cott on why theatergoers and Tonys voters snubbed The Heart of Rock and Roll, the Huey Lewis musical

Corey Cott on why theatergoers and Tonys voters snubbed The Heart of Rock and Roll.

When the script for The Heart of Rock and Roll first came across Corey Cott’s desk, the actor was skeptical that the ’80s-set jukebox musical, powered by the songbook of Huey Lewis, was a rousing enough idea to get him to return to Broadway. Cott portrayed Bobby, the musical’s protagonist, as he debates brain versus heart at a weekend business conference: Should he continue working at a Midwestern cardboard-box company or keep trying to pursue his rock-star dreams? (In our positive review, we branded it as “the funniest new musical of the season.”) Barely half of the theater was full by the end of its run, and the Tony Awards snubbed it in all qualifying categories.

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