Sophia Anne Caruso has given audiences their first real listen to the score of Memoirs of Amorous Gentlemen, singing a song called “Immured” in a video released Friday morning, exactly two weeks before the new musical begins performances Off Broadway. It is the most substantial preview yet of what Duncan Sheik has written for the star at the center of the show, and it lands just as the production begins building word of mouth ahead of its first performance.
The sneak peek is an exclusive from Playbill, which premiered the performance on its YouTube channel. Shot in black and white inside the recording studio, the video keeps its focus tight on Caruso at the microphone, score on the stand in front of her, with nothing in the frame to distract from the vocal. You can watch the full video below.
The track was produced by Or Matias, who serves as music supervisor and arranger on the production. It follows a studio session Caruso and co-star Cory Jeacoma shared earlier this month, when the two recorded the duet Sometimes in the Evening and offered a brief glimpse of the material without releasing a full performance. “Immured” is the first complete song from the show to reach the public.
Memoirs of Amorous Gentlemen adapts the manga by Moyoco Anno, following a writer named Colette in Paris who documents her life working in a brothel while remaining fixated on Léon, the childhood love who has never quite released his hold on her. Sheik wrote the music and lyrics, Leah Nanako Winkler wrote the book, and Rob Ashford directs and choreographs. Caruso, who originated Lydia Deetz in Beetlejuice on Broadway, plays Colette.
The company around her is now fully set. Jeacoma, of Beautiful, plays Léon. Nkeki Obi-Melekwe, of Tina, plays Nana, Andy Bakun plays Sakae, and Jenny Powers, of Little Women, plays Madame. They are joined by Leanne Antonio, Kailin Brown, Michael Everett, Elsa Keefe, Jaedynn Latter, Austin Lesch, Nika Lindsay, Caleb Marshall, Jessie Peltier, Michael Starr and Thomas Winter, a group whose recent credits run through The Lion King, Aladdin, & Juliet, Les Misérables, Frozen, Moulin Rouge! and Smash. When TDN first covered Caruso’s casting in the title role back in August, the rest of the company had not yet been named.
Performances begin September 25 at The Night Egg at the Culture Club in Manhattan’s Chelsea neighborhood, the space that previously housed Sleep No More. Opening night is set for October 15, and the run is currently scheduled through January 3, 2027. The design team includes scenic designer Scott Pask, costume designer Catherine Zuber, lighting designer Brian Tovar, sound designer Cody Spencer, and hair and wig designer Tom Watson, a lineup of Broadway veterans assembled for a house that seats a fraction of what most of them usually work in.
The show also lands in the middle of a fascinating moment for manga on stage. Frank Wildhorn’s Death Note is playing London’s West End, and producers on both sides of the Atlantic have been looking at Japanese source material with new seriousness, drawn by stories that already carry devoted readerships and visual worlds that translate well to theatrical design. Memoirs of Amorous Gentlemen is the latest and, with Sheik’s name attached, one of the more closely watched.
The production runs 90 minutes with no intermission, and tickets have been on sale since August, starting at $54 through the show’s official site at MemoirsMusical.com.