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With five number one songs and over 30 million records sold worldwide, Huey Lewis and the News was easily one of the most popular bands to come out of the 1980s. Now, the nostalgia movement has brought their music to Broadway, as tickets for “The Heart of Rock and Roll” went on sale Wednesday afternoon at the one-day-only price of $19.85. The play features many of the band’s chart-busting hits, like “Hip to Be Square,” “Stuck with You,” and “If This Is It.”
But in recent years, Lewis made headlines after his hearing loss from Meniere’s disease meant he could no longer hear the music he made. Lewis appeared on 710 WOR’s Len Berman and Michael Riedel in the Morning program to discuss how he used the play as his “salvation”- four years after he first appeared on the show to discuss the play, which he had hoped to release before Covid put those plans on hold.
“I’m very excited about it,” Lewis told Berman and Larry Mendte, sitting in for Riedel. “And you’re right, we waited a long time. Let’s be honest, we worked on the show four or five years before that. This is probably the eighth year, eighth or ninth year here, so we’re very excited and, you know, looking forward to it.”
The plot of “The Heart of Rock and Roll” centers around a young man who quits chasing his dream of being a rock star, then tries to pick it up again later. As Lewis summed it up, “I don’t think we’re going to change Broadway history, but it’s a smart, funny show with a lot of heart, and the music’s pretty good, too... It’s an original story, but all the music is Huey Lewis and the News music.”
Lewis also appears in the recent Netflix documentary, “The Greatest Night in Pop,” in which he discussed his part in the recording of the charity single “We Are the World.” “It was an amazing evening, needless to say. I mean, one doesn’t get to meet your idols, let alone work with them, and all of them, all at once. It was just a pinch yourself kind of an evening, something we’ll never forget.”
Previews for “The Heart of Rock and Roll” start at the James Earl Jones Theater on March 29th, with the curtain officially going up on April 22nd. On February 14th, the first 50 fans who bought tickets also got a chance to take a Polaroid picture with Huey.
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