Rosie O'Donnell has joined the producing team of Indigo, a new musical about a non-speaking autistic teenager that its producers intend to bring to London in 2027.
Rosie O'Donnell has joined the producing team of Indigo, a new musical its producers are aiming to open in London in 2027. The announcement came from Sing Out, Louise! Productions, the New York company led by Lorenzo Thione, Joey Monda and Jay Kuo that has been developing the show.
What brought her in was seeing it. Rosie O'Donnell caught the UK premiere at Curve, Leicester, in 2025, and signed on afterwards. "INDIGO is the most beautiful and authentic depiction of autism in a kid as I have ever seen," she said. "This story needs to be seen by the world."
The practical value of the appointment is reach rather than a name on the billing. She posts almost daily as @rosie to some three million TikTok followers about neurodivergence and about raising a child on the autism spectrum, and in 2025 produced the documentary Unleashing Hope: The Power of Service Dogs for Children with Autism for Hulu. For a new musical with no star casting, no London venue and no dates yet announced, an audience that already exists is worth more than most things a producer can bring.
Lorenzo Thione said: "Rosie has spent years speaking candidly and with humour about neurodivergence to millions of people, in her own voice and on her own platforms. Now she is bringing that voice and the community she has built to Indigo and inviting them to experience this incredible story for themselves. We couldn't be prouder of welcoming Rosie to the Indigo family."
Indigo follows three generations of one family. Elaine is starting to forget; Beverly wishes she would not remember; and Emma, a non-speaking neurodivergent teenager, wants her family back. The production renders Emma's inner life in colour and light so that the audience sees the world as she does, and Alzheimer's, addiction and loss run through the piece alongside autism.
The book is by Kait Kerrigan (The Great Gatsby, The Time Traveller's Wife), with music and lyrics by Scott Evan Davis. It was conceived by Jay Kuo, Lorenzo Thione and Scott Evan Davis, and is directed by Catie Davis, whose credits include Beetlejuice The Musical, Moulin Rouge! The Musical and Company. Music supervision and orchestrations are by Brad Haak, scenic and video design by Andrzej Goulding, lighting by Jake DeGroot and sound by Matt Peploe.
The commitment that distinguishes the production is a casting one. Every actor who has played Emma, in Leicester and in each iteration before it, has been neurodivergent, a rule held since the first national search. The work has been developed with the autism and neurodivergent communities throughout, and Scott Evan Davis is an educator and a board member of Epic Players, the American neurodivergent theatre company.
O'Donnell's own theatre record runs from Grease, Seussical and Fiddler on the Roof on Broadway to lead producer on Taboo, and she has hosted the Tony Awards three times. Sing Out, Louise! has produced Days of Wine and Roses and Allegiance on Broadway. No London venue, dates or casting for Indigo have been announced.
