It tells the little-known story of the woman who completed the Brooklyn Bridge after her husband, chief engineer of the project, was injured on the job.
A new musical, “Brooklyn’s Bridge,” tells the story of Emily Warren Roebling.
Photo by Arthur Knox via Irondale
by Kirstyn Brendlen, Brooklyn Paper
A new musical about Emily Warren Roebling, “the woman who saved the Brooklyn Bridge,” has arrived in Fort Greene.
“Brooklyn’s Bridge,” playing at The Space at Irondale through August 23, chronicles the 11 years Emily spent as the de facto leader of the project after her husband, chief engineer Washington Roebling, fell ill during construction.
“She was 26 years old [when she took over]. By the time the bridge was finished, she was 40 years old. She became a woman, but also became a leader, became a dominant force in New York City politics,” said producer Michael Simon Hall.
The show depicts some of the thousands of workers, many of them immigrants, who built the bridge. Photo by Arthur Knox via Irondale
The show has a cast of just 10 people, plus four musicians who perform onstage. Writer Ray Roderick and composer Joseph Baker have worked on the show for years and staged the first full production of Brooklyn’s Bridge in Florida in 2025. It runs at The Space at Irondale through August 23.
Hall joined the “scrappy” production when Baker and Roderick decided it was time to return to New York. They wanted a venue that was a little off the beaten bath, and Hall thought the Irondale was perfect. Housed in an 1800s church that predates the Brooklyn Bridge by about a decade, the Irondale is historic, beautiful, and fairly bare-bones.
“We wanted a space that lends itself to the idea that we’re still exploring and creating,” Hall said. “The rawness of the space kind of lends to that feeling … and also evokes a time, a feeling of history and time from the past.”
A show about the iconic Brooklyn Bridge has something of a built-in audience in Brooklyn — the first weekend of performances nearly sold out — but Hall said its appeal goes beyond geography.
The iconic span in 2024. Photo by Susan De Vries
“I think that there’s so many things about this show to love, that can interest people and intrigue people,” he said. “First of all, the music is gorgeous. It is lush, it’s been described as majestic and soaring.”
Then, he said, there’s the love story between Emily and her husband.
When construction of the bridge started, Washington was serving as chief engineer. But, in 1871 or so — just a year into what would turn into a 13-year project — he developed severe decompression sickness from working on the bridge’s underwater supports.
The condition left him bedridden, unable to visit the site or supervise work. Emily became his sole liaison, ferrying information and instructions back and forth from Washington to the site.
“Brooklyn’s Bridge” utilizes projections, minimal set pieces, and the theater’s architecture to depict the bridge. Photo by Arthur Knox via Irondale
She fought against efforts to remove her husband from his job entirely, dealt with political meddling, and gained tremendous knowledge about engineering and construction along the way.
“It seemed like it was destiny that she was to be in this position,” Hall said. “She must have had tremendous engineering intelligence and ability with mathematics … but she had the tenacity and the drive and the political savvy to deal with all the challenges when her husband became incapacitated.”
At Irondale, Emily is played by actress Sarah Joyce, making her New York City debut. The role is very vocally demanding, Hall said, requiring classical musical theater skills and pop-style vocals.
“She’s a great storyteller and a wonderful actress, and she really kind of evokes the feeling of a young Emily,” Hall said. “She’s the same age as Emily was when she took over.”
Emily is portrayed by actress Sarah Joyce. Photo by Arthur Knox via Irondale
The show is also, he said, about the thousands of immigrants on the construction crew. It was dangerous work. Men descended well below the surface of the East River to dig out the supports and later dangled from the heights of the bridge. At least 21 men died, almost all of them immigrants.
“The whole process took many years, and all these immigrants worked shoulder to shoulder with Emily,” Hall said. “It’s a tribute to the great immigrants who made New York great then and still make it great to this day.”
Audience members often say they particularly like the song “We Built the Bridge,” he said, an ensemble number sung by the bridge workers that captures the pride they felt for being part of an incredible project.
“It’s also a love letter to New York City and this icon we all love, the eighth wonder of the world,” Hall said. “People have family who worked on the bridge, or they cross it every day for work, and they have no idea this woman Emily helped make it happen.”
Emily Warren Roebling Plaza in 2022. Photo by Susan De Vries
The Brooklyn Bridge itself, while it looms large over the story, isn’t directly depicted in the show. “Brooklyn’s Bridge” has a relatively minimal set and makes use of platforms, scaffolding, projections, and the Irondale’s own architecture to make the audience feel like they’re watching the iconic span rise. It’s set almost in the round, Hall said, with seats on three sides of the stage.
“It’s such a universal human story about transcending adversity and really dedicating yourself to a cause that’s kind of bigger than yourself and all the sacrifice that’s needed,” he added.
Editor’s note: A version of this story originally ran in Brooklyn Paper. Click here to see the original story.
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