MMI Review: BROADWAY GOES PUNK (2026)

TikTok star and UNWELL lead singer Matt Copley drops a collection of pop-punk Broadway covers, but is it breaking new ground or just trodding on familiar boards?

The punk cover has been around since punk started, basically. THE DAMNED, the band that released the first punk rock single in the UK, with 1976’s brilliant “New Rose” and, fittingly enough, they also released the UK’s first ironic punk cover with that very same release. The B-side of “New Rose” was a ripping cover of THE BEATLES’ hit song, “Help!” THE RAMONES, roughly at the same time, released a stellar cover of JOE JONES’ 1960 song “California Sun” that turned the song into a RAMONES staple for decades to come. Essentially anything can become a punk rock cover, and if the band is approaching the song from a place of love, or at least affection, the punk cover can be as good or better than the original.

That’s the general concept behind Matt Copley’s project BROADWAY GOES PUNK. Specifically, Copley has released a series of viral videos that spawned a series of singles, a couple of forthcoming albums, and an actual Broadway special performance of his punk covers, which is where Copley differentiates himself from the sea of punk bands who have already covered songs from famous movies and musicals. 

Generally, the punk cover comes from a place of an outsider co-opting the higher artform. LESS THAN JAKE has affection for GREASE, so they record the entire soundtrack as a ska album called GREASED. ME FIRST AND THE GIMME GIMMES has affection for a variety of famous Broadway tunes, so they record ARE A DRAG and collect some of their favorite show tunes interpolated with some of the best songs of punk rock history. PUNK ROCK FACTORY have made a cottage industry of high-energy punk covers from both legitimate theater and Disney musicals and they’re all excellent. 

Copley isn’t breaking any new ground, and his cover song choices aren’t new in a world in which YouTube exists and you can find pretty much any song covered in pretty much any style of music. However, where Copley finds space for himself (or holds space for his cover of “Defying Gravith”) is that his covers have legitimacy from the original sources. Broadway didn’t particularly care about THE VANDALS doing “So Long, Farewell” from THE SOUND OF MUSIC; Copley and company got the opportunity to do their covers as a full-on Off Broadway show, in the Big Apple’s famous Playhouse Theater. No one gave APOCALYPSE HOBOKEN an opportunity to tear through “Sweet Transvestite” outside of the vinyl of THE ROCKY HORROR PUNK ROCK SHOW.

But, Copley has one thing those legacy acts don’t: a TIkTok fandom. He’s not doing anything new. He’s doing something that’s been around for a long time to a new audience. That allows him to cross over, for lack of a more appropriate term, to a different, younger audience and catch the attention of trend-chasing Broadway theaters looking for something that might draw a younger audience for a few nights between shows. 

Technically, the songs are fine. The backing tracks are good, albeit a little generic, lacking the pleasantly unusual genre clash of something like LTJ’s efforts, or the blend of classic punk riffs with showtunes of ME FIRST AND THE GIMME GIMMES. They’re just the usual music, albeit faster and with more attitude. 

Copley has a great voice and clearly an enthusiasm for the material, but there’s nothing really different here. All of the songs have been covered before, in this style or in a similar style, by other people who have gotten tens of thousands of views on YouTube as a reward for their vocals or arrangement. Does the world need another version of “Defying Gravity” done in a non-WICKED style? Some interesting, or less familiar material would have been appreciated.

However, as a first effort, Copley’s BROADWAY GOES PUNK covers are fun enough, especially if you’re not well versed in punk cover history. Certainly, if it gets extra attention to classic musical tunes or wins a few Broadway types over to punk rock, then it’ll be worth the effort. Matt Copley’s initial collection is worth checking out once, if only for curiosity’s sake, but hopefully future planned releases in the BROADWAY GOES PUNK series will feature some lesser-known material. Until then, this is a novelty record that’s not especially novel.

Ron Hogan is a writer, podcaster, gadabout, and raconteur from Louisville, Kentucky. You can read his written works at Den of Geek, Film Stories, and at several magazines and sites that no longer exist. You can hear his voice (and potentially see his magnificent beard) on the Film Strip Podcast. 

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