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Hello all you theater lovers both out and proud and on the DL. And welcome back to Broadway Breakdown, a podcast discussing the history and legacy of American theater's most exclusive address, Broadway. I am your host, Matt Koplik, the least famous and most opinionated of all the Broadway podcast hosts. And this one is a bit of a little nugget of an episode for y' all today. As you well know, our next live show, Sondheim Weber, A Birthday Threesome, is going to be at Green Room 42 on March 6th at 7 o'. Clock. I will have a link for tickets in the episode description. If you can't make it in person, there is also an option for live streaming. That's to say, the rehearsals and planning for it have been as so much plus other things we've been doing for the podcast that you'll be hearing about later on. I'll give you a little insight into that in just a second. But all of this stuff sort of happening has led to a very packed schedule and not a lot of time to release episodes around the time of the live show. So for this week and for next week, it's not going to be a deep dive, nor is it going to be a review episode or a Tony episode. It's going to be a little more palate cleansers, I guess you could say. What we have coming up for you guys throughout the month of March as well as April. We do have three more deep dives, four more deep dives. We have the movie all that Jazz, which spoiler alert, will be done with Podmother Allie Gordon. We have Lightning the Piazza still to do she Loves Me and next to Normal we have guests in the middle of confirmation for all of those and scheduling their recordings soon. We also, I think it's okay to say this cause we've recorded half of it already. We are recording and soon we'll be releasing a miniseries about the process, sort of a backstage look at the process of making the play Marcel on the Train, which is currently running at Classic Stage Company, written and starring Ethan Slater. We have interviews with Classic Stage Company, with the design team, with Ethan, with the director Marshall, as well as two of its producers. And the idea is over the course of four or five episodes to give you guys some insight into someone has an idea for a play, they start creating the play. How do they get it seen by people? Once it gets seen, where does it go next? How do you develop it? How do you raise the money? How do you get it into New York once it's in New York. What do you do? What's critical reception? Like, what are the journeys? What's the narrative? How do things work? It was really fascinating for us to explore something like this that is also, by the way, is still an ongoing journey. Just because Marcel is at Classic Stage Company doesn't mean this is the be all end all for it. So it's really interesting to sort of get in now and hear all of that stuff from people who are hands on with the production. So that's really exciting for you guys. We also have another miniseries that I don't want to get give too much away about, but that could be a show that's celebrating a very special anniversary this year. Talking with members of the original production about sort of the history legacy of that show. And then we also will be having some minor episodes, not minor, but like, you know, mini episodes like miniseries, in March and April from members of the Broadway community. Talking sort of about Tony season and what it looks like when you're a producer, when you're an actor, when you're a writer, if you're in a show that's nominated, if you are a nominee. Sort of what those six weeks from nominations to award show look like. So that'll be fun for you guys as well. In addition to the deep dives, in addition to the reviews, in addition to my own show. So if you're watching this on YouTube and you see that I have hair on my head, just know that that's a miracle or it's a damn wig. Who's to say? So what we will do today is we're going to do a little bit of a recap of what's been going on in the Broadway news because we did do our first way too early Tony predictions with half hour with Jeff and Richie. Now they were less predictions and more sort of like keep an eye out on these shows. I think they could be serious contenders when the nominations happen. We didn't really want to do major guesses yet because there are a couple of shows that hadn't announced their casts yet, but those shows have now announced their casts. There have been some switching of casts and there's been some eligibility confirmation from the Tony Awards. So let's just sort of get into all of that now and sort of discuss what all that means. Before we do any of that though, guess what? We have two reviews that I very much would like to read. So please play the Light in the Piazza Overture. Five stars. Other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, how was the play? Are there tangents? Sure. Just like when you're talking to friends, will you sometimes disagree with points made? Sure that's all in caps, just like when you're talking to friends. This podcast is at its best when Matt, a smart and thoughtful theater geek, explores the quote unquote why behind his sometimes controversial opinions and the opinions of his guests. You find yourself in conversation with him at times, at least I do. And Matt challenges his listeners to figure out and be able to state why they like something or talk about why they don't. Matt's big rule is paraphrasing. You can't just say, I don't like it. And that's a great place to start when thinking critically about any art form. Even this tired old theater queen learns something new every week. A great podcast that keeps getting better. I hope it keeps getting better. We never want to be stuck, stagnant or plateau. Next up, five stars. My favorite pod. This podcast is exceptional and feels like talking to a long lost theater obsessed best friend. Matt is as equally charming as a host as he is a man learned via Instagram stock. His wealth of theater knowledge is only matched by his own. In parentheses, high praise. Oh, sorry, his. His wealth of theater knowledge is only matched by my own. High praise. Jesus Christ, I cannot read. In short, if you like musical theater, this is the ultimate. Thank you calling me a man. This economy. My God. All right, so first up, let's talk about some eligibility rulings that came out that pretty much line up with our predictions from the last episode. Except for one. We had a major question about category placements for actors, and it's all been answered for us. So first off, Margaery Prime, Oedipus Rex, or just Oedipus? Oedipus and Bug are all eligible for best revival, with the playwrights for all three being eligible for the award, which is the case with the classics ruling. There has been some debate with Oedipus, as it is technically based off of the Greek tragedy by Sophocles. But then people are wondering, well, is this even a revival if it's a whole new script? And guess what? The Shawnee wards have deemed it a revival, as did Olivier Awards. So as I said, the oliviers are not 100% going to guarantee you what's going to happen over here, but they are a good indicator. And if you're ever in doubt of something that's a London Transport, look at the Olivia's and see how they decided it. Or if you're ever in doubt, look at a show from the last two or three years that might have a similar situation as Bug or Marjorie prime and see how the Tonys decided, like, you know, Yellowface or Eureka Day. So there you go. And speaking of Marjorie prime, all of the actors for that show have been deemed featured. So Danny Burstein, we always knew was gonna be featured. But the question was Cynthia Nixon and June Squibb, would they be deemed featured or lead? But both have been considered featured actress, which now makes featured actress in a play incredibly crowded. But it opens up leading actress quite a bit. I think this means that someone like Susanna Flood for Liberation has a much stronger shot at getting nominated. I think I predicted her last time, even though I was unsure what would happen if Cynthia or June were considered lead. But now that they are not, now that they're both out of that category, I think Leslie Menville very much is a lock. And then Susanna Flood and Carrie Coon are very likely. There are, of course, other folks to come up in the spring. Edebury. I always feel like I say that name incorrectly. I probably just did. But for proof. And Anika Noni Rose for the Ballisters, who has replaced Rene Elyse Goldsberry. The Ballisters is the new David Lindsay, a bear play. We don't really know much about the Ballisters. We don't really know much about sort of what happened with Rene Elise Goldsberry. I would imagine it was simply a scheduling issue. She probably booked a movie or a TV show that interfered. That's something that you can do as an actor, is if you get an offer for another job that conflicts with the job you previously committed to, but it pays more money. You can actually get out of that previous contract. It happens quite frequently. But we're not mad about it because Anika is awesome. You all know how I feel about Anika Noni Rose. Also, we have another play added to the Broadway lineup this season. The 2025, 2026 Broadway season. Fear of Thirteen, starring Adrien Brody, is coming to the James Earl Jones Theater this season. Spring. This show premiered at the Donmar Warehouse. It is written by Lindsay Ferrantino, the book writer of Queen of Versailles. So a few people from Queen of Versailles are going to have a bit of a redemption this spring, we hope. Michael Arden for Lost Boys, et cetera. But this is also an adaptation of a documentary about a man who was convicted of a sexual assault and murder that he did not commit and was in prison for 22 years in Pennsylvania, was only released when DNA evidence was discovered 22 years later that proved his innocence. So the documentary is about that. And I believe in the documentary he performs his story sort of in a one man show style. So the play is an adaptation of that story and of that documentary. Adrien Brody, of course, plays the lead role. It is not a one man show. There are other members in the company. The thing about this is that it's not a direct transfer. This was nominated for the Olivier for best play. Brody was also nominated. This is not a direct transfer from the Donmar Warehouse. Justin Martin was the director of that. This production is going to be directed by David Cromer, who's still having a busy season with this and Bug. It's also a whole new design team and again, whole new supporting cast, including Tessa Thompson. So we will see how this goes. There have been quite a few times when a play that premieres in London comes to New York with a new production. It hasn't happened in a minute, but this used to happen actually quite a lot with Tom Stoppard, actually to great success. Mike Nichols doing a whole new production of the Real Thing for Stoppard or Jack o' Brien doing a new production of the coast of Utopia. Both, of course, went on to critical success and Tony winning success. So you know that those are good precedences for fear of 13. Fear of 13 or fear of the 13. Fear of the 13. I believe it's fear of 13, but let me double check. See, I write these notes down and then I second guess myself. No, it's the fear of 13. All right. I'm glad that I trusted my gut with this. We have some casting announcements. We have. First and foremost, the Wild Party at Encores has announced its full company. Most importantly, Jordan Donagha is Burrs. Jelani Aladdin is Black. Tanya Pinkins. Tony won her. Tanya Pinkens, an original Wild Party cast member, is coming in as Dolores and Leslie Margarita as May. Y' all know how I feel about lachiusa's Wild Party. This score is so fucking genius. This show is dangerous and sexy and violent and harsh and really sweaty and can be disturbing sometimes. But it's also very painful. And it's not perfect. It's not a perfect musical. I don't want to get anyone's hopes up that way. I do think that the show has a tough time with the ending. It's hard to kind of have a catharsis at the end of the show. And it does sort of feel like the ending kind of wraps up rather quickly. I would love to speak to George C. Wolf and Michael John lachiusa, because I know that the ending was something that they struggled with throughout workshops and then rehearsals and then previews. And the show also famously was very long throughout rehearsals and previews. I believe the first workshop of the Wild Party, when it was like in 1999 with Vanessa Williams, that first workshop ran five hours with no intermission, because as George C. Wolffe said, parties don't have intermissions. So it was always gonna be all the way through. But, you know, they whittled it down. I think the first preview on Broadway was close to three hours, and they got it down to about two hours by opening night. And then I think with everyone sort of running at hyperspeed, by the end of the run, it was like an hour and 50. But with those cuts come certain narratives that are harder to have a payoff at the end because major chunks are now missing. So this is to say, the Wild Party is not a perfect musical, but it is a pretty exceptional work and has so much. I use this term a lot, but it has so much meat on the bone. There's so much to chew on. And that's what I really love about it. If I may, Gunkle of the pod, Adam Elsbury. Adam, I hope you're not mad at me for saying this. He has said to me many times that he describes this Lachiusa Wild Party score as like the musical equivalent of grinding your genitals on the couch. He's like, you're just when you listen to it and you just feel like you're in heat the whole time. You, like, want to humph a cushion or something. Very J.D. vance style. So we're both very excited for this encores and we hope that they do well. The director for it is a Chicago based director who seems to have a pretty solid resume to infer that she would kind of go for the tricky elements of Wild Party because this Wild Party definitely has some dynamics about it that are not gonna be for everybody. It's very unapologetic about race relations. It's very unapologetic about being in your face. And again, a little disturbing. There is full on blackface in the Wild Party. In the original production, it was Mandy Patinkin as Burrs who is in blackface. And he then, you know, puts it back on in the finale. Again, it's meant to be disturbing, but that's because the show deals with masks and racial identity and sort of what people are trying to pass forward, where people are trying to cross over. And again, everyone's trying to massage their identities to be something that they're not, but also have to be something more palatable for everyone else. Now, of course you've got Jordan Donnica playing burrs in this production, so we will see what will happen. But the blackface is part of the material in the show and it'll be very interesting to see if they do it and then how Encore's audiences react to it. Lily Ann Brown is the director and again, according to her resume in Chicago, it seems like she might be up for all of the trickiness of this show. I will be seeing wild party March 22. I am once again going to Florida Thespians in March and so I'll be flying back the day before I see Wild Party. I will then see Wild Party and we will release a bonus review episode of that just because that's the show that's very important to me and I want to talk about it and I really hope that it works and if it doesn't, so be it. Other Casting News Rocky Horror show has announced its full company. Yes, it's been a minute since we had an up to date episode, so there are a lot of casting announcements to talk over. We have Amber Gray as Riff Raff, Mikaela Rodriguez or MJ Rodriguez as Magenta, Juliette Lewis as Columbia, Andrew Durand as Brad, Stephanie Hsu as Janet, Rachel Dratch as the narrator, Harvey Guian Guillen as Eddie Dr. Scott. He's the actor from what we do in the Shadows, a show that I have never watched, but all of my very close dear nerdy friends absolutely adore that show and have informed me that he's one of the big scene stealers of it. And so I am not mad about his casting at all. And then Josh Rivera as Rocky. This is really fascinatingly phenomenal cast. I would say everyone here is a very specific type and personality. Everyone's a very specific talent. What you want in Rocky Horror is you don't want people who could blend in in a showcase. You don't want people who are professional and clean cut even for characters like Brad and Janet. I think people think because they're meant to sort of be the heteronormative norm in the show that they need to be a little squeaky clean and bland. But I feel like it's better when you have like people who are sort of lightly freaks dressed up in those roles and then let their freak flag fly, which is, you know, Stephanie Hsu and Andrew Durant are such talented actors that they can start off in those boxes and then break out as it continues. So as I Said I when we were talking about this in the Tony Predictions. Roundabout has a very good relationship with the Tony Awards. Not always for winning, but often for getting nominated. It's very rare that they have a revival that isn't nominated. I think Bye Bye Birdie might be the last revival they had that wasn't nominated at the Tony Awards. And so with Rocky Horror, especially because Sam Pinkleton is now sort of a golden boy and there are so many people here who are really beloved in the community, many of them Tony nominees themselves, they really have to shit the bed to not get a nomination this season. And in fact, like, if they don't shit the bed, if people actually start, if people do really well in this, I think we can see quite a few in the featured actor and actresses categories packing it in with this show. We don't know what will happen with cast Jellicoe Ball, but we also don't know what will happen with Schmiga Dune because Schmiga Dune also announced the rest of its casting. And this is also a treasure trove of featured actress and featured actor. In featured actresses, we have Mackenzie Kurtz and Anna Gasteyer, Ann Harada, Isabel, Michaela, all ladies who I am very fond of. Mackenzie just did Heather's Off Broadway, which she was the absolute highlight of. Anna Gasteyer, I love, love her so much. I mean SNL alone, but then you look into Mean Girls, you look into her in the Reefer Madness movie, you look at any bootleg of her in Wicked or Threepenny Opera. She did a lovely job in Once Upon a Mattress, although I wish I had seen her later in the run when she really could settle into it. And Harada, you know, one of Broadway's MVPs for years, looking forward to see what she does in this. And then Isabel Michaela and Ingenue, who has a little bit of that freak in her, she actually would make a really good Janet in this Rocky Horror. So if it runs and you know, Schmuckadoon doesn't go great, and Shu needs to go back to Hollywood, have Izzy Michaela go in there and and take over when Shu's done with her contract. In featured actor, we have Max Clayton and Brad Oscar. Unclear what's actually going to happen with Schminga Doon, how well this is going to succeed. Not financially necessarily. I think everything is an uphill battle when it comes to a new musical. And this is such a niche type of show. I don't think this is the kind of blockbuster sellout people would assume it is. But I will be interested to see how successful they are at translating it to this stage. I've been very vocal that I have not cared for the Schmigadoon Schmacago TV series. I watched the first two or three episodes of Schmuckadoon. I was literally forced to sit down and watch it. And I just. I didn't laugh once. And I watched the first two episodes of Chicago, and I liked it more, but I still didn't like it. I just. I find the spoofing to be rather shallow. You know, the thing that I always say about Schmacadoon and Chicago is they'll, quote, unquote, poke fun at a trope of musical theater. And it's not a trope. It's just specific to one show. So from what I remember, Max Clayton is playing the Errant of Eight role in Spigadoon, which is just Billy Bigelow from Carousel. That's not necessarily a trope. In Golden Age musical theater, Billy Bigelow is a very specific role. There are the hunky leading men, but they're not the hunky leading men who are like, you can never tame me. I'll never fall in love. You can, I guess, make the correlation between Curly and Billy in Oklahoma And Carousel, but those are the conditional love songs where Rodgers and Hammerstein broke the mold of not singing an I love you song, but a if I loved you or people will say we're in love of sort of skirting around the love of it all. But that's not saying I won't fall in love. It's a vulnerability tactic. And I just never felt that Shmagedoon understood any of that. They also didn't really understand the sexual politics of Golden Age musicals. They felt like Golden Age musicals were so afraid of sex and would punish people for sex and would specifically make light of female characters who had sexual agency. And that's simply not the case, because the truth is that the works that did. All of those were movies. Were movies, Hollywood movies. You had the Hays Code, which had a very strict set of rules in films of what could be seen and why. So if someone was sexualized, they tend to be punished for it. Think Elizabeth Taylor in Butterfield 8, who gets thrown off a cliff and dies in a car crash, then wins an Oscar for it simply because she's, you know, basically a call girl or a party girl, whatever you want to call it. And in Golden Age musicals, I would argue that they were far more feminist in the sense that you had characters Like Ado Annie in Oklahoma, or you had what's Her Face in Brigadoon, where they were sexual and they weren't apologetic for it and they weren't even punished for it. They did tend to end up in domesticity, but that was sort of a way for the writers to have their cake and eat it, too. They were able to show that independence with these characters, and a lot of audiences could find it palatable because in the end, those characters ended up in a monogamous relationship that they were happy to be in, by the way. They weren't, like, roped in and then imprisoned. They were happy with it. And by making them comic characters, that was another way for things like, like feminine sexual agency to go down smoother with a very traditional, religious, conservative audience. So just things to think about that I don't think Schmiga Dune as a TV show ever really grappled with. And I don't know if the show ever will, but it'll be interesting to see what they do. And it's a solid cast in general. And then also speaking of rounding out casts, Titanique has brought out their final three leads. We have Melissa Barrera, best known from the Scream series as well as in the Heights. She's playing Rose. John Riddle is returning as Cal, and Leighton Williams as the iceberg bitch in Titanique. Leighton Williams won an Olivier Award for doing it in the West End. John Riddle many of us got to see in the original Off Broadway company. And Melissa, I believe this is her Broadway debut. And I only really know Melissa from Scream 5 and in the Heights, the film. And I do not like her in Scream 5, but that's because I think that movie is kind of garbage. She is, of course, saddled with the worst material. She's basically nothing but exposition and doe eyes, and that's unfortunate for her. But I feel like there are ways to work around that. The best parts of Scream 5 are honestly when Nev shows up, I think because I was disliking it so much and I was with a group of gay men who were just not as psyched to be there as I was. Everyone claimed they were excited to see Scream 5. And then we get there and as the movie's going, I'm like, oh, I'm the only one who genuinely, like, loves this series. Everybody else was more sort of like, oh, it's value of the Dolls. I'm like, scream is not Value of the dolls. Shut the up. I will say I did like Melissa in In the Heights. I don't like that. Movie. I. I've been very open that. I think in the Heights is kind of a mess of a film with two phenomenal numbers. The opening in 96,000. I don't love Pacianca. Ife in the film, Olga does a lovely job as Abuela, but they also do kind of gut that character in the movie. She has the one big number. But. But this isn't about Olga. This is about Melissa. Me, I actually think does a very good job in that movie. I think most of the cast does a good job. But I remember watching her in it and thinking that she was a really strong Vanessa. So I'll be interested to see how she is as Rose, because with Rose, you don't have to be super funny on your own. When in doubt, just sort of play it straight. In fact, if you ever read Julie Andrews memoir Home, she has two memoirs. The first one, Home, she talks about being in the Boyfriend, where she played the female lead, Polly. And she was really struggling in rehearsals. She was really struggling in previews. And the producer ended up taking over as director at the last minute, and he pulls her aside in previews, and he's like, julie, what's going down? And she goes, I don't know what to do. I can't lend a laugh to save my life. And he's like, okay, here's the thing. Polly's not really designed to be a comedic lead. She's designed to be the glue of everything. So just play it super earnestly. You know, don't. This isn't Medea. Don't go that hard. But, like, just play with a straight face whenever. Make everything very real to her, and it allows everyone else's laughs to go that much further. And incidentally, you will start to get some laughs yourselves when you aren't trying for them. And it worked. It worked for her. And I think that that's the key for Rose in this is you want to play it straight again, like, one foot on the ground, one foot in the air, because it's Titanique. So, again, you're not doing Oedipus over here, but you don't want to go for broke with laughter. Rose is not a clown part, but there are times when you're allowed to let loose, and that's when you, you know, let your freak flag fly. And it'll be interesting to see what Melissa does. John. I think everyone should just be thrilled that John gets to do it. I know there were rumors, and I had to. And I had perpetuated those rumors as well, that certain people Might be Rose. There was a rumor that it would be Anna Kendrick. The intel I have is that she was approached, she was interested, and then various things fell through. Could be money, could be that she didn't want to make her Broadway return in a show that was actually quite a big sing. Rose is quite a big sing. There was rumors that Matthew Morrison was gonna play Cal, which actually I think is very good casting. But Matthew Morrison, of course, as we've learned, will be playing Bobby Darin in the interim between Jonathan Groff and Jeremy Jordan at just in time. It's a short interim, only three weeks. But I would imagine this is him feet wet before he leads the tour. That is my hypothesis is that Matthew Morrison is going to do the tour of Just In Time based off of nothing. Just my own willy nilly things. And then, yeah, I don't know any, but John Riddle, we should all be very glad is doing it. If you saw him do it off Broadway, he was a phenomenal Cal, probably still my favorite. Although there have been some really fantastic cows off Broadway. Yeah, Mark Evans and Brad Grier and a bunch of other ones that were just so good. But John is fantastic. So let's all be. Let us be glad. Let us be grateful. I think that's it for casting for next season. It's been announced that Tom Hiddleston and Hayley Atwell will be starring in the Jamie Lloyd production of Much Ado About Nothing. It's transferring over from London, playing in the fall at an unnamed Shubert Theater for, I think they said, 10 weeks. Rumors. Rumor is that it's the Winter Garden, which would make sense. It's a comparable stage to what it played in the West End. It also is enough seats that even though it's only 10 weeks, it can still technically recoup. It will be available after Death of a Salesman closes, which has extended, I think, until early August. Now, if it does end up being the Winter Garden, this would line up with the rumors of two other West End imports that would be opening next year. One is that after Much Adua plays the Winter Garden in the fall, the rumor is that Evita with Rachel Zegler, also Jamie Lloyd, will be opening at the Winter Garden in the spring. I will believe that when I see it. When she's literally on that balcony singing Don't Cry for Me, Argentina, that is when I will truly believe it. Because there has been a lot of talk of different theaters. I was given major intel that they had signed at the Hirschfeld, but then Moulin Rouge chose to keep on Running. And then Jamie Lloyd wanted the St. James, but it just wasn't going to work logistically with the balcony scene. Then the show was off because Lloyd Webber and Jamie Lloyd were fighting. Then it was back on. Then it was sort of in limbo. So we'll see what happens with that. Um, the other intel that would make sense that lines up with this rumor, is Paddington coming in in the fall or the spring at the Hirschfeld Theater. Now, there are some folks reporting online that Paddington plans to come in to the St. James in the fall should Titanique end its run as announced, or in the spring if Titanique were to extend a few more weeks. First of all, I don't think Titanique is going to extend a few more weeks, but that's neither here nor there. St. James is certainly possible. That's also an ATG theater. I have been told the Hirschfeld. I have a few sources that have told me the Hirschfeld, everyone backstage at Moulin Rouge, when they were told that they were closing, was told that Paddington was taking on after them. But it's entirely possible that they were given bad info. But we'll see. We'll see what happens. I think the Hirschfeld is the better theater for them. It's more intimate, it has more character to it. Paddington is, you know, has a bit of spectacle about it, but it's not a bombastic show. And I think it would get feel a little hollow in the St. James. The Herschel would be a better spot for it. But if they go in the St. James, Godspeed to them. We also have announcements that the Rel Esparza star vehicle Galileo will be opening at the Shubert Theater in the fall because Hell's Kitchen did just close its Broadway run after less than two years. We shall see. Galileo does not come into Broadway with a lot of good word of mouth from Berkeley Rep. You know, it does have Michael Mayer directing and a book by Danny Strong. Last time we had that, we had shoose. And we know how I feel about choose. So open mind at arm's length, guys. That's. That's what we say. Um, and that's sort of it for now. Yeah. So next week we'll sort of have a little episode for you guys again and then we will have our deep dive and go into Tony stuff and a few more other deep dives after that. So it's going to be pretty packed. And then the Marcel and the Train miniseries will be coming out in a few weeks as well, sort of alongside regular episodes. I think those will be on Tuesdays and then regular episodes on Thursdays. Yeah, that's sort of it for now. I hope this has been able to tide you guys over for a little bit. Again, if you are in town, if you are available March 6th at 7:00 o', clock, green room 42. Sorry, Sondheim Webber. A birthday threesome will be playing. But I think I'll. Yeah, I'll say a little bit now. We have two guest artists. We've got Friend of the Pod, Amy Jo Jackson, who you'll remember from the Glass Menagerie, will be joining us. Friend of the Pod, Todd Buonapane will be joining us. You might remember Todd from the spelling bee deep dive we did a few years ago. It's going to be a lot of fun. Amy Jo and Todd are doing a deep dive slash recreation, a mini recreation of an Angela Webber musical that I have recently discovered and I find very insane. And we'll be doing it, the three of us, as well as some puppets in addition to some other songs and mashups that'll be happening as well and some trivia. It'll be very fun night. Yeah, that's all I got to say. If you like the podcast, give us a nice 5 star rating or review, you can go on Substack and join us there. You can join the Discord Channel and talk with everybody about all of the episodes, about all of the information about the Tony Awards. Oh, I also wanted to say this. There's a new website that's out that I really love. It's called broadwayscorecard.com I'll put a link for it in the episode box as well. And it's basically acting like a new review aggregator site separate from Did they like it? Or broadwayworld.com and from my investigations of it, because I've been going through the website a little bit and the person who created it seems to have taken their cues from Metacritic, which I appreciate because it's not just on a scale of 1 to 10 of reviews or thumbs up, thumbs down. It's a scale of 0 to 100 for each review for every new Broadway show or off Broadway show and giving certain weight to different publications. So something like the New York Times has a bit more weight than like you know, the One Minute Critic or something like that. But then it also includes a percentage audience approval rate and things like that and gives a little critical summary for each show. And yeah, I'm really loving it. I think this is a really good site to give you an indication of critical reception for all of these shows and I recommend it. So. Sorry, I'm not getting paid to say that. I just genuinely love this new site. I think it's fantastic. So if you're looking for something to determine what shows are doing well with critics and with audiences, Broadway Scorecard is a great one. So, yes, Broadway Scorecard Substack Discord Sondheim Weber Cop Like a Birthday Threesome. Rate and review the podcast if you can. That's it for now. I am going to close this out with. What d are we gonna close it out with today? You know what? We're gonna close out with Ms. Ana Gastire. That's what we're gonna do. So, yeah, that's it. We'll see you guys soon. Take it away, Anna. Bye. A handsome stranger Some empty promises Lots of stuff But I don't get hooked I'm not addicted no I just enjoy the glow I like to have my fun no hard to anyone.
