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Welcome to Last Week on Broadway for Tuesday, July 28, 2026. I'm Broadway Radio's Matt Tamanini. I'm here late on Monday night having finally seen the live capture of Hadestown. We will obviously talk quite a bit more about that on the upcoming episode of Some Like it pop that Jennifer McHugh and I will record here after the end of July. So if you want to hear all of my thoughts about that, make sure that you subscribe to patreon@patreon.com broadwayradio or broadwayradio.com patreon but what I'm here today to is all the news that we have had since our last episode, the grosses and midweek news update last week. And there was some pretty interesting stuff. And if you listen between the lines here, I am going to sneak in a rather not very subtle hint about some upcoming exciting Broadway replacement casting. But first we are going to start over at the Majestic Theater because on Monday it was announced that the stage adaptation of Purple Rain will be coming to Broadway in 2027. It will be performances at the Majestic on March 12th and we'll have an opening night a month later on April 12th. Now this one has been interesting because it had its world premiere in Minneapolis, Prince's hometown, towards the end of 2024, I believe. And at that point the book was written by Brandon Jacobs Jenkins and featured direction by Liliana Blaine Cruz. However, neither of them are now attached to the project Prince when it comes to Broadway, yes, the music will still be princes that came from that original film, but the book will be written by Dogfight adapter Peter Duken and the direction will be by Tony Award nominee Sahim Ali. Much of the more music focused creative team will return, including Tony winner Jason Michael Webb as music supervisor Bobby Z and Morris Hayes, who were members of Prince's band as music advisors. Ebony Williams will continue to choreograph. But I think that this plays into the fact that I didn't hear a single word about Purple Rain in Minneapolis because I don't think it was very well received and you becoming to Broadway with a new director, with a new book writer. I think that lends the idea to the fact that Prince's estate holders and the people that oversee all of his work weren't especially pleased with the production that was done in Minneapolis. However, the show is now coming to Broadway. I would imagine that there's at least a decent chance that the casting that they had in Minneapolis will be revisited. A newcomer named Chris Collins played the kid Rachel Webb played Apollonia, Jared Howilton played Morris, and Leon Addison Brown played the kid's father. None of those are Broadway names or anything to bank on. Perhaps you don't need that with a musical based off of some of Prince's greatest hits and off of an iconic film in which he starred. But I would imagine that with a new director, Sahim Ali might want to at least bring some other people into the room. Maybe that'll be more people that aren't household names and they aren't going to go out and get a, I don't know, Jordan Fisher or somebody of that ilk to come in and do it. But I would imagine, I would not imagine that the cast is in. The Minnesota production is automatically going to be coming to Broadway in the spring over at the Majestic Theater. All right, turning to some casting that we do know is going to be happening in New York and that is happening down at the Public Theater, where last week the forthcoming Off Broadway premiere of the Curious Case of Benjamin Button announced its cast. Performances will begin on October 8th with an opening night on October 21st. And knock on wood, hopefully that means a Broadway transfer is happening either in the spring of 2027 or the fall of 2027. Playing the title role will be the always in demand Andrew Durand. We are going to talk about when he is leaving his current show here in just a little bit, as the show did in London. The cast will be made up of 15 actor musicians that all kind of interweave on different roles and instruments and go back and forth. The only other really major named role in the show is Alohen Keane and that is going to be played by Kelsey Kimmel, who was a standby and eventual replacement Jersey in Hell's Kitchen on Broadway. She's also been a part of six on Broadway. However, there are some other names you might recognize. Brittany Coleman, who I believe is playing essentially a track that includes Benjamin's mother, is in there. Brandon J. Ellis, Morgan Morris, Matt Wolpe, a really, really solid cast. Like I said, they all have to be able to play multiple instruments. So I think that the fact that they have landed on this group of actors is super important and very exciting to see what they do with this one at the Public later this year. The show did win the Olivier for Best new musical in 2025, features a book by Jethro Compton, music by Darren Clark, and those two collaborated on the lyrics, with Compton not only directing but also providing the scenic design. I have talked about this one many, many times. Could not be more excited to see this show come to New York and potentially to Broadway. Now, I mentioned the fact that we had some casting announcements for Andrew Duran's current show. On Friday, we found out that the three biggest stars of the Rocky Horror show will be departing Luke Evans, Stephanie Hsu and Andrew Durant. Taking over as Dr. Frank N. Furter from Luke Evans will be Scissor Sisters frontman Jake Shears, also a former Charlie in kinky boots on Broadway. His first performance will be on September 11th. Oscar nominee Stephanie Hsu will be departing on Sunday, August 23rd. She'll be replaced by Lorna Courtney. And on that same day, Andrew Durand will depart as Brad, leaving with his Janet. That's appropriate. And he will be replaced by Kevin McHale of not only Glee, but currently of spelling bee fame. Interesting that Lorna Courtney and Kevin McHale spent a lot of time next to each other over at New World Stages when she was in Heather's, but they'll be coming into that show both starting on August 25th. Fifth, of course, while this will be Jake Shearer's only second time performing on Broadway, he also co wrote the songs with Elton John and James Graham for Tammy Faye, maybe one that he wants to forget about. And while Kevin McHale will be coming directly to Studio 54 from New World Stages, Lorna Courtney left Heathers a while back to go over and do the world premiere of the Greatest Showman. I don't know what's going to happen about that one, but I would imagine that it is going to be making its way to New York at some point. Whether she remains with it, who knows. But obviously she's going to be over at Studio 54 at least until November, when the show is currently scheduled to wrap up. But again, would not be surprised if it extends through the holidays. All right, let's talk about some Broadway casting news. Last week it was announced that for 15 performances, the one and only Aaron Tveit will return to the role of Christian during the final weeks of Moulin Rouge. But what's interesting is he will not be performing in the show's final performance. Instead, he will do the run from August 18th through the 29th, and then Christian Douglas will return to do the final show. This is not a surprise. I think I even mentioned it when Chess closed. I expected he would be back. He just can't seem to quit Moulin Rouge. And obviously with the show wrapping up, it's nice to get him back over at the Al Hirschfeldt. Yesterday we also got some news about some folks returning to Titanic, having done the show off Broadway beginning on August 1st. Russell Daniels will step into the role of Ruth for two weeks while Jim Parsons is away, so he will be there until Parsons returns on August 17th. And Terrence Williams Jr. Will join the production having been in it off Broadway as a vacation swing as well. Last week we also got some more information about who would be joining the upcoming Broadway production of Wanted over the James Earl Jones Theater when he Begins performances on October 15th. The duo of Aurelia Williams and Awa Sol Seka will return to the show as Sissy and Flo, respectively. Williams had been a part of the show when it was at the Paper Mill Playhouse and Seca did the show when it was at the Signature Theater when it was under the name Gun and Powder. And finally, in the confirmed part of this casting news section, last week it was announced that Jose Candelita Iglesias will join the production of Born of It's the Social Club on Broadway. What's interesting about this is yes, Iglesias is a Cuban born Latin pop star with his single OMG from 2024 reaching number one on the iTunes Latin pop charts. But he is also a former Major League Baseball player, having started his career with the Boston Red Sox, later playing with the Detroit Lions, my Cincinnati Reds, the Baltimore Orioles, the Los Angeles Angels, the Colorado Rockies and San Diego Padres, as well as the New York Metropolitans. He will be taking over the role of the narrator for the show. So it's a very cool thing to have kind of the intersection of sports and theater happening over at the Gerald Schoenfeld Theater. Alright, before I wrap up with a few other little bits, I did say that I had heard a rumor and I wanted to share it with you. I think it's about as close to confirmed as I can get, but I did not just hear an alarm start ringing, but I did hear that when Hadestown announces its next round of casting, which very well might be happening today on Tuesday, July 28, that one member of this forthcoming company will be dancing through life all the way over to the Walter Curb. Was that easy enough?
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Did I?
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Did I make that pretty clear? As to what's going on with that one, let me know in the email. All right, let's wrap up with one little bit of Off Broadway news. The new play the Saviors officially opened Off Broadway on Monday night. It is written by Bubba Wheeler and directed by Jack Syrio. And in conjunction with Opening night, the Atlantic Theater Company has announced that it has extended the run. It will add an extra week and will now play through August 15th. And I mentioned that on Monday night I went and saw the Hadestown pro tape and we did get some box office news. Not only did Hadestown do very, very well at the box office, it was way, way, way behind the Odyssey, which was number one. But it was just about $400,000 behind Moana, the live action Moana. It tied with Toy Story 4 and was ahead of Minions and Monsters that officially came in three third on the weekend. However, it has taken the crown as the highest box office opening weekend for any musical theater pro tape in history. Passing Hamilton, of course. I do think it's important to keep in mind that Hamilton only went to the movie theaters after it had already been released on Disney plus during the Pandemic. So it's not exactly apples to apples there. But nonetheless, Hadestown has done very well at the box office and it does look like it has been extended a little bit, a couple extra days depending on where you are at. It was originally only going to be in theaters for five days. I know you can now get it in some places through Thursday if you haven't seen it. So if you want to make sure that you have an opportunity to see it, check your local listings wherever you see movies. All right everybody, that's all that we have for today. Thanks so much for listening to Broadway Radio. If you want more Broadway radio, head over to patreon.com broadwayradio thanks for giving us a little bit of your time. This has been Matt Tammanini and I'll talk to you soon.
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