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Hi and welcome to Last Week on Broadway for Monday, April 13th. I'm Broadway Radio's Matt Tamaneni. On today's episode, I'm going to run you through a ton of news that we have not yet covered from the last week in and around New York City theater. We're also going to get you all of the reviews from the latest Broadway revival of Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman, and then we will look to another very busy week in New York theater, both on Broadway and off. So let's start with that revival of Death of a Salesman that I mentioned. It opened up on Thursday night over at the Winter Garden Theater, directed by Joe Mantel, and of course it was written by Arthur Miller. But one of the biggest points of contention for many people in the theatrical community is that the lead producer on this show is Scott Rudin, only his second return to Broadway after being ostracized for a couple years due to the accusations of bullying and abuse from former employees. The cast of this production is led by the great Nathan Lane playing Woolly Loman, the equally incredible Laurie Metcalfe as Linda Loman. They're also joined by Christopher Abbott, Ben Ehlers, K. Todd Freeman, John Drea, Joaquin Consuelo's car, Tasha Lawrence, and more. If you are somehow listening to this show and are unfamiliar with Death of a Salesman, even though it was just on Broadway like three or four years ago, the plot description reads thusly, one man and his family are caught up in the pressures and delusions of living the American dream. Miller's play is the story of a traveling salesman whose illusions of picture perfect business and family life cave in on him as of recording time. Review aggregator site Did They like it? Has collected 16 reviews. Thirteen were positive, one was mixed and two were negative. Helen Shaw, reviewing the show for the New York Times, was positive and did make the show a critics pick. She said Mantello has leaned into the play's sense of abstraction. Willie often loses himself in his own mind, which has the effect of emphasizing both its timelessness and its timeliness. Miller's working title was Inside of His Head, and there's no doubt that Mantello has made a beautiful, atmospheric production full of exquisitely calibrated performances. Sarah Holdren of Vulture was also positive, saying, a worthwhile revival will always give you the feeling even more significant than re seeing an astonishing play of truly hearing it. And that's what happens here again and again as Lane moved with desperate, waning vitality from home to office to an almost unbearably painful dinner, out with his sons and back to home again. I caught myself flinching at Miller's words coming out of these actors with terrible freshness. Once in my lifetime I would like to own something outright before it's broken. Greg Evans of Deadline was positive, saying, but first and Last Salesman is Willie's story, and generation after Broadway Generation has thrown its best into the role. From Lee J. Cobb, Frederick March, George C. Scott, Brian Dennehy and Dustin Hoffman to Philip Seymour Hoffman and Wendell Pierce, Lane takes his place among the best, his Willy Loman a powder keg of frustration and disappointment and deep, deep sadness. Lane uses his loud outside voice to excellent effect, his shouts of exasperation and anger giving way to instant regret and recrimination. Watch Future Willies and pay attention. The mixed review came from Joey Sims of Theaterly, who said, and yet I was ultimately unmoved. Why, in sitting uncertainty between total adornment and its weighted ideas of temporal displacement, the production had never quite gotten me there. This salesman tries to be a few too many things, and the intended emotional clarity proves just out of its reach. David Rooney of the Hollywood Reporter was positive, saying, down to the smallest roles, this production is astutely cast, and its arresting design elements add a suitably shabby grandeur to the play's unsparing view of America's broken promises. Mantello does some of his finest work in a heartfelt revival that will be remembered for the estimable Lane's career crowning performance, its magnificent theater. Naveen Kumar of Variety was one of the two negative reviews, and speaking of Nathan Lane, he said that he is undoubtedly gifted and capable in the part, tender, forceful and connected to the text, but his natural gentility is tough to dress down. It worked in his favor for his Tony winning turn as the monstrous Roy Cohen in Angels in America, but buying him as an end of his rope everyman taxes the imagination. We'll wrap up with one more positive coming to us from Johnny Oleksinski from the New York Post, who said, the squalid room makes a quick first impression. This place, whatever it is, has certainly seen better days. Then at the end of the superb and unforgettable revival that hauntingly unfolds there, among its shadows, there arrives an altogether livelier takeaway. That was the best death of a salesman I have ever seen. If you would like to read more of these reviews or any of the others that I did not sample on this roundup, I will have a link to the did they like it? Aggregation in the show notes now let's go from shows that have just opened on Broadway to a show that will open on Broadway and one that I imagine will be just as much in the conversation for Tony Awards next season as this one apparently will be for this one. We found out last week that Rosamund pike will make her Broadway debut this fall in Susie Miller's follow up to Prima Facie, this one called Inter Alia, also directed by Justin Miller who did Prima Facie both in London and in New York York. The show will begin performances at the Music box Theater on November 10th. The show had a critically acclaimed and award nominated run in London and it does feel very similar to Prima Facie. If you might remember a couple seasons ago I spoke to Susie Miller and director Justin Martin. Susie Miller comes from a legal background. She was a lawyer and she became a playwright. So most of her work, including this one in Prima Facie are based on legal scenarios. And like Prima Facie, this is a one woman show. It examines the balance of motherhood and modern masculinity in a career and a family. But much like Prima Facie, it is not just a straightforward one woman show telling you this story. There's a ton of fun features and surprises that are mixed into the production thanks to Martin's direction. So as I'm recording, the Olivier Awards have not finished. Finished. I'm going to add those in here in a little bit, but this one has got nothing but great word of mouth. A friend of mine who loved Prima Facie said when she saw Enter Alia in the West End she actually liked it more. So as somebody who loved Jodie Comer in Prima Facie, I am very excited to see this one come fall. Now, something that we're not going to have to wait until the fall to see is this year's Tony Awards. As we know they will happen in June. But this past week we found out a kind of surprise host for this year's Tony Awards and it will be none other than Grammy winning pop and rock icon Pink. Now I have always been told, and it has been said publicly, we've talked about it here, that to be a host of the Tony Awards you have to have appeared on Broadway before. Pink has not appeared on Broadway, but a song she co wrote, your Effing Perfect is featured heavily in and Juliet and she did before this announcement happened. She did do a very, very minor maybe you saw her foot on stage at the Great Gatsby. They posted that video that was kind of fun. But she's never been on Broadway in any meaningful way. However, A few weeks ago, she guest hosted the Kelly Clarkson show for a week and she talked about the fact that she moved to New York City because her daughter is a huge Broadway fan and an aspiring theatrical performer performer. The first show that she did featured Shoshana Bean and Darren Criss and also saw her daughter go interview cast members from Ragtime at Lincoln Center. So she's obviously starting to ingratiate herself to the theatrical community. I don't know if she's taking over the Kelly Clarkson show full time, but if she is, this would obviously be a great way to continue to see Broadway perform performers on that show. What's interesting though, is that the Kelly Clarkson show is produced by NBC and cbs, as we know handles all of the Tony Awards. So it's not like this is some sort of corporate synergy happen. It just feels to me like they needed a star and getting somebody like Jonathan Groff, who I thought could be a very good host, might make sense, but apparently they decided to go for an even bigger name and Pink will host the Tonys when it comes to us from Radio City Music hall on Sunday, June 7. Now, sticking with the Tony Awards, we got our latest round of determinations from the Tony Awards Administration Committee last week. The big ruling, not much of a surprise, I think we all kind of assumed this, but it was confirmed, is that every brilliant thing despite making its Broadway debut this season will be considered a revival, as it is something that is well established in the theatrical canon. It made its Off Broadway premiere starring playwright Johnny Donahoe in 2014, so that is over 10 years ago. Even if that wasn't the case, I think they still probably would have gone revival because it is one of the most well established shows in regional theaters around the country. That does mean that both the show's producers and playwrights, Donahoe and Duncan McMillan will be eligible for Tonys if it's wins. Because even though it's a revival and that's not usually the case, it has never been on Broadway. So they do have the opportunity to win there. The only other ruling that was not consistent with opening night credits is over at Dog Day Afternoon, where Epinmas Bacharach, despite being above the title on the opening night, Playbill, will be considered featured actor in a play. Everything else is as we would have expected. So a pretty straightforward set of rulings this time around. All right. As I said, the Oliviers were going on. They have now wrapped up. So I'm going to run you through the major awards. I'll put a link in the show notes to where you can find out the winners in all of the categories. But starting with the best new musical, the winner is Paddington. The best musical revival went to into the Woods. Best new play went to Punch. Best revival of a play went to All My Sons. Best new entertainment or comedy play went to oh Mary. Best actress went to Rosamund pike for Into Alia, obviously coming to Broadway here soon. Best actor went to Jack Holden for Ken Rex, which is getting ready to start its Off Broadway run here this week. We'll talk about that here in a little bit. Best actor in a musical went to James Hamid and Artie Shaw for Paddington the Musical. And best actress in a musical went to Rachel Zegler for Evita. Now, as I said, enter Alia, we know is coming to Broadway. Ken Rex is coming Off Broadway. Punch has already been on Broadway. Paddington and Evita, I believe, will both be in next season. So a lot of these shows from the Oliviers that have won, obviously Omari also already on Broadway. I don't know about the All My Sons that starred Bryan Cranston. That would be really interesting. Our good friend Oliver Roth was one of the producers on that show. So I believe he's now an Olivier Award winner in addition to all of his Tonys. So I don't know if that's playing a transfer or not, but we are certainly seeing a lot of back and forth across the pond between Broadway and this year's most celebrated Olivier shows. Now, speaking of the theater that very well might be housing a certain Peruvian bear who likes marmalade, last week it was announced that Moulin Rouge has pushed back its closing date. It had originally been scheduled to close on July 26th. It will now add five weeks to play at the Al Hirschfeld Theater through August 30th. There's been a lot of craziness with Megan Thee Stallion being sick and unable to do the show. I know she did like the second act of this week of a show this week, but her run will conclude on May 17th. And then Eric Anderson, who actually originated the role in the early workshops of Moulin Rouge and then did it on Broadway for two years, will be back on May 19th. Now going from the Al Hirschfeld to the Lena Horn. Last week we found out that Dylan Mulvaney will wrap up her run as anne Boleyn in Six on Broadway on May 31st. From what I understand, this was always the plan for her to have a shorter run than the rest of the queens who will be continuing on forward potentially for the rest of the run. As I'm kind of assuming that it's going to close up in January, but I don't know that to be fact yet. But the day after it was announced that Dylan was leaving the show, six announced that Kirsten Maldonado, who is of course one of the lead vocalists in Pentatonix and had previously been on Broadway in Kinky Boots, will take over the role beginning on June 1st. I will be seeing Kirsten along with the rest of the cast in June, so I am very, very excited about that. I'm moving Off Broadway we have some show and Casting news. Last week it was announced that Claire Barron's show youw Got Older will have one more extension at the Cherry Lane Theater. The show was originally going to close on March 29th. It will now play through May 3rd. Another Off Broadway extension, it was announced that the Uber Intimate True starring Jesse Tyler Ferguson gets one final extension and the show will now play through May 10th. Speaking of big stars in shows off Broadway getting extensions, the Matthew Broderick led production Ulster American extends Off Broadway at the Irish Repertory Theater. It has added two weeks to its run and will now play through May 24th. Now before we finish up the news and head into this week's theatrical schedule, let's hop across the pond and the new MC and Sally Bowles have been announced for Cabaret in London. Taking over the role of the MC will be Jamie Moscato who originated the role of Jay Gatsby in the Great Gatsby. Being the West End and playing Sally Bowles will be the one and only Joy Woods. So that is very exciting. They will begin their runs in London's West End on May 24th. All right, let's get into this week's theatrical schedule. We're going to start with an Off Broadway opening on Tuesday night, April 14th. This one will take place at the Theater at Saint Clements. From the new group it is a star studded production of Elmer L. Rose Rice's classic the Adding Machine. In the cast are Sarita Chaudhry, Michael Searle Creighton, Daphne Rubin Vega and Jennifer Tilly. The show has been extended through May 17. Then also on Tuesday, the Bushwick Star Here Arts center and Ma Yee Theater Company production will begin performances with Playwrights Horizons. It is called Rheology and it is currently scheduled to run through May 6th. The show was written and directed by Shayak Misha Chaudhry in collaboration with his mother Bulbul Chakraborty. In the show, as in real life, Bulbul is a physicist while Shayok is a playwright. Bulbul is obsessed with the mystery of sand, how it flows like a liquid but then jams into a solid. Misha is obsessed with his mother. But they're running out of time in this boundary pushing collaboration, an artist son and his scientist mother challenge each other to a high stakes experiment. Also on Tuesday over at the Manetta Lane Theater will be the latest production from the Audible Theater and the production company together. This one is the play by Tim Noonan called what Happened Was it stars the great Corey Stoll and Cecily Strong. The show is currently scheduled to run through June 14th. In a one bedroom apartment in Manhattan, two co workers meet for a first date. What begins as small talk quickly unravels into an achingly tender chamber piece about attraction, secrets and the desperate need for connection. And then also on Tuesday night I will be at the Dr. Phillips center for the Performing Arts where the national tour of Kimberly Akimbo will begin its week run here in Orlando. The show will play through Sunday, April 19 and the show currently stars the great Ann Morrison who originated the role of of Mary Flynn in Mary Lee Roll along on Broadway. She lives here in Florida actually and I saw her play King Herod in a production of Jesus Christ Superstar I think over at the Oslo Rep. So she is wonderful. Cannot wait to see this Tony winning show. Then on Wednesday we will have another opening night on Broadway and this one comes to us from the James Earl Jones Theater where The fear of 13 will officially open. This is the play by Lindsey Ferrantino based on the documentary of the same name by David Singleton. It is directed by David Cromer and features two heavy hitters of Hollywood, two time Academy Award winner Adrien Brody and Tessa Thompson. Also in the cast are some names you might be familiar with like Eddie Cooper, Ebony Flowers, Ephraim Sykes and more. We of course will run you through all of the reviews from that one depending on when they are released, either Wednesday night or on Thursday. Then, as I mentioned during the talk of the Oliviers, Ken Rex is getting ready to begin its Off Broadway run this week. That will also happen on Wednesday, April 15. It will play at the Lucille Lortel Theater and it is currently on sale through June 27th. The show is described as a blistering true crime thriller about the thin line between Justice Served and Justice Taken. Not only does it star Jack Holden, but he also co wrote it with Ed Stamboulian and it features music by John Patrick Elliot. I have some friends who said this was their favorite show that they saw in 2025. So very excited to hear what this one is all about here in the States. Also on Wednesday, Off Broadway from Second Stage we have the first performance of Adam Bach's new play the Receptionist, directed by Sarah Benson. It's business as usual at the Northeast office where the cheerfully dutiful receptionist answers phones, brews coffee and gossips with coworkers. But when an unexpected visitor from the central office walks through the door, business becomes far from usual. Receptionist is described as a jet black comedy about bureaucracy and complicity that's biting in its humor and chilling in its relevance. Leading the cast as the receptionist will be two time Tony Award Award winner Katie Finneran. Also in the company will be Will Polin and Nael Nacer. Then on Thursday we will be back to Red carpets and step and repeats and all of those things that go along with Broadway openings. Because over at the Booth Theater, David Aldrin's Pulitzer Prize winning play Proof will officially open its revival, directed by Tommy Kail and featuring a star studded cast of Don Cheadle, IO Adebri, Jin Ha and Kara Young. An absolute who's who of acting prowess. So looking forward to having that again. If the reviews come out early enough for me to get them to you on Thursday night, I will do that. If not, I will hit them on Friday morning. But believe it or not, that is not the last show that is opening on Broadway this week because on Sunday over at the Todd Hames Theater, the Noel Coward play Fallen Angels will have a revival directed by Scott Ellis. This one is currently scheduled to run through June 7th and it stars a really interesting pair, a heavy hitter of the big screen, Oscar nominee and Golden Globe winner Rose Byrne along with Tony Award winner Kelly o' Hara, who we don't really think of doing really either plays or comedies in general. But they lead this cast that also includes the great Tracy Chimo, Christopher Fitzgerald, Asif Monvi and Mark Consuelos in his Broadway debut. Also on Sunday we have two Shakespeare plays getting off Broadway revivals from acclaimed theater companies. The first one will be the National Theaters production of Hamlet that is directed by Robert Hasty that is getting a run at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. That one is running through May 17 and then bedlam is doing a production of Othello off Broadway as well. So we'll have information in the show, notes about both of those. And then wrapping up the week we have two shows closing Heartbreak Hotel off Broadway, the Dr. 2. I spoke with two stars of that show in a special episode I think last week I really wish I had the opportunity to see it because it I read it and talking to them was fascinating. So if you have a chance to check that one out, I highly recommend it. And then also how My Grandparents Fell in Love. A musical will wrap up its run off Broadway at 59 East 59th. All right. That's all that I have for you today. Thank you so much for supporting Broadway radio. If you want more Broadway radio, head over to patreon.com broadwayradio thanks for listening. This has been Matt Tamaneni and I'll talk to you.