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Welcome to Last Week on Broadway for Monday, February 2, 2026. I'm Broadway Radio's Matt Tanani. I am coming to you high above Central Park. Well, at least the Central park that is on the icon of the seas because I am out on a cruise this week because it's been like a month since my last cruise. So of course I couldn't wait any longer. I hope that wherever you are that you are staying warm. I know the temperatures have been awful. I mean even my family in Florida, it was sub freezing temperatures in Orlando for my nephew's soccer tournament this weekend. And while I know a lot of people wouldn't be upset about 30 degree weather right now, it is pretty cold everywhere. So I hope you are staying safe and bundled up and warm and everything gets back to at least semi normal fairly soon. But let's dive into the news from this past week in and around New York theater and let's start with with the Tony Awards because we did get information on some of the most important details of the coming year. It was confirmed that the show will happen on Sunday, June 7th as we had anticipated and that it will be returning to Radio City Music Hall. The eligibility cutoff date will be Sunday, April 26th. So that means that any Broadway show that wants to be considered eligible for this season must officially open by the end of that day. Currently, the Lost Boys is scheduled to open that day. As we have seen in seasons past, sometimes we have multiple shows end up opening on the Tony eligibility deadline day. As of now though, we really don't have any other shows that we are waiting to figure out when they're going to open. As we've talked about, there is now an availability at the Shubert Theater for a show to potentially come in this season. However, as I will tease here in a little bit, I do think a show is going in there. I do not think it is a show that will need to have an opening night. But one thing that will be different is that there will be a fairly decent amount of time between when the Tony eligibility deadline wraps up and then we get the official nominations. In years past, you remember, I mean it was basically eligibility deadline was on Sunday and then the very next Thursday in previous years. But this year we're going to have that eligibility deadline on the 26th, as I mentioned, and then we won't actually get the nominations for an entire week and a half later until Tuesday, May 5th. Now that means that we will have shorter campaign seasons. I mean, I think we pretty much will know which shows will be nominated for some sort of Tonys. We won't necessarily know who will be nominated for best Musical or even best play, but I think shows will be anticipating having Tony Awards and they'll be doing their FYC campaigns. But it does eat into that normal period and gives us just a little over a month between nominations and the awards. So we will see how that impacts things over that month's time from May to June. Now, sticking on the awards front, currently, as I am recording, they are handing out the Grammy Awards in Los Angeles. So far, in terms of musical theater related things, Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande have won a Grammy for Defying Gravity from the first Wicked film. Just because of how the cyclical nature of these Grammy Awards work. I'm going to do a separate episode once we get everything because I want to let you know about anybody who has theater connections that win. And then of course, the best musical theater album. So that is not done yet, but I will get it out to you sometime on Monday. All right, let's move on to the biggest news of the theatrical week. And that comes to us from Studio 54, as we now have the complete cast for the upcoming Broadway production of the Rocky Horror Show. Of course, we already knew that Luke Evans was going to be playing Dr. Frank N. Furter, and now we have just a veritable who's who of like super cool actors put together for this cast. So joining him in the show will be the always phenomenal Rachel Dratch, currently getting ready to begin performances in high spirits at City center, which we'll talk about here in a bit later. Rachel Drats is going to be playing the narrator, as Brad will be Andrew Durand, as Janet will be Oscar nominee Stephanie Hsu. As Magenta will be film icon Juliet Lewis. Which this one, I mean, all of the casting is amazing, but this one just kind of blew my mind because all of the other people are theater people. But Juliet Lewis playing Magenta is wild to me. And then playing Riff Raff is Amber Gray. Like, I am so giddily excited to see Amber Gray play Riff Raff, the part that was originated by Rocky Horrors creator Richard o'. Brien. And then in the role made famous by meatloaf Eddie/ Dr. Scott will be Harvey Guillen. Playing Rocky will be Josh Rivera. And as Columbia will be Michaela J. Rodriguez. And then they also announced the the ensemble as well, which will feature some names that you recognize, including the likes of Andres Quintero, Larkin Riley, who is currently, I think, a swing in just in time and more so really fantastic casting. Could not be more excited to see this cast. It will begin performances on March 26th over at Studio 54. It will be a limited engagement currently scheduled to play through June 21st. Speaking of inherently queer Broadway casting, we also got the complete cast announcement for the upcoming Broadway premiere of Cat's the Jellicle Ball. Many of the people in this production will have also been a part of the cast in its previous incarnation Off Broadway at PAC nyc, but not all of them. One of the ones who is joining this production is Ken Art, who was an original cast member of the 1982 production of Cats. He will be joining the production as DJ Griddlebone. He will be accompanied by Liamy, a lead judge on HBO's voguing competition Legendary as McKenzie Cavity. Also joining the cast are Kia Azine from FX's Pose as ETC Bryson Battle as Jelly Lorem. Bryson Battle was recently seen in Saturday Church and on the Voice last season. Some other names that might be familiar Kalin West, Dante Nadir Wilder and more. They joined the previously announced cast members Andre De Shields, Jonathan Burke, Baby Byrne, James Harcourt, Dudney Joseph Jr Jr Labage, Robert Silk Mason Temperance, Christy Moore, Primo the Ballerino, Nora Shell, Emma Sophia, Garnett Williams and Teddy Wilson Jr. And more. So this show is going to be coming to the Broadhurst Theater beginning performances on March 18th. And with those great casting announcements, unfortunately we have some bad news and this is coming to us from Eva Noblezada herself and her Instagram. As we talked about before, she was getting ready to return to the role of Daisy Buchanan in the Great Gatsby so that she could do about a month's run opposite her original co star Jeremy Jordan before welcoming her husband Reeve Carney into the role. Unfortunately, due to a vocal injury, she is pushing back her first performance from February 5th to March 4th. Now what that means is she will have like three days opposite Jeremy. Now his final performance will be March 7th. Then she is going to play opposite Ryan McCarten, who's returning to the role of Jay Gatsby from March 8th through the 29th. And then Reeve is going to step into the role full time on March 30th. At this point we don't know who is going to be playing Daisy from February 5th through March 2nd. Maybe it could be Aisha Jackson sticking with the role a little bit longer than she had originally planned. I don't know if that's possible given what she has going on, but that would seem like the easiest thing or at least have some of the current standbys and understudies take on the role during that time period. All right. Last week we talked about the fact that Tracy Letts Bug, directed by David Cromer and starring Carrie Coons and Namir Smallwood had extended and I said that maybe has another week, two tops that it can continue to play at the Samuel J. Friedman Theater because it they have another show coming in the Ballisters at the end of March. Well, Bug is going to take me up on that. They have extended one more time two extra weeks through March 8th. So it'll continue to play an extra month from its original closing date, which was February 8th. It is now going to play until March 8th and then Balusters will come in later that week or later that month. Gives them plenty of time to load out Bug and load in balusters. Now I had said that something will be going into the Shubert Theater. I have heard tale that maybe Bug might be looking to do something similar to what we saw appropriate do a couple seasons ago where left its subscription House of the Helen Hayes and moved over to a commercial run for the rest of the season. I don't know if that's going to happen. The Friedman is very small, selling pretty well there again, the financials of a not for profit theater company and its grosses are much different than a commercial house. But the Shubert's considerably bigger. The Samuel J. Friedman Theater sits a total of 650 people. The Shubert Theater seats 1460. So that's about 800 more seats that they would have to fill on a daily basis. And don't get me wrong, I think the show has tons of buzz. The reviews were very good. Carrie Coon is beloved amongst theater circles. Tracy Letts is beloved amongst theater circles. Namir Smallwood is a star that a lot of people really like. That just that's a huge jump. If they do it, I would love it because that will give me an opportunity to see the show because I'm not going to make it into town before it closes. But from a financial decision that seems wild unless they know something that I don't know. But that is the word on the street right now. Whether or not that happens we will have to wait and see. See. All right. On Friday, the OB Awards announced their winners for this past year. I'm going to run through some of the big ones. The full list of winners will be in the show. Notes. The Outstanding New Play award went to Nazareth Hassan for Bull ep. The Playwriting Awards went to Morgan Basakis for Can I Be Frank and Sarah Ganter for the Wind in the Rain, a story about Sunny's bar. Direction went to Sam Pinkleton for his work on both Tada and Can I Be Frank? Also winning was Abigail Jean Baptiste for Chiaroscuro and Paul Laser for the Barbarians. Sustained achievement in directing went to David Herskovitz for Show Slash Boat, Colon A River and Whitney White for both Walden and Liberation. The performance awards went to Bubble Chakraborty for Rheology, Quincy Tyler Bernstein for well, I'll Let yout Go, Crystal Lucas Perry for Pericles A Public Works Concert Experience and the Great Pavilion and Stephanie Weeks for Showboat and then sustained achievement and performance to Paul Sparks for Grangeville and Stephanie Berry for A Gospel at Coriolanus. Again, we'll have the complete winners in the show notes if you want to check those out. Now moving to some show casting news outside of New York City, this one over in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. Last week it was announced who would be leading the new musical Starstruck that'll have its world premiere later this month, getting performances on February 19. It is directed and choreographed by Lauren Lotaro and is inspired by Cyrano de Bergerac. The new musical features a book by Beth Malone and Mary Ann Stratton and music and lyrics by Emily Saliers of the Indigo Girls fame. The cast will be led by by Malone herself as Sid deburg. Love that. Krista Rodriguez will play Roxanne and Sam Gravett will play Chris. They'll be joined by Danielle Lee Greaves, Scott Stanglin, who I always love, Sandra Vows, Donald Coren and Sidney Patrick, along with a few folks in the ensemble. We also got news last week that the Outsiders has officially recouped its $22 million Broadway capitalization, making it the first Broadway musical to achieve profitability since and Juliet. The show officially opened on Broadway in April of 2024. So a pretty quick turnaround for the Outsiders. Less than two years that is very rarely seen these days and even when shows do have long runs, to recoup in, less than two years is pretty impressive. So congratulations to everybody over at the Outsiders. The official recoupment date was actually the week that ended December 28th of 2025. Speaking of the Outsiders, we got some news about the show's director, Donya Taymor, because last week Deadline reported that she is set to direct the film adaptation of John Proctor is the Villain. Of course, she helmed the Broadway production and the show's original star Sadie Sink is is producing the show. We don't know exactly if she's going to be starring in it. I would be shocked if she doesn't. But she's getting ready to do RJ over in London and she's a big film star and TV star. She's doing some Marvel movies, a Spider man movie. So if she has time, it would be great to have her in there. It would feel weird to have this film, especially directed by Danya, without her in it. Then last week we also got some fun information about a currently running production from the Irish Repertoire Theater, the Honey Trap, which had played last year and is back after an incredible run before the holidays. This show is going to be available to stream beginning on February 15th and will be available through February 28th. Once you purchase the stream, you will have an opportunity to watch it for 72 hours afterwards at your convenience. All viewings must be finished by February 28th at midnight. The streaming tickets will cost $39 and are limited. Irish Rep members do receive 20% off if purchased through the theater's phone lines all right, let's take a break real quick and talk about our sponsor for this week Factor. We're still early in the year, obviously just one month into 2026. So if one of your New Year's resolutions was to eat better but you don't have a lot of time, you don't have a lot of energy to make it happen, factor might be the way to bridge that gap. 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So head to factor meals.com broadway50off and use code broadway50OFF to get 50% off your first factor box. Plus free breakfast for one year offer is only valid for new Factor customers with code and qualifying auto renewing subscription purchase. Make healthier eating easy with Factor. All right, but let's run through this week's theatrical schedule. Not a lot happening on Broadway. In fact, only one thing happening on Broadway. It's at the end of the week and it's a closing. But we do have a number of things happening off Broadway and let's start over at the Signature Theater on Tuesday where they will have the first preview performance of Lauren Yee's new play, Mother Russia. It's directed by Teddy Bergman and has a fantastic cast of four Stephen Boyer, Adam Chandler Barrett Rebecca, Naomi Jones and and David Turner. The show is set in St. Petersburg 1992. The Soviet Union has collapsed, McDonald's has risen and Yevgeny, a young man at a loss, stumbles into a job working surveillance with his old friend Dimitri. Their target, Katya, a former pop singer with questionable allegiances in a mysterious past. The cast is amazing, Lauren Yee is amazing and this is certainly one to keep an eye on this spring. Now, very busy day on Wednesday, February 4th and let's start over at New York City center with the first show of the 2026 encore season. And this one, of course is High Spirits. It is the musicalized version of Noel Coward's Blythe Spirit. The show was written by Hugh Martin and Timothy Gray and features a phenomenal cast including real life husband and wife Philippa sue and Stephen Pasquale as Ruth and Charles. Also in the the cast are Rachel Dratch, Katrina Link, Andrea Martin Campbell Scott, Jennifer Sanchez. Really a fantastic group of people this one because it is Encores does not run super long so you can only see this show from February 4th through the 15th. Just two weeks. There are tons of social media videos out there of their rehearsal, their public rehearsal, so if you want to see what the show is all about, check it out then. Also happening on Wednesday we have the first preview performance of the Dinosaurs Off Broadway from Playwrights Horizons. This is a show written by Jacob Perkins and directed by Les Waters that is currently scheduled to run through March 1st. Every week at the same time in the same place, a group of women share their stories of recovery. As weeks slip into years and decades spin into eternity, the women keep coming back amidst it an ever shifting unfamiliar world. The show is led by one of my all time favorites, Elizabeth Marvel, but has an incredible cast including April Mathis, Maria Elena Martinez, Mallory Portnoy, Kathleen Chalfont and Kylie McQuail. Wrapping up what's happening on Wednesday we have another show beginning performances and this is the Off Broadway show what We Did Before Our Moth Days happening down at the corner Greenwich House Theater. This is a play written by the phenomenal Wallace Shawn and directed by Andre Gregory. It features an incredible cast of Hope Davis, Maria Dizzia, John early and Josh Hamilton. It is going to begin performances on February 4th and is currently set to open on March 5th and the show is described thusly. Set in an urban world of intelligent and somewhat genteel middle class class people, a father, mother, son and longtime mistress of the father tell the intimate story of their lives anytime. Wallace Sean has a new play opening anywhere you have to see it and this cast certainly doesn't do anything to dissuade me of that. Then on Thursday we have another Busy day. Thursday, February 5th let's do these in alphabetical order. We will start. From the Roundabout Theater Company we have the new play Chinese Republicans written by playwright Alex Lin and directed by Chae Yoo. The cast includes Jennifer Akita, Julie Lee, Anna Zavelson, Ben Langhorst and Jody Long. The show is about three high powered businesswomen who meet for lunch every month to discuss their latest career triumphs as they've done for decades. The play is currently scheduled to run for exactly two months February 5th through April 5th. Also on Thursday, down at the Classic Stage Company, we have the first preview performance of the new play Marcel on the Train. This one is co written by Marshall Palett and Ethan Slater and directed by Palette. And of course Ethan Slater stars in the show as well. He is joined in the cast by Matty Corman, Tedra Milan, Max Gordon Moore, Alex Weiss and more. The play actually focuses on the history of the most famous mime in the world, Marcel Marceau. But before he began mine climbing, before that he was a young man in Nazi occupied France, guiding Jewish children to safety with nothing but courage and imagination. And then finally, on Thursday, from the Atlantic Theater Company, we have the first Off Broadway performance of the new play the Reservoir. This is written by Jake Brash and directed by Shelley Butler, and it's currently scheduled to play through March 15th. In the cast, you have such familiar names as Noah Galvin, Peter Maloney, Mary Beth, Pierre Peel, Matthew Saldivar, Chip Zion, Caroline Aaron, Heidi Armbruster. Just an absolutely dynamite group of people in the show. Josh's life is a mess. That's Noah Galvin's character. He's moved home to Denver to get sober, but after years of drinking, the fog in his brain won't lift. Struggling with memory loss, confusion and shame, he finds himself strangely in step with his four aging grandparents. And then the only Broadway show that we have to mention this week is is closing on February 8th, and that is Oedipus, the incredible production by Robert Icke, starring Mark Strong and Leslie Manville. One of my favorite things that I saw last year. So if you have an opportunity to get over and check out the show before it closes this weekend, I recommend it. Everybody. That's all the news that I have for you today. If you want more Broadway radio, head over to patreon.com broadwayradio thank you for listening. This has been Matt Tamnini, and I'll talk to you soon. Sam.