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Welcome to Last Week on Broadway for Monday, June 15, 2026. I'm Broadway Radio's Matt Tammanini. We are back after our typical week off following the Tonys, and I'm going to run you through all of the news that we missed over this past week. There were some very fun things both on and off Broadway, as well as some updates to some productions that we already knew about. I did want to let you know that I'll be around like normal this week for our grossest episode midweek and then last week on Broadway next week and grosses next week. But then I will be out for a week or so, a week and a half through the July 4th holiday because I will be celebrating my birthday at the end of next week and then going to be in Los Angeles and Las Vegas for about eight or maybe nine, 10 days if things go really well in Vegas. So we will have to wait and see. But just wanted to give you an update as to what our schedule looks like for the rest of this month. But let's start with the biggest news of this past week, at least in terms of online excitement, because it was announced by Seaview Productions that there will be a new Off Broadway production of Spring Awakening coming to Studio Seaview later this year. It will be directed by Donya Taymor and will feature choreography by Celia Rolson hall, who was the choreographer for the Amanda Seyfried movie the Testament of Ann Leaf from this past Oscar season. No casting has been announced as of now. They will do open auditions next month, but from what I understand, those are most going to be for smaller featured parts as well as any potential more ensemble roles. There are no official names attached to it yet, but there have been offers sent out to who I can only imagine are some rather well known young stars both in theater and on screens large and small. I do not know a single name as of now, but I would imagine that if you're gonna do a production like this with Donya Taymor off Broadway and make a big splashy announcement like this that there will be some pretty big stars attached with that. Of course, the original production launched the careers of many, many major stars, whether they were principals in the original cast or not. Obviously you have Jonathan Groff, Lea Michelle, John Gallagher Jr. All going on to various levels of stardom. But you also had folks like Skylar Astin, Lilly Cooper, Christopher Rodriguez, Lolo, Lauren Pritchard. So it'll be fun to see what group of stars look like and where their careers go after they are welcomed into the Spring Awakening Family going from some good news for a young teen focused show to some probably sad news for many people who are fans of another teen focused show. And it was announced last week that both the Broadway and West End productions of Stranger Things, the First Shadow, will be closing around this holiday season. It will first close in London at the Phoenix Theatre on Dec. 27 and then on Broadway at the Marquis Theater on Jan. 3. That will be relatively one year following the series finale of Stranger Things debuting on Netflix. Of course we know that they did film Stranger Things, the first Shadow for Netflix, so I would not be surprised if at some point we do get an announcement over the next three, four or five months as to when that will be available to stream on the Netflix platform. The show has not been doing great over at the Marquee, which is always such a difficult theater to have a hit in. Attendance is in the 3/4 range down below a million dollars. Perhaps as summer tourist season starts to pick up that will increase, but as of now, not doing probably what, I would guess what it needs to do to make its weekly nut. So this does make sense. A really fun show, I thought. You know, I'm not a Stranger Things person, but I thought that it was a relatively compelling story, even if you don't know all of the mythos. And obviously a really fun production as well, from one Broadway show closing to another one. And this was reported by Playbill that despite nothing announced from the production itself, it appears that the fear of 13 might be moving up its closing date. The show as of now is technically officially scheduled to play through July 12, but the official website and the ticketing platform have taken off the last two weeks of run, so they are no longer on sale. So that would make the last performance that you can buy tickets for as of now June 28th. Perhaps there is another reason why they would have done that. That does not mean that the show is closing, but that seems pretty unlikely. I couldn't really come up with one off the top of my head, but if you want to make sure that you see the Fear of Thirteen, starring Adrienne Brody and Tessa Thompson before it wraps up its run on Broadway, you probably now only have two weeks to get that done. While the fear of 13 is apparently shortening its run by two weeks, the Tony winning revival of Ragtime is extending its run for two weeks and this will apparently be the final time that this show extends. The show was only initially planned to be a 14 week run when it opened in September, and now the show is going to run two extra weeks, moving the closing date from August 2nd to August 16th. With that, a number of original cast members will be leaving before that end date. Ben Levi Ross will play his final performance on July 12, Colin Donnell will play his final performance on June 14, and Shayna Taub will play her final performance on August 2. Anna Grace Barlow will also end her run on June 14, actually yesterday for Younger Brother, Father and Evelyn Nesbit. All of those roles will be taken over by the understudies, usually split, so they don't actually have to pay them a full principal contract. But in the case of Shana Tao, because when she was out on her personal leave, they brought in Julie Benko. Julie will come back to do the final few weeks of the run as Emma Goldman from August 4th through August 16th, moving from Lincoln center back down to Midtown. Over at the Ambassador Theater, we got not one but two different announcements this past week about stars coming into the production of Chicago on Broadway. The biggest one will be the fact that Mark Ballas is returning to the role of Billy Flynn for a four week run starting on July 20th. Of course, he did just make his Chicago debut opposite his Dancing with the Stars partner Whitney Levitt. She has moved on, but I imagine will be back at some point in the future. But Ballas will step into the finely tailored tuxedo of Billy Flynn from July 20 through August 16. And then starting the next day, August 17, we found out that taking over the role of Roxie Hart will be South Korean pop star Ivy. She has actually already played the role before, but over in the Seoul production of Chicago last year. She's also done a ton of musical theater in South Korea, things like Moulin Rouge, Aida, Wicked Ghost, Jekyll and Hyde, Urinetown, Kiss Me Kate. So while this will be her Broadway debut, somebody not only with international star power, but tons and tons of musical theater credits as well. And then wrapping up our Broadway portion of the news, some more stars have signed on to join the rotating cast of Celebrity Autobiography. Newly joining the lineup will be the likes of Ray Romano, Allison Williams, Kate Walsh, Frank Dilella, Griffin Dunn and more. I am still kind of shocked that the show is still running given the fact that the average ticket price is still 25 ish dollars at most, but it probably isn't one that costs a ton of money. So hopefully some of these names can engender some excitement from the ticket buying crowd and can keep it going throughout the summer tourist months. Now let's go from Broadway to Off Broadway where there was still a ton of news last week as well. And we will start with a report that was exclusive initially to the Hollywood Reporter and that is that there will be a new musical coming Off Broadway this fall over at Astor Place, the theater that was not only written by but will star recent Tony Award winner Joshua Henry and Julia Harriman. They have written the show called the Conversation. The score for it at least the book is by Nick Green. It'll be directed by Kenny Leon and will begin previews on November 17th and will be scheduled to run for a 10 week limited engagement off Broadway. They have been working on this show for about four years now. They actually initially met when they did the first national tour of Hamilton. Josh was Aaron Burr and Herriman was Eliza Hamilton and the show follows Elle Harriman and Marcus Henry through the highs and lows of a seven year romantic relationship. I always find it super interesting what stars do immediately following Tony wins and obviously he didn't know for sure that he was going to win the Tony, although we pretty much knew for sure. But this has obviously been in the works for a while. So it's interesting to you to see him use his his theatrical political currency to get a show that he has obviously been working on for a long time onto stage and obviously appears to be all around. One of the things that a lot of people will be looking forward to when he begins performances later this year. From something happening off Broadway later in the year to something happening a little more quickly. The second production of the Shakespeare in the park season, The Winter's Tale, will begin performances at the Delacorte Theatre on July 25 and will run for about a month through August 26. Second, Daniel Sullivan will be directing with Mimi Lieber choreographing, and now we know who is going to be starring in the show. The cast will feature, interestingly enough, both Raoul Esparza and Lily Rabe, who are both getting ready to have Broadway shows premiering later this season. They will also be joined by the likes of Chuck Cooper, Isabel Ferrer, Katy Griffith, Aubby Merrilies, Steven Skybell and more. Rabe, of course, is going to be starring opposite Julia Lou Dreyfuss and others who she presented with at the the Tonys in a revival of Other Desert Cities, beginning performances in September. And then Rolo Esparza will be playing the title role in the new musical Galileo, beginning previews at the Schubert on November 10th. Last week we found out who has been cast in the New York premiere of Andrew Stein's new play Disruption, which will begin performances on July 22 at the Pershington Square Signature Center. It will be directed by Hirsch Ellis and is currently scheduled to play through September 13th. The cast will feature Jason Ralph Conrad, Rick Amora, Jasmine Sharma, Elizabeth Stanley, Joe Tippett, John David Washington and Shawnette Renee Wilson. The show, which is described as a thriller, asks the question, does anyone know what would make them truly happy? Tech entrepreneur Nick thinks he has the answer. After Silicon Valley success and a big exit, Nick presents his three best friends with the his Next Big Idea, an algorithm that promises to guide them through big life decisions better and more effectively than they can guide themselves. Sounds terrifying. Not gonna lie, don't love that. 0 out of 10 would not recommend the actual thing. The show sounds brilliant and love all of those people, but the actual technology I could do without sticking Off Broadway Last week the Manhattan Theater Club announced the stars of Nick Payne's new play getting its American premiere called the unbelievable. This one will begin performances at New York City center on October 13th and will feature star of stage and screen Lauren Ambrose as well as Tom Riley. The show is directed by Newt Adams and additional casting will be announced soon. The synopsis of the show reads, Faith means believing in something, especially when it feels impossible. As the years go by and the mystery of the sudden disappearance of Miriam and David's teenage son remains unsolved, their blended family must figure out how to go on relearning, how to live through the ups and downs of ordinary days in their altered world. Well, that's some casting for some Off Broadway shows. Last week we also found out when a couple stars will be leaving a current Off Broadway show. Over at New World Stages, we already knew that Phoenix Best would be departing the production of the 25th annual Putnam County Spelling Bee. She'll be replaced by Disney Channel favorite Laura Marano. But now we also know when Lilli Cooper and Jasmine Amy Rogers, all of Ostrovsky, will be making their final appearances. Lily Cooper will be wrapping up her Run on August 6, while Jasmine Amy Rogers will finish on August 9. No replacements for either of them have been announced, but when this was announced it was like right around the time of the Spring Awakening. And I said it in the group chat and I think Ashley Hufford actually said it on one of her socials as well. But if Lilli Cooper is leaving so that she can go be the female authority figure or adult in the Spring Awakening revival Off Broadway, that would be perfect. Jasmine, I know why is leaving and I don't know that it's out there in a tremendous way, but I do expect to see some brown paper packages tied up with string for this Tony nominee. And finally, a show that we talked about quite a bit last season. Slam Frank will be returning to New York for a limited engagement Off Broadway. Return. It will begin performances at the orpheum Theater on September 17, exactly one year after the start of the initial developmental run that was extended many, many times. The show is currently scheduled to play through November 30th. All right, everybody, that's all that we have for you today. Thank you so much for supporting Broadway radio. If you want more Broadway radio, head over to patreon.com broadwayradio we truly appreciate you giving us of your time and listening. This has been Matt Tammanini and I'll talk to you soon.
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