A (0:00)

The Global Gaming League is presented by Atlas Earth, the fun cashback app. Hey, it's Howie Mandel and I am inviting you to witness history as me and my How We do it gaming team take on Gilly the king and wallow. 2, 6, $7 million gaming in an epic Global Gaming League video game showdown. Plus a halftime performance by multi platinum artist Travy McCoy. Watch all the action and see who wins and advances to the championship match right now@globalgamingleague.com that's globalgamingleague.com in partnership with Level Up Expo.

B (0:31)

Welcome to Last Week on Broadway for Monday, March 23, 2026. I'm Broadway Radio's Matt Tamineni. On today's episode, I'm gonna run you through some of the news that we have missed since our last episode and give you all of the details about everything that is coming up in the world of theater. Specifically this week. Things get very exciting on Broadway, so buckle in and there was a decent amount of news on our grosses episode that came out on Wednesday. New shows coming to Broadway productions, announcing casting changes, all of those things. So make sure that and listen to that episode to be completely caught up on everything that you need to know. But before we get into the news, I wanted to let you know that today's episode is sponsored by Squarespace. Squarespace is the absolute king in terms of setting up and maintaining your online presence. Whether you were just starting your business, looking to grow, or you just want to have an online presence for whatever work you were doing, Squarespace is a place where you can get your domain, showcase everything that you have to offer, set up email, and so much more all in one place. 1 But for today's episode, we are going to start over in London because last week it was announced that two pretty major stars were going to lead an upcoming West End production of Edward Albee's who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? Directed by the incredible Marianne Elliott, the production will star Gillian Anderson as Martha and Billy Crudup as George alongside Josh Dylan as Nick and Phoebe Horne as Honey. The show will begin performances on September 21st at @Soho Place. I don't know if it's just Soho Place, but they always stylize it with the little at symbol soh one word. So I don't know if that's just an effort to get their Instagram handle out, but at Soho Place from September 21 through December 19 of 2026, this will be the first time that the show has seen in London's west end since 2017, obviously one of the most emotionally devastating shows in the theatrical canon, and to see actors of Gillian Anderson and Billy Crudup's prestige and talent tackle these roles will be something incredible. Don't know if this has a chance to move over to Broadway or with names like that and a director like Marianne Elliott, who obviously works on both sides of the Atlantic, the dates are interesting. You know, wrapping up in December before the holidays certainly gives it an opportunity to come over to the main stem sometime in the spring. I've not heard a single thing about that, but it should not be out of the realm of possibilities, one would not think. In some other casting news last week we found out who would be leading the upcoming Shakespeare in the park production of Romeo and Juliet. This show will begin performance at the Delacorte Theater in Central park on May 22 and is officially scheduled to play through June 28. As of now, Daniel Bravo Hernandez will be playing Romeo and Ramya Leta Akins will be playing Juliet. Joining them will be Tony winner Francis Zhu as Friar Lawrence, Tony winner Lachanze as Lady Capulet, Tony Award winner Deirdre o' Connell as Nurse Okarite, Anodawan as Benvolio, Mariana Torres as Lady Montague, and more. It's interesting because we have gotten so accustomed to seeing these Shakespeare in the park productions be very, very starry affairs. And obviously Francis Zhu, Lachan's Deirdre o', Connell, Okarite and Adiwan, all pretty good names in the theater community, but we are so used to seeing a list movie and TV stars being a part of this. I'm interested to see if this has an impact on who's lining up to get these free tickets to see the shows at the Delacorte. You know, if nothing else, like, I don't think there's any reason to assume that they would not be complete sellouts. Might make it a little easier for people, you know, normal theater goers to have an opportunity to check out performances at the Delacorte this summer. So nonetheless, an incredible cast that will almost certainly do this show justice. But it is interesting that we are seeing Romeo and Juliet in the park just a couple seasons after we saw it on Broadway while a production is going on in London, which is also just like a year after another West End production of Romeo and Juliet. But as Grace has talked about quite a bit over the years around Romeo and Juliet, this is a title that everybody knows and everybody wants to see. So whether there is, you know, a group of a listers doing this production in the park or not, chances are that people will want to see it. Speaking of things that people clearly want to see, last week it was announced that Lea Michele will depart the Broadway revival of chess on Sunday, June 21. This would be, put it, about roughly nine months, which is a pretty standard contract on Broadway right now. Her replacement has not been announced as of yet. Neither has the status of any of the other stars of the show, Aaron Tveit, Nicholas Christopher, Hannah Cru, Bryce Pinkham, at all. Everyone else is still in as of now, so we don't know what that's going to look like. But Chess is doing very well at the box office, and I imagine that a lot of that is due to Lea Michelle. Like, with all due respect to Aaron Tveit and Nicholas Christopher to a lesser degree, because I think Tveit does have a ton of fan goodwill as we've seen across his multiple runs in Moulin Rouge. But I am interested to see what this looks like with Leah gone. Depending on who they cast, are they going to find somebody to play Florence that can also command some audience attention? The person that I had originally heard way, way, way, way, way long ago, months ago, like in the fall, like not that long after the show began, performances is somebody who I think is probably going to be pretty bad busy for most of this year because she has written a musical and I don't know, it might be starring in it, I don't know. But she's written a musical that's gonna have a world premiere, so I don't know if that's gonna happen. I don't know if that's the type of person they're looking for. But as we have seen from both Funny Girl and Chess, Lea Michelle is a pretty substantial draw at the box office for shows, so it will be interesting to see which direction they decide to go with that. When Lee Michelle was on vacation recently, understudy Samantha Peanut Palino took to the stage in her stead. And to all reports that I've heard was tremendous. But she's not going to sell very many tickets outside of the theater community. And even at that point, is it going to get anywhere near what Lea Michele would do. So I'll be interested to see what they decided to do with casting with this and when Aaron and Nick decided to part the production as well. I'd originally heard that they were not going to depart the production, but they would not be playing the roles that they are currently playing. So we'll see if that ends up happening and we'll have to just kind of play it by ear with the principal casting for this show moving forward. All right, let's wrap up the news with some concerning details around the presumably still forthcoming Off Broadway return engagement for the new musical Music City. It had played last year from the Bedlam Theater Company and it had extended three times. Critically acclaimed, great word of mouth, all of these things. It's kind of like a country music musical with songs written by J.T. harding, who is a multi platinum songwriter who's written for like Darius Rucker, Blake Shelton, Keith Urban, Dirk Spentley, Georgia, Florida Line, all of those types of big country folks. And it was supposed to come back on Monday. It was supposed to begin performances today, but they announced last week that they were going to have to delay performances for an unforeseen amount of time. They said, quote as we were preparing to go into tech for the production, we were made aware of legal issues with the venue that have proven to be challenging. We are taking a brief pause while we regroup. Our cast is raring to go and we hope to have good news very soon about our exhilarating production. It does sound like they are going to try to find a way to make this production work this spring. Whether or not it is in the same venue or not is still to be determined. So if you had originally purchased tickets to see it in its current run, if you have not been refunded already, you can contact your point of purchase to get that taken care of. But hoping that this has a chance to come back to the stage sooner rather than later. All right. Now before we dive into a very jam packed theatrical schedule, let's take a break real quick to talk about our sponsor for this week, Squarespace. Now I am by no means a technical Luddite. I came of age during the Internet era. I remember when my family got AOL dial up and all of that stuff. So I've had this type of technology in my life for a long time, but I am also by means an expert in any of this. So that is why working with Squarespace has been such a relief to me from a personal and professional standpoint. I use Squarespace for both my business website and my email and having Squarespace has made my life so much easier. I never have to worry about starting anything from scratch because they have so many tools that make existing on the Internet for individuals, for businesses, for companies, for organizations so so much easier. Every online venture more or less starts with finding that right domain. So that's one of the first things I did with Squarespace Squarespace makes it easy to find the best online branding name for your business at one fair, all inclusive price. There's no hidden fees, no add ons required. You just search for what you want your website, your email to be, and if it's available, they'll help you set it all up. It comes with advanced privacy and security tools to make sure that your domain stays safe, not only for you, but for any clients and customers that might interact with you online. And as you are building out a website, Squarespace has a collection of cutting edge design tools that allow you to make something look professional even if you really have no idea what you're doing. You could start with Blueprint AI, Squarespace's AI enhanced website builder to fully customize websites in just a few steps, taking your basic information like what industry are you in, what are your goals, the personality you want your business to have to the public to come up with premium quality content and personalized design recommendations. So if you need to set up or enhance your online visibility, head to squarespace.com broadway for a free trial and when you're ready to launch, use Offer Code Broadway to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain. Once again, that's squarespace.com broadway and offer code broadway to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain. Alright, let's dive into this week's theatrical schedule and folks, we're at the end of March and you know what that means. That means so many of the shows that are going to be opening up in April are beginning performances over the next few weeks. We have a ton of stuff on Broadway. I will run through those with as much detail as I can. There's also some Off Broadway things, but as always, every single show that I talk about I will have the link for in the show notes if you want to check that out. All right, let's start tonight over at the Music Box Theater where we will have our next Broadway opening. And this one is the new play by Mark Rosenblatt called Giant. Directed by Nicholas Hittner, the show stars John Lithgow as Roald Dahl. It also stars Aya Cash, Stella Everett, Elliot Levy, David Manus and Rachel Sterling. Despite being one of the most beloved children's book authors of all time, Roald Dahl also is known for his raging anti Semitism and that is at the center of this story that is unfortunately very timely because this opens tonight. I will be going through a review roundup episode also in the podcast feeds tonight and slash tomorrow depending on when these reviews are embargoed for. So if you want to hear all about John Lithgow's return to Broadway in a show that probably will be a best play contender, make sure that you stick with us here on Broadway Radio. Alright, let's move to Tuesday, March 24 and let's start Off Broadway with the opening of the new play Heartbreak Hotel. It is playing at the Doctor 2 theater and is currently scheduled to run through April 19th. Also happening on Tuesday night will be the first preview performance of the new group's new Off Broadway revival of Elmer L. Rice's the Adding Machine. With revisions by Thomas Bradshaw and directed by Scott Elliott. The show is currently scheduled to play through May 10th and has a fantastic group of stars led by Sarita Chaudhry, Michael Searle, Creighton, Daphne Rubin Vega and Jennifer Tilly. Then on Wednesday we will have another Off Broadway opening, this one coming to us from the Public Theater. And this is Julissa Reynoso and Michael J. Chepiga's play Public Charge, directed by Doug Hughes. This one is currently scheduled to run through April 12th. Then on Wednesday we head back to Broadway with the first performance of Titanic over at the St. James Theater, directed by Ty Blue and choreographed by Eleanor Scott, with a book by Blue, Marla Mandel and Constantine Rossulli, the latter two of those three also starring in the show. This had multiple acclaimed Off Broadway runs and is now making the move to Broadway. As mentioned, Constantine Rossulli, one of the co creators of the show, will be playing Jackson Dawson and Marla Mandel, the other creator of the show, is playing Celine Dion. They'll be joined by Melissa Barrera, Deborah Cox, Frankie Grande, Jim Parsons, John Riddle, Leighton Williams and more. Then moving uptown about 10ish blocks up to Studio 54, we will have the first Broadway performance of the latest revival of Richard o' Brien's classic the Rocky Horror Show. This one, directed by Sam Pinkleton and Annie Taj, is scheduled to play through June 21, but hopefully there are some extensions possible in there. Leading the cast will be Luke Evans as Dr. Frank N. Furter. Also in the company are Rachel Dratch as the narrator, Andrew Durand as Brad, Amber Gray as Riff Raff, Harvey Guillen as Eddie and Dr. Scott, Stephanie Hsu as Janet, Juliet Lewis as Magenta, Josh Rivera as Rocky, Michaela J. Rodriguez as Columbia and more. This is such a bonkers group of stars and creators when you throw in Sam Pinkleton that it just feels right. Like it just feels like this is the group to bring this show to Broadway at this time. So I'm excited about what this will look like, what they're able to do to make this show feel fresh in 2026. But with a cast like this, I think this should be a ton of fun. Then on Friday, March 27th, we have not one, not two, but three different Broadway shows. Beginning Performances we will start over at the Majestic Theater where Beaches, a new musical will begin. Performances with a book written by Iris Rainier Dart and Tom Thomas with music by Mike Stoller and lyrics by Dart. The show is being co directed by Lonnie Price and Matt Cowart and choreographed by Jennifer Reyes. It is obviously based off of the iconic book and then film of the same name. Leading the production as Cece will be Jessica Vosk and as Birdie will be Kelly Barrett. This one will be interesting to see how it plays on Broadway because it has had multiple runs around the country and around North America, to be quite honest with you. Starting first in dc, going to Chicago, then going up to Calgary. It has been through a lot of different changes over the years, but with talents like Jessica Vosk and Kelly Barrett, you know no matter what the show is like, that it's at least going to sound good. So holding my breath on this one. It is currently scheduled to play through September 6th before heading out on a national tour afterwards. Obviously I'm sure they would love for this to be like a Tony winning show and everybody to love it and then it extends on Broadway, but we'll have to wait and see. I'm not expecting this to be one of those things, but I would love to be proven wrong and for this to have great legs and great word of mouth when he begins performances later this week. Then we will move over to the Todd Haymes Theater where the latest Broadway revival of Noel Cowart's Fallen Angels will begin performances. It is directed by Scott Ellis and will feature an incredible cast led by Rose Byrne and Kelly o'. Hara. They'll be joined by Tracy Chimo, Mark Consuelos, Christopher Fitzgerald and Asif Mandvi. I don't know this show at all, but a Noel Coward comedy with everything else going on in the world with a cast like this feels like this could be a fun, fizzy way to spend a couple hours indoors this spring. Then the final show beginning performances on Friday night will happen at the Palace Theater and this is the one that I'm most interested in. Not the one that I'm necessarily most excited about, but the one that I'm most interested in finding out what it looks and sounds like this is the Lost Boys. Obviously adapted from the film of the same name, it features a book by David Hornsby and Chris Hock and music by the band the Rescues. It is directed by Michael Arden and choreographed by Joran Yellego Grant and Christopher Cree Grant. The cast features Shoshana Bean, L.J. bennett, Ally Lewis Borsgi Paul Alexander Nolan, Benjamin Pajak, Maria Wearies and more. This is a show about teenage vampires, and I feel like if they nail it, this could be incredible. But I could also see it going the complete wrong direction and being very cheesy and just not translating well to the stage. That being said, like, if you're gonna do this show, Michael Arden feels like the right person to direct it. I know some people who went to the press preview and have heard some of the music and obviously most of us have probably seen some of the social media videos. But if they nail this one, this feels like it is probably the front runner for best musical because of where it's positioned on the schedule, the prestige of the director and Shoshana being one of the stars of the show. I think it really could kind of pop and kind of like move into what for me right now is a pretty vacant hole at the front of this race. So looking forward to hearing what the word of mouth is like for this and really hoping that I get a chance to check it out when I'm in town in a month or so. All right, then over the weekend on Sunday, we have two openings and two closings. The two openings are first, no Singing in the Navy by Milo Kramer from Playwrights Horizons. Then we will also have Titus Andronicus from the Red Bull Theater starring Patrick Page. And then the closings will be the New York City Center Encores production of the wild party in LCT3's production of Nightside Songs. 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 thanks for listening. This has been Matt Tammanini and I'll talk to you soon.