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This Week on Broadway for March 8, 2026: The Piano Lesson, McNeal, and Ain’t Misbehavin @ Milwaukee Rep
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- [00:01]
Singer
Now you're here and I know just where I'm going. No more doubts or fears. I have found my way. For love came just in time. You found me just in time. And changed my lonely life that lovely day.
- [00:46]
James Marino
Hello and welcome to Broadway Radios. This week on Broadway for Sunday, March 8, 2026. My name is James Marino, and in the broadcast today, we have Peter, Felicia and Michael Portantier. Peter is a playwright, journalist and historian with a number of books. Peter's New Day By Day Desk Calendar, A Show tune for today, 366 songs to brighten your Year is available at finer retailers. Peter also has columns at Masterworks, Broadway, Broadway select and many of the places. Hello, Peter.
- [01:16]
Peter Felicia
Hi, Peter.
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James Marino
Yeah, you know, a lot of people say.
- [01:22]
Peter Felicia
Yeah, well, they.
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James Marino
Peter, you've seen 15,000 shows. 13,000 shows.
- [01:27]
Peter Felicia
How many? 13.
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James Marino
13. 13,000 shows. When somebody says to you, Peter, you've seen 13,000 shows.
- [01:34]
Peter Felicia
Yes.
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James Marino
Do you sometimes say, the grass is always greener?
- [01:38]
Peter Felicia
I do, certainly on March 8, because the grass is always greener, of course, is the song from Woman of the year, the 11 o' clock number. That is so good. Why did I choose it for today? Okay. It has to do with the Hasty pudding club. Since 1844, Harvard University students have written an original musical. And for the longest time, it was gender bending. Men were playing women. Now women are involved, happily enough. But anyway, in 1951, they decided to select a Woman of the Year. And Gertrude Lawrence, ironically enough, who was doing the King and I at the time, was the first one to get the award. Shirley Booth, Ethel Merman, Katherine Hepburn, Jane Fonda, even Mamie Eisenhower got the prize. Okay. But 1967, Lauren Bacall was going to be Woman of the Year. Unfortunately, you know, Massachusetts, there was an enormous snowstorm and she couldn't get there. So she had to wait 14 years until she was able to accept another award as Woman of the Year. And that was the best actress in a musical, Tony, for the Kandra Neva musical version of the 1942 film. Okay, now, Lauren Bacall, many times I heard her do it. Admit the fact that what really helped her to win the award was this 11 o' clock number, the Grass is Always Greener, which she shared with Marilyn Cooper. And Marilyn Cooper lived in the building next door to me at the time. And it was really something to see her renaissance, because I'll never forget being going to see Ballroom, the Michael Bennett musical. And she was sitting in the back of the theater in a folding chair because she was an understudy. And really this is something for a woman who was an original member of west side Story and Gypsy and was the leading lady of Viking get a feel wholesale. And here she was, you know, pretty much forgotten. And yet here was this renaissance that really made her on the map again. And she worked for the rest of her life anytime she wanted to. So it was really great. And this song is really terrific. Two women from very different walks of life, one a true haus frau and the other a media star. Each of them claiming the other one has the better time of it. So there's a wonderful, wonderful line that Cooper repeated that Bacall had said earlier. And it's really one of the great laps in musical theater history. So yes, the grass is always greener is worth hearing any day of the year, but this particularly apt to today.
- [04:12]
James Marino
All right, also with us is Michael Portantier. Michael has been a theater journalist for more than 50 years because he started right out of the crib. He's the founder and editor ofcast album reviews dot com. He's also a theatrical photographer whose photos have appeared in the New York Times and other publications. And he writes reviews of cabaret shows for NightLifeExchange.com Additionally, Michael is known as a producer and director at shows at 54 below the Lori Beachman Theater and other venues. So Michael, you have something coming up at the Laurie Beachman. Tuesday, March 31, an evening with Charles Bush.
- [04:50]
Michael Portantier
Yes, I'm really excited about it and Charles seems to be very, very much into it. Very hands on. I that's great for the past ones that I've done. Sandy Duncan and Len Carry you. You know, I pretty much put together the clips myself and did all the other work. But Charles has his treasure trove clip his own work and he, I mean, for example, I found some things on YouTube but he has them in far better quality, you know, especially his stage stuff. So I think you're gonna see some amazing clips there in addition to the live interview and then Charles performing two songs live. I don't think he's chosen yet. He hasn't in any way. He hasn't told me and maybe we'll keep it a surprise and then plus a Q and A session at the end of the evening. I took the liberty of getting permission for this show to be longer than usual because usually they like you to limit to an hour and 15 minutes. But between the clips that he's got and the stories I know he can tell and the questions that the audience is going to want to ask, I you know, I, I said can we have at least maybe, can we have another half hour? So I think that's what we're going to do. But, you know, maybe it won't go that long. We'll see. I just think it'll be a very special night and I'm sure there'll be a lot of people in the audience who've worked with Charles and know him very well. Oh, and before that, this week. Coming up, just a heads up, On Wednesday the 11th, Ben Jones, who I mentioned many times I've worked with at 54 below and elsewhere. And he has performed at Birdland and 54 below and just about everywhere else. He is doing another of his solo shows. This one is titled Timeless. Ben Jones Sings A Hundred Years of the American Songbook. We're talking everything from Gershwin, Rodgers and Hammerstein, Harold Arlen, Cole Porter, Cy Coleman, Stephen Sondheim, Joni Mitchell, Stevie Wonder, Paul Simon, Bob Dylan and John Lennon. Connecting the golden age to the now with style, wit and emotional sweep, as his plug says. And his musical director is the greatest, Ron Abel, who's not. We don't see as much as we used to anymore because he, I think, I think technically moved to Portugal.
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Peter Felicia
Really?
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Michael Portantier
Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think that's it. But happily for now at least, he seems to keep resurfacing. So they're a really great team and I think you'll love it. A Broadway World quote about Ben said, you've never heard a voice like this or been made to laugh by a singer quite so much. So I think that's a great endorsement.
- [08:07]
James Marino
All right. So that's just in a few days, March 11th on Wednesday. And we'll have a link to Ben's show in the show notes. Just a little catch up on Broadway radio stuff. Jan Simpson's newest episode of all the drama where she talks with playwright David Auburn about Proof, just before Proof reopens here on Broadway. It's available on Patreon for Patreon supporters right. Right now and it will be available next week to the general public. But great conversation. I love it. It's great. Also, a handful of you have emailed that you're having issues with Patreon. So Patreon support is, to put it kindly, terrible. So if you have a Patreon problem, please email me. And I know that a number of you are having problems with your unique Patreon feeds, getting these special, special shows like Jan Simpson's show or Matt Tammanini shows and things like that that are Patreon first or Patreon only we're aware about it and I'm trying to get Patreon to respond to these technical issues, but please email me. I know how frustrating it is with them and maybe I'll sort it out or at least let you know that a number of folks are having the same issue. We're trying to work it out.
- [09:41]
Michael Portantier
So.
- [09:42]
James Marino
And my email's in the show notes or james broadwayradio.com so first up in our review session section. Session. It sort of is a session. Is it? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Michael, you got back to Mother Russia. So tell us about this.
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Michael Portantier
Oh, well, who was the famous critic who said, and this is going to sound misleading, so don't, don't. Who was the famous critic who said, I saw this show at a disadvantage, the curtain was up.
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Peter Felicia
Oh, yeah, I know the quotation, but I can't tell you who said it. Yeah. Wow.
- [10:18]
Michael Portantier
Well, no, but this is not that I was going to say I saw the show at a disadvantage because my eyes were closed for part of it. I had had a very bad day and I, you know, I probably, I mean, nothing serious, just very, very exhausting. And yeah, and I, you know, and ideally I guess I would have canceled, but things are opening so willy nilly now that I don't know when I wouldn't have been able to reschedule. So I said, let me go and try to power through it. And I, you know, and it's a tribute to them that my eyes were closed only briefly. I think It's a wonderful new play by Lauren Yee, directed by Teddy Bergman, with a really, really great cast. Stephen Boyer, Adam Chandler Berat, Rebecca Naomi Jones, and one of our great comic actors of this age, I think, David Turner as Mother Russia, who I haven't seen for a while on stage. I was really glad to see him back again. And it's sort of about, it's much of it's very, very funny. And yet the subject matter is, you know, is quite serious. I mean, it's not flippant. It's set in St. Petersburg, Russia, in 1992 after the breakup of the Soviet Union. And you know, of course there have been all these epic changes in Russia with, you know, the people finding that the dream of capitalism isn't necessarily the same as the reality, if you know what I. And it focuses mostly largely on two friends, Dimitri, who's Adam Chandler, Barrett and Evgeny. I'm sorry, oops, screwed that up. Evgeny is Adam Chandler Berat and Dimitri is Stephen Boyer. And they are trying to Understand and navigate all these changes. They're very much enamored of American fast food. There's a scene of them slobbering over McDonald's that's hilarious. And also American pop culture. Lots of American pop culture references. But, you know, but this is so different from what they. They had known in Russia. And so it's all very confusing. And another person who becomes involved with them is a woman named Katya, who is a Russian singer who had actually defected to America at one point. But there was a flop here. So then she returned home. She says something. She explains it. She says something like, well, nobody wanted to hear me sing Tear down that wall after they tore down the wall. So. Which makes sense. And that's Rebecca Naomi Jones. And it's really mostly about all of them. But then there is Mother Russia, presented as a character personified by David Turner. And he expounds at various points between scenes about what's happening and what's going on. And he has an absolute tour de force stream of consciousness monologue at one point about Russian history. And it goes something like perestroika, Frere Shaka, gay fantasy on national themes. Yakov Smirnov, Garry Kasparov, Three's Company, the first Chechen War, the second Chechen War. Why so many Chechen wars? So that's really one interesting thing, is he uses an accent like the one I just attempted to do. The other three do not. And particularly interesting to me was Stephen Boyer's character, who really seems to be trying to come across as American as possible. Just this American bro. Cool American bro guy. So it's, you know, as I said, interesting themes treated with lightness and humor and very, very, very well worth seeing. This is a Signature Theater production, and I think they should be very proud of it.
- [14:44]
James Marino
All right, so Mother Russia is at Michael just said, Signature Theater. It's running through March 15th. Peter reviewed it on February 22nd. And we'll have a link to Mother Russia in the show notes. Peter, you were out in the heartland of America, in Milwaukee at a beer festival. No, wasn't a beer festival.
- [15:13]
Peter Felicia
Yeah, I'm a big lush.
- [15:15]
James Marino
Yeah. You were at the American Theater Critics association meeting there, and you caught some shows at Milwaukee Republic. You caught three shows. The Piano Lesson, McNeil and Ain't Misbehavin. Were you misbehaving, Peter? Tell us about this.
- [15:32]
Peter Felicia
No, I can hold my head up high. I did go to see three shows there. This place is amazing. I'm still flabbergasted at what I saw. First up, it's a brand new renovation. So they've just reopened their theater after two years of building rebuilding. I was never there before, but I did go to a theater across storefront theater across the street. So I remember what the building looked like before, which was decent, but now it's extraordinary. Okay, but here's the thing. This is in a true Arts center building. In fact, the hotel that is part of this complex actually calls itself the Arts Hotel. It's called the St. Kate. I don't know if it's after Katharine Hepburn, but nevertheless, that's what it's called, St. Kate. But there's the hotel, there are art galleries, there's a cigarette machine. Now bear with me. The cigarette machine does not have cigarettes in has information. You pull the lever and you get information on various arts organizations. I mean, really, I'm telling you this. Well, also we have many, many branches, it seems of the Associated Bank. And the Associated bank is associated with Milwaukee rep because Chad Bauman, who is a power that be there, went to Associated bank and said, listen, you know, we could use some money. Do you think you could help us? And Associated bank said, no. All right. You seem like a bright young man. It seems like a good cause. Yeah, we want the arts to grow in Milwaukee. So here's $10 million, which proves once again, one of the reasons people don't give is because they're not asked. It was a one time grant, but they do get six figures a year in addition to that. So it's really quite impressive. Mark Clement is the artistic director and he's done a wonderful job as well. So how impressive is this place? Well, certainly I saw a nifty production of August Wilson's the Piano Lesson as it's now billed. All of August Wilson's plays are now preceded by August Wilson's. And as well he deserves for his 10 plays, one each for the decade of the 20th century. So this is always a terrific play to see. And it has a wonderful, wonderful problem between a brother and a sister. The brother is Boy Willie and the sister is Berenice. And here James D. Alfred plays Boy Willie and Nubia Monks plays Bernice. And as many people know, this is a story about a young black man who is selling watermelons. But his sister has a piano in her house that was carved exquisitely by a slave relative of this from way back when. He wants to sell it because he has a chance to do very well in buying some land. She will not sell it because of sentiment. And that's the real problem. Do we hold on to the past or do we look to the future? And because this play certainly takes place in a decade long ago, we have a situation where the implication is because the opportunity was not taken, the black man had less progress than he might have had had indeed the sentiment been discarded. So it's a marvelous play. Okay, so that's one night. The next night I saw McNeil by Ayad Akhtar, the Pulitzer Prize winner who, by the way, gave a speech that was so terrific. Let me go into that first. He gave a wonderful speech talking about the fact that, wow, comedy clubs are really doing well and wow, sports teams are really doing well and wow, films are really doing well and theater is not. And the most startling statistic was that three out of four people who go to the theater the first time say they're not coming back. Three out of four first timers. And I'll always maintain that money is the reason because ticket prices are so high. But. But it does seem that people have the money for the other things. Why is that? I'm not saying he necessarily came up with an answer. In fact, when I raised my hand at the question and answer session, I said, you know, I've had friends who work for Tele Charge over the years and they all say to me that when people call up and they don't know what they want to see, they say, what's funny? I want to laugh. And I said, maybe doing more comedies is the answer. And he said, well, I don't think there's any silver bullet. Later I saw him in the lobby and I said, well, you know, maybe there's no silver bullet, but maybe comedy is the gold bullet. Who knows? But anyway, it was a tremendous speech and McNeil got less than a stellar reception last year when it was done at Lincoln center, and he's done some work on it. And what of course, everybody raved about last year, and this is not necessarily a compliment, were the projections at Lincoln Center. Well, wow, the projections here astonishing as well. Timothy Kelly, the video designer, certainly did yeoman work. Okay. The play about a guy who's dying and is dealing with AI. He's a writer, he has a chance to win a Nobel Prize, but we find out from his son. And believe me, this son, I am telling you, we are going to hear from him. His name is Ty Fanning and he is magnificent as the sun. So anyway, the son also accuses him of a different type of fooling around, not just artificial intelligence responsible for his Nobel Prize winning work, but did he simply take his deceased wife's work and claim it was his own. Peter Bradbury, who ironically enough was Robert Downey's understudy in the Lincoln Century production, who did not get to go on, certainly gets to go on now. And he's really quite wonderful. So very, very effective. It, the work really was well done. And I'm very meaning the work he did on the play is very well done. I was very glad to see it. Mark Clements, as I say, the artistic director, directed it and directed it superbly. It's a play with no intermission and the time just sped by. Okay, so that's in the second space. There's a third space, a cabaret where they did Ain't Misbehaving now that because it was the first preview, they said you can't review it. Okay, fine. But what I will say is that the audience had a hell of a time. So I think it's a big success there. So this is an amazing situation. Now, let me point out that they're about to do. And Then There Were None. Now, I don't know if you know the Sagatha Christie play, but you need 10 people. There's no way around it. 10 people are on stage at one point, so there's no doubling. You have to hire 10 actors. Okay, fine. I mean, in a, in a season where so many plays of being one person plays, and that's exactly what you see because that's economic. Well, here we are. 10 people are going to be hired. So let's talk about their 20, 26, 27 season. Okay? They're going to do the World Goes Round the Canter and Deb review. Okay, that's four people. Four, five, six people, whatever it is. Okay, fine. They're going to do a show called Rock and Roll Piano man, which I imagine has something to do with Billy Joel, but I don't know. This is going to be in the cabaret just as the World Goes Round is. So they're going to do that. Okay. They're going to do a musical called Penelope, which is a new version of the famous mythic story. Okay, fine. So that's three. They're going to do Footloose. Okay. That's a big musical, huh? Fine. They're going to do the Cherry Tortured, which is, I get the impression is going to be a, a Milwaukee based version of the Cherry Orchard. So fine. Yeah. So this is quite a season, right? Instructions for se will also happen. Now, this is a one woman show, okay? And it's, it's, it's, it's about exactly what you think of some instructions for a seance. Fine. Pretty good season. John Proctor is the villain is going to be done as well. So that's. Yeah, so that's good. You know, that's going to happen too. How about a new play called Somewhere, which is about a Puerto Rican family that's chasing Broadway dreams? That certainly makes me interested. So quite a seat. The Crake. This was a play they did before and it sold out. So they bring it back. It's an Irish pub celebration. And this is going to be done in the cabaret. So pretty good season, huh? Mike M. Sorry. Mke, mvp. This is a musical tribute to the Milwaukee Bucks, the time they won the championship in the NBA. So that's pretty. Is this a heist? This is another one. A high stakes twist fill crime caper full of secrets. So they're adding up, aren't they? You know, aren't they? Well, I, I was impressed by. And then there were none with 10 people. They're doing 12 Angry Men, which by the way, takes 13 people because there's a bailiff too, not just the jury, so. And what would any theater be in December without A Christmas Carol? But here's the thing. The Christmas Carol does so well. Mark Clement did the adaptation, does so well that. That one of their theaters cannot hold it. So they go next door to the Pabst Theater. Now, the Pabst Theater was the Roadhouse where all the shows used to go when they, when they were touring. Lunt Fontaine were there especially because it wasn't so far from their home, Ten Chimneys. But this was the place where everybody went to see Broadway tours. And now that happens across the street at a newer facility. But. But at the Pabst Theater, yes, Christmas Carol comes. Truth be told, the Papst Theater now basically has one night rock acts. The. The side of the theater was plastered with all these posters of this, that and the other one. But. But nevertheless, for Christmas Carol, you need a big theater because people want to see this and the modest theater in comparison. Even the newest theater has about what, 300 seats. Maybe. I don't. Thing is, this is an amazing, amazing place. I still am astonished at what I saw. And I'm telling you, the staff is so wonderfully friendly, they are so helpful and it was an amazing experience. So. And you know what I loved about Mark Clement? Another thing too, in one of the panels, he was praising his stage manager. And one of the reasons he was praising a stage manager is because he was once a stage manager. And you know, I really do Believe that all of us should do everybody else's job, because if we did everybody else's job, we'd see how hard it is. And, and that's something that I really appreciated that Mark Clemon said. So quite, quite a time out at Milwaukee. Who would expect that indeed such a wonderful thing would happen in Milwaukee, Wisconsin? And a lot of it has to do, of course, with the Associated Bank. God bless the powers that be, the found worth in this. And I'm telling you, you go there, you go this hotel, you go to this theater, you can cash a check at the bank. I'm telling you, you don't have to leave the building. Everything is there. And I'm telling you, Friday night this place was hopping. People were in the art gallery, people were in the, the bar, restaurant people were in the theater. If there were any empty seats, that, that ain't misbehaving on Friday night, I certainly didn't see any. So. So this is quite an achievement out Milwaukee, Wisconsin. And if you're looking for a place to go in this country, you have some frequent flyer miles, whatever. Don't neglect this theater. Do not. I think we're going to really hear wonderful things in the, in the years to come, especially with a theater that has a season of all these shows. Thirteen, I think it is. Thirteen shows. We hear so many theaters, you know, that did five shows are now doing four. Four shows, now doing three. How can these people do it? Well, again, the Associated bank is certainly part of the package, but nevertheless, the fact that the audiences are coming out for it too. Attendance was very good at these shows proves something as well. So maybe three out of four new time theater goers don't come back. But apparently a lot of people do come back to Milwaukee Rep.
- [29:17]
James Marino
Wow, what an endorsement. That is great. I have to chat with Matt Taminini and see if he's been out there. He hits a lot of these theaters west, you know, he's an Ohio boy before he moved to Florida, so he does get out to a lot of the, a lot of the big, big regional theaters out there. So this is great. Milwaukee Rep. We'll have a link to these productions and the Milwaukee Rep their website in the show notes, so you can check it out for yourself. Michael, you got to see a production of Marcel on the Train. So why don't you tell us about this?
- [29:59]
Michael Portantier
Yes, it's csc co written by Marshall. Now, I should know how to pronounce this, but I'm not sure because it's French. P A I L E T so pilot Pellet or Pele anyway. And the other co writer is seasoned Slater, whom we all know much more as an actor and directed by Mr. Also, and it's a very fascinating subject about how Marcel Marceau, the famous iconic mime when he was very young, was a part of the French resistance to the Nazis and specifically involved in getting Jewish children out of France and to safety in, in Switzerland and at least in this case in Switzerland. And this, everything that we see in this play apparently is very closely based on reality. I loved a lot of it, but I also thought there were kind of serious flaws in the playwriting. Maybe. I don't know how much experience Mr. Pelet has, but maybe Ethan, when he has more experience, will be able to, to help come up with a better play.
- [31:36]
James Marino
They.
- [31:37]
Michael Portantier
There is tension in this show, as you might imagine, which the bulk of it takes place on the train while they are headed out of France and towards Switzerland. And the question is, of course, are they going to make it without the children being discovered? So the children have been disguised as boy Scouts, even the girls have been disguised as boy Scouts and also their Jewish names have been changed to French sounding names. So it's all done very, you know, very methodically and really trying to get them out. And so there is much tension with that. But unfortunately I thought the tension was dissipated by several things. There are also flashback scenes and scenes towards the future in which we see what happened to the children. Now the fact that there are flash forwards scenes where we see what happened to the children first of all lets us know that they made it out okay. So that reduces the tension somewhat. And the flashbacks were interesting, but they also broke up the action. There's an interesting scene that might have been absolutely gripping where the train stops at one point and a fellow gets on the train. He's a soldier, Frenchman, but he has been, you know, he's gone over to the dark side and he's now working for the Nazis. He's in a Nazi uniform and he interrogates the children and Marcel for what seems like 15 minutes in a very kind of game playing way. And it's hard to tell if he is just toying with them because, because he has the power and he gets off on that. Is he, is he doing this? Is he taking so much time so that another soldier won't come in and, and realize that they are the ones escaping and arrest them and send them to concentration camps? So is he on their side? You know, because he's a fellow Frenchman, it just, it Wasn't clear, and I think it was ambiguous in a.
- [34:05]
Peter Felicia
So
- [34:07]
Michael Portantier
those are two examples of, of two flaws in the show. Also, one more thing you might not be surprised to hear. The. The children are all played by adults. And, you know, I understand that, but at least one of the other reviews I said felt that it just worked against the power of the play in them and just in terms of them seeming less V. Also, I would say that while, let's see, well, three of the, the actors playing the children did quite a good job of indicating, you know, childhood. Another one did not. Not because there was anything wrong with his acting, but just because he was this huge guy with a deep voice and facial hair and just, you know, it didn't. It, it never seemed for a moment like he embodied, was able to embod. So I, I, you know, I'm glad I saw the play. I think it is worthwhile. It's certainly not a total loss. I wish they had worked on it more. It's certainly, I'm sure many people will love seeing Ethan Slater on stage, especially now that he's a bigger star than ever because of the two Wicked movies. And it's certainly impressive to see him display his mime talents, which are, which are significant. So that's my overall take on it. And you can draw from that what you. What you may.
- [35:51]
James Marino
All right, so Marcel on the Train is running through March 22, and we'll have a link to that in the show notes. Peter, we're going to talk about the Other Place at the Shed, although it already closed. But you said that you had some thoughts about this that we should talk about.
- [36:15]
Peter Felicia
Yeah, the reason I wanted to talk about this is in case there are some playwrights who are listening, and I want to make sure that they don't make the mistake that so many playwrights have made. And Alexander Zeldin made In the Other Place, too. Okay, so this is a story about a family, and we find out eventually that indeed, an uncle has had a relationship with his niece, and that's not so good. Well, anyway, what happens is they're in the house now. The uncle is married, his wife is in the house, she's in another room. And these two, late in the play, we finally find out this is what's going on, and the two are kissing and fondling and all that, and the wife walks in. Now, I'm not even going to deal terribly much with the fact that would two people in these circumstances really do this in the living room of a house, knowing that anybody could walk in at any given time, let alone the wife. Okay, but here's what I'm really talking about. I have a real aversion to plays where somebody walks in at the wrong time. Now, what I'm going to use as an example of a better way of handling this is Sweeney Todd, because notice that Toby originally suspects something is going on. He feels something is going on. He just. Where's. Where's Pirelli? What's going on? You know, he just feels it. And suspicion is much more interesting than walking in at the wrong time. Now, not only that, he noticed how Toby first discovers that something is going on. It's because Mrs. Lovett has the purse that indeed Pirelli used to have that is so much more interesting than walking in at the wrong time. Granted, later, Toby will walk in at the wrong time, but not until he has had suspicion. He has seen what strikes him as proof with the purse, and only then later will he walk in at the wrong time. So I'm not really against walking at the wrong time, but I think the setup has to be much better than just somebody arbitrarily walking in at the wrong time. So I think it's lazy playwriting and playwrights try to find a different way of revealing your big surprise than just doing it by somebody walking in at the wrong time.
- [38:58]
James Marino
All right, well, that. That is interesting. And I wonder if the any of the other reviews had mentioned that. I don't know if anybody had seen anything like that.
- [39:11]
Peter Felicia
Well, it's more of a pet peeve of mine, you know, so maybe not.
- [39:17]
James Marino
All right, so the other place was at the shed through March 1. It is closed already, but we'll have a link to Back to the Shed in the show notes. Finally, this morning, Michael, you saw a production of Zach. This was over at the Min Theater Company. So why don't you tell us about this?
- [39:38]
Michael Portantier
Yeah, I'm afraid I have to report, in my opinion, this is two disappointments in a row for a theater company that I really, really love. The Mid Theatre Company. Jonathan Bank, Artistic director. The last one, the last disappointment was Crooked Cross, although I think I was in the minority on that one, for whatever that's worth. But I really did not like it. And this one sounded quite interesting. It is by Harold Brighouse, who wrote Hobson's Choice. That's his most most famous work. But I have never seen, read or experienced Hobson's Choice in any form, so it's wonderful. Is it?
- [40:23]
Peter Felicia
Oh, phenomenal.
- [40:25]
Michael Portantier
Well, I've got to check it out because I. But I don't know. Maybe I don't respond to his sensibility, at least as exhibited in this play, because I just thought to go along kind of with what Peter was just saying. I'm not sure if I. If there's any specific place in this play where somebody comes in at the wrong time, but it is full of contrivances to me. There's not a moment of reality in it. It's all just so schematic and contrived and set up. It's basically supposed to be the story of this British family, and there were two sons, and one of them is named Zach. And he is portrayed as a sort of a sweet but very schlubby, clumsy, awkward young man played by Jordan Matthew Brown. And the other son is his brother Paul, played by David T. Patterson, who is much more attractive, eligible, bachelor, young person kind of thing. So it's supposed to be a contrast between those two. And, well, from the beginning, it's incredible how much the Paul, the. The attractive, masculine, handsome young son and his mother, Mrs. Money, played by Melissa Maxwell, how they constantly are talking down about Zach, whether or not he's present. I mean, it's. It's just. All right, we get the point. It seems a little much that this would actually happen day after day and, you know, and that Zach would not have run away long ago. So that was the first thing that happened. And then we hear that the. The Mannings, they are not rich, so they have several kinds of business, but one of their businesses is catering. And so we don't see a catering hall. The entirety of the play takes place in. In the Munning home. But these weddings and other events that they cater are brought up. And at the beginning of the play, we're told that for some reason, the recent ones that they have done have not gone over well, and they're starting to lose business because nobody's having any fun and they don't think they're being well handled by the caterers. So they get into a pinch at one point and they have to send Zach to supervise the. One of these events, even though they keep saying that what an idiot he is. So they send him anyway. And then it turns out the person who ran, who. Who. The person who organized that event, is very happy with the results and said, oh, and comes and says, oh, it was really great, and everyone had so much fun and blah, blah, blah. And then this is repeated by other characters throughout the show. And we're not supposed to realize till the end of the play that it's the reason everyone's suddenly having fun again is because of Zach, because he's a lot of fun, even though he's clumsy and maybe somewhat awkward. So it's kind of like, well, if the audience knows something 100 pages before the rest of the people on stage do, that can always be really annoying. So that's how I felt about that. And just people saying things that they would just never ever say in real life, all as a setup for this sort of transformation that Zach has at the end. So as is always the case at the Mint, the acting was excellent. Zach very well played by Jordan Matthew Brown, As I said, Mrs. Munning, Melissa Maxwell, Sally Teal, Carolyn Festa, Paul Munning, David T. Patterson. Cassia Thompson was Virginia Cavender. Martha Wrigley is played by Grace Gishar. And then also in the cast of David Lee Huynh, Sean Renette and Douglas Grease. Three act play performed with no intermission. One hour and 45 minutes. And I I really am going to have to check out Hobson's choice to see if I respond to that, because this one just was not for me.
- [45:49]
James Marino
So Zach, the Min Theater Company is running through March 28th and we'll have a link to that in the show. Notes the the Mint Theater I think their mission is a very, very difficult mission. As written on the website, the Mint Theater Company finds and produces worthwhile plays from the past that have been lost or forgotten. We create new life for these plays through authors, through research, dramaturgy production readings, and a variety of enrichment programs. I think it's a very hard thing to to find shows that have been lost and forgotten and make them something that people want to see. Because if, you know, sort of by design, if people want to see them, they're the better ones.
- [46:46]
Michael Portantier
Well then the amazing thing is, is that for years they pulled it off. And I said that in countless reviews. I didn't know where they found. But you know, I think maybe it's say it's a tribute to them that they worked so hard at that that they've already found every decent play that that was not power. This one is directed by Brit Burke, by the way. Oh, two more quick things I should mention. They've always been very good with their accent work, but in this case, this is a very, very British play and everyone was doing an American accent. And I think when you say, when you have characters saying lines like give it me instead of give it to me in an American accent, you're like, well, what's going on here? And well, I could go on but I'll leave it at that. I just, I, I didn't like this one at all.
- [47:42]
James Marino
I, I don't know if this analogy is apt here, but I play the New York Times Spelling Bee every day. Do you guys ever do that?
- [47:51]
Peter Felicia
That.
- [47:51]
Michael Portantier
Oh no.
- [47:52]
James Marino
Play the spelling. Spelling bee and you know, the first majority of the words are really easy to come up with. It's the ending words in Spelling bee that are. And I sort of feel like the same thing. You know, there's a, there's a pool, a collection of a number of plays that fit into their, into the min Theater company's mission and they, they got all the low hanging fruit and, and it's, it's hard now. It's, it's hard to take on a mission like that.
- [48:27]
Michael Portantier
Yes.
- [48:27]
James Marino
Anyway, absolutely. I, I just wanted to catch up with a few things that our listeners that are listening to us live in the chat room, Patreon supporters can listen to us live on Sunday mornings as we record. I guess Bob Tomlinson corrected us and said Mother Russia was extended through March 22nd. Thanks Bob. So I will correct that in the show notes through March 22nd. You have another week to see Mother Russia. Cheryl Hodgkins Hodgeselden asked if there was another way to support us right now outside of Patreon. Right now there's really no way to support us outside of Patreon on But I appreciate that. And also Tony Janicki said that he's not certain but he believes that Milwaukee Rep as a non equity theater that's why they theater. So I looked at their website. They have Equity contracts, Equity guest artist contracts. So, so like I'm looking at McNeil and 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. Five of the six of the seven cast members are under equity contract. There was only one non equity person in there and that's just McNeil. Let me look at Ain't Misbehaving but basically I'd imagine it's probably along the same.
- [50:00]
Peter Felicia
Yeah, obviously the guy who understudied August Wilson.
- [50:05]
James Marino
1, 2, 3, 4, 4, 5, 6, 7. A good 80, 90% of the cast in, in August Wilson's Piano Lesson was under Equity contract and ain't misbehaving 100% all equity. So I'm sure that you know, you get down to the Christmas carols and some other things like that and, and, and they might be saving a little bit of money by hiring non equity artists. But that you know, as Peter and Michael and I talk about all the
- [50:46]
Peter Felicia
time,
- [50:48]
James Marino
you know you still might get really, really amazing talent and non equity artists. So that's so you can check that out on the Milwaukee REPs website@milwaukeireep.com
- [51:07]
Peter Felicia
so
- [51:08]
James Marino
that wraps it up in our reviews for this week. Before we get on to our brain teasing our musical moment, I want to remind everybody that you can subscribe to these broadcasts by going to the front page of broadwayradio.com there's a subscribe link. That way each and every time there's a new episode of this Week on Broadway be automatically downloaded to Apple Podcast for you. Of course you don't have to listen to us in Apple Podcasts. There's many ways to get us. We've talked so much of Patreon today. That's Patreon P-A-T-R-E-O-N.com BroadwayRadio is one way that you can support all of Broadway radio's offerings. Get Jan Simpson's amazing series, all the Drama earlier than everybody else, plus various Patreon extras. Matt Tamini is doing a ton of content. We also have Lauren Clash Schneider coming back into the mix as the spring theater gets kicked off. And Janetessa Fox says that she's gonna come back and do some more spotlights and things like that. So check it out at patreon.com broadwayradio Contact information for Peter for Michael and Me can be found in the show notes@broadwayradio.com as well as links to some things we've talked about today. So Peter, do you have an answer to last week's Brain teaser?
- [52:24]
Peter Felicia
If future Tony winnings Brian Stokes Mitchell, Ron Rifkin and Marianne Plunkett had attended a 1970s Tony winning musical, the first line of a second act solo just might resonate with them more than it would with most everyone else. Well, that's because in the 1970 Tony winner applause, Eve Harrington's big second act solo has her ask herself remember that Halloween when you were nine? And those three Tony winning stars might have done just that, given that they were all born on Halloween. Josh Israel was first, followed by Juliet Green, Paul Witty, Lee Kun, Sean Logan, Steven Sokolov, Tony Janicki and Brigadude. This week's question he wrote more than one Tony winning musical. One team did even better. The solo songwriter saw the first of his Tony winners run precisely twice as many performances as the team's Tony nominated but Tony losing musical who Was He? Who Are They? What Tony winning musical ran precisely twice as long as theirs, which you must name too.
- [53:35]
James Marino
I Could have gotten them all, except for I had to name the last one, then, you know, I'm out. So if you have an answer for this and you have that last name, email us @trivia broadway radio.com. we'll let you know if you're on the right track. So, Michael, what do we have in this week's musical moments?
- [53:52]
Michael Portantier
Well, as I mentioned, I think a couple of weeks ago I came across on YouTube this Julie Andrews TV special, one hour TV special from 1965 that I'd never heard about before and her special guest on Gene Kelly. And at one point they sing and dance Just in Time from Bells Are Ringing. And, and it occurred to me, I, I think that really was one of the most popular show tunes of the era that came out of a show and became so popular that many people don't even know it's from a musical there. You know, there's the famous Tony Bennett recording. Sinatra recorded it, of course. Judy Garland famously recorded it. It's on her Carnegie hall album. And she sang it many other times besides that. Peggy Lee recorded it, Shirley Horne, Rosemary Clooney. One could go on and on. It's hard to find people who didn't record it in the late 50s and 60s. And I, I just think that's kind of amazing. I never had a chance to specifically discuss that song's popularity with, with Compton and Green, nor with Julie Stein, who I only met once. So I wouldn't have had a chance to, to do that. But I, I think it's so wonderful when that happens. And of course, now this song has an even new release on Life because it's the title of the Bobby Darin musical that's, that's on Broadway and is almost definitely going to be touring. And the irony there, of course, is, as I've said before, is that while Bobby Darin did record Just In Time, it was, I don't think it was considered one of his biggest hits. And, but it is the title of the show. And so, and it is featured briefly in the show, I think, right towards the beginning as part of a sort of a mini medley. So that's that. So I thought we would listen to two recordings of Just in Time this morning, one by Bobby Darin himself and the other one by Jonathan Groff from the cast album of Just in Time. But here's, here's a, just, just briefly, I did want to make this point last week. I was going on about how I really wish singers would try to be word perfect when they sing lyrics to songs And I mentioned that, you know, maybe it's too much, maybe it's too much to expect the people be absolutely perfect when they're working on songs for one night events, you know, reviews and, and benefits and things like that and where they have limited rehearsal. Maybe it's more understandable there. But still, I, I wish people would always try to, to go for the exact wording that the lyricist wrote. And, and interestingly enough, when I was putting together these clips for this morning, I found that both the Bobby Darin and the Jonathan Groff recording have errors in the lyrics. Bobby Darin sings. Let's see. Bobby Darin sings. Well, the lyrics are supposed to be now you're here and now I know just where I'm going. No more doubt or fear, I'm on my way. But Bobby Darin sings no more doubts or fears, which, it's a little thing, but it means it's now an imperfect rhyme with, with here. Okay, and this is something that. This was so weird. I didn't notice this. In the show. Jonathan Gruff sings the line incorrectly. It's supposed to be you found me just in time and changed my lonely life that lovely day. Which is a really sweet, with the alliteration of the three Ls there lonely life and lovely. But Jonathan sings twice and changed my lonely heart that lovely day. And I went back to the Bobby Darren recording thinking, well, maybe Bobby sang it wrong and Jonathan's doing it for that reason. But no, that, that part Bobby Darren sang correctly. So I hope it doesn't sound like I'm obsessing this, but I really, I think it's, I think it's important and especially when you record something for heaven's sake. Really surprised that no one at Just in Time noticed this, whether the music director or, you know, Jonathan himself or, or anyone else. And now it's there on the album forever. So all that said, our opener is an excerpt of Bobby Darin's recording of Just In Time. And our closer is an excerpt of Jonathan Groff's recording of it from the original Broadway cast recording of Just in Time.
- [59:13]
James Marino
All right, so on behalf of Michael Portentier and Peter Felicia, this is James Marino saying thanks so much for listening to Broadway videos this week on Broadway.
- [59:23]
Michael Portantier
Bye bye.
- [59:29]
Singer
Now you're here. Now I know just where I'm going. No more doubt or fear. I found my
- [59:43]
Peter Felicia
way.
- [59:43]
Singer
Cause love came just in time. You found me just in time. You changed my lonely heart this lovely. Wasn't it lovely? Lonely heart this lovely day. Sam.