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This Week on Broadway for September 28, 2025: The Hills of California @ Huntington Theatre Company
Peter Filichia, James Marino, and Michael Portantiere talk about The Hills of California @ Huntington Theatre Company, Art @ Music Box Theatre, Slanted Floors @ 1006 Manhattan Ave in Brooklyn, The Sound of Music Movie 60th Anniversary (Fathom Events),
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From the Cascades to PDX to your kitchen. We recycle like we live here. That's why governments, brands and recycling companies are all joining together to bring change to make recycling better.
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As in trusting that your recyclables end.
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Up in the right places to be made into new things and having brands help fund the cost of recycling.
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You can find the Latest updates@recycleon.org Oregon.
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From Mount Hood to the bin under your desk, together we can do this with songs they have sung for a thousand years.
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The hills fill my heart with the.
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Sound of music.
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My heart wants to sing Every song it hears My heart wants to be.
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Hello and welcome to Broadway Radio's this Week on Broadway for Sunday, September 28, 2025. My name is James Marino, and in the broadcast today we have Peter, Felicia and Michael Portantiere. 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 Sel, and many of the places. Hello, Peter.
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B
Hi.
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Hello, Peter. So tell us about today's show tune.
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Well, ironically enough, we are actually celebrating an anniversary of Mabel Norman because in 1911 her 18 minute silent film called Her Awakening was released. She was 17 years old at the time and it was the first of her 221 Films in which she was even either featured or starred in the 17 years that she performed on screen. So I have to say that look what Happened to Mabel is one of my 10 favorite show songs of all time. So as a result, I think it's worth listening to. If you listen to it on the original cast album, of course you have Bernadette Peters and that's fine. But if you listen to the London concert that was done, you get more dance music and I think that's terrific because I think the dance music is quite wonderful. So. But wherever you go, for any of the Mack and Mabel recordings, you can't go wrong with look what happened to Mabel.
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All right.
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Also with us is Michael Portantier. Michael's a theater reviewer and essayist. He's the founder and editor of kissedalbum reviews.com. he is also a theatrical photographer whose photos have appeared in the New York Times and other major publications. You could see his photography work@followspotphoto.com. hello, Michael.
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Hello.
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And Michael, you are back in hell, aren't you? Oh, in which kitchen? Hell's Kitchen. Yeah.
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Oh, yeah. From. Yeah, well, from another. From another form of hell in D.C. yeah.
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I was just gonna say you. You've been out on the road much recently, but you are back. We're hearing your luscious vocal tones. Oh, welcome back, Peter. You transported yourself from the Washington Square area of. Of Manhattan to the theater of Huntington in Boston, also called the Huntington Theater. I. I don't know why I yoded yoded that, but to see they held some California, which was just on Broadway last season. Two seasons ago.
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I think it was last season.
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Yeah. Tell us about it.
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Well, one of the. This is the third time I've seen the play. And the first time was in England and the second time was on Broadway, as you say, last season. What was interesting between the two productions was the fact that the. Jeb Butterworth did a rewrite and he changed the ending. He also made it into two acts, which was kind of interesting as well. And I really felt bad for my buddy Josh Ellis, who after the first act said, will there be another intermission? I said, yes, because he was really concerned about going to the bathroom, so. And I betrayed him because I didn't know that indeed, it turned out to be two acts rather than three. It's still a long play. It's over two and a half hours. But it flies by in Loretta Greco's production. She's the new artistic director there at the Huntington. And she did fine work when I used to see her at the McCarter Theatre in Princeton. And I think that this is just as effective as the Broadway company, especially Alison Jean White, who plays a lead and a supporting role. So what we're talking about is a woman in England in the 50s, I think we have to say, about 1954 and 1955, because the words Elvis Presley come up in the show. And that's a very important part of the show, even though you don't hear anything about Elvis beyond the words Elvis Presley. And that is the fact that this woman has four daughters and she really believes they're going to be stars. And she. She's not as ferocious as Rose, but she certainly is centered in wanting these four girls to become stars. And luck enough, a talent scout comes her way through one of her. Oh, she runs a boarding house. And one of the boarders who hasn't paid his rent in a long time does come through saying, I know an agent and I'll get him here. And the agent comes and the girls, the four girls do a terrific Andrew Sisters impersonation. And as the mother, Veronica says, you know The Andrew Sisters are three sisters and you know, Laverne is often sick and they have to cancel. Here you have three and a spare and, and Gloria would be an excellent spare. Well, Gloria overhears this and she's not happy about this. Needless to say that she is considered the runt of the litter. And the mother favors Joan. She really believes that Joan is the best of the bunch. It's not as fervent as baby June. And Louise, she doesn't have that much of an opinion that, that Rose has about that. There's no question that June is the star and Louise is the also ran. But nevertheless, she, she does prefer Joan and so does the agent who says, the acoustics in this room are terrible. Can we go upstairs? And I can hear her in the bedroom. What's really interesting is the mother says, oh, why don't I go to the bedroom with you? So anyway, you know, suddenly, you know, Rose saying, my daughter can do it for stripping seems pretty benign compared this. So. So it's quite a good play and beautifully, beautifully done. And so what does happen is it's done and here's my bugaboo. Always is a flashback. But it starts in, in. In about 20 years later when indeed the mother is dying. She's up in that room where Joan and the agent went and we don't see her, we don't at all. But now the all four girls are grown and Joan hasn't been home in 20 years and she's made an album and all this kind of stuff and they really think that she is this superstar and we are led to believe that she's a superstar. As the play goes on, we find out she isn't. And frankly, I thought the ending in London. People email if you want to hear what happened in London. If you don't know or you can't find online, I don't want to give it away here because that would give way too much about the current production. So. But really I think the original London production was even more astonishing than what we have here. But still, this is good enough and it certainly holds water. And I think it's really quite a good production and I was very, very pleased to see it move at. Terrific. It was riveting. It really was. And Loretta Greco did a phenomenal production and God love her for doing it because this is not a cheap show to do. There's more than a dozen people in the cast and you look at the set at the beginning of the show and you say, wow, this is quite a set. Wow. Boy, they spent money. It's on the turntable. You're gonna see another set. So it really is something, and I really wish it well. And I know it got very, very good reviews from the Boston press and I'm not surprised at all.
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I don't think the Broadway production had two sets. Did it? Yeah, it did.
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Yeah. A turntable. It spun around.
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Oh, okay. I didn't recall.
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They. They give two different rooms. The kitchen.
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Yeah. The interior, the foyer when you work. Walking into the boarding house. And then it rotated into the kitchen.
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Right, okay. Yeah.
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But it was. It was both interiors.
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Yeah.
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So Hills California, playing at the Huntington Theater through October 12th. And it says in here that this is in association with Berkeley Rep. So maybe this is going to go.
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Oh, I guess it's traveling. Yeah. Okay.
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Maybe it'll go over to Berkeley for people on the left coast. I don't know that I didn't look it up yet.
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Yeah.
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But I see on the Huntington website that they're. They're also doing my first ex husband, the Joy Behar. And they have a lot of very. Yeah. Different programming.
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In fact, when I went to the box office to get my tickets, they said, which show are you here for? Because they had another show playing in a smaller theater. So, you know. And I actually said to the box office, Preston Chi. We always hear about regional theaters being in tough shape, and here you are doing two shows. That's pretty good.
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Yeah, it's. They have a bunch of single evening things, plus they're doing wicked trivia. You could have been there.
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Yeah.
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They're doing Fun Home, Fun Homes coming up in November.
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That's right, in November.
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And they have Eureka Day coming up. So a lot of really great things happening at the honey.
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Thoroughly agree.
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Yeah. So, Michael, last week Peter talked about art. And you have seen it this.
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I have seen it.
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So tell us, what was your thought on art?
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Well, I think that I liked it better than I did the first time. The original Brahri production in 1998. And I'm thinking maybe that's mostly just because of my own life experiences since then. Really interesting play by Yasmina Reza, translated by Christopher Hampton. That's what the credit is. Translated by. It would be interesting to. I mean, I wish. I'm not fluent in French, but it would be interesting to see it in French sometime. And one interesting thing here is that as Peter mentioned last week, this is still set in France and they. But they did the three actors, Bobby Cannavale, James Corden and Neil Patrick Harris, don't use any sort of accents, of course. But not only that. When they're referring to this painting, that's the crux of the drama. They keep saying that they paid, that it was $300,000 that they paid for it. That was that the one fellow paid for it rather than saying it in francs. So I'm not sure why that change. There wasn't a change made there. But I, I, it's, it's a, it's supposedly about the fact that this one fellow of the three has bought a painting that looks like to, that looks like to anyone in the world. In the world looks like a completely white canvas with nothing on it whatsoever. Although the fellow who bought it, Serge, keeps insisting, oh no, that's not true. There, there are little gradations and there you can see that line at the bottom if you look very closely. And his two friends, Mark and Ivan, have varying reactions to the play. The first one to the, to the portrait, the picture, the first one to see it is Bobby Cannavale as Mark. And he, after, you know, a few moments of silence, doesn't hold back and says and calls it a piece of shit. And then when James Corden as Yvonne comes in, he's. Well, first of all, he enters with a bravura monologue that's not about the painting at all. It's about his personal life. And quite a bravura monologue which got quite an ovation, the monologue itself did from the audience that I saw the play with. So. But then when he finally gets around to reacting to the, to the painting, he's a little more conciliatory or wishy washy. He doesn't make any major statement about that. And it's one of those plays that is not exactly about what it seems to be about because it's really about the friendship between the three people. And what can happen to friendship when people disagree very strongly about something? Is the friendship going to hold? Is the disagreement going to end the friendship, which sometimes happens. I noticed one line in particular that Bobby Cannavale, as Mark says during the course of the action night. I thought it was kind of distilled the whole play. He says, I love Serge, but I can't love the man who loves that painting. And you know, I mean, you can easily switch that to it not being about a painting, but about a political opinion or, you know, maybe almost anything else that's, that's important. So I think that it's, the play is theoretical in, to some extent and, and there's a lot of what you might call high tone language and maybe philosophizing and. And maybe that sometimes gets a little wearing. I think it's at its best when it's dealing with the emotions of the three characters. Direct. Directed by Scott Ellis, by the way, I should say. And so I don't. I never loved the play and I don't like it as much as the God of Carnage, which also is by Esmena Reza. I think that that's more powerful than this one. But I do think that there's a lot in it and it's a great showcase for three actors. We were discussing before we started recording. I don't think it's the kind of a play that would be successful on Broadway without probably three stars in the three roles. I mean, they would need at least one star to carry it, but having three is. Is better. The. When the show was done in 1998, the three stars were Alan Alda, Alfred Molina and Victor Garber. So I guess producers also feel you have to bring out the big guns if you're going to do art on Broadway. So those are my feelings. James, I'd love to hear what you thought because you indicated that you had different feelings.
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I'm glad you brought up the art as a placeholder for a disagreement that could have been based upon ideas and politics.
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Yes.
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Because I, I really felt that too. And I think that the director missed the boat there because it, it's. It was a long, long time ago that I saw it. And as I mentioned, before we started recording, I couldn't really remember much about the original production. So Peter and Michael, is it very similar in direction and in feel as the first production?
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It does to me.
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Yeah, I would say so.
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And I think that especially being. My goodness, is it 30 years or 20 years?
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27.
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Yeah, almost. Almost 30 years. More than. More than a generation. I mean, you know, our thoughts and circumstances and realities are very different today than they were in 19. 1998.
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Sure.
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I think that Scott Ellis, mixed. Missed an opportunity to direct this in a little bit different way. I mean, what if this cast were not three white men? What if it were three women? What if the.
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What if we're done with women? I. I don't know that rings a bell. Linda brought that up too. I think she. She remembered hearing about a production with women. So.
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And, you know, what if it were people of color? What if this were, you know, shake this up. Are we bringing back art to Broadway just as a money grab, or are we bringing art back to Broadway to Make a statement. And yes, it is show business, not show friends or show, you know, whatever, but. And everybody deserves to make a living. But these three actors, if not doing art, certainly would be doing something else.
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Yes, I think that's a fairly safe assumption.
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Yeah. I mean, so why do. Again, the question is, why do art again on Broadway in this same very white male oriented thing? And as a white male, I'm like, oh, yeah, that's great, but, but I, I want to see somebody else's point of view and I want to see something different. I, you know, I want my hundred minutes sitting in the theater to, to mean something and not just a repeat.
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Well, as I always say about things like this, after all, there are people who weren't going to the theater 28 years ago, or even alive 28 years ago, who I'd like to see art so as. Especially since there's no movie. I mean, there is a movie of God, of Carnage, simply called Carnage, for whatever reason. And so I never, I never resent any revival of anything when they say, oh, they're bringing that back again. Because I remember vividly when I was a kid in the west side Story generation with the film, so many people, so many of the kids I knew saying, oh, I'd love to see it on stage, you know, and of course, only a few years had passed had it been brought to the stage, then they would have had an audience of us kids who wanted to go see it on stage. But indeed there would have been. Theater goes, would have said, they're bringing it back already, you know, so, you know, it's all very relative in terms of that. So I never resent any revival that seems too recent.
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Well, James, I understand what you're saying about casting it differently, and certainly they could have done that just to, to give it a different feel and also to give opportunities to, you know, to people of color and women. But I do think that in this particular case, it wouldn't really, to me, it wouldn't necessarily have changed the play in any way because it's about the disagreement. It's not about the people, the text.
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You're not going to change the text. Absolutely.
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Oh, right. But, yeah, but I mean, this text is about the, the fact that, you know, the differing perspectives on the, on the painting and how they're reacting to it. It's, it's not, it's not necessarily about the, the characters and like, reacting because of who they are. It's just that they have different opinions.
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Do you guys know what I mean? When somebody Walks on stage and they print. They like you know, some. They walk on stage and you see Bobby Carnevale walks on stage and before he says anything, you look at him and you look at the way he's dressed and everything, you're like, oh, he's a bro.
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Uh huh.
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Oh, okay. Yeah, yeah.
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And then James Corden walks on stage and he prints something else. And Neil Patrick Harris walks on stage and he prints a third thing. I don't believe for a moment that these three people are friends.
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Aha. You know, that's very interesting because I certainly have friendships with people of long standing where we've long had very little if nothing in common, but the history is enough to keep us going. So I understand that point of view.
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And yeah, that's another interesting point. And in that sense, I guess I would say, and in terms of the printing, that this one is quite different from the other production because Alfred Molina.
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Yeah.
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And Alan Alda and Victor Garber are all very different from these three. Bobby Cannavale, I mean, maybe it's partly, you know, because we know what we know of him in the past, but also his, you know, who he is in real life. I think he has a. A very Italian American, New York read. And James Corden, you know, of course, is British and uses his British accent here. And Neil Patrick Harris is. Well, however you describe that. So. So they are. So that. So this one does have a different feel from the 98 production in that sense. But yes, of course, they could have put certainly a person of color, a man of color in there somewhere and, and not upset anything and not harm the play in any way. If they had put one woman in with two guys, I think that that would have. That would have been interesting, but that probably would have changed the dynamic greatly.
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I see in 1998, Joe Morton played Search.
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Oh. As a replacement.
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Yes.
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Really?
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Placement.
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That is interesting. That is really interesting.
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So, yeah, I mean, it seems as though that it was, you know, they were on to. They were on to something in replacement insofar as thinking about different ways to cast it. So. And it was in 1998, directed by Matthew Warches.
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Yeah, I was going to mention that also Matthew Warches may have had a different approach as a Brit. Sure.
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All right, so Art is a limited run at the Music Box Theater is playing through. Scheduled right now through December 21st. And we'll have a link to that in the show notes. Peter, you broke all boundaries. What can I say beyond this? In how many years have you lived in New York City?
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48.
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48 years. Never took the G train before.
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That's right.
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Never took the G train. But this week you found the need to take the G train. The old. Is it green? I think it's a green train, isn't it?
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It is, yeah.
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Yeah.
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It's a green train to Brooklyn to see a production of Slanted Floors. So tell us about this.
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This is the damn. This thing. It's at 1006 Manhattan Avenue. And don't expect a marquee. It's simply an apartment building. You climb up a steep and narrow stairway and you enter an apartment. Literally an apartment that people obviously who live there are theater goers because there's a big basket full of playbills just pouring out. The most recent one, apparently, the show they saw with the brothers size, and which I'm glad they did, but anyway, a genuine apartment. A railroad flat, bedroom, living room, kitchen. And we sit in the kitchen. In the. In the living room, we. You are talking to 20% of the audience. It is five people, and only five people each and every night. And there's a reason for that. That's very clever, I will admit. So we have two actors that we know, Adam Chandler. Barat. Chandler, not Chandler. C H A and L, E R. Barat and Kyle Beltran. And they are lovers. And what happens is that Kyle Beltran's character, Teddy, is writing a play and his lover named Kaplan, which I assume is the last name, indeed is interested in hearing what the play is. And the play has five characters in it, and it is three men and two women in the play. There are also three men and two women in the audience. That is perfectly calibrated. They make sure that that is what's going on there. And as a result, you don't quite become characters in the play, but you are referred to. I was. Max. So anyway, the thing is, when he's telling the story, he says. And then Max says. And he points to. He pointed to me. And so it's kind of an interesting thing. The play itself does sound of more than moderate interest, and I don't want to give it away in case anybody wants to go and be 20% of the audience or if you're a couple, 40%. But it is, you know, what they always call a unique theatrical experience more than a play. Even though Billy McEntee wrote the play. There's also a dinner served. Well, that is aggrandizing it quite a bit. I will say that I was told to come hungry, so I thought really there was going to be a Five course meal, frankly. You get. Can we even call it an appetizer? It's a toothpick with a piece of cheese and olive and a slice of a radish and a little piece of toast. Then you get carrot and ginger soup with a piece of focaccia next to it. And then you have to wait a long time till the end of the plate to get that cookie where you get at the very end. So, so I think I'm hungry. Come. Hungry is an aggrandizement, frankly. So I, I don't think it's a bad idea to eat before you go. But you'll never see anything like this again, I assume. I mean maybe this will start a tre. Five person audience and five character plays, but who knows? But anyway, both guys are really good and with. Really I, I almost thought I was seeing an understudy for Adam Chandler Berat, who I've seen a million things but he's got a not, not quite a beard but like growth that looks like it's going to be a beard if you give him a couple of more weeks. And I really thought he was terrific. But Kyle Beltran, who really has to be the one who makes it happen because he has something like 90 of the, of the dialogue because he's the one who's telling the play while the other guy's going, huh, yeah. Oh, you're good. You know, that type of thing. So. So a very strange evening and I have no idea why it's called slanted floors. I, I didn't get any of that in the play. I may have missed it, I'll grant you. But whatever the case may end, the, the apartment didn't have slanted floors. It was a standard apartment. So. But despite the fact that I left Hungary and despite the fact that it was the damnedest thing you'd ever see, it was worth a trip on the L train to the G train.
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C
All right, so I did a quick check of slanted floors and it is totally sold out. They have a waiting list.
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B
How can it not be?
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C
I was also thinking maybe we should have all gotten some olives at art. You know, when they were taking out the serving olives, I mean, I went to another Broadway show and got a banana, so why not get an olive? So slanted floors sold out. I'll have a link to the Playbill article in the show notes where you can get a link to a Google form that, where you can get on the waiting list if you're interested in come seeing it. And it seems like it is playing through October 10th. So check that out. Michael, you had some thoughts about the the Sound of Music movie?
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A
Ah, yes. Well, this year marks the 60th anniversary of the release of the phenomenally successful film version of Sound of Music. And so it came back to theaters as a fathom event. And of course I went and it was incredible to see it again on the big screen with a true. As my friend Kenny, with whom I went said, a true star performance from Julie Andrews, who has been on our podcast. Can you imagine people seeing that movie and reacting to her? I imagine that many people who, who saw the Sound of Music back then had already seen Mary Poppins, so it wouldn't have been the first time that they saw her, but many people had not. And of course Mary Poppins is also a brilliant star turn on her part. So either way, as my friend Kenny put it, no wonder everyone fell in love with her. It's just especially the role of Maria is written as such a lovable life force character that you have that to begin with. And then to have someone with Julie Andrews charisma and her beautiful voice and she was so pretty back then, it must have been an overwhelming experience for. Well, I mean, it was for me. I certainly remember seeing the the movie back in 1965, although I might have not seen it till 66 because it took a while or even 67 because it took so long to come to local theaters. It played as a roadshow for ridiculously long amount of time, just unbelievably successful. So I loved seeing the film again for her and also marveling anew at how brilliant is the adaptation by Ernest Lehman of the original Broadway show, which had a book by Howard Lindsay and Russell Krauss. And for the most part, I think Ernest Lehman took everything that worked in the original and then cut maybe what didn't work so much or would not have worked well in a film and added a lot of his own things and also very, very ingeniously switched some of the songs around. Most notably My Favorite Things, which in the show is sung very early on by Maria with the Mother Abbess. And here it was. It's instead it's moved to the scene in Maria's bedroom when the children are frightened by the thunderstorm and she sings My Favorite Things as a way to raise their spirits. And that's a real bonding moment for them, the way, the way that works there. Other wonderful changes as well. You know, I do love both of the songs in this show, original show that feature Elsa Schrader And Max, no way to stop it. And how can love survive? But I just don't think they would have worked very well in the movie. So even that, I think, was a great idea. It's amazing how some people just have the ability to look at something and take it and adapt it in such a fabulous way. And of course, Ernest Lehman had previously done the adaptation, the. The screenplay for west side Story. And I think many people think that the changes that were made there and the way the songs were shifted around actually improved it. So. So here's a nod to him. He. And, you know, he's. He's been dead for quite a few years, but he. He was really amazing either way, in both. In both forms, stage and screen. The Sound of Music is quite a brilliant piece by Rogers and Hammerstein with a score by Rodgers and Hammerstein that was not. Was not immediately respected by critics and even some audiences when it first played on Broadway. And even the film received some very, very negative reviews by people who think it's too gooey and too sentimental and all. But then it became. Then became the most successful film of all time. A record that it. It held for quite, quite a while. And the soundtrack recording sales were not only through the roof, they were like to the moon. Just everyone in the world had that record. So, so then, then the criticism started to get a little quieter, and now it's. I think it's regarded as a classic, but it is, aside from everything else, it's. It's so moving to see it now because what of what the story is about? It's really about power, the power of music and music as an expression of love and also, you know, standing up against evil in the form of. In. In this case, fascism as represented by the Nazis in the. In the years leading immediately up to World War II. And so to see that now, you know, in our current environment is just amazing. At the. At the screening that I saw, the audience applauded when Captain von Trapp ripped up the Nazi flag. So that was something. And, and, and I find it incredibly interesting and one might say ironic that as we speak, a production of the Sound of Music, a stage production, is playing at the Kennedy center. With all that is going on there that, I mean, I would love to go, if only to see how an audience at the Kennedy center would respond to the show, especially in the scenes when. When the Nazi threat is becoming more and more obvious. It must be fascinating, this production. This is apparently a remount of a production that was directed by Jack o', Brien, a touring production that played several years ago. Also, I remember it played the Kennedy center during that tour. And I mean, we love Jack o'. Brien. I love that he's still doing it. So I'm not going to get, get there for several reasons. But I, I, I do think it, it must be amazing to see it there and, and see how the audience deals with it. So in the meantime, the sounding music has, as I said, become a almost universally beloved classic. And I'm glad it's still being done on stage as well as the movie existing for all time for us to see whenever we want to.
- [39:35]
C
So the production that's at the Kennedy center is actually a North American tour. It's right now at. Right now? Yes, right now at the Kennedy center through October 5th. But it then plays Dayton, Ohio, Chicago, Illinois, South Carolina, North Carolina, Ontario, Boston, Huntsville, Alabama, Texas, Chattanooga, Tennessee, Columbus, Detroit, Greensboro, Schenectady. Schenectady always gets the good ones. Philadelphia, Atlanta, Cleveland, Los Angeles, San Diego, Costa Mesa, Reno, San Jose and Denver. And it wraps up on the schedule here in August 2026. So with listeners all over the place, this might be coming somewhere near you.
- [40:30]
A
So, James, you said you looked it up before and you said Christiane Noel is in it.
- [40:34]
C
Yeah, Right now Christiane is, is in the cast.
- [40:41]
A
Is she, is she Elsa or is she the Mother Abbess?
- [40:45]
C
Mother Abbess, wow. Kevin early is Captain von Trapp. Nicholas Rodriguez is Max Detwiler. Kate Loeprest is Elsa Schrader. Ariana Furch is Lady Hazel. Rolf is Ian Corsi.
- [41:04]
A
Who's Maria?
- [41:07]
C
Kaylee Capaldi. Kaylee Capaldi. What happened was that Kaylee was listed first and I started with Christian, so I just went down. Right. I missed Kaylee. Apologies, Kaylee. So it's a nice tour. Tour, Nice tour. So we'll have a link to the Fathom events and also the tour in the show notes. Next up, Peter, you were at Performance Space New York, which US people know as PS122, to see color theories. So tell us about color theory.
- [41:54]
B
Well, I don't know who Julio Torres is, but he certainly has a following because the place was packed and he really, really connected with the audience who adored him and laughed at every syllable he said. So it's. And his color theories are quite atypical. His feeling of what purple means and what pink means, etc. Etc. Etc. Etc. So that's what it is. It's about maybe 85, 90 minutes, something like that, where he simply stands on stage and tells you about his feelings about what colors mean. He has a wonderful delivery. He's an enchanting performer. No question about it. I can't say that I laughed once or even smiled once, but boy, I was in the minority because the audience guffawed like crazy. So I think some of it has to do with the fact that a lot of them came as fans when they walked in the door, that they had known him. This is my first time seeing him, but an engaging performer, and I would certainly like to see him in a play. He also has two people who do very strange things to illustrate what he's talking about. There's also a puppet creature that has a lot to say as well, but again, not my sense of humor. But I certainly recognize the talent and I certainly recognize the appeal. So give yourself time. If you're going to go to 151st Avenue, not the easiest place to get to by subway. And under those circumstances, you also have to take an elevator to the fourth floor. So give yourself time because it does take a while to get up there and get acclimated. But again, I hope you find a sense of humor to your liking.
- [43:47]
C
Came First Avenue. So you got in the L train there. So. Yeah. All right. All right. So Color Theories by Julio Torres is at Performance Space New York. It is playing through October 5th, and we will have a link to that in the show notes. Michael, you jumped on New Jersey transit to headbound down to Red Bank, New Jersey, to see a production of Fiddler on the Roof produced by Phoenix Productions. So tell us about this.
- [44:19]
A
Yes, I wanted to go primarily because my friend John Griffin is playing Tevye in this production. Peter, you saw him as Benny south street.
- [44:34]
B
In your Guys and Dolls.
- [44:35]
A
Yes. Wait, do I have the right. Yeah, that's the right character. Yeah.
- [44:39]
C
Isn't it?
- [44:40]
A
No, I'm sorry. Oh, sorry, guys. Nicely, Nicely Johnson, in our production of your excellent production. Yes. Of Guys and dolls at the St. George a couple years ago. And he's. He's a real chameleon. John has played very many different types of roles. He's played Jean Valjean in Les Miserables. He's played the Fred and Kiss Me Kate. So he's really great. And I wanted to see him in this. Interestingly enough, as I reported on the podcast this past summer, they did a major community theater production of Fiddler on Staten island where John lives, and he auditioned for that and didn't get the role of Tevye in that. So here he is doing this very wonderful production. Phoenix Productions is the name of the. It's a community Theater, but very, very, very, very high level community theater. Performing in the beautiful Count Basie center for the Arts in Red bank. And extremely professional production values. The lighting I noticed in particular seemed extremely well done. There were actually some, some flubs in the cues themselves, but the design of it looked really beautiful. And they only had this run, the run of this production was only three days, so they didn't have a lot of chance to, you know, to, to run it and get it right. But yes, wonderful lighting design, wonderful costumes, a 20 piece orchestra. And they do have a pit, an uncovered pit at the Count Basie Center. So that, that was a wonderful experience to hear. And I shouldn't do a formal review of the show because it was community theater. A couple of the people, only a couple in supporting roles I thought were not that great, but for the most part, everybody was wonderful. Amanda Muniz as Golda, who really got the. What some gold is don't get. It's really important for Golda to have a piercing voice because if she doesn't, a lot of Tevye's lines and reaction to her just don't make any sense. I mean, she's supposed to be, she's a wonderful character and she's, you know, a wonderful woman, but that's just something that, that she has, that has to be in the show. Otherwise it doesn't really make much sense. The three daughters, Maria Heidman as Zeidel, Emerson Granada as Huddle and Rachel Rosario as Cava, all were great. And everyone else, the Lazar wolf, or Lazar Wolf as it's pronounced in the show. RJ Lewis was, I think, maybe the best Lazar Wolf I've ever seen.
- [47:54]
C
Know.
- [47:55]
A
Yeah, yeah.
- [47:56]
B
Compliment.
- [47:57]
A
Yeah. And it's, it is a good role because he has a real arc in the show. So beautifully written. I've extolled the, the. That Fiddler is a masterpiece. I, I've said that on many, many, many, many. Okay, you know what I did recently? I, I was reminded again by this production and I'd love you guys thoughts on this. I do. I have decided that there is one flaw in it that's pretty major and I think they probably realized it, but they couldn't fix it originally because they didn't know how to without making the show longer. I do think that it kind of strains credibility that two minutes after learning that they're going to have to sell their homes and leave, leave their homeland in three days time that the residents of Anatevka would sing a sentimental song about how much they love the place. I kind of wish that scene where the constable tells them that they have to get out in three days. I kind of wish that that could end with the moment when Tevye says to the constable, I have some advice for you. Get off my land. This is still my land. You get off my land right now. And I wish it could maybe kind of black out men with the villagers falling into each other's arms. And then you could have another scene that maybe is set two days later where they're preparing to leave. And at that point, maybe they could sing Anatevka. So like I said, I guess they just. It is a pretty long show. It's about 245, maybe a little longer, depending on the pacing. And so those geniuses, Jerry Box, Sheldon Harnick, Joseph Stein and Jerome Robbins, you know, I. I'm guessing they just cut corners there a little bit. And you may disagree with me, but. So I'd like to hear about that. But.
- [50:13]
B
Well, another thing is what's really ironic. I don't know if you know or remember that Anatevka was originally the. The opening song of the second act.
- [50:21]
A
Oh, right. And also there was. There was a song that was cut called get the Out.
- [50:26]
B
Yeah. And when Messiah Comes, which is you can really feel the setup. Rabbi, wouldn't this be a good time for the Messiah to come? And te. When Messiah Come, a show, a song that starts off hilarious and then gets serious. And it's a very hard adjustment to make.
- [50:42]
A
Right. So maybe when all of that was in, maybe the transition was a little smoother. Thanks for reminding me of that, Peter.
- [50:53]
B
That's what I'm here for.
- [50:57]
C
So as Michael pointed out, Phoenix Productions, Fiddler on the Roof at the Count Basie center for the Performing Arts in Red Bank, New Jersey was just one weekend.
- [51:08]
A
Yeah, just this weekend.
- [51:10]
C
And has passed. But Phoenix Productions has three more productions left in their season.
- [51:20]
A
Four more, I think. Oh, yeah, no, go ahead.
- [51:23]
C
Three more. They already did Legally Blonde, so Legally Blonde has passed. And Fiddler was the second production. Miracle on 34th Street. Coming up in November 21st, Disney's Little Mermaid in February 2026 and Beautiful, the Carole King Musical in May of 2026. We'll have a link to that in our show notes. If you are able to get over to Red Bank, New Jersey, there is.
- [51:53]
A
One more listed on the back of the Playbill. Maybe they added it or maybe you just. Yeah, they're doing first. Next up, they're doing Evil Dead the Musical, October 17th and 18th so, yes. And they even talked about is Evil.
- [52:10]
C
Dead at the Basie. I don't.
- [52:13]
A
Well, it says. It says at the bottom thebacie.org Phoenix so I think so. Although. Yeah, that's a big theater for that show, isn't it?
- [52:23]
C
Yeah, yeah, because Phoenix productions used to have a. Used to have a studio space. Oh, okay. They used to have a studio space. And. And I don't see Evil Dead anywhere here on the Basie website. But anyway, so check it out. Let's see. Michael, we talked about the Arena Stage production of Damn Yankees a couple of weeks back and how good it was. And, uh, you had some more thoughts about the mo. Possible move to Broadway way.
- [52:58]
A
Well, just that I think it's even more likely. Very, very likely now because the reviews have been raves, including the Washington Post, which I no longer. It's not easy for me to read those reviews anymore because I no longer have access because I. I'm one of the many, many people who cancel their subscription when you know what happened. But I did get to read it, and it was a rave. And the. The other. All the others read also were very, very, very positive. I. I loved it as. As you recall, I had a couple of reservations, but I. But I still said that overall it was unbelievably entertaining and just so. So. Well, I. I do hope. I mean, I can't offhand think of anywhere they could do it other than circle in the square. That would preserve. That would preserve. Trujillo has staged and choreographed it so brilliantly for this setup where it's basically in the round, technically in the square, because it's. That the space in the. In the. In the middle is, you know, I mean, is a. Is a. Or actually technically a rectangle in the theater. In the rectangle, I guess you would call it. The audience is on all sides. You know, they do surround, completely surround the action. And. And Sergio kept that in mind brilliantly in staging the. Both the book scenes and the dance numbers so that you never feel like people are Play. Are not playing to you and just the distribution of the cast around the stage. As I mentioned earlier, I think before we started recording in the number Heart, it's originally sung by the coach and three players, but here it's the coach and four players. So they can have one player at each corner of the playing area, and then later on they're joined by the rest of the team and when they sing a reprise of it. So that's only one example. But I, Yeah, I wouldn't, you know, Lord only knows when Circle in the Square will be available again because Just In Time is a big hit. And Jonathan Grof has recently said, I mean I'm not, I'm not, not sure if he was exaggerating, but he said I'm going to stay with it as long as they want me. So if that's true, it might be running through 2026, but we'll see what happens with that. The Damages would work beautifully there. I, I would hate to to see Sergio have to adapt it to a proscenium stage. But we'll, we'll, you know, we'll, we'll rather than speculate, we'll just see what happens. And I just wanted to mention briefly I had said before that this revisal of Pal Joey called Shay Joey, that's the new title of it is coming up at Arena Stage and I want just some more information on it. It has the same creative personnel as the Pal Joey revisal that was done at City center in 2023. They had not changed the title for that presentation. It was still called Pal Joey but that one also like this upcoming production is has Tony had Tony Goldwyn as co director and Savion Glover as co director choreographer. But the interesting change for this upcoming production at Arena Stage is that Richard LaGravenase now receives sole credit for the book which when it when the show was done at at City center and of course it was billed as having Daniel Koa Beatty as co author. So I guess there was some thing that happened there and I don't know how that's going to affect what the book actually consists of. But it does sound like this is going to be a generally very much along the lines of what we saw at City center, including the fact that Joey is going to be played by an actor of color and and probably many of the other characters as well. So I will try to get down to see it at arena and let you know how this all pans out.
- [58:01]
C
So a question about Mr. Groff. My wife has a a Google alert for anything gruff and so I constantly many people do graph updates and things like that and she said that he mentioned in passing that he'd like to go back to Hamilton. And so with hamilton leslie odom jr tickets and hamilton off the chart at 1500 dollars a seat and sold out not not even available at 1500 dollars a seat. Be interesting to see if if Grof goes back for his is it 12 minutes on stage or something like that at most as the King. I wonder if that will be his next step after Circle in the Square. You know, if he wraps up 20, 26 at Circle, maybe 2027, he'll do his, his time back in Hamilton for a brief stint. We'll see.
- [59:12]
A
On that note, isn't it fascinating that Leslie Odom alone going back into the show has had that effect on the box office? I just didn't think he was considered that big a star.
- [59:25]
B
Yeah. Isn't it nice to be proved wrong?
- [59:28]
A
Yeah, yeah, I mean, I guess it's. He did win the Tony. Right? And, and it is a, a major role. And I'm sure it's a lot of people saying, oh, I, I really missed the opportunity to see it with the original cast and now I can go see this Tony Award winner in the role. But I'm still, still quite surprised. Very pleasantly surprised.
- [59:56]
B
Yeah, me too.
- [59:57]
C
Yeah. What else was I going to say there about that? You know, he did have a television show on Apple. Apple tv. Apple TV Plus.
- [60:13]
A
And as we've established, I'm an ignoramus when it comes to tv.
- [60:17]
C
Yeah, exactly. So when things, when things jump to film and television and we're all like, you know, we have so much to see on stage. It's just impossible. And as Rob Johnston points out in our show notes, he was an Oscar nominee.
- [60:35]
A
He had four albums.
- [60:36]
C
Four albums and things like that. Oh, and I missed an hour ago or so, Juliet Green is gonna go see Hills of California at Berkeley Rep. She's already got tickets that. I missed that earlier. Sorry, Juliet. So there's a lot of interesting stuff here. I'm interested to see how the Pal Joey comes out. It is running January 30th through March 15th at Arena Stage. We'll have a link to that in the show notes. So if you get one of those tickets, perhaps you'll see Michael down there at the same time. And Michael, finally this morning. Morning. You got up to Metropolitan Opera to see turned on.
- [61:23]
A
Yes.
- [61:24]
C
So tell us about this. Well, I don't even need to say lavish production because everything there is lavish.
- [61:32]
A
Well, no, not everything anymore and not in a traditional way, but this one is absolutely eye popping. It does get applause when the curtain goes up on the first two acts. Anyway, the, the third act is. Starts more slowly, so. So not in that case. But yes, this is the Franco Zeffirelli production that has been on stage there for decades. And it's just. I went last week to see it. I go every year that they do it, but this time the cast was so great that I went back the next day and bought another ticket and I'm going back on Tuesday to see it with the same cast led by Michael Fabiano and Angela Mead. And this is so interesting to me. I came across, I remember that this movie was made, but I didn't see it at the time. In 2009 there was a film made called the Audition and it follows the singers who competed in the. I think it was actually in 2007, although the film came out in 2009, who competed in the Metropolitan Opera and National Council auditions. They, they get something like, you know, almost 2,000 singers auditioning around the country and the world. And then they narrowed them down to something like 22. And then those people come to New York and they, and they train here further and they sing, you know, they, they train with, with Met people and then the group is narrowed down even further and then those people all get to sing on the, on stage at the Met with the Met Orchestra as their final audition. Can you imagine the pressure? And, and of course, maybe they sell tickets to that. So it's. I, I've been to several of them, although not for a few years, and it's always full because you never know who you're going to hear and you know what, how big a star they may become. So this is a really excellent, excellent, excellent.
- [64:07]
C
Film.
- [64:08]
A
Even if you're not especially into opera, I think you would respond to it in terms of the pressure on these people, the emotional pressure, the strain that they're under, and especially in opera, because it's so much about technique. And about one of the guys in the group, Alex Schrader, he chooses, as if things weren't hard enough, he decides to sing for his audition edition an aria from the Daughter of the Regiment, which is famous for having nine high Cs in it. And you know, so it's, it's nine opportunities to crash and burn. But he doesn't. And he went on to become a very well known and famous opera singer. But what's interesting, what's doubly interesting on top of all that for me for this film, is that both Angela Meadow and Michael Fabiano, who are currently singing Turin dot at the Met in the two major leads, were in the group in 2007. So it's fascinating to watch them competing and it's really, really especially interesting because whoever made the film decided to focus a lot on Michael Fabiano, who was 22 years old at the time, from Montclair, New Jersey. And I think they focus on him because he's quite good looking, but Also, he's a little cocky and comes across as almost maybe a diva sometimes and very, very competitive. So using him as the focus of it, I think was a very smart idea. And there's a real nail biter moment when, believe it or not, so they sing their final edition on stage at the Met and then they tell them then in front of the audience who, who won. So how's that for high stakes? So you can see him waiting backstage and they're calling the, the winners one by one. And for whatever reason, because they don't do, I don't know what order they did it in. And he's the last one. And you, you see him waiting in close up and like becoming more and more anxious as each name goes by and he's not picked. And then finally. Oh, and to make it even worse, they, they usually pick five, but they can pick six winners. And so they didn't know how many they were going to pick, so they picked the first five. And he's not among them. And he has a moment like of Holy.
- [66:58]
B
Yeah.
- [66:58]
A
And then they call this name and then he just, you know, he exalts and he runs out on stage. So this documentary is viewable in, in its entirety in HD on YouTube. The audition. Look it up. I think you'll really, really enjoy watching it.
- [67:17]
C
Okay, we have a link to the audition in the show to notes. Yes, you can check that out. All of social media was a buzz this week with one story in the New York Times. Do you know what story that is?
- [67:35]
B
I'm ready.
- [67:37]
C
Broadway's dead.
- [67:38]
B
Oh, yeah, that's right.
- [67:40]
C
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Broadway's dead. Just wrap it up.
- [67:45]
A
In other news.
- [67:46]
C
No wonder I forgot about it.
- [67:49]
B
Here we are talking about fifteen hundred dollar seats. You know, I mean, so on.
- [67:53]
C
Yeah. So it, it's interesting, you know, sort of this story happens every couple of years.
- [68:03]
B
Yeah.
- [68:06]
C
So I guess we'll, we'll talk about it again in a couple of years whether Broadway's dead or not. But for those who, for those who want to read the story, I've included it in the show notes. And our friend Jess Green has moved on to a different role in the New York Times as a features and news cultural correspondent.
- [68:32]
A
Yeah, we'll see what that turns out to mean.
- [68:35]
C
Yeah. Interesting changes over at the New York Times. So that wraps it up for this week. Before we get on to our brain teaser and our musical moments, I want to remind everybody that you can subscribe to these broadcasts because 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, it'll be automatically downloaded to Apple Podcasts for you. Of course, you won't have to listen to us now Podcast. There's many ways to get us. One of the ways is Patreon P-A-T-R-E-O-N.com BroadwayRadio is one way that you can support all of Broadway radio's offerings, as well as get us a little bit early and a few bonuses that included in a Patreon membership. Contact information for Peter from 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?
- [69:29]
B
I do. A Chorus Line was a Tony winning musical whose scripts mentioned two dates. There were the official openings of two previous Tony winning musicals. Well, Bobby mentions that he was born on March 15, the date on which My Fair lady opened, and Zach says rehearsals for his musical will begin on September 22, the date on which Fiddler on the Roof open. Tony Janicki resumed his first place perch, followed by Paul Witty, Sean Logan, Steven Sokoloff, Ingrid Gammerman and Brigadude. This week's question. Two of his works made it to Broadway in the 1980s. One was a revival of his play, one was a new musical. Both titles had two words in them. The first word of each show was identical. As for the second word of the title, each started with the same two letters. What are the shows? Who wrote them?
- [70:25]
C
Okay, if you have an answer for that, congratulations. It sounds impossible to me.
- [70:34]
B
No, this one's going to get a.
- [70:37]
C
Lot of response, a lot of responses. Just maybe Sunday morning. I need more coffee, but email us@triviabroadrayradio.com and we'll let you know if you're on the right track. So Michael, please tell me the musical moments are simpler than that.
- [70:52]
A
Yes, two selections from the Sound of Music, one from the film and one from the Broadway show. The opener is the iconic, iconic opening of the film with the music that we hear as the camera zooms in in a mountain somewhere in apparently in Germany to find Julie Andrews walking alone in a beautiful meadow among the mountains and then twirling and then singing the title song. The Sound of Music. Just I think if it was only for that shot, that movie would have entered history because it's just so amazingly powerful and beautiful and we have a link to the video as well. And we also have a link to the video for our closer, which is Climb Every Mountain as performed by Patricia Newway and members of the original Broadway cast on the Ed Sullivan Show. Yes. Have you seen that, guys?
- [72:07]
B
No, I haven't.
- [72:08]
A
It's incredible.
- [72:09]
B
Oh, how nice. Sullivan's. I'll have to look that up.
- [72:13]
A
Yeah, I saw this first quite some time ago. What she does is she comes out and sings most of the songs song as a solo, although she. And she puts in the high note that comes at the end and then she keeps singing, but the audience loses it. So they go crazy and they start applauding in the middle of the number. But then they dovetail it into the finale version of Climb Every Mountain with the nuns chorus coming on and ending it with Patricia New Way singing it with the nuts chorus. It's a beautiful, beautiful song. And Patricia New Way is one of the greatest voices ever heard on Broadway. So please enjoy these two musical moments from the film and the stage production of the Sound of Music.
- [73:04]
C
Okay, so on behalf of Peter, Felicia and Michael Portantier, this is James Marino saying thanks so much for listening to Broadway radio videos this week on Broadway. Bye bye bye, Sam Ram.