Matt Tammanini (0:01)

Welcome to Today on Broadway for Tuesday, May 27, 2025 on Broadway Radio's Matt Tammanini. I hope that you all had a reflective and meaningful Memorial Day yesterday. Perhaps you got to spend some time with family and friends and ideally, hopefully also had an opportunity to remember those who paid the ultimate sacrifice to give us the freedoms that we have, especially to talk about things that are in the larger picture. As frivolous as theater is, we appreciate you giving us here on Today on Broadway the opportunity to take the day off. As I was on a whirlwind 36ish hour trip to New York City, I went into town and saw Goddess on Sunday afternoon, then went over to the Soho Playhouse and saw the final performance of Grace Aki's To Free a Mockingbird on Sunday night. Then I got up on Monday morning and did the annual Memorial Day workout known as Murph that crossfitters around the world do. And it is hard. It is a very difficult workout. So much so that towards the very end I ended up having to sit on 37th street for about 30 to 45 seconds and just stretch my legs because they both cramped up, something that has never happened before in my entire life. But my legs were not working. But I was able to finish the rest of of that workout and then I met some friends in a little park and got home to where I am now on Monday night. Grace should be back tomorrow now that her schedule does not require her to go to Soho and perform every night. And now that we are less than two weeks away from the Tony Awards, we're going to be ramping up all of our Tony's previews and predictions and some additional reviews and stuff like that. So we're gonna have some fun stuff coming up. So if you want to make sure that you hear all of it, head over to patreon.com broadwayradio broadway rad radio.com patreon before we get started, even though Grace is not here to talk about the news with me today, she is on this episode because she interviewed the phenomenal Felicia Curry who is one of the cast members of bowl ep, which is currently playing at the Vineyard Theater and is one of the most buzzy shows happening in New York right now. So stay tuned for that at the end of the episode. Now you might remember last week that I talked about the fact that there is a new Instagram account, Chess B Way. That presumably means that there is going to be a Broadway revival of Chess coming. At the time I'd said, well, there was this Entertainment Community Fund concert in December of 2022 that starred Darren Criss, Lena Hall, Ramin Karimloo and Soleila Pfeiffer. I talked about the fact that I had heard that only one of those people was returning to the show. Maybe some of the the featured roles might be returning, but I'd heard that of those three, there's only one that could potentially be returning that is the one who likes to take his shirt off on stage all the time and that is remain Karimloo. Darren Criss obviously is busy with maybe happy ending, so maybe he doesn't want to do it. Lena Hall's off doing TV and film solely a Pfeiffer probably is too big for the role of Svetlana that she did in that concert. Well over the weekend, since our last episode, we got confirmation not necessarily of who's going to be in the cast, but we'll talk about that here in a second. But we got confirmation that this is happening. Chess is coming to Broadway this fall. We got that news not because of a press release announcement, but instead through an Equity casting notice. Beginning on June 4th and also happening on June 6th, the week before the Tonys, there will be auditions for a number of roles. NHS Broadway revival that will begin rehearsals in the fall of 25 and will open in the fall of 2025. As the entertainment Community Fund concert was. It will be directed by Michael Mayer. Lauren Lotaro will choreograph and the music supervisor will be Brian Youssef or one of the best in the business. Now what's interesting about this is is that they list all of the principal featured roles. Florence, Freddie, Anatoly Malakoff, Walter De Coursi, the arbiter, Svetlana and then a Florence standby. All of them are cast except for Svetlana and a Florence standby. From what I understand, none of the people who were the four principals in the Chess concert will be there. But you might remember that last week I talked about somebody joining this cast who is a spectacular spectacular Tony award winner. That is who I've been told will be playing Freddie. I also mentioned the fact that somebody who recently ish made a long awaited return to Broadway in a somewhat controversial way. She has been cast as Florence from what I understand. And then playing Anatoly is somebody who recently reunited with a former co star who actually co wrote the show that they did together previously in a performance Downtown. Now when I say downtown, I don't necessarily mean downtown New York. I mean downtown is in skid row. So I think that's all the clues I can probably give you at this point. Hopefully you can figure those out. So that is Florence, Freddie and Anatoly. They have said that Molokov, Walter De Courcy and the Arbiter are cast as well. Just for reference, and I have not heard anything about this, but Bradley Dean played Molokov in the Entertainment Community Fund concert. Sean Allen Krill, who is currently in Floyd Collins, played Walter De Courcy and Tony nominee Bryce Pinkham played the Arbiter. So I don't know if those folks are back in those roles or not. We will have to wait and see what happens with all of this. But it is exciting because I love Chess. I love that score. The book is always a mess, but this new one that was done by Danny Strong for that Entertainment Community Fund concert and the, the Rollo Esparza version that was in D.C. before, that is funny. It's funnier than most other versions of Chess that we've seen in the past. What's interesting is, is under the personnel section for this Equity casting notice, it does not list anybody as the book writer. It just says music and lyrics. So it'll be interesting to see if it is actually Danny Strong's book. But I would imagine it is considering they're keeping Michael Mayer as the director. All right. One thing that we didn't get a chance to talk about last week, and that's my fault, but just because of everything that was crazy going on, is the fact that the first show of the 2025, 2026 Broadway season has officially begun performances over at Studio 54. It actually happened on Saturday, May 24th. And this is the new one will be show Call Me Izzy. It is written by Jamie Wax, directed by Sarnella Pine, and stars the icon of stage and screen, Jean Smart. Which reminds me, I'm a few weeks behind on hacks that I have to catch up on, but this will be a 12 week run. In the show, Jean Smart plays a writer whose words are her greatest gift, her biggest secret, and her only way out. It is described as a moving portrait of one woman's refusal to be silenced through her own sheer tenacity. Humor. Humor and fiery imagination. The show is scheduled to open on June 12, so just a few days after the Tony Awards, a very quick turnaround put that one on your list. I'm gonna have to come up and see it before it closes in August if it doesn't get, you know, extensions and everything. I think it probably could extend through Labor Day at some point because it. It is scheduled to close on August 17, so it would make sense to have at least a few extra weeks to get it to Labor Day. But nonetheless, Genesmart back on Broadway, always something fun and exciting. All right, let's take a break real quick to talk about our sponsor Cash App. I was just in New York, as I said, and I went to dinner with a friend and it's always weird and you're like, should we split it? Well, I don't drink, but so she got drinks. So we're not gonna split it down the middle. And asking them to go back and make separate checks is just a pain in the butt. Especially because we were in a restaurant that was very, very busy and it took a long time to get everything. So we didn't want to do anything that could potentially keep us there longer than we had to be. So because I'm a good company man, I just said, do you have Cash App? I'll just send you money that way because my friend is a good, intelligent person. Of course she had Cash App, so I just figured out what mine was, threw in money for the tip and sent it over to her right away. It got there. It felt like before I even hit the send button, it was already in her account. Because Cash App is a safe, easy and fast way to send, receive and transfer money to your friends, family, anybody else that you have to get money to or from. I love using Cash App because it's fast, it's safe, and it just makes my life way less stressful than having to figure out what other random app is being foisted upon me by either my bank or younger millennial or Gen Z friends who understand technology way better than I do. Now, for a limited time, only new Cash App users can use our exclusive code to earn some additional cash. For real. There's no catch. Just download Cash App and sign up. Use our exclusive referral code Broadway in your profile. Send $5 to a friend within 14 days and you'll get $10 dropped right into your account. Terms apply. That's money. That's cash. All right, let's do some show and casting news here real quick. On Friday it was announced that Scarlett Stralin will be stepping into the Broadway production of Stephen Sondheim's Old Friends. She's going to be temporarily replacing Kate Jennings Grant, who is going to step away for about two weeks to deal with a non production related injury. Scarlet, one of the famous Strallen sisters who are all Weston stars along with her sisters Summer and zz. She had to learn the show in like four days, learn all of the stuff that Kate is doing in the show in four days. But being involved in the show actually gives her a little bit of a reunion with a couple people. Not only she reuniting with Gavin Lee, who played Bert to her Mary Poppins, she's also going to be taking the stage with her aunt, Bonnie Langford. The great Bonnie Langford, who is phenomenal in this show, a legend of London musical theater. But for me is Mel from Doctor who. That's her aunt. It's her mother's sister. So she's going to be able to do this Broadway show with her aunt and to bring it all full circle. Scarlett Stroudland was a replacement Sybella in A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder, where she met her husband, Bryce Pinkham, who I mentioned earlier. So lots of fun stuff with Scarlet joining the cast of Old Friends on Broadway. Speaking of short reunions on Broadway stages, last Friday it was announced via his own Instagram that Derek Klena is going to be returning to the role of Fiyero in Wicked for a very limited engagement starting today, May 27, and playing through June 8. I'm not sure if the full time Fiero Jordan Litz is on vacation, but I would imagine for two, two weeks. That's probably he's doing maybe a two week workshop of something. I have no idea. I don't know for sure, but that would be my guess. But this is 12 years after Klena originally played Fiyero. And pop quiz. Who was the Bach to Derek Klena's original Fiero? Anybody know that was friend of the show, fiance of the show, partner of the show, F. Michael Haney. So if Derek's back, are we getting F back as Bach? I'll have to ask Grace on tomorrow's show. All right. This is something I don't really want to talk about, but I guess we kind of have to. There was an article published in the New Yorker on Monday entitled Patti LuPone is done with Broadway and Almost Everything else. Okay. I mean, she gave up a recording card and then she ended up coming back and doing the Roommate on Broadway. So we'll see about all of that. In it, she talks about a lot of stuff, which was honestly a lot of complaining. But the thing that has angered a lot of people, rightly so, in the theater community is how she spoke about Tony Award winner Keisha Lewis. This is something that I knew about. But when she was doing the Roommate last year, which was at the Booth Theater that shares a Wall with Schubert. Apparently there was some sort of concern that the music of Hell's Kitchen was so loud that it could be heard in the booth theater. Now, whether this was Patty complaining, which is what I think the. The rumors had originally been, or if it was someone asking Patty to talk to an executive at the Shubert organization that she is friends with, which is what this article says, I. I don't know. And it doesn't really matter. What happened after the fact is, after there was some sort of resolution, Keisha Lewis posted a video and said that she thought that Patti LuPone talking about this black focus show being too loud. She thought it was bullying, racially microaggressive, and rooted in privilege. In this article, Patty makes it seem as though these kinds of things with one show being too loud when it shares a wall with another show. This happens all the time. And like, this is a fairly. Not like an everyday occurrence, but like, it happens. Broadway theaters are really close together, and sometimes you have to make adjustments. I don't know if that's true either, and it doesn't really matter. You can say whatever you want about Keisha Lewis's response to Patti LuPone, and many people have, but what Patti LuPone does in this article, in response to Keisha Lewis's video, when asked about it, is rather disgusting, to be quite honest with you. In Keisha Lewis video, she says that she is speaking as one veteran of the theater community to another veteran of the theater community. In the article, Patti LuPone takes issue with that, and she kind of goes off on it. You know what? I'm just going to read it to you because I don't want to cloud what Patty said herself. She said, quote, here's the problem. She calls herself a veteran. Let's find out how many Broadway shows Keisha Lewis has done because she doesn't know what the fuck she's talking about. Then she Googles it. She says she's done seven. I've done 31. And just as an editor's note, the New Yorker actually does fact check that, and it says the correct numbers are actually 10 and 28. Patty goes on to say, quote, don't call yourself a vet, bitch. Look, we. For years, we have kind of seen this type of behavior from Patty, although I don't know, at least to my immediate recollection, and you all know how bad my memory is if she's ever crossed lines like this before. But we've always kind of laughed at Patty's eccentricities and her sassiness and saying the Things that nobody else will say. Well, sometimes people don't say things because they shouldn't say them. And this to me, and I'm just speaking for myself, although there are plenty of other people on social media that you can go and see who feel very similarly, if not even more passionately about it. Uncalled for, unprofessional, just plain mean and nasty. And probably at its core, this specific thing here that we're talking about, racially motivated, if not blatantly racist itself, we've seen Patty screw up in the past. I mean, the whole someone in the audience taking pictures thing, back in the gypsy days, that was somebody who was brought in to take pictures by the production. And to this day, I don't know if she's apologized, but she owns it as if she had done something heroic for the theater community. And she'll still talk about it like that when she was acting out of turn. And here what she is doing is she's attacking somebody who, yes, doesn't have as many Broadway credits as her, doesn't have as many Tony Awards as her, does not have as much fame as her, but is still a respected and beloved veteran member of the theater community. Would she have done that if this was a white woman with the exact same resume as Keisha Lewis? I don't know. I, I, I, I, I don't, I can't answer that. But I've never seen her do it, do that before. And let's just be completely clear here. Keisha Lewis is a veteran of the theater community. And to be quite honest with you, if she wasn't a black one or if she was a white woman, I would venture to guess that she probably would have had an even bigger career just because of the inherent institutional racism that exists in everything in this country, even in theater community, despite the fact that we pride ourselves on being inclusive and supportive in a safe space, which we all know, yes, that's probably better in the theater community than, I don't know, say, finance. But there's still a long way to go. And if you think, okay, this is an isolated incident, the very next paragraph in this article talks about some sort of beef that Patty has with Audra McDonald. The interviewer asks about the fact that Audra McDonald apparently replied supportively to Keisha Lewis's video just using emojis. And Patty said, quote, that's typical of Audra. She's not a friend. Apparently, Patty and Audra had some sort of rift a long time ago, but Patty didn't want to get into it at that point. And then when she was asked about what she thought of this Broadway revival of Gypsy, which Patty had to see because she is a Tony voter, she essentially declined to answer and change the subject. So I don't know what's going to happen, but Patty says that she doesn't want to work on Broadway anymore. Okay, whatever. But this is something that I think we can't just pass off as, oh, that's just Patty B and Patty. If it is just Patty B and Patty, maybe we need to do a lot less lionizing of Patty then, because this is not the type of thing that anybody should be celebrating, especially the theater community. Patty is obviously an all time great in terms of talent. You cannot deny that. But this is uncalled for and I hope that the theater community as a whole makes sure that Patty understands that. And if, you know, based off of her past actions, I can't imagine Patty apologizing or standing down, although I hope that she does. But regardless of any blowback from Patty, the response to this from the theater community and individuals in the theater community needs to be a swift, unambiguous condemnation because this is not appropriate or called for. All right, one last little thing. I've got a recommendation before I send you into that interview that Grace did with Felicia Curry. This is the song what'll it be? Sung by Christiani Pitts from the new musical Two Strangers Parenthetically Carry a Cake Across New York that is currently playing at the Art after previously having a very successful run in London's West End. I am bringing this to you because I think that Two Strangers Carry a Cake Across New York might be coming to New York fairly soon. So you probably want to get an opportunity. So you probably should take an opportunity to get to know this song and this show. Now. All right, let's get into Grace's interview with the always fantastic Felicia Curry. Most recently she was seen on Broadway as a member of the company of into the Woods. She also went and did it on tour as well. She is one of the best working out there. She's in the new show Bull EP that is a co production between the Vineyard Theater, the National Black Theatre and the new group. It is a New York Times critics pick, which is a difficult thing to get especially this time of year with everything else going on. It is currently on sale through Tony Sunday on June 8th. All right, thank you for listening to Today on Broadway. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram at Broadway Radio. We'll talk to you tomorrow. And in the meantime, here is Grace Aki and Felicia Curry.