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Today on Broadway: Friday, April 25, 2025
00:23:10
‘Pirates!’ Broadway Reviews, Fierstein to Get Lifetime Achievement Tony, Nicole Scherzinger Sings ‘Sunset’ With a Bullhorn Since 2016, “Today on Broadway” has been the first and only daily podcast recapping the top theatre headlines every Monday throug...
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- [00:02]
Matt Timminini
Welcome to a review recap episode from Broadway Radio. My name is Matt Timminini. On today's episode, we are diving into all of the reviews for Pirates the Penzance musical, which opened on Broadway on Thursday night at the Todd Haymes Theater. This is of course a kind of reimagined revival of the Gilbert and Sullivan operetta the Pirates of Penzance. Now if you are hearing this in Patreon, this is a standalone episode, but if you are listening in the regular feed, welcome to Today on Broadway for Friday, April 25th. As I said, pirates, exclamation point, the Penzance musical officially opened at the Todd Haymes Theater from the Roundabout Theater Company on Thursday night. It is currently scheduled to play through July 27th. Of course, this is a subscription house, so they have other things scheduled in their season for the Todd Haymes, but also they have a renovation that is planned that'll take about eight months before anything else actually happens in the theater. So while there could be a little bit of time to extend, this show can't be very much because they do have construction scheduled. Of course, as I said, this is a Gilbert and Sullivan show, so the Libretto is by W.S. gilbert, music by Arthur Sullivan, but the adaptation for the book is by the Tony Award winner pop star and Broadway radio guest Rupert Holmes. It is directed by Scott Ellison, choreographed by Warren Carlisle. Roundabout has assembled a superlative cast led by Romain Karemloo as the pirate King, Jinx Monsoon as Ruth, David Hyde Pierce as Major General Stanley, Nicholas Barish as Frederick Prince Preston, Truman Boyd as the Sergeant of Police, Samantha Williams as Mabel Stanley and many other incredibly talented folks. This version of the show is transported from Great Britain to New Orleans and is given a jazzy, bluesy re imagination. According to press notes, it is a quote, outrageously clever romp sizzling with Caribbean rhythms and French Quarter flair, with a tongue twisting Major General, the rabble rousing pirate King, newly imagined young lovers, daring daughters, footloose pirates and fleet footed police. There's a shipload. I like that turn or phrase of music. Musical comedy delights on board to dazzle first timers and GNS aficionados alike. As of recording time, Did They like it? Has collected 14 reviews, 11 are positive, two were mixed and one was negative. Unfortunately for Roundabout and the production, one of the mixed reviews did come from Jesse Green of the New York Times, who said, though jolly enough, the latest Broadway incarnation, which opened on Thursday at the Todd Haimes Theater, trusts neither the material nor us as much as it might clumsily but accurately retitled the Penzance Musical and transported to post reconstruction New Orleans. It is also significantly altered in tone. Except for the central performance by David Hyde Pierce marvelously underplaying the tongue twisting Major General, the production has a sweaty quality bordering on frenzy that's hopelessly at odds with the cool wit of the original. I wish Ellis Direction had taken more direction from Pierce's pickled deadpan with his absurd facial hair and rum blossom nose, he needs little else to get his laughs. Really, the less he does, the funnier it is because his stillness helps us focus on the words, which are otherwise too often difficult to discern in this production. For once that can't be blamed on the sound design, which Mikail Solomon has mercifully kept at moderate volume. The problem is that the musical theater style of the adaptation is not ideally suited to the density of Gilbert's verse. Despite such mismatches between the original and the remake, Pirates is still a feather in the tricorn of the Roundabout Theatre Company which produced and nurtured it. Operettas don't last 146 years just because they're good. I love Gilbert and Sullivan's Rudiger too, but have never seen it except at camp. Longevity like that requires faith not only in the past but also in the future. So if Pirates finds a forever home, or even just a temporary one in New Orleans celebrating the land of clean slate, the blank canvas, the new beginning, as the Major General declares in his proration, so be it. If, even though savvy Savoyards might approve, a more positive review comes from Adam Feldman of Time Out New York, who gave the show four to five stars and, as is kind of his want, wrote his review in verse. Let me hopefully do this properly, he said. The modern world is full of stress, so go and have a party bra and shake it like a necklace made of gaudy beads at Mardi Gras and enjoy this Broadway hybrid that is tuneful and poetical, a most delightful model of a modern operaticle. Bravo. Ad on. I'm not going to read the rest of that, though.
- [04:16]
Grace Aki
If you want to go and put.
- [04:18]
Matt Timminini
It to the modern Major General melody.
- [04:21]
Grace Aki
You can feel free.
- [04:23]
Matt Timminini
Well done there. Christian Lewis, writing for Variety, was positive, saying there might be a few bumpy waves in this pyretical adaptation, but the Booty is well worth the effort. Even though it is unlikely to spur a trend of Gilbert and Sullivan revivals, this production wholly justifies itself, providing a hearty dose of musical comedy fun and absolutely earning the exclamation point in its title. Greg Evans of Deadline was also positive, saying if the cast seems instructed to play just a tad broadly and hit the jokes a touch too hard and the second act runs a bit too long, well, the overzealousness does little to dampen the overall joyous vibe. And just when things might start to lag, Pierce arrives, nailing every pun, every every aside to the audience, every double take and every droll observation. He's a treasure. And one of the things that is universally mentioned throughout all of the reviews is just how wonderful David Hyde Pierce is. Which is no surprise. But they are such great reviews. And again, I've not seen this production yet. You do have to start to imagine that he is climbing up towards, if not at the top, of, the Tony consideration. The question is going to be whether or not he is in the Best Actor in a musical or best Featured Actor in a Musical category. Because as Greg Evans mentioned in his review, it takes a while for David Hyde Pierce to show up. I do believe he's at the very beginning of the show in kind of a frame, which I won't spoil, but then he kind of disappears and comes in considerably later. He is above the title according to the opening night title page. So either the Tony Administrative Committee can decide to move him down into featured because of stage time, or roundabout could petition to have him moved down if they would like. But until we get the ruling on which category he will be in, I think it's a little hard to predict some of the Tony nominations and Tony wins at this point. But either way, I certainly think that David Hyde Pierce is going to be a lock for a nomination and depending on which category he's in, very well could be the front runner for a Tony. Now, getting back to the reviews, I will give you a little bit from the one negative review. It comes from Zachary Stewart, who reviewed the show for Theater Mania. He said, quote, rather than a slave of duty, Pirates is the servant of too many Gilbert and Sullivan, Dixieland jazz, milquetoast liberalism and the tourism lobby New Orleans & Co. Which kindly sponsored this production. The recipe is for a jambalaya of disparate flavors that come together in delicious harmony. The finished product is operetta as political compromise in which everyone gets a little taste of what they want, but never enough to be truly satisfied.
- [06:53]
Grace Aki
I will wrap up with a positive.
- [06:55]
Matt Timminini
Review from Johnny Oleksinski of the New York Post, who wrote the Continental Leap, dusts off the 145-year-old operetta and gives it an energetic oomph of swing and ragtime music and the stage is brightened up by hot sauce pops of purple, yellow and fiery red. Director Scott Ellis's boisterous romp is not groundbreaking in the way the Joseph Pat produced 1980 revival was, but it has the same irreverent spirit and perpetually ridiculous tale. So this sounds like it is a great time, and that's essentially what I've heard from everybody who has seen it, including a friend who is at the very first preview. It's a fun time. I don't imagine that despite these reviews, that this is actually going to contend for best revival of a musical. Certainly probably going to get a nomination, but I still think that that one is essentially locked for Sunset Boulevard. With all due respect to all the other contenders, this Gypsy, Once Upon a Mattress, Last five years, Floyd Collins, even.
- [07:50]
Grace Aki
Elf, all those things.
- [07:52]
Matt Timminini
I still think that that category is essentially sewn up for Sunset, but between Pearson and many of the other aspects, I would not be surprised if this has a rather hearty take of Tony nominations come next week. If you would like to read more of these and other reviews, I will have both the Did They Like It Aggregation as well as the Broadway World Review Roundup in the show Notes for.
- [08:14]
Grace Aki
You to check out. All right, if you are listening to.
- [08:17]
Matt Timminini
This episode in Patreon, thank you so much for checking out this standalone episode. If you are listening in the regular feed, I will now send you over to the rest of Today on Broadway.
- [08:27]
Grace Aki
Welcome to Today on Broadway for Friday, April 25, 2025. I'm Broadway Radio's Matt Tammanini and I'm.
- [08:32]
Christian Lewis
Tell Me on the Sunday podcast Grace Aki Grace.
- [08:35]
Grace Aki
As we are recording on Thursday, we.
- [08:37]
Matt Timminini
Are getting ready to have Pirates the.
- [08:38]
Grace Aki
Penzance Musical open at the Todd Haymes Theater on Thursday night. As I mentioned on yesterday's episode, we are going to do a review free episode of Today on Broadway here. This will go into Patreon. So if you're hearing this in Patreon, the reviews will come in a separate episode. Later on I'm going to see the national tour of the Lion King at the Dr. Phillips center for the Performing Arts in Orlando. But if you're listening to this in the regular feed, the reviews will be a part of this so you will not have to do anything different to hear all of that stuff as well. But very excited about that. I have heard just wild things about that show, so I'm looking forward to.
- [09:09]
Matt Timminini
Checking that out here in a couple weeks.
- [09:11]
Grace Aki
But let's dive into the news Grace, because yesterday we got some information about one of the first honorary Tony Awards that is going to be presented this year. And this goes to iconic actor and playwright and librettist Harvey Fiers, who will be awarded the special Tony Award for lifetime achievement in the theater. He has won four Tonys. He's been nominated a slew of other times. Four other times, in fact. He has a Tony Award for Best Play for Torch Song Trilogy. He has a Best Actor award for Torch Song Trilogy. He has Best Book of a Musical for La Cage Aux Fall, and he has a Best Actor in a Musical for Hairspray. He was also nominated for. For Best Book of a Musical for both Newsies and Kinky Boots, Best Play for Casa Valentina. And as the writer of Torch Song in the Best Revival of a play category, Grace, I think this is something that's long overdue. But he is also one of those people who kind of has transcended theater and has become one of the kind of stalwarts of all aspects of Broadway. And he's been vocal and outspoken at championing causes for decades. I first became aware of him as Robin Williams, brother in Mrs. Doubtfire. Just an absolute icon of all things theater. And I think this is long overdue, especially because he has excelled in nearly every aspect of creating theater, as both a writer of plays, a writer of musicals, and as an actor in both plays and musicals as well.
- [10:45]
Christian Lewis
Yeah. I just want to say that I have been such a fan of his for years. It makes me so happy that he's getting his flowers in this way. But I think that for a long time, he's just been especially, hey, listen, nobody forgets that he wrote Newsies. Like, I'm just such a. Such a big fan of all of his work, and I think that it's really, really well deserved. I love that this is happening. I also love that it's happening in spite of. I mean, listen, this person has attributed so much to queer art and queer theater specifically, that I think it does make a very bold, exciting public statement on national television that we are honoring him in this moment in our country. And I think that that's very exciting.
- [11:23]
Grace Aki
Yeah, absolutely. All right, moving on, Grace. Something that is equally exciting and something that I think will have a lot of people lining up, or actually, let's say, queuing up over in London because it was announced that Paddington will be coming to the stage in Paddington the Musical. We'd previously talked about this, but now we know that it will begin performances at London Savoy Theatre on November 1. The creative team is being led by director Luke Shepard, who is represented on Broadway currently with Ann Juliet. The music and lyrics are written by Tom Fletcher, who is from the boy band McFly. Something. I. I'm not aware of that band, but choreography is going to be done by Ellen Kane. Now, Grace, I have a little bit of a. Of a confession to make.
- [12:10]
Matt Timminini
I have not watched any of the Paddington movies, and I know that that.
- [12:13]
Grace Aki
Is sacrilegious to a lot of people, but I know they're beloved. Like Paddington 2, I think had, like, for a long time had 100% score on rotten Tomatoes. So they've got high expectations to live up to with Paddington the musical. But this one is exciting because people love those movies. And we have seen Luke Shepard as a director, really be able to kind of thread the needle between fun and heartfelt and a little bit of pop culture reference as well.
- [12:41]
Christian Lewis
Yeah, I'm thrilled about this. Obviously, I think that the music's gonna be really strong. I think that the nostalgia for people, regardless of what age you are, is gonna be really strong. Because as you all know, many people have Paddington 2 in their top four on Letterboxd. So this is not coming out of left field for a lot of. I think that you'll be able to take your girlfriends. I mean, I'm ready to cry. I cannot wait to go to this show.
- [13:04]
Grace Aki
Specifically, like, cannot wa back to New York. And yesterday we got the third member of the upcoming cast of Jamie Lloyd's production of Waiting for Godot that is going to be on Broadway. We already knew that Keanu Reeves and Alex Winters were going to reunite in the show. Now we know who is going to be playing Lucky, and that is actor Michael Patrick Thornton. Thornton is the co founder for Chicago's Gift Theater, and he made his Broadway debut in the 20 production of Macbeth. And he was also seen in Jamie Lloyd's production of A doll's house in 2023. If you remember, he is the actor who is a wheelchair user. He had two spinal strokes at the age of 24, and so he uses a wheelchair. I think this is a very interesting way to portray the character of Lecky, who is an enslaved person, but is known for being incredibly clever with his words and very eloquent. So I thought he was fantastic in. And adding him in there, not only with Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter, but also in another show directed by Jamie Lloyd, should be pretty exciting.
- [14:12]
Christian Lewis
I loved his performance in A Doll's House. I thought he was exceptional. Like, I wanted to see him in 100 more plays. So I'm very excited for him to be a part of this production specifically. Like, he was so good in that show that I'm glad that we're getting him back.
- [14:27]
Grace Aki
All right, moving on to some other pretty exciting news. I'll be honest with you.
- [14:30]
Matt Timminini
There's a little bit of this story.
- [14:31]
Grace Aki
That'S a little surprising to me. Yesterday we got confirmation that the new musical that is being written by Gloria and Emily Estefan, not Emilio, Gloria and her daughter Emily, they are writing a new musical that is going to be making its world premiere at the Alliance Theater in Atlanta next summer to begin.
- [14:48]
Matt Timminini
Performances on May 30 and is currently.
- [14:50]
Grace Aki
Scheduled to run through July 12. It is called Busada, and it is based on a true story of what is known as Paraguay's Recycled Orchestra, in which a bunch of young musicians take scrap metal and make musical instruments out of it. The show features a book that'll be written by playwright Karen Zakarias. And what's interesting to me is that Michael Greif is going to direct this, and he is not the first person that would come to mind to me because of what he did early in his career was very serious, kind of dark, heavy musicals. But as we've seen with things like the Notebook and Hell's Kitchen, he really has kind of come into an era of his career where he is kind of being able to thread the needle with kind of serious subject matter, but also kind of sentimental stuff as well. So I think this will be very interesting. Patricia Delgado will choreograph, and arrangements will be done by Alex Lacamore and Ken Cerniglia. We don't really have any. No news about casting at this point, but I imagine that with the pool of the Estefans, that this should have a pretty exciting cast when it comes to stage in Atlanta next summer. All right, let's go from Atlanta over to St. Louis. And yesterday we got the first real big casting announcements for the summer season at St. Louis's Muny Theater, directed by John Tartaglia, who I actually saw him do a production of Frozen here in Florida earlier this year. John Tartags is going to be doing another version of Frozen at the gigantic Muni Theater. And as his princess Anna will be original Princess Anna Patty Murin. She's going to be joined by Hannah Corneo as Elsa. Jelani Remy, not to be confused with Jelani Aladdin, who did it on Broadway, but Jelani Remy as Kristoff, Bobby Conti as Hans Kennedy, Kanagawa as Olaf, Andrew A. Kano as Sven, Jared Gertner, always one of my favorites, as Weselton, and then Malia Strawbridge and Isla Turner as young Elsa and Anna, respectively. The rest of the casting will be announced at a later date, but this show is currently scheduled to run from July 6th through the 14th. Having sat through multiple shows at the Muny in the height of the summer, a little snowstorm and a little cold spell would probably do those 11,000 people in the audience quite well. And in our continued move from east to west, let's head out to Hollywood because yesterday we had the announce that the Chloe Zhao directed film adaptation of the novel Hamnet has secured its release date and it will be happening in the peak of awards season as it will open in limited release on November 27th before expanding nationwide on December 12th. The film is based on Maggie O'Farrell's 2020 novel of the same name and it will star Paul Mescal and Jesse Buckley as William Shakespeare and his wife. Also in the film will be Joe Alwyn and Jacoby Jupe. I have only started reading this book. It was one of these books race where I started to read it or listen to it as an audiobook and it was too wordy and I had to put it down and I haven't been able to pick up the book yet. But this gives me some motivation to check out the book and get it read before awards season this year. But anything with Paul Mesko right now, anything directed by Chloe Zhao is something to pay attention to. But very excited about this one. And there's recently also a stage adaptation that was on stage in London, so lots of Hamnet going around right now. Have you, did you see the play.
- [18:05]
Matt Timminini
Or did you read the book or.
- [18:05]
Grace Aki
Anything with this one?
- [18:07]
Christian Lewis
Grace no, no, no, no. I don't know it at all.
- [18:10]
Grace Aki
So it is like theoretically based on the true story of the death of William Shakespeare's son Hamnet, who then went on to inspire the play Hamlet. I think there is quite a bit of artistic liberties taken with that story for this book, but as I said, haven't read it, but looking forward to it. All right, Grace, our recommendations today are very different, but I think things that people are really going to like. We previously talked about the fact that earlier this week maybe happy ending had to have a medical hold and then the stars of the show came out and did a concert. Well, the very next day Nicole Scherzinger had to do something similar at Sunset Boulevard because they had technical issues and they had to cancel the matinee. However, not to leave the audience with nothing. Nicole Scherzinger came out and saying with one look through a bullhorn. And if you had told me that this is the way that Jamie Lloyd had actually decided to stage it, I would not have been surprised because it actually kind of looks pretty natural. So certainly not a way that the audience wanted to come in and sit down on a Wednesday matinee only to find out that they weren't going to see the show. But another one of those cool. It could only happen in theater moments, Grace, that they're probably going to remember for a long time. We do have video of it if you want to check it out. It is a pretty incredible Broadway moment.
- [19:24]
Christian Lewis
Yeah. Like, I think it's wild that these two things are happening in succession. I. I hope there's nothing bad in the air or scary, but I do think it is kind of sweet timing in terms of just like, hey, we're kind of at the end of our beginning of our next race. You know what I mean? Like, we. These shows have. Have started in the fall. They've had all this momentum. There's a lot going on on the street. There's new shows happening every day. And it's kind of nice to just be human for a second, to say, hey, at the end of the day, we are just regular people on a stage and what we can do is sing, you know, So I really appreciated their. Them doing that for those audience members.
- [20:06]
Grace Aki
And to continue with the Actors on Actors series from Variety, yesterday, they had the succession release where Sarah Snook and Kieran Culkin talked. I've seen clips of it. I haven't watched the whole thing yet because these things are fairly long. But I'm sure, Grace, that this will be something that you will take a look at as soon as humanly possible.
- [20:25]
Christian Lewis
I'm kind of living for the fact that these. I'm living for the fact that, like, on Variety is TikTok, because I don't have a full hour to sit down. But they're just like, clipping these out. And all the show accounts are kind of clipping them out, so I'm able to get bites of things. And like, one of the moments that I've really loved is, like, Patti LuPone and like, George Clooney talking about cell phones in the audience. And it's just so funny that, like, multiple people have brought up technology in the audience, which means that, like, it's really systemic. Like, people are noticing these things and like, the. The actors on stage that have never had to deal with this, are now dealing with it constantly. And I do wonder if after this there will be some type of shift in terms of how those things can hopefully be avoided. I don't know. But it is interesting that a lot of people have brought it up in an actors on actors conversation. You know what I mean?
- [21:18]
Grace Aki
Yeah. Yeah, it is interesting. Obviously Patti is kind of notorious at the center of that conversation, but yeah, it is great. So I'm looking forward to watching all of them when I have an opportunity. But like you said, they are pretty long. But Grace, you have had a very busy week. One of the things you did this week on Wednesday is took some arts insiders back to the KitKat club to see the new stars of Cabaret. They saw Orville Peck and Eva Obalzada. And I had a friend after they saw it on Wednesday night text and say that if Eva had originated the role of Sally Bowles in this production, that she would have easily won the Tony Award. She is just that good in the show.
- [21:56]
Christian Lewis
They were both really phenomenal. I really enjoyed their interpretations. I also got to see a standby or I think a swing or an understudy on for Cliff. He was excellent. I'm forgive me for forgetting his name in this moment. Really loved his performance. I think that Eva's got this in her bones. I think that she's. I've seen her perform in multiple cabaret settings where she sang cabaret. She has very clearly always wanted to play this role and it's very evident. I loved Orville's whimsy. I loved his voice. I loved his timbre. I loved his twang. I think it's worthwhile if you have already seen it and you like this production to go back to the Kit Kat Club. I really do.
- [22:30]
Grace Aki
Yeah. It's just so smart that they keep bringing people in and very excited for the next cast announcements to see who is going to follow them up because every time it just seems to keep getting better and better. All right, everybody, that is all that.
- [22:43]
Matt Timminini
We have for today.
- [22:43]
Grace Aki
Thanks for listening to Today on Broadway. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram Rodri Radio. Grace, where can people find you?
- [22:48]
Christian Lewis
You can find me @ It's Graceauch.
- [22:49]
Grace Aki
All right, everybody, if you are listening in Patreon, check back for the reviews for Pirates of Penzance musical. If you are listening in the regular feed, you have already heard them. So either way, have a wonderful Friday, a wonderful weekend. We'll be back to talk to you on Monday.
- [23:10]
Chris Gethard
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