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Today on Broadway: Friday, Aug. 1, 2025
00:24:40
‘Maybe Happy Ending’ writers issue statement, ‘Liberation’ to come to Broadway, Gad out of Hollywood Bowl ‘Superstar’ Since 2016, “Today on Broadway” has been the first and only daily podcast recapping the top theatre headlines every Monday through Fri...
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- [00:02]
Matt Tamminini
Welcome to Today on Broadway for Friday, August 1, 2025. I'm Broadway Radio's Matt Tamminini and I'm.
- [00:08]
Grace
Tell Me on a Sunday Podcast Grace.
- [00:09]
Matt Tamminini
Ake Grace, this is another summer Friday. That means that there will not be an episode of Today on Broadway on Monday. However, there will be a new episode of Some Like It Pop in the podcast feed on Patreon on Sunday night, the normal time when Today on Broadway episodes drop. So 8pm on Sunday, Jennifer McHugh and I will talk about our favorite pop culture things from the month of July. And for the first time in of our 10 years of podcasting together, we have landed on the same thing in a month and it's the first time it's ever happened. So you will want to hear all about that by heading over to patreon.com broadwayradio broadwayradio.com patreon and signing up at the Mezzanine Tier and above. All right, Grace, There's a ton of news that we want to get to in terms of castings and uncastings and things like that, but the biggest story in the theatrical landscape right now is the fact that Will Aronson and Hugh park, the writers of May Ending, have issued a statement in regard to the controversy and concern around the casting of Andrew Barth Feldman in the role of Oliver in the Tony Award winning musical. As we talked about I think a week or so ago, Andrew Barth Feldman is going to step into the role of Oliver for a nine week run where he will replace Darren Criss. And from what I have heard, Darren Criss will then come back after that run to resume the role. Andrew is going to be playing opposite his partner Helen J. Shin, who is going to be continuing with the show. The concern that many people had is that because the show is set in Korea and Darren Criss is of an Asian American background that by casting a white man in the role of Oliver that that is undermining some of the gains that AAPI people in general, but especially male actors saw as a benefit of this show and saw as a bright spot in what is often a difficult landscape for AAPI actors to be cast as leads in Broadway shows. That has led to a lot of online discourse, even people talking about boycotts and things like that. But Aronson and Park issued a lengthy statement on social media and I will link to it and you can read the whole thing, but I'm going to read parts of it here for you now. They said, quote, our dream at the outset was that our allegorical robot show could one day miraculously become part of the American musical theater canon. A modern Fantasticks able to be comfortably performed by anyone, anywhere, yet distinctly set in Korea. This went against prevailing wisdom that we needed to set our show in America. We wrote a show about robots so we could engage more intimately with the most basic human questions of love and loss, creating the roles of Oliver and Claire to be avatars of these universal questions. They were meant to be products created by a global company talking about the helper bots and so never bore Korean names, even in the Korean version of the show. At the same time, we understand that for many in the AAPI community, the makeup of our opening night cast became a meaningful and rare point of visibility. We've heard how strongly people connected to that representation, even if it wasn't our original intent, and how this casting decision has reopened old wounds throughout the American development. We tried various approaches to casting. At some points along the journey, we cast the roles explicitly as Asian, thinking that it might help make setting more quickly apparent. However, on seeing that, we also were not satisfied to say that seeing any Asian actor on stage quickly suggests Korea seemed not only like a stretch, but regressive or even offensive to the uniqueness of Korean culture. By the time we came to Broadway with a set design filled with Korean language, the robot roles were once again ethnically undefined. And our Broadway casting breakdown reflected that the actors were cast because they fit the roles. In Oliver Darren's case, it was his ability to project boyishness and innocence with a not leading man Broadway belt style of voice. And they go on to talk about some other shows that have recently had Asian actors in lead roles and how they were gratified by that. And they wrapped up by saying, quote, we're extremely saddened that the show, a decade long labor of love for us, could ever become a source of confusion, anger or pain. We hope this gives a small window into our own thought process in the creation of maybe Happy Ending. We're so grateful for the artists and audiences who've embraced this story and we will continue our conversations as maybe Happy Ending continues its journey on stage. Grace, I think this is, I think, a conversation that a lot of people are rightfully having around this show. And me being a white guy, I can only look at it from the outside. You have much more insight into this as this has been a cause that has been near and dear to your heart for as long as I've known you and as long as you've been here on Broadway radio. But I do Think that adding in the voices of the creators of the show, of the writers of the show, of course, one of whom is Korean, is important to heaven. Is it going to change the pain that some people have felt because of this? Probably not. But I do think it is an important factor into understanding where the decision to cast Andrew Barth Feldman as Oliver comes from.
- [05:29]
Grace
Yeah, and I can't speak to any of the choices made because I'm, you know, not a part of that in any capacity. I think that what's. What is unfortunate about any and all conversations that are not glowing about the show is that for the past year, it has really been this profound movement of positivity for the Asian community. And anything that could possibly not feel that way is just heartbreaking. I think that that's like, ultimately, like, you know, intent over impact and things like that, that I think that our conversations continue on beyond this. And this is not. This is not a brand new thing to be discussed. It's not a brand new problem. It's not a brand new circumstance. I know a lot of people have, like, compared a lot of this conversation to Great Comet, but it's in no way like that, in my opinion. Josh Groban originated the part that was challenging for recasting for some. I think that it was a totally different conversation. And I think that most importantly, like, Asian men have been overwhelmingly marginalized in the space of Broadway and commercial theater. Full stop. That is that. That is not a dig on any current climate. That is just a factual thing based on data that romantic leads are the least opportune role for an Asian male actor. And I think that even for circumstances, circumstances or, you know, just whatever you want to call it, even writer, you know, implications, whatever it might be at the end of the day, and an opportunity for that representation was removed. And I think that the conversation moving forward needs to be if and when and why and how are we having these conversations preemptively before something like this creates blowback? Because ultimately, we don't want a community that has felt so seen by this show to feel pain by any choices made.
- [07:25]
Matt Tamminini
You know, I think the. You know, I said earlier that the author's intentions are, I think, very important in these conversations, because no matter how much an audience or a framework fandom loves a show, nobody knows or cares about an artistic project more than the people who created it. So I think that those opinions by Will and Hugh are really important. But the other side of that is they do seem to be fairly set in their stance on this. It doesn't seem to be a whole lot of wiggle room. They didn't necessarily apologize for the decision that they made. They certainly seem to be remorseful about how hurt people were, and I think that's genuine. But the other side of it being their show is that once you do turn it out into the world, it becomes the audience's show, it becomes the community show, becomes the culture's show. And I think that the thing that has been very evident throughout this whole saga is that not only has the theater community embraced this show, but the smaller subset of Asian fans, Asian artists in that community, have really adopted this show and have really embraced it because the show seems to have embraced them not only in the casting, but in the. The way it's been marketed, in the way that they have highlighted a lot of the firsts that come along with this show. So it's interesting because I think there's, you know, certainly not only the. The author's intentions. I think you could probably make a fairly strong dramaturgical point. Point why Oliver would be a white robot because the. I forget his owner's name. Marcus Choi's character's affinity for American crooners like you could probably make that argument. It would make sense. But I do think that no matter what the intentions are, which I do think were genuinely heartfelt and good natured and progressive, of them to want the robot parts to be cast regardless of race, I think that the opposite side of that, like on the other side of turning that over into the world, I do feel like that part of the equation and shows impact has been lost in this statement. Yeah. And Chris Tamayo, who is a standby in the show, put out a nice statement reminding people that, you know, this is still a show that employs a number of Asian people on stage and offstage as well. And that his fear of the. I'll just read it. He said, I fear the online discourse has lost the plot. In trying to highlight a larger issue, it has inadvertently undermining the very thing that we want to hold dear and preserve for opportunities for all of us. I really can't help that I am Asian. I can't help that I'm here. But the vilification that has dominated these conversations has to be redirected at the larger systemic issues that exist throughout the entire entirety of our industry, not at the expense of the very real artists and real people working in the building to help tell this story. And I think that goes directly to what you were saying. Like the issue is undeniable. Like that's not a question. And it would be awful not only to see a blowback on the good feelings that maybe Happy Ending has had since it arrived on Broadway, you know, getting close to a year ago, but also to have a negative impact at the box office and to potentially lead to a shorter run for the show, therefore, probably leading to fewer opportunities for Asian artists. So I think that there's a lot to go into this conversation, whether it is the feelings of the authors, feelings of the community, feelings of artists, feelings of just theatergoers, but it is one that probably needs to continue to be had. And I don't think that this is going to be the end of it because I will not be surprised if there's casting, presumably if Darren comes back, if he leaves again and it keeps running, what's the casting going to be? What's the casting going to be like for a national tour? All of those things. I think that this will be something that a lot of people are looking at and we will probably revisit this as a community numerous times throughout the run of this show. All right, going to some things that are a little bit more exciting. We got a new Broadway show added to the 2025, 2026 season, and it was one of the most acclaimed Off Broadway last season. And that is Bess Wall's show, Liberation. It will be coming to the James Earl Jones Theater, beginning performances on October 8th. It will again be directed by the wonderful Whitney White, and it is going to feature the Off Broadway cast. And even though it says that the cast and creative team are going to be announced later, I am being led to believe that nearly all, if not every single person from both the cast and creative team will be back for that run. It is a show that takes in the 1970s in Ohio, but also has some kind of like, frame story time bending thing with a woman trying to tell the story of her mother and her women's liberation group during the 70s. Grace, did you see this one Off Broadway?
- [12:41]
Grace
It's funny because I got to work on a lot of the content, but because it was selling out, I didn't get to sit and see it. So I'm a little. I'm really excited that we're going to continue. I get to work on it for the Broadway transfer, so I'm really excited.
- [12:54]
Matt Tamminini
Very cool. Yeah, it's a very, very good show and everything about it is impressive. It's a great piece of writing. I think Bestewell is amazing. I think Whitney White is a fantastic director. All of the performers are Wonderful. I will just tell you, though, I have never been more glued to a show's intermission than this one. So I'm hoping that it can be as impressive on Broadway as it was off Broadway. If you know, you know. And if not, you will figure it out when it comes to Broadway. All right, going from Broadway over to London, this is an interesting development that we've actually talked about, probably happening before, but Gatsby Colon, An American Myth, which is the Florence Welsh, Martina Mayo version of the Great Gatsby that played at the American Repertory Theater last year, is going to be continuing on in its journey, probably aiming for Broadway at some point, but it is not going to be coming to New York next. Actually, I think, like yesterday and today there is a reading planned for that show which is being led not by the art director, Rachel Chavkin, nor the original British director, Rebecca Frecknell, who had been on board before Rachel Chavkin got involved. But it is being directed by Tony Award winner David Cromer. So he is helming this reading, which I would assume means that we are probably going to see it in London before we see it in New York. That's not guaranteed, but that's what I have been led to believe, not only by this casting or by this reading announcement, but also kind of the vibes that I'm hearing that it'll be in London at some point this season and then come to Broadway thereafter. What's also interesting is that Grammy Award nominee Thomas Bartlett, who had contributed music and lyrics to the production in Cambridge, is no longer listed, at least not in the press release for this show. Of course, this has nothing to do with the Great Gatsby musical that is currently playing both in London and on Broadway and soon in South Korea. But more Gatsby. It's interesting that we've got kind of a third director working on this as the art production, I guess, didn't live up to the expectations that they had. So hopefully David can work it into the shape that everybody has, and we can see it first in the West End and then on Broadway soon. All right, Grace, we do have some disappointing news, especially for a bunch of people in California, because we have the incredible Hollywood bowl production of Jesus Christ Superstar, which the Hollywood bowl has said is intended to kind of kickstart or restart their annual summer musical series. We have all of these stars involved with it, Cynthia Rivo, Adam Lambert, all of those kind of folks. Philippa Soo. But unfortunately, the previously announced Josh Gad has had to drop out of the show because he's been diagnosed with COVID He posted a statement on social media which was in all caps. So you knew that he was very, very upset about that. I have not heard yet, Grace, as to who is going to be replacing him, although it starts tonight. Have you heard anything about this?
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Grace
Not even a little bit. I'm curious. Call Alice Cooper back up. He got it down for live. Do it again.
- [16:06]
Matt Tamminini
Yeah, but it was terrible. No, it was terrible.
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Grace
Agree to disagreement.
- [16:12]
Matt Tamminini
I mean, you're a little biased. F was in Jesus Christ Superstar Live. I understand, but.
- [16:18]
Grace
And Alice Cooper was there. He was there. I don't know. I just don't want to know. Listen, if you're going to lose a part, that one is maybe the most replaceable. I love Josh, but I think that. No, I'm saying that, like, it's some. You can get someone in. To come in and do that.
- [16:37]
Matt Tamminini
Okay. Yeah, that's what I'm saying. I'm not saying he's. No, no, no, no, no. You're absolutely right. It's one song. And unless you're doubling as something else, which I can't imagine, Josh Gad would have been that you can have somebody come in and do it pretty easily. And I wouldn't be surprised if there's somebody in the cast already who could. Who could do it. But that part is so hard to get right, as far as I'm concerned. I saw production.
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Grace
Agreed, agreed. But you can, like, come in and do it if you've got somebody.
- [17:04]
Matt Tamminini
Yes, you're absolutely right. Absolutely right. All right, let's talk about some show and casting news. And this is pretty interesting. Deadline exclusively reported that a new play called and Then We Were no More is going to be coming to La Mama this September, Off Broadway. Not only is it going to star the always wonderful Elizabeth Marvel, but it was actually written by actor and author Tim Blake Nelson, who I didn't know was a writer at all. But it is going to begin performances on September 19th. It is a limited engagement, but I do not yet see anywhere where they have said how long it is going to be. The plot description reads thusly. In the not too distant future, a lawyer is forced to represent a prisoner deemed, quote, beyond rehabilitation and destined to perish in a newly developed machine designed to execute without pain. The attorney must strive for justice and a system devoid of mercy. In addition to Marvel, also in the cast are some folks you might know. Scott Shepard, Jennifer Mogbach, Henry Stram, and more. So interested to see about that. And I did not know Tim Blake Nelson MCU star in his own right, was a writer, so I'm kind of fascinated by that.
- [18:14]
Grace
He's also directed some. Like, he directed an episode of Poker Face. Like, he's. He's directed a little bit. And I think that through his collaboration with the Coen brothers, especially, like, it makes sense that he's also, like, a writer. You know what I mean? But I agree. This is cool.
- [18:27]
Matt Tamminini
Yeah, very cool. All right, the next little bit of show and casting news comes to us Off Broadway as well. And this is a return return of an off Broadway show. The Exorcist parody musical. Exorcistic, the rock musical will return Off Broadway beginning later this month on my Dad's birthday, actually, August 25th. It is a horror comedy show that very much understands that it is poking fun at the original source material. The show had previously played off Broadway in 2023. This time around, it is going to star Emma Hunton, who is always fantastic, and it is going to feature a rotating group of guest stars, including some names like Lance Bass, Jamie Sapiro, Garrett Clayton, Deanna Giulietti, Frankie Grande, Lena Hall, Lindsay Heather Pierce, Steven Taylor, Nina West, Marissa Jarrett Winoker Evan Rachel Wood, and more. And there are others, some that haven't even been announced yet. So very interesting. I love these parody musicals. When they're done well, when they are good, they are really, really good. Obviously, we've seen Titanique, but also things like Cruel Intentions are always really fun. So I didn't see this one the first time around, Grace, but with a rotating cast of guest stars like that, I might have to just pop in and see what it's all about.
- [19:46]
Grace
I love stuff like this. I really do. I was actually talking about Cruel Intentions the other day, and I don't know. This is a form of theater that I think that if it weren't so costly to put anything up, I feel like these types of opportunities and shows would be more regular. And that's what I wish there was rotating theater space in New World Stages for something like this. Like, every two months, there is a different show that gets bachelorette trips, like, excited. I don't know.
- [20:14]
Matt Tamminini
Yeah, like, almost like, if it's New World Stages or whatever, they have, you know, artists in residence where they are just kind of, like, churning these things out because you still have to, obviously, pay for the rights to the songs, but because you're not focusing so much on just one artist's catalog, you can have a little bit more flexibility. And then because it is being defined as a parody, you get around some of the copyright issues and royalty issues and stuff like that as well. So I think that's a brilliant idea, and I would love to see that. All right, last little story here. Grace comes to us in the form of another reading. This one is for a new musical called Prodigal Daughters. It's a musical from Elizabeth A. Davis, who is a Broadway performer in her own right, and country music star Lauren Daigle. They are going to have a reading. They actually had it yesterday at the Sheen center, and none other than Jason Daniely directed it. It has a score that features country, Cajun and pop. It explores, quote, the ancient alchemy of loss, forgiveness, and eventual renewal in the American South. It stars Carolee Carmelo as well as David Abels, Mark Jacoby, Cassandra James, Timothy H. Lee, Megan Loomis, and more. So anything that Kara Lee is in is always exciting. Jason Daniely directing is great, but we always talk about how we want to see more interpolation of not only country music, but country music writers into the theater space. And having someone like Lauren Daigle, who is probably a couple years older than you, Grace, in her early 30s, but has been in the country music scene for more than half her life, I think is really interesting to bring those sensibilities into a theater space.
- [21:57]
Grace
I always like when we can work with different performers or writers in different mediums that come from different backgrounds, because I think that that's how we make the wide berth of musical theater canon right now more interesting, because when things start to sound the same, it's kind of exhausting. But the fact that there are these different artists that want to be involved, I think it's a blessing and not. I don't think it's exclusionary to musical theater writers or composers. I think this is a good opportunity.
- [22:26]
Matt Tamminini
Absolutely. Speaking of a good opportunity, Grace, I don't have a recommendation, but I do want you to share with folks what you are doing this weekend.
- [22:35]
Grace
I am very excited to say that I am going to what's arguably the largest theatrical endeavor of my life, which is to see SummerSlam at MetLife in New Jersey. I am very excited. Please understand that if you follow me on Anywhere, which is race hockey, you will be inundated with wrestling content, and I hope that it makes your theater art happy.
- [22:58]
Matt Tamminini
What match are you most looking forward to?
- [23:01]
Grace
So I'm personally looking forward to the Jade Cargill and Tiffy Time match, because that's on Saturday, and that's the one I'll be at. So I'm. That's the one I'M looking forward to seeing in person because they're both similar as performers, so who knows.
- [23:19]
Matt Tamminini
Yes, that's a very good one. Also, very much looking forward to the six pack tables, ladders and chairs match, which has I think like 12 people in it. That one is going to be absolutely bonkers with how crazy and over the top that one is, so I cannot wait to see that one. And your boy Dom Mysterio is in action too, so. So that one should be fun. Also, I have to say, Alexa Bliss, I think you're going to see her compete for the WWE Women's Tag Team Championships along with Charlotte Flair. Alexa Bliss, central Ohio native, went to high school with my cousin, so always root for Alexa Bliss because of that. And also if you're a fan of like early aughts pop music, she is married to the one and only Ryan Cabrera. So lots of angles to come at this SummerSlam event for Grace. All right, everybody, that's all that we have for today. Thanks for listening to Today on Broadway. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, rodwayradio. And if you want more BroadwayRadio, head over to patreon.com broadwayradiograce where can people find you?
- [24:18]
Grace
You can find me at Grace Hockey.
- [24:19]
Matt Tamminini
All right, everybody, remember, no today on Broadway on Monday, but there will be a Patreon exclusive episode on Sunday night. So head over there to get that and we'll be back to talk to you on Tuesday.