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Today on Broadway: Friday, Aug. 22, 2025
00:16:32
Edebiri, Cheadle to bring ‘Proof’ back to Broadway; Squibb, Nixon, Burstein in ‘Marjorie Prime’; Jasmine Amy Rogers to lead ‘Spelling Bee’ Since 2016, “Today on Broadway” has been the first and only daily podcast recapping the top theatre headlines eve...
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Matt Tamminini
T Mobile welcome to Today on Broadway for Friday, August 22, 2025. I'm Broadway Radio's Matt Tamminini and I'm.
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Grace
Tell Me on a Sunday podcast Grace.
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Matt Tamminini
Ake Grace Just a reminder for everybody that this is another summer Friday, so we will be off on Monday from Today on Broadway. But if you want to make sure that you have new content in your ears, head over to patreon.com broadwayradio broadwayradio.com patreon and in the normal Today on Broadway patreon spot at 8pm on Sunday night there will be a conversation that I recently had with our good friend social media icon extraordinaire and influencer Ashley Hufford. She did, I believe the total was 40 or 50 shows in like 12 days on a European tour that included London, Amsterdam, I believe and the Edinburgh French Festival. So she has a ton of stuff to talk about. And then she also tells me about how a certain reimagined immersive show of the longest running musical in Broadway history is the best thing that she's seen in New York all year, which absolutely flabbergasted me. So you'll want to head over to Patreon so that you can hear that. But Grace, let's dive into the news and this week has been a lot and we picked kind of a bad time to take a couple days off because we had a bunch of news that we had to get to yesterday there was one story that we didn't hit that we'll talk about, but we got even more news yesterday that is incredibly exciting because yesterday it was announced that this spring we will get the first ever New York revival of David Auburn's Pulitzer and Tony Award winning play Proof. It'll be directed by Tommy Kail. It'll be playing at a Shubert theater to be named later beginning previews on March 31st. And starring in the show will be Ayo Edebiri and Don Cheadle. They will both be making their Broadway debuts in this show. I also heard, for what it's worth, that a certain performer who has been nominated for four straight Tony Awards and has won two straight Tony Awards will also be in this cast. So take that for what it's worth. This is a fantastic show. It originally played on Broadway with Mary Louise Parker playing the lead role of Catherine, who is a math genius who fears she will struggle with mental illness just as her father did, who. Who is also a genius. And the story revolves around her father's graduate student who becomes intertwined with Catherine as the authenticity of a potentially groundbreaking proof found in her father's papers is questioned. There was also a film adaptation that starred Gwyneth Paltrow, Anthony Hopkins and Jake Gyllenhaal. So very exciting about this, Grace. The fact that Ayo Edebiri is finally making her Broadway debut after just an unbelievably star making Turn on the Bear is fantastic. I'm honestly a little surprised that this is Don Cheadle's Broadway debut, to be quite honest with you. I guess I just didn't realize he's like the one Marvel actor who hadn't been on Broadway. But this is thrilling. This is exciting. This is going to be another incredible show in the best revival of a play category that we are not going to want to miss come spring.
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Grace
I've said this all week, but we are having an excellent play schedule announcement week. Like, between this and, you know, I was just talking about art and how like, that play is coming and very soon, by the way, it Starts performance is August 28th, and I'm just looking at like, you know, a friend of mine is a digital analyst on Broadway and she did not know the play at all. And she was like, wait, there's a whole play about math? I said, oh, buckle up, you. You have no idea.
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Matt Tamminini
Shout out to Dina.
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Grace
Yeah, shout out to my girl Dina. I don't want to blow up her spot, her not knowing the play, but here we are. And honestly, yeah, girl, why don't you know this? But yeah, no, it's really great. And I just. With the cast announcement, proof coming back to Broadway. Excellent news. The cast, even better.
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Matt Tamminini
But if you thought that announcement was just incredible, a great play, great cast. We got another one. Yesterday. We already knew that Marjorie prime was gonna be coming to Broadway via second stage at the Helen Hayes Theater, beginning performances on November 20th, but yesterday we got the cast announcement and it is equally incredible. In the title role of Marjorie prime, is the 96 year old acting icon June Squibb. She will be joined in the cast by Cynthia Nixon, Danny Burstein and Christopher Lowell. This play, of course, was written by Jordan Harrison, is being directed by Ann Kaufman, and Marjorie prime is about an older woman spending her final days with a hologram of her dead husband and piecing together their life with contributions from her family members, which result in varying narratives. This is going to be an interesting one, Grace, because this is the first time that the show will be on Broadway. But we know that that doesn't necessarily mean that it's going to be a new show. It could be a revival. It's interesting because it does fall in 10 years. Ish of when it premiered off Broadway in 2015. So I'm interested. I mean, I think it's probably going to be just over 10 years. So I'm wondering if it will be put into the revival category since it is a completely different production, new cast, all of that stuff. But there was also a film version in 2017 starring Jon Hamm, Tim Robbins, Geena Davis and Lois Smith in the title role. But again, as you said, between this stuff, we talked about Bug yesterday, all of these great shows, many of them probably revivals are being announced right now. And the cast are incredible, the shows are incredible, the playwrights are incredible. I feel like this season is finally starting to get some meat on the bones when it comes to the non musicals.
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Grace
Yeah. And it's something that I've been thinking a lot about of like these revivals, quote unquote, where it's like, okay, maybe 10 years ago, five years ago, 20, 30 years ago, like Bug, never having been on Broadway, gonna be a contender for revival, you know, and so you've got all of these kind of like non brand new plays that are gonna be fighting for those slots come the spring. So I'm really excited about all these prospects because normally it is all the chatter about the musicals the play kind of left in the dust. This year it's starting to feel really great.
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Matt Tamminini
Now this is one of those stories that I mentioned at the top of the show that we did not get to yesterday, but it is very exciting. We got the complete principal casting for the upcoming Off Broadway revival of the 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee that will begin performances on November 17th at New World Stages. It is a limited run, currently scheduled to play through February 15, but if it blows up and does well, I would not be surprised if this is one that can continue playing at New World Stages for many, many years. To Come. As we previously discussed, Kevin McHale from Glee fame is going to be playing William Barfay. Justin Cooley is playing Leif Cony Bear. Felipe Arroyo is playing Chip Tolentino, and Liana Rae Concepcion is playing Marcy Park. All of those folks played these roles at the Kennedy Center Center Stage production that this is kind of being a semi transfer from. Joining them in this production will be Autumn Best as Logan Schwartz and Grubinier, Matt Manuel as Mitch Mahoney, and the Incred nominee, Jasmine Amy Rogers as Olive Ostrovsky. That is, to me, one of the most interesting and compelling roles in musical theater of the past. I don't know, 20 years that goes under the radar. That role is so complex, both acting wise and vocally, that I think someone of Jasmine's talents and stature will just absolutely crush that role. And I guess technically this isn't the complete principal cast because we don't know who's playing either Vice Principal Panch or Rona Peretti. We don't know who those are going to be. But all of the kids in the spelling bee have been announced. So looking forward to this. I think this is fantastic casting. And I guess people are going to have to start setting up shop over at New World Stages because as you've talked about a couple times before, Grace, between this and Heather's and some of the other stuff going on there, like, there's some really exciting things happening at that venue. And I guess we can go see Spelling Bee now. If Jasmine's in it, Boop is closed. Let's go see Spelling Bee.
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Grace
We could go see Bea.
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Matt Tamminini
There you go. That's better. I was trying to get to that. I went to a restaurant with my brother and my aunt and uncle before I got on the cruise last week, and there was a statue of Betty Boop there. And that's the only thing I could think of, was we could go see Boop. All right. If we thought that casting was incredible, we got even more incredible news, and the kind of news that will get theater fans excited to go see an alternate or standby or whatever we're calling it these days, because on yesterday's show, we talked about the full cast being announced for the Queen of Versailles on Broadway. Well, technically, it wasn't the full cast because yesterday after, obviously, the show aired, we got news as to who was going to be playing the standby for Kristin Chenoweth's Jackie Siegel. She will be playing the role on select performances that will be named later. And it is a true Broadway and musical Theater icon in Sheri Renee Scott. Sheri is going to be standing by for Jackie. I'm assuming the way that this press release is announced means that she is going to be getting the alternate treatment as well where she will have certain performance days set aside for her. So I don't know if that's going to be on a Tuesday so Kristen gets a longer weekend or if it's going to be mat Nate so she doesn't have to do two show days or at least not multiple two show days. But Sheri Renee Scott getting to step in to a role like this is going to make a lot of people very excited to go back and see it after having already seen Cheno in the role because Sherry might not have as big of name recognition outside of the theater circles as Kristin Chenoweth does, but inside the Broadway fandom, she is as beloved as anybody.
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Grace
Grace, when I tell you I dropped my phone at that announcement, I am so excited. I also don't think that there could be two more different blondes. You know, like, it's very exciting. I actually think she's going to be an incredible Jackie Siegel. I've never seen the show, but I've seen the TV show that this is based on. I think she's going to be incredible. Like, I don't. Again, I don't know the music, I don't know the range, but I think she's going to be stellar. So this is a great announcement.
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Matt Tamminini
That's a really good point. I hadn't thought about that yet. But they are very different both like physically and in terms of demeanor and the type of vocal style that they sing. Cheno, notably very short. I don't know how tall Sherry is, but she carries herself much taller. So I would guess she's significantly taller than Kristen. And while Kristen is known for her kind of bubbly, effervescent personality, Sheri has always struck me as a bit more stoic than Kristen is. So that is very interesting. I'm kind of excited to see how their two takes on the role will differ, how they'll be similar and what that'll mean for the show. Going over to a an off Broadway show that Sherri Renee Scott recently starred in. Yesterday we found out who is going to be taking on the role of Seymour in Little Shop of Horrors next when Sheri Renee Scott's most recent co star, off Broadway Nick Christopher, departs the show. Obviously Nicholas Christopher is leaving to go be part of Chess on Broadway and when he leaves, they will welcome in Scottish actor and star of the Disney Channel Descendants franchise and HBO Max's Gossip Girl. Thomas Dougherty to take over the role. He will join the company, making his New York stage debut on September 5th. He will co star opposite Madeline Brewer from Handmaid's Tale. And you'd. It's interesting because not only do we have now a descendant star leading little trop of horrors off Broadway, we now have Morgan Dudley, another descendant star leading Hadestown on Broadway as Eurydice. And then when you add in people from the Zombies musical franchise, including Milo Manheim, who was just part of the cast of the Hollywood Bull Jesus Christ Superstar concerts, there's a lot of young musical theater talent that grew up doing these films that were very popular for young gen zers. And as they start to become of age, I would not be surprised if we see even more people from those franchises. Grace end up on New York Stages.
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Grace
Yeah, I think that, like, this is another case of, like, you know, people thinking, like, oh, who watches those things? A lot of young people, A lot of people. And I mean, look, Kristin Chenoweth, also a star of the Descendants. So I don't know, like, I'm. I'm kind of all for this, frankly. I think this is a really smart, you know, usage of people, like in Zeitgeist that might not be, you know, immediately applicable in people's minds to the theater space. But I'm like, sorry, they're doing Kenny Ortega choreography. That earns you a place on Broadway in my book.
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T-Mobile Announcer
I don't know.
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Matt Tamminini
Yeah, absolutely. As you mentioned, Kristin Chenoweth played Maleficent in the films. She was the mother of Dove Cameron's character in those films. And, yeah, so very exciting. And we will continue to monitor as more people from Descendants and Zombies make their way to New York stages. All right, let's head out of New York now and head over to the Twin Cities because yesterday we got the complete company for the upcoming stage adaptation of Purple Rain. We already knew that Chris Collins was gonna be the kid and Rachel Webb was going to be playing Apollonia. It's interesting because there's not a ton of names that I recognize. There's only actually a handful that I'm familiar with at all, which is kind of exciting about this show. It'll begin performances at Minnesota State Theater on October 16th and will run for one month through November 16th. In the cast will be Leon Addison Brown, Christina Jones, Gian Perez, who was most recently on Broadway in Romeo and Juliet, and Grace Yu, who was a member of the company of Hadestown. And I actually saw her go on for Eurydice in one of the times that I went and saw the show. We're the complete cast in the show notes. But I do think it's interesting that like they're doing this show about a film but really closely identified with not only Prince as the writer and star of the film, but like just his Persona. And it feels like they're obviously leaning into that being the biggest marketing point of this show. Grace, where this is a Prince show, we're not really worrying about having stars or anything else attached with this. This is just the Prince film and music that you love. And that's what they're hoping is going to sell this show both in Minnesota and then I assume eventually in New York as well. All right, that is all that the news that we have. I hope I haven't missed anything else from our days off. Grace. But of course I want to remind everybody, Patreon, me and Ashley Hufford, 8pm on Sunday. Anything on recommendation front that you have.
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Grace
Grace, you know there is if you are in New York City and you want to see a concert, there is a Songs of the Summer concert happening at 54 below that. I have bullied my partner into singing what I think is the song of the summer, which is Ben Platt's cover of Diet Pepsi from the Los Colturistas Awards. So if that is of any interest to anyone but me, you're welcome to attend. Can't wait.
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Matt Tamminini
To be honest, I didn't watch the Los Culturistas Awards but all of the clips from the award show, I mean have honestly been iconic and I, I feel like we are just while they've been around for a while. And Bowen Yang is obviously a multi time Emmy nominee. Like it certainly feels like him and Matt are both on the up here and that this is just the beginning of some very, very cool and exciting things for both of them because that was everywhere and that was so much better than almost any other award show I have ever seen.
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Grace
We agree. We agree. As as it has been said on Lost Cultures does for years, the culture that made us say culture is for us is award shows. So the fact that this finally happened is insane because this is like a fan loved thing on their pod for like at least six or seven years. So I'm so glad that everyone is loving it as much as we are.
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Matt Tamminini
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 BroadwayRadio. And if you want to hear more Broadway radio. Head to patreon.com broadwayradio Grace where can people will find you.
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Grace
You can find me at Grace.
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Matt Tamminini
Aki all right, everybody, have a wonderful weekend and we'll be back to talk to you on.