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Today on Broadway: Friday, Aug. 8, 2025
00:14:50
Aubrey Plaza coming back to the stage, Grace reviews ‘Well, I’ll Let You Go,’ HamilTEN celebration videos Since 2016, “Today on Broadway” has been the first and only daily podcast recapping the top theatre headlines every Monday through Friday.
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Matt Tamminini
Broadway for Friday, August 8, 2025. I'm Broadway Radio's Matt Tamminini and I'm.
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Grace Aki
Tell Me on a Sunday podcast Grace.
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Matt Tamminini
Ake Grace, I feel like you are shaming me that I'm just sitting here in my home office recording. Yesterday you were at like what, Washington Square Park? Today you're at somewhere that is arguably even more beautiful. Where are you recording from?
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Grace Aki
Today I am at the Morgan Library. The J.P. morgan. First place in New York City to have electricity.
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Matt Tamminini
I've never been there, but it's on my bucket list of places to go because it is absolutely gorgeous. So we'll keep our voices down so no librarians yell at you or anything. But reminder, this is a summer Friday so there will not be an episode of Today on Broadway on Monday. However, if you cannot go an entire day without having us in your ears, you can head over to patreon.com broadwayradio broadwayradio.com Patreon on Sunday night at 8pm in the Patreon feed at the Mezzanine Tier and above my conversation with regular guest and friend and group chat cohort Tony Award winning producer Kaitlin Berg. We chatted about a study that came out a couple of weeks ago that looked at millennial and Gen Z ticket buyers and what they thought of the ticket prices. And not only is Caitlin a producer, she's also young. She's Gen Z, but she also works in politics and has worked in politics and knows a lot about surveys and studies and we kind of broke that whole thing down. So if you want to hear that, check us out at Patreon. All right, Grace, you went and saw a new movie on Wednesday night. Is that embargoed? Are you allowed to talk about that at all?
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Grace Aki
It is embargoed because it does not come out for several weeks. But I will say that I was excited to see a new Ethan Cohen project.
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Matt Tamminini
And so this is called Honey don't it stars Margaret Qualley, as we said yesterday. But also in that cast is the one and only Aubrey Plaza. And that plays in directly with our top story for today because yesterday the Atlantic Theater Company announced the cast for the upcoming Off Broadway show let's Love, which is a trio of one act comedies written by Academy Award winner Ethan Cohen. And one of the stars of that show will be Aubrey Plaza. She will be joined by a host of some familiar names, some familiar faces, some people you're like, oh, I know who that guy is. Including like Chris Bauer will be in it as well. Also in the company will be Dylan, Jalul, Dionne Graham, Mary McCann, Nellie McKay, who also provides some original music for the show as well, stage and screen favorite Noah Robbins, CJ Wilson, and former Broadway radio guest Mary Wiseman, who was in one of my favorite shows in recent memory called at the Wedding. That was at LCT3 a couple seasons ago. She's also on Star Discovery. But that's the cast for this show that will begin performances at the Linda Gross Theatre at the Atlantic Theatre company on Thursday, September 25th. It is currently slated as a limited engagement through November 9th. The synopsis of the show says, quote, let's Love is a comedy, a trio of one acts that explores love in all its miserable glory. The world is a confusing place and we are a confused people, but it's easier to be confused together. So let's Love. I am here, Grace, for this Aubrey Plaza transition into being an Off Broadway theater artist. She did Danny and the Deep Blue Sea and famously bunked up with Patti LuPone, but like she's somebody who, she has just such this unique off center aura that like, even though she's fairly new to doing stage work, at least professionally in New York City, like, she just kind of feels like a natural in off Broadway theaters.
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Grace Aki
I think you're so right. And I also think that like these types of collaborations are what we've been wanting to see out of her for so many years.
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Matt Tamminini
What do you mean? Like just like off Broadway or like working with a Coen brother or both?
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Grace Aki
I mean like her, like, yeah, she's so avant garde and I think with a lot of these indie films, it makes sense that she is collaborating with people like Ethan Cohen on stage or.
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Matt Tamminini
In film and in many cases both because she is obviously in Honey don't and getting ready to do let's Love. So lots of Cohen action going on for Aubrey Plaza. All right, let's move from Off Broadway to Broadway. And on Wednesday, the Roundabout Theater Company broke ground on its $24 million renovation of the Todd Haymes Theater, of course, formerly the American Airlines Theater. We already knew that this was going to be happening. They're going to be closing down that theater for the fall and it will reopen in the spring with the Broadway revival of Fallen angel, starring Rose Byrne and Kelly o'. Hara. The show is going to have a huge impact on that facility. They are going to do tons of stuff, including expanding accessible seating as well as assisted listening technology. They're upgrading the digital marquee system. They're renovating all of the restrooms and dressing room, modernizing the elevators. They're restoring the theater's historic interior and upgrading critical building systems. And the theater's fifth floor will be revamped into a flex use space to support artistic education and community engagement programs. As is not a surprise, this is not a cheap endeavor. Roundabout has a number of partners from inside the government that are helping make this happen. They have gotten $10.9 million from the city of New York through the Department of Cultural affairs, city council and Man Manhattan borough president's office. And then they've gotten $3 million from the state of New York through the Empire State Development as well as the New York State Council on the Arts and State Senator Liz Krueger and Assembly member Tony Simone. So this is all good news, Grace. Obviously, we're always sad when a show, when a theater is not available for a show to be in. But increasing accessibility, whether it's through the seating, the audio systems or the elevators, that's all great. But anytime I hear the words renovating restrooms in a Broadway theater, like, my heart just gets happy. Because that is the bane of many theatergoers existences.
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Grace Aki
I know, right? Someone actually posted on TikTok this week and said, what are the best bathrooms in what theaters? And I was just like, huh, I never thought about that. But I do want someone to investigate this. So I agree with you.
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Matt Tamminini
Who is the content creator?
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Grace Aki
Teddy Got to Go nyc. I think you're talking about Teddy Spiegel, who is not only an opera singer but has done so much for bath accessibility legislation. Done more before reaching age 25 than I think most people have. So I think that she is a pioneer in that space. And I love getting to see what she says about certain theaters and shows because she is a performing artist, but also because she talks about her accessibility. So the largest Google map in the world that is publicly accessible and shared is her Manhattan bathroom. Map. So if you. If you're curious about that, you can head to Got to Go nyc. I believe you should definitely check it out.
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Matt Tamminini
I will have a link to her website in the show notes if you want to check that out. And basically she lets you know where there are accessible free bathrooms across the city. So definitely want to check that out. All right. Grace, we mentioned it on yesterday's show. You recently went and saw the new play well, I'll Let yout Go. It was written by Bubba Wyler and directed by Jack Syrio. It is currently playing Off Broadway in Brooklyn at the Space at Irondale through August 29th. A great cast that includes some folks you might be familiar with, like Quincy Tyler Bernstein, Michael Chernis from Severance, Will Dagger, Emily Davis, Constance Schulman, and more. I have loved pretty much everything that I've seen that Jack Syrio has directed. So I'm excited to hear about this one, especially with a playwright, an up and cominging playwright like Bubba Wyler.
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Grace Aki
When I say that I think it's Taylor Williams casting, give, give them an award because one of the best cast plays I've seen in a hot minute where the acting company, the direction, the play, and I texted someone that I know that works on the show to say, you know, not since Lonergan, early Lonergan, have I felt like this person really nailed authentic dialogue. And I was just so grateful to be in that space at first. I'm not gonna lie to you. The chairs are uncomfortable, but that's just the nature of chairs in a site spec. And that's from someone who, you know, is relatively fine everywhere. But I was just so grateful to be in there. It started off with this scene with Will Dagger, unfortunately, because there are no microphones and I couldn't see his mouth because of the way that it's staged kind of in a round setting. I was so scared that the rest of the show I wasn't going to be able to understand the plot. And I was like, oh, I'm going to miss something. And then all of a sudden people are going to be like. And I'm going to say, I don't know what you're, you know, shocked at. Um, it started to subside and the rest of the, you know, the cast was involved and they all move throughout the pace or the, the space in a great pace. And like Constance Shulman, who I'm just obsessed with for years, she.
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Matt Tamminini
Sorry, she's a queen. Yeah. Patty Mayonnaise.
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Grace Aki
Oh, yeah, exactly. Patti Mayonnaise. Orange is the New Black. I think she's from Chattanooga, Tennessee, which is where I'm from. So I think that's why I always like, gravitated towards her. But she brings this insane energy to the room that the entire. I watched the entire audience go, okay, here we are. Now I understand the kind of like where we're at with these characters and, you know, what this woman is going through. It's just really well done. Like, and, you know, I was. There were certain parts where I was like, oh, I would think maybe this would go here or maybe, you know, it could end right at this moment or something. But like, ultimately it was a really good piece of art. It was a very good play. It was very well directed, it was very well acted, it was very well set, staged. I think that everyone that's been a part of this, from the marketing team to the GMs, you can just tell that it is a well crafted, well oiled machine. And when you can tell that all of the parties involved are doing the same task, that to me is success. Sometimes you'll see like the marketing or the social or the direction, like all of it's kind of disjointed. I really feel like they all understand the play that they are working on. And I just want to highlight that because I don't think that's as often as people might think. And so I was just very grateful to be there. I really want to read this piece. I'm excited by Bubba Wyler's catalog. I think this is the first time that one of his plays has been put. I mean, he's young, but he and that director, I think, are going to have a long collaboration for many, many years. So I'm looking forward to even more.
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Matt Tamminini
So you want to read this, but can you give us a quick description as to what it's about?
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Grace Aki
Sure. It is a story about a woman who is just like a middle aged woman whose husband passes away. And what happens when everyone around you is kind of dictating how you as the grieving person are dealing with that and how even for a moment, just, you know, and I'll say this, I feel like it's also about the lack of control that a person who has passed on has on their legacy on, you know, even as small as a funeral arrangement, you know, which is my bread and butter. He was a lawyer, he was middle aged. And there are all these secrets. Sign me the fuck up. It was, it was right up my alley.
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Matt Tamminini
So do they, do they need to pay, do they need to pay you royalties or.
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Grace Aki
Well, There was a part of me that said, oh, so we're all just doing this now, Cool. But I loved it. I loved it for so many reasons. And I thought that it brought a really genuinely nuanced conversation. And I was very impressed that this young author got as much out of it with all of these characters that have varied life experiences and age. I really thought it was quite poignant and I was grateful to be there.
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Matt Tamminini
Well, like I said, the show is playing at the Space at Irondale in Fort Greene, Brooklyn through August 29th. We will have a link in the show notes if you want to purchase tickets now. Grace, My recommendation comes to us from the Richard Rogers Theater. I have two videos, but there are tons more, not only on Hamilton's official social media pages, but also from other people as well. They celebrated the 10th anniversary of Hamilton on Broadway on Wednesday. There's a special curtain speech and curtain performance at the two shows on Wednesday. Lin Manuel Miranda obviously came to stage and ran through a bunch of very cool stats about the show. How many lighting cues there have been, how many duels there have been, how many costume pieces have been used, all of those very cool things. And one of the things he mentioned is that there was, I think, 146. Don't quote me on that exact number, but I think it was 146 actors have gone through that show, which honestly is kind of a small number when you think about it, over a 10 year period, especially with a pandemic and things changing in the middle of it. But. And of course, Thane Jasperson is still there from the beginning. And then at the evening performance, not only did producer Jeffrey Seller come out and address the audience, but over 100 Hamilton alums came on stage and they all sang together, led by Lynn. And it's very cool because you can see at different moments, Lynn is kind of taking in the experience and looking at the audience and looking at his castmates and people who have been in his show. And it was just a really lovely moment, Grace. And something where that I'm glad we're doing this because a lot of times we go through anniversaries of shows, especially big ones like this, and we're like, okay, that's fine, good for you. Keep working, you got a show tomorrow. But I'm really, I think we should celebrate these things not only because getting a show to run for one year, let alone 10 years, is hard, but like, I think we should just be celebrating more things. I feel like just in life we all need more celebrations. So if we're celebrating a 10th year anniversary. Someone should be celebrating an 11th. You know, celebrate as many times as possible. And when you have an opportunity to get people that you love together and people you've worked together, people you haven't seen together or you haven't seen in a long time together, I think we should do it, whether that's personally or in the theater.
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Grace Aki
Agreed.
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Matt Tamminini
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 over to patreon.com broadwayradio Grace, where can people find you?
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Grace Aki
You can find me at graceaki.
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Matt Tamminini
All right, everybody, have a wonderful Friday, a wonderful weekend. We'll be back to talk to you on Tuesday.