Grace Aki (3:08)

I love Jon Stewart to the point that it's like I got to see one of his last daily shows like, as a, like, you know, the free audience member. Yeah. When he was full time where he was ending his like, tenure during that. And when he got brought back on, I was like, oh my God, I'm going to be okay. Like, I think about his impact on daily television as well as like Rosie o' Donnell's in my life and a lot of other people's that are kind of like theater and theater adjacent. And I loved Jon Stewart in when he also wasn't Jon Stewart, like when he has been an actor, not playing himself, things like that. So I, I'm thrilled that he's a part of this big daddy. Just, you know, like, he's just, he's just great and I love him. And that is the one that I'm like, that would just be amazing. Like just seeing like him doing something fun like this with those people working with Timbers. That makes sense to me. That feels. That feels good.

Matt Tammani (4:13)

Yeah. John is obviously the highlight of this opening cast, but there's so many big names as well. Birbiglia, Wayne Brady, Craig Robinson, Ray Romano, Sarah Silverman. But the person that I'm actually really excited about who is like known in the comedy world and you've probably seen him in something but like, I don't know, that is like a big enough name that people are like, oh my God, I've got to go see all out because Jason man Zukas is in it. Like for people who don't know Jason Manzoukas, I feel like if they go to the Nederlander, they're going to be like, that is the weirdest dude I've ever seen and I love him. Like, I am a huge fan of Jason Manzukas. If you ever hear him on a podcast, like, he doesn't do technology. I don't even think he has a cell phone, but he's so funny and I know he's our friend. Ashley Steves has loved the fact that he has been on the British TV show Taskmaster this past season. So Jason Mantzoukas, if you have an opportunity to see him from January 20th through February 15th, I think he will really surprise you at his type of comedy and how really, really unique he is. All right, let's move into some Broadway news that we got yesterday. And Grace, this has been literally, I feel like a year in the making. Maybe not a year, but probably pretty close, I guess. But yesterday it was announced that Tony and Obie Award winner John Cameron Mitchell will return to Broadway to play the role of Mary Todd Lincoln in O Mary. They will begin a 12 week engagement this week. They will begin a 12 week engagement this winter at the Lyceum Theater with performances beginning on February 3rd and running through April 26th. 6th. John obviously originated the role of Hedwig and Hedwig and the Angry Inch, who they also wrote the show as well. And they're going to be tapping into this, this, this character that just seems so right. I had heard originally, I think you heard these same rumors, Grace, that John Cameron Mitchell was the, was going to be the first replacement for Cole. Obviously that did, did not end up happening. So the fact that it is now seems pretty incredible. We don't yet know who is going to be the ensemble cast around John for this, but we do know that Jane Krakowski is going to end her Run on January 5th. Hannah Solo is going to do two performances on the 6th and 7th and then Jinx Monsoon is going to come back. When they announced that Jinx was going to be stepping back into the role, I was like, oh, she's only coming in for a month. They must have somebody else that they want to use as a bridge to this. Obviously that's John Cameron Mitchell. No idea who is going to be joining John in that run. I'd originally heard a certain person from Wicked and Saturday Night Live, but it's going to be right in the middle of the SNL season, so I don't know if that's going to happen. But John Cameron Mitchell back on Broadway in Omar seems just about perfect.

Grace Aki (7:05)

Grace, I just want to flag that one. This is huge for me. Two, you've got Hedwig in the Angry original creator and star John Cameron Mitchell. And you have another Hedwig alum, Mason Alexander park as Mary on the West End. So we're going to have two incredible, very like gender fluid actors that have both portrayed Hedwig as Mary Todd Lincoln. And I just think that that's very exciting. And if they throw Origin of Love into that cabaret, I'm not gonna be mad. I'm not gonna be mad.

Matt Tammani (7:44)

Oh, that would be amazing. That would be very good. Also, you mentioned Mason. I'm pretty sure it was the what's On Stage Awards. Did Mason get a nomination for the what's On Stage Awards for Much Ado About Nothing yesterday?

Grace Aki (7:58)

That's right. Yes. Yes. It's thrilling.

Matt Tammani (8:01)

Yeah. Very, very cool. So that'll be fun. I can't wait to see who is going to be joining the cast with John. I'm sure that will be announced in the relatively near future. All right, in other news, we got some off Broadway casting for an upcoming world premiere musical. It is an adaptation of the iconic novel the Count of Monte Cristo. It is going to run from the York Theater this spring from March 12 through April 5. It is going to be directed by Peter Flynn and features book and lyrics by two time Tony nominee Peter Kellogg and features music by Stephen Weiner. The cast is going to be led by Sierra Boggess, Adam Jacobs, James Judy, Norm Lewis, Stephanie J. Park, Danny Rutigliano, Daniel Yearwood and Karen Ziemba. There will be more casting announced in the. This is a pretty amazing company to put into this show and obviously there's going to be more people announced for it. So very excited to hear all about that. There's a very, very good Count of Monte Cristo film as well. It's one of my brother's favorites. He watched it all the time when we were growing up. So if you want to check that out before seeing the musical, you do that. But Ciara and Adam, but especially Sierra and Norm, that little daddy daughter phantom Christine combination, getting back on stage is pretty cool. So looking forward to that. And then in some other casting news over at the Public Theater, we had previously already known that Tony Award winners Celia Keenan Bolger and Tony Shalhoub would be starring in the new play Antigone. And then parenthetically this play I read in high school by Anna Ziegler. It is a world premiere. It is going to begin performances on February 26th and run through March 22nd. Directed by Tyne Raffaelli. Now we know the rest of the cast and it will feature Ethan Dubin, Katie Kreisler, Susanna Perkins, Calvin Leon Smith and Haley Wong. I don't know what this is really all about. It reimagines the Sophocles tragedy, obviously. Currently Antigone is a character in Oedipus that is on Broadway, so that's kind of cool. But it puts it through a modern lens. Following an independent young woman determined to have control of her own body, even in a world governed by archaic and misogynist laws feels unfortunately very, very prescient. So that one will begin performances again in February and looking forward to hearing all about that. We've got some developmental news this week as well, Grace, because apparently thanks to some social media posts from cast members, we now know that the musical adaptation of Crazy Rich Asians that we've been kind of chronicling over the past few years has been holding workshops over the past week or so. A number of people who are a part of those have posted as we've talked about in the past, Leon Anako Winkler is writing the book, the music is by Helen park and lyrics are by Amanda Green and Tat Tong. The cast that we know so far, People that have posted about this include friend of the show Jasmine Forsberg, Wicked alum Alyssa Fox, and Helen J. Shin, currently the breakout star of maybe Happy Ending. They posted that they were playing the role of Rachel, which was the the lead character that Constance Wu played in the film. We don't know who any of the other people are playing. I actually will say Alyssa Fox is playing Astrid in the movie. Don't know who Jasmine is playing, but this is pretty exciting. Grace. This was such a huge boon and had such a great cast in the film with not only Constance Wu, but Henry Golding, Gemma Chan, Awkwafina, Ken Jeong, Michelle Yeoh and more. Excited to see what this show looks and sounds like and who else is a part of it.

Grace Aki (11:49)

I agree. I just, I think it's naturally fit for the stage. Shout out to Jon M. Chu for adapting a movie into, you know, a book into a movie, into a musical. And maybe in 10 years it'll be another movie musical that he can do.

Matt Tammani (12:08)

That's a very good point. Yeah, I think John is a producer on this as well, so that would make a whole lot of sense. Before we get into our little announcement discussion, I want to give you some Recommendations. The principal cast as well as ensemble members for Chess was on the Today show on Thursday. We got not one, not two, but three performances. In addition to a lot of conversations we had one Night in Bangkok performed, we had Mountain Duet performed, and we also got Heaven Help My Heart. So we will have the videos to those from the Today Show's website if you want to check them out. All right, Grace, as promised, at the top of the show, we have some stuff we need to talk about about the future of Today on Broadway and things here around Broadway Radio. We do have to let you know with fairly heavy hearts, at least in one respect, that this will be the last episode of Today on Broadway, at least in its current form. The economic situations of the world as they are, it is becoming increasingly difficult to manage the overhead of running a daily show like Today on Broadway. So because of a lot of things beyond our control, this will be the last episode of Today on Broadway, at least in this form. It will come. We'll still be around, but it'll be something a little bit different before we get into, like, what that will look like. And we'll talk about that here in a second. But, Grace, you and I have been doing this together for five years. Obviously, Ashley was in the mix of that for a good part of that. I've been doing it now for, I guess, nine years and nine months. You have 800. And this will be your 816th episode of Broadway Radio. This will be my 2441st. So we have invested a lot of time and a lot of thought and a lot of love and a lot of work and a lot of sacrifice into trying to make this something that listeners can not only enjoy, but also kind of rely on as part of their commute or their daily morning routine or just their ability to binge the theater news at the end of a week or whatever. So we are very sad about this having to happen. It is not something that we necessarily would choose to happen if we were given our druthers. But, you know, things being how they are, we are going to have to zig and zag a little bit to kind of keep things going in the new year, but we'll get to that here in a second. But, you know, between you and me, Grace, I have so thoroughly enjoyed doing this for the entire almost 10 years that I've been doing it, but especially over the last five years, almost to the day. Your first Today on Broadway was on December 14th of 2020.

Grace Aki (14:59)

2020. Giving me a job in 2020 by the way just to shout that out first and then second, you know, like we found each other in this community. And I got to know, you know, matt through twitter.com and then Ashley and James and everybody. And it's just been the most incredible thing. And I've been very fortunate to be plugged into all of these spaces. I've gotten to grow with all of our listeners. I've gotten to be more insightful and I hope that that has come through in all of this. But also I've gotten to know a lot of you personally, professionally. I've gotten to collab and work with like so many people that are like, oh, wait, I've realized that I've listened to you on Broadway radio or you know, in press junkets and things like that. And it's just, it's just been so multifaceted. And again, grateful is just like the word that I'm going to continue to use forever and always. This was not a fun thing that I don't like doing this at all. I've never broken up with a boyfriend. Like, it's always been, you know, there's always been something that happened. So I'm not good at this. But, you know, as I was kind of like mulling over, you know, how in which we're doing these things that like, we're not ending, to Matt's point, we are not, you know, ending our contribution and how. Because we're not going to shut up. I don't know if you guys knew this, but we really like talking and we will continue to do so. As you all know, as I've started every single episode of this I believe I am Tell me on a Sunday podcast Grace Aki. I've become Broadway radio's Grace Augie, obviously, when I'm not doing that. But that felt a little redundant to say on the show every day and because of all of the great work that we have on Broadway radio and today on Broadway specifically, I put a lot of the additional Tell me on a Sunday stuff in the backseat for a while and I'm excited to continue that stream of consciousness and community and blabbing my mouth, for lack of a better term. So I just encourage you all at the sake of not sounding too self promoting that I love continuing to build community with everyone that listens to this. I've learned so much from our listeners. When people write, write in and let me know, hey, this is actually this or you know what I mean? Like, I do appreciate it. You know, I like not being ignorant. So yeah, I'M continuing to do those things. I know that Matt and I will continue to do shows in different capacities. We'll still, we still love seeing shows, so we'll continue to review and, and create these, like, great conversation pieces that are specific for our audiences. But just to say that we're still out here, just not in this way, and that is heartbreaking. But at the same time, what an amazing 5 years of today on Broadway that I've gotten to have almost to the day. It's unbelievable and I'm just incredibly grateful.

Matt Tammani (17:48)

Yeah. So after the first of the year, we will continue to be in your podcast feeds what it will probably look like. We're still ironing out some of the details, but I will have a few kind of standalone shows that are pretty kind of pieces of what Today on Broadway has been that will happen throughout the course of the week. One of them will be what I'm tentatively calling Last Week on Broadway, where I will run through the biggest news from the past week. We'll also have, you know, recurring segments that are from Today on Broadway that'll be their own kind of standalone episodes, things like this week's theatrical schedule, the grosses, things like that. Obviously, anytime there is a Broadway opening or a major Off Broadway opening, we will bring you the review round as well. And then Grace and I will also be doing reviews of shows and interviews, sometimes together, sometimes separate. We're also kicking around ideas on bringing back this Week in Theater, which is more of a regionally focused show. We're still kind of working out the details of that. So those things, the last week in theater, the this week's theatrical schedule, the grosses, those will be weekly still. Those will still be in your podcast feeds every single week. Generally. At the beginning of the week, we'll spread them out Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, probably. Grosses will obviously be on Tuesday or Wednesday. Then if there is breaking news, shows, opening shows, closing, major castings, like a John Cameron Mitchell, I'll drop in a Today on Broadway that'll just be about that one major story that you need to know. That way you don't have to wait until it is 8 o' clock in the Patreon feed or 8am in the regular feed. We will get those out as soon as I'm able to grab them, record it and edit it. So we'll still be here. We'll still have some of the discussions, Grace, that we were talking about this yesterday. We'll still like have some of those bigger picture conversations that we enjoy having throughout the year. And because of things have been weird. We haven't really done that as much this fall. Not only weird just because of like my schedule's been busy, you got married and then everything going on with the ending of this. But we will be having those conversations, especially leading into awards season. So like you, I am eternally grateful to James Marino, who, you know, I did like, I think probably like a dozen or so dozen and a half guest spots on this Week on Broadway back in early 2016, late 2015 or early 2016. And James called me one day first he had an idea to like start a completely non theater related daily news podcast. And that never happened, but that turned into Today on Broadway. So I will always be grateful for the opportunities that James have given me, not only professionally, but personally as well. Opened me up to so many different opportunities in New York, in Florida, to meet people, to get to see things and talk to people that I probably never would have had the opportunity or the gumption to do on my own. And I would of course echo Grace's comments about meeting and interacting with so many of our listeners. I will still be dumbfounded to my dying days being at, you know, a Broadway show at the same O J Friedman Theater or at Paper Mill and people coming up and asking, are you Matt Tammanini? And then I'm like, oh my God, yes, maybe, it depends. But things like that are always truly special and the friendships that we've made because of this are life changing, truly life changing. So I'm looking forward to continuing working with Broadway radio. You're not getting rid of me or Grace, but it will be a little different. And I'm not exactly sure how I'm going to deal with that, but I will deal with it. And we'll come back in the new year with a new focus and a new schedule and hopefully continue to bring you all of the theater news and content and conversations that you need. Any other parting shots? Grace, before we wrap this thing up.

Grace Aki (21:43)

One last time, I just want to thank the fact that like equal parts Patreon and listenership, regardless if you listened once every month or every single day at the same hour, if this was your morning commute, like it might feel like sometimes a one sided conversation, but I assure you that we are constantly plugged in and we are just like so excited and grateful for all of the community that we've built here along the way. So thank you for all of those contributions. They mattered so much and they still do. So thank you. Just, just thank you. Thank you always and please like connect and annoy me and, you know, whatever it is. But yes, thank you. Thank you just so much, always. And thank you, Matt. This has been amazing.

Matt Tammani (22:31)

It has. It really, really has. What a wild half decade ride. And looking forward to even more in the future. All right, that's all that we have for today. Thank you for listening to Today on Broadway. As we said, this will be the last episode for now, but we will be back in the new year in a different form and fashion. Grace, where can people follow you if they're need you in their lives every day? Even if it's not here in the podcast feed?

Grace Aki (22:54)

Call me, Beat me if you want to reach me at Grace Ake and of course, all the other projects that are there will live there. So thank you all.

Matt Tammani (23:04)

Absolutely. All right, everybody, thank you not only for listening today, this week, this year, but really for the past decade nearly. It truly means the world to us. We look forward to collaborating together and with all of you in the future. So have a wonderful holidays, a wonderful rest of 2025, and we'll be back to talk to you next year.