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Today on Broadway: Friday, Feb. 14, 2025
00:18:09
Reviews for ‘Redwood’ on Broadway, Johnson and Philippe to Lead ‘Beauty and the Beast’ Tour, ‘Maybe Happy Ending’ Releases Video Since 2016, “Today on Broadway” has been the first and only daily podcast recapping the top theatre headlines every Monday ...
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- [00:02]
Matt Tamminini
Welcome to Today on Broadway for Friday, February 14, Valentine's Day 2025 on Broadway radio's Matt Tamminini and I'm Tell Me.
- [00:09]
Grace Aki
On a Sunday podcast Grace Aki Grace.
- [00:11]
Matt Tamminini
We are coming to everybody late on Thursday night in the Patreon feed because we waited around to get the reviews for the new Broadway musical that opened on Thursday night over at the Nederlander Theater. This is of course Redwood. It stars Idina Menzel, who is also one of the people behind the project who helped create it. She worked with Tony Tina Landau and Kate Diaz who wrote the book and music respectively, and Diaz and Landau both collaborated on the lyrics and of course Landau also directed. Joining Adina in the cast are Deidre Aziza, Michael Park, Zachary Noah Peiser and Kayla Wilcoxon. The show is essentially about a woman going through a traumatic crisis in her life and she decides to make a life altering decision and drives across the country to the redwood forests in Northern California and a chance encounter and a leap of faith changes her life forever. Let's dive into the reviews as of recording time. Did they like it? Has not released their reviews, but I would say that most of them at this point are mixed. However, the one that truly matters, the only one probably that truly matters, was more positive because the New York Times Jesse Green made the show a critics pick and he said, quote, the musical Redwood, which opened on Thursday at the Nederlander Theater, features two great stars. One is an awe inspiring force of nature, the other is a tree. The force of nature is Idina Menzel, who sings in 13 of the show's 17 songs, of which seven are essentially solos. Has anyone ever belted so much, so tirelessly and so hair raisingly? But the size of the role is nothing compared with its emotional complexity and the depth of Menzel's immersion in it. Her Jesse is a walking panic attack, an avoidant over talker, an entitled princess and a grief stricken mother. More astonishing, she is all of these at once and right from the start we meet her speeding westward from New York City with a terrible loss in the rearview mirror and no idea where she's going. He wraps up his review saying, quote, and you have to admire the guts it takes to have put a deeply serious show about trauma and resilience on Broadway? Right now, at the start of what may prove to be an escapist era, Redwood dares to be both interior and cosmological, taking the soul and the world quite seriously. Luckily, it offers great pleasure along with its factoids, and if it has faults, at least they are not in its evergreen stars. I'll stick with another positive one. Frank Frizzo of Variety was positive, saying, quote, in her musical theater bow, composer Kate Diaz helps in making us see the forest through the tree. Her songs and underscoring are of a singular, reflective piece with rich melodies and evocative arrangements and orchestrations. Though the lyrics lean toward the generic Great Escape and no Repair are among the standout songs, using Menzel's own force of nature notes in strategic ways. The show's climax, while not particularly surprising, is honestly earned and emotionally charged in the Heart Healing song, still powerfully sung by Pizer. However, if we go to some more of the mixed reviews, Grace Juan A. Ramirez from Theaterly said, quote, redwood doesn't feel like a disaster, nor did it have to be. There's enough genuine passion in Menzel's commitment to the role and the overall project to power a solid show, but none of its ideas or characters are given space to coalesce into anything meaningful, with blandly inspirational songs crowding out an ecosystem that would better thrive on more organic soil. And finally, we'll wrap up with David Cody of the observer who said, quote, redwood rhymes with deadwood, the derogatory term for people or things that no longer serve a function. Menzel has plenty to give. She could be the greatest squandered resource on Broadway in decades, which makes this well intentioned misfire more frustrating. They are literally hanging Menzel out to dry. So you know, this is always interesting Greece, when we have dramatically split reviews, I will say in total the reviews are more mixed to negative. But when you have variety in New York Times giving positive reviews, you know, you can kind of see a path forward for the reviews to actually have a positive impact because the big name ones were the ones that were throwing Menzel on the show its flowers. So we'll have to wait and see what, if anything, these reviews, how they impact the show moving forward. But it is, you know, not necessarily the best reviews for Redwood, but obviously not the worst either.
- [04:53]
Grace Aki
You know, I, I can't wait to see it. Like I, I'm curious to see a lot of people that I know have seen it in the out of town and they've seen it on Broadway. But I'm really excited to learn genuinely like how she connects to the digital nature behind her. And like Zach, I just, I'm excited to see it still and I hope that, you know, the reviews shake out to be beneficial.
- [05:15]
Matt Tamminini
All right, let's dive into the news and yesterday I'd actually completely forgotten about the new upcoming North American tour of Beauty and the Beast. But Disney did not because they announced the casting for the titular Beauty and Beast. And it's pretty exciting, at least on the Beast side. I'm not familiar with the Beauty, but from the Beast side, I'm pretty down with this. They announced that Kira Bell Johnson will be playing Belle. Ironically enough, Belle is her middle name. And the always delightful Fergie Philippe will be playing the Beast when the show begins performances in June in Schenectady before it officially opens at Chicago's Cadillac Palace Theater in July. The reimagined tour will have new dance arrangements, but it will also bring back a number of the original creatives, including Alan Menken and Tim Rice, book writer Linda Wolverton, and choreographer Matt West. So I'm excited about this Fergie as the Beast seems inspired. It seems great. I love everything about this casting on his end. And I'm excited to learn a little bit more about Kira Bell Johnson when this one hits the road this summer.
- [06:22]
Grace Aki
You know, we've heard about Disney doing something with Beauty and the Beast for a long time. I did not realize it would be a national tour, but I just want to say that I love Fergie. I know him as a friend, as a colleague. He is so good. He's such a good choice for this. He has such a powerful voice and presence. If somebody's going to have to play the Beast right now, I would like for it to be him. So this is great. I can't wait to see it.
- [06:45]
Matt Tamminini
All right, Grace. Unfortunately, we have to make another trip down to Washington, D.C. to deal with some disappointing and frustrating news that we knew was probably inevitable. But yesterday it was announced first on the creator's social media account that the new children's musical Finn has been canceled. This was a musical that had its premiere at the Kennedy center in December, was nominated for a number of Helen Hayes Awards, and then the Kennedy center was producing a tour of the show. It chronicles the coming of age journey of a young shark following his dreams. The show's creators, Chris Knee, Michael Kuman and Christopher diamond, announced on Instagram that the show has been canceled. The tour has been canceled, they said in a statement, quote, diamond and Kuman and Knee are sad to announce that the Kennedy center tour of our musical Finn has officially canceled yesterday. Well, not a surprise given the events of the last week. It is a heartbreak, but we will not be silenced and we will not abandon the kids we wrote this show for. They are already under attack from every side. We didn't ask for this joy bomb of a show to be a part of the resistance. But here we are jumping into the chorus of concern over this move was Actors Equity. They said, quote, we are outraged at the news that the Kennedy center has canceled the upcoming tour of Finn, a musical for young audiences that just concluded an acclaimed run at the theater. Since its founding, the Kennedy center has represented the full breadth of American culture. It is disturbing to see the new leadership of this institution move so swiftly to suppress viewpoints they do not agree with. Unfortunately, this is just probably likely. Grace, the first of many troubling and concerning and disappointing moves from the Kennedy center and across arts organizations, including the NEA for the next four years. So disappointed about this, but hope that a new musical has a life in many, many places across the country moving forward. All right, let's get into some other news. Speaking of things happening out of town yesterday, the complete cast and creative team for the world premiere Broadway aimed musical Regency Girls was announced. We already knew that it would have its world premiere at the Old Globe with previews beginning on April 2, is being directed and choreographed by Josh Rhodes. We now know that the cast will feature a number of of familiar names including Isabella McCullough, Christina Alabado, Kate Rockwell, Ryan Redmond, Nick Walker and more. Even in the ensemble, some names that we know like Kyla Stone and Marissa Rosen, Amy Jo Jackson, they are all going to be a part of the show. It features a book written by Emmy winners Jennifer Crittenden and Gabrielle Allen and music by three time Emmy nominee Curtis Moore and lyrics by Amanda Green. The show follows Eleanor Benton, played by Izzy, who is in a predicament. She's pregnant, unmarried and living in 19th century England. Facing certain ruin, she gathers up her best friends and sets off on the ultimate road trip to find the one woman who might offer a chance to change her fate. Grace, these are some of my favorite performers. Obviously you just saw Christina Alabado in Mystic Pizza at Paper Mill Playhouse. But I don't know much about this. I haven't heard. I mean, we've talked about the show before, but I haven't heard any music about it. I haven't seen anything about it. But knowing that these people are involved from Izzy and Christina and Kate and Nick and everybody else, like this is immediately on my radar. Just based off the cast alone.
- [10:14]
Grace Aki
Yeah, it sounds like a Casey Nicholaw show, but it's not. I'm really excited to see whatever this is. I love Nick Walker, obviously, but yeah, like I was looking at it and I was thinking like, okay, so some of these people were at Mystic Pete's opening night. Some people were, you know, just, like, in the ether. Nick Walker, I feel like, is the name on our lips all the time. So this feels really good. But I did confuse it immediately when I saw this headline for Radium Girls. I was like, that's not this show, is it? It's not. It's a different show.
- [10:44]
Matt Tamminini
There it is sticking out of town and not in New York City. We're actually gonna go across the pond because we now know the complete cast for the West End production of the Great Gatsby, the one that's currently running on Broadway, not Gatsby, which we believe is gonna be having a run in London here at some point. But the show will officially begin performances on April 11th at the London Coliseum. Earlier this week, we found out that Jamie Moscato would be playing Jay Gatsby and Francis Maylee McCann will be playing Daisy Buchanan. Now we know all of the other stars that are going to join them, including Corbin Blue as Nick Carraway, Amber Davies as Jordan Baker, Joel Montague as George Wilson. John Owen Jones, who is a longtime Les Mis star, will play Meyer Wolfsheim. John Robbins will play Tom Buchanan, and the wonderful Rachel Tucker, who just finished up a run in Hadestown, will play Myrtle Wilson. Grace, we've talked a lot about how, like, the casting of Sarah hyland and Ryan McCarten in the Broadway version was tremendous casting to get people excited bringing these folks in. I've seen a lot of people compare Jamie Moscato and Francis Maylie McCann to, like, the Jeremy Jordan, even Opizada of the West End. But you throw in Corbin Bleu, you throw in John Owen Jones, you throw in Rachel Tucker. Like, this is a legitimately dynamite cast for this production in London.
- [12:09]
Grace Aki
Yeah, I couldn't agree more. It was so funny. I was looking at the proximity of Frances to Eva, the whole thing. I think about it all the time because I'm like, wait, they could all do Bonnie and Clyde together. They could all do these other shows. But this is a really smart cast for London. I really like it for the West End. I love that this is this successful. Like, I didn't know what was going to happen two years ago, one year ago. But the fact that they're getting to have this run is really exciting.
- [12:39]
Matt Tamminini
Also very exciting happening off Broadway. The show hasn't even begun performances yet. I mean, like, it's still a month away from beginning performances, and it is already extended by one week. And that is the Olivier winning one man version of the Anton Chekhov classic performed by Andrew Scott. It'll begin performances at the Lucille Lortel Theater on March 11. It was originally supposed to close on May 4. As of now, it'll close on May 11. I would not be surprised if this continues to sell incredibly well and it extends even more from there. Staying Off Broadway with another very fun casting announcement that I feel like Grace, you are going to love as much as I am because I feel like I met him when I was with you. In fact, I know I was. I was with UNF after seeing Once Upon One more Time. But John Rapson is going to be joining the Play that Goes Wrong Off Broadway. He was most recently seen on Broadway in Sweeney Todd. He was a long running cast member of Les Mis on Broadway. I saw him as the Jefferson Mays Parts and Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder on tour. He is hysterically funny and an incredible performer. So John Rapson is just another great reason to go see the Play that Goes Wrong over at New World Stages. More Casting News we got some updates to who will be leading the production of Chicago on Broadway. We know that Dilys Croman will be returning to the role of Roxie Hart. She has been a regular presence in this production over the past 16 years. And the always delightful Remo Webb will be taking on the role of Matron Mama Morton. They will begin performances on February 24th and heading over to the Public Theater. The production of Sumo has extended ahead of its Off Broadway start. The show, a co production between the Public and the Maiyee Theater Company. It will begin performances on February 20th and it is now going to extend by one week and it is currently scheduled to run through March 30th. All right, Grace, these are two stories that are not exactly casting, but they are kind of casting nonetheless. Yesterday we found out a list of names who are going to be a part of this year's Broadway Backwards event. It'll take place on March 10th and as always, it is being produced by Broadway Cares and it will benefit New York City's Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Community Center. Jen Colella will again host as she had in recent years. The performers that have been announced include Titus Burgess, Lynn Cariou, Jordan Fisher, Anna Gasteyer, Joshua Henry, Gregory Jabarra, Adam Lambert, Tiffany Mann, Kelly O'Hara, Joy woods and more. If you want to get more information on that, you can check out the show notes. And then finally, Grace, this is really interesting to me because we talked about this competition and this search that Dolly Colon in original musical is doing to find stars for its upcoming first out of town tryout in Nashville and then the Broadway production. We've seen competitions like this in the past, but unless it's been a TV show, we haven't found out, like, who the finalists are. But they actually released the name of 15 finalists who are being invited to attend in person auditions in New York City with the final casting still to be announced. Now, we have heard about. I mean, there were public people posted about it, the workshops that they have done for this show, including some fairly familiar Broadway names. If you want to know who those names are, you can go ahead and, like, search it up online. So it seems to me like there are going to be multiple people playing Dolly at different ages at different points in her. In her life. So I don't know if these people are in contention for just one of those age groups or if these people are in contention to, like, run the gamut of the different ages that Dolly is going to be in the show. But it's really interesting to me that they released them full names, hometowns, not only, obviously, a great move from a marketing standpoint, but it's nice to know that they are actually moving forward with this and not just kind of shelving it like Chicago did with the Pandemic and the search for the next Roxie Hart.
- [16:44]
Grace Aki
But as we all know, it didn't get tabled fully because there was a winner. And she is currently in the Outsiders. So she is Emma Pittman. Yeah, yeah. Emma Pittman. Yeah. But, yeah, no, I love these contests, and I obviously have been very excited about the Dolly of it all. I think it's also, you know, talking about, you know, this person could be considered for the ensemble. There could be another role. Dolly might have a friend. Like, we don't know. But, yeah, I'm. I'm obsessed with this. I really hope I get to see it in Nashville. I don't know if I will, but I should because I have to.
- [17:15]
Matt Tamminini
All right, let's wrap up with a couple recommendations. First comes from Urinetown. We have a video of Rainn Wilson singing Don't Be the Bunny. So check that out. And then we also have a wonderful video from maybe Happy Ending of Helen Jason and Darren Criss singing Hitting the Road. Absolutely fantastic. The cast album for that show will be coming out here soon, but those are two really great ways to head into the weekend. 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. AudreyRadio. You can follow me on Instagram @BWW. Matt Graceworth. Can people find you?
- [17:48]
Grace Aki
You can find me at. It's Grace Hockey.
- [17:50]
Matt Tamminini
All right, everybody, have a wonderful Friday, a wonderful weekend, and we will have an interview in the feeds on Monday, and then we'll get back to regular today on Broadway for Tuesday. Have a great weekend. We'll talk to you then.