Matt Timminenti (0:02)

Welcome to Today on Broadway for Friday, March 14, 2025 on Broadway Radio's Matt Timminenti. Of course, tomorrow is a huge holiday for all theater nerds out there as it is the Ides of March. So either sit back, relax and enjoy Marlon Brando in a classic film, maybe read Julius Caesar, but whatever you do, watch your back, literally and figuratively. As we talked about on yesterday's show, Grace is in London on a work trip through the weekend and I am here in Orlando. I am actually going to see a theatrical production that's not really theater but is certainly performance. I'm going to see Cirque du Soleil's Drawn to Life on Sunday. I have not seen a Cirque show in well over a decade and this is a new show at Disney Springs. I think Lanuba used to be there. I saw Lanuba and this has been at Disney Springs, I think coming out of the Pandemic. Whenever it reopened after the Pandemic, it has been drawn to life, which is a Disney influenced Cirque show. So I'm looking forward to seeing that. I will talk about that probably on Tuesday's episode because we'll record before I go to that because it's an evening show but nonetheless, lots of things going on here and we are going to dive into the news and this is a pretty big story. Even though it doesn't sound like it is. The West End musical Two Strangers and then Parent parenthetically Carry a Cake Across New York has announced its US Premiere as the show will play the American Repertory theater in Cambridge, Massachusetts beginning on May 20th of this year. It is a very short run, like a five week run as it is currently scheduled to close on June 29th. This is a show that got a ton of acclaim. It had played in some smaller venues and eventually transferred to the West End where it had a very successful run. The reason it is coming to Art is because Passing Strange, which had originally been announced for the season, has been canceled due to elevated production costs. So they are replacing an iconic Tony winning musical with a show that is hopefully probably aiming for some sort of New York run. If you're unfamiliar with the show, it is written by Jim Barn and Kit Buchan and is directed and choreographed by Tim Jackson. It follows Dougal and Robin. Dougal is a young naive Brit who comes all the way over to New York for his father's second wedding where he encounters Robin who is the sister of the bride and as the title might suggest, they have to carry a cake across New York City as I said this had an incredibly successful 10 week run at the Kiln Theatre in London before it transferred to the Criterion Theater in the West End, and I know a ton of people who have seen it in London and just rave about it. The cast album is available to listen if you want to hear about it, but I would imagine that this is just a stop on the road to New York City where the show is set, but it will have an opportunity to play Art in Cambridge before making the move either Off Broadway or perhaps even to Broadway if things go well. Speaking of things on Broadway, yesterday it was announced that supermodel Ashley Graham is going to be joining the Broadway production of Chicago in the role of Roxie Hart. She will take over just a month from now on April 15, and she is currently scheduled to play the part through May 25. Graham has had a huge career as a model. She's been on the COVID of Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue. She has been one of Times 100 Most Influential People on Forbes 30 Under 30 list. She was named Glamour's Woman of the Year as well as GQ's International Female Model of the Year. But what she does not have on her resume is any acting. As far as I can tell, she has done a number of TV projects as a host or as a guest guest, but other than some music videos, I don't see anything in her resume where she has actually done any acting. So this will be an interesting opportunity for her to flex those muscles. But what's funny about is it's not only acting, but it's also, you know, you got to sing and dance with Roxy as well. So no doubt she will have a ton of people that'll be interested to find out what she's able to do in this role. She has 21.3 million followers on the Instagram. I'm not going to check other social media platforms, but she's a model and Instagram is for pictures, so I guess that would make sense. But she certainly has a ton of fans around the world and it'll be interesting to see if that translates into people showing up at the Ambassador Theater. Ashley Graham has over 21 million followers on Instagram. Somebody who I thought would have had maybe not that many, but would have had more than he actually has is Joey Fatone, who, believe it or not, only has 529,000 followers on Instagram. Granted, had Instagram been around when NSYNC was in its heyday, likely would have had a lot more, but nonetheless was surprised about that. But the reason I'M talking about the one and only Joey Fatone is because he is already planning a trip to come back to Broadway's and Juliet. He will end his first run in the show this Sunday, March 16, but he will come back to the show just over a month later on April 22, and he will plan to be in the show through July 31. Taking over the role of Lance in the meantime will be Hayden Taylor, who originated the role in the Australian production of the show. Hayden will be there from March 18 through April 20. I think this is one brilliant to have Joey Fatone in the show for as long as he possibly would want to be there. He's a guy who has Broadway experience before. They literally sing some of the songs that he helped create in the show and he just seems like he's having a ton of fun. But I also love the fact that they are bringing in people from other productions of Of Angelia from around the world to do this show, you know, either for short periods of time or for longer periods of time. It's a really great way to connect the show to its history. We, of course had Videla, who was an Olivier award winner for the original West End production. He came in there. Now you're getting Hayden and obviously Paulo Jot has gone in and out of the cast as well over time. So I think this is awesome. And hopefully Joey won't say bye bye bye to the role for too long. All right, let's move from Broadway, Off Broadway, in fact. We're going to leave the island of Manhattan and we are going to head over to theater for a new audience in Brooklyn where they will present the Off Broadway premiere of Nobel Prize winner Wole Schoenka's the Swamp Dwellers. It'll be directed by Obiwinner Ow ye Tempo and it is scheduled to run at Tifana from March 30 through April 20. Written in 1958, the show is one of Schoenka's earliest plays and it uses myths to integrate into a mid 20th century story that takes place during one day in the life of a Nigerian family. The cast will feature Tony nominee Etou Blankson Wood, Leon Addison Brown, Joshua Echeverri, Jenny Jules Jason Maena Chike Okonkwo and Oluwale Oyonola. If you remember, we've recently talked about this new kind of, like, artists collective called the New York Theatre Company that Chelena Kennedy was involved with. Well, they have announced their first production. It is a workshop run of Sophie Treadwell's iconic play Machina, which is in my top five plays list. It is going to be presented on April 2nd, 6th, 12th and 18th. Amy Marie Seidel will direct. Leading the cast will be Catherine Winter as young woman who is the central character in the show. The production will run at the New York City Fringe. If you would like tickets, we will have information in the show notes. And this is something from early in the week that we didn't cover. But coming out this fall will be a new poster book called Hirschfeld's Sondheim. A poster book. David Leopold, who I interviewed here on Broadway Radio three and a half, two and a half years ago, is the creative director of the Al Hirschfeld foundation and his new book will be released on September 9th. But Playbill has an exclusive look at the COVID The book is by Leopold, art by Al Hirschfeld, with an introduction by Bernadette Peters and a forward by Ben Brantley. Count me in. Like I'm getting this. Like, there's no question I will have this book. And if there are prints of these made available, I will probably get those for my wall as well. Speaking of Bernadette Peters, let's get into our feel good recommendations. And I have to tell you, if you were on social media at all on Thursday, you've seen this clip. But Bernadette Peters was on the Tonight show with Jimmy Fallon and she was of course promoting Stephen Sondheim's Old Friends that will begin performances at the end of this month at the Samuel J. Friedman Theater. And she's telling stories and all of that and that is great. But Jimmy coaxes her into singing. And of course, Bernadette, not liking to be the center of attention, says, oh, I don't know, I haven't warmed up, whatever. And she grabs the mic and as she's kind of demurring and saying she's not sure, you know, if she can do it without any preparation, she goes, I don't know.