Matt Tamnini (0:05)

Hey, everybody, it's Matt Tamnini. And welcome to Today on Broadway. After I recorded today's episode, we got a few stories that I wanted to make sure we got in today's episode. So I'm going to do those before I send you into the rest of the regular Today on Broadway. But unfortunately, we have to start with the sad news that the legendary composer of such musicals as Annie and Bye Bye Birdie, Charles Strauss, passed away yesterday at the age of 96. He was the recipient of three Tony Awards, first for Best musical for Bye bye Birdie in 1961, then nine years later in 1970 for a Best Musical win for Applause, and then seven years after that in 1977 for Best Original score for Annie. He was nominated for four other Tony Awards, including Best Musical in 1965 for Golden Boy, Best Original Score in 1981 for Charlie and Algernon, then Best Original Score in 86 for Rags, and Best Original Score in 1992 for Nick and Nora. There were over a dozen other musicals that he wrote the score for. Some of them had big productions, even came to Broadway. Some of them never did things like It's a Bird, It's a plane, it's Superman, Annie 2, Ms. Hannigan's Revenge, Annie Warbucks, Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, no Good, Very Bad Day, Minsky's, which he worked on for many, many years, which was based off of a movie that he wrote the film score for called the Night They Raided Minsky's. He also wrote the film score for Bonnie and Clyde in 1967, as well as writing the songs for the Disney animated classic All Dogs Go to Heaven. In addition to all of his Tony Awards and nominations, he won Emmy Awards for the music and the TV adaptations of both Bye Bye Birdie and Annie. He is a member of the American Theater hall of Fame and the songwriters of hall of Fame as well. For many people, the musicals of Charles Strauss and his collaborator Lee Adams are some of the things that helped get them into musical theater, whether that is Annie or Bye Bye Birdie, things that are done around the world, especially with young kids in educational theater and community theater. And I know already there have been tons of people that have posted about their love not only for Charles Strauss as a writer, but as a collaborator and as a human being. So our thoughts are with everybody who loved Charles Strauss as an artist, but also as a person as well. In addition to that, there was also some pretty exciting news about the Broadway production of Good Night and Good Luck. The show has announced that on June 7, which is the night before the Tony Awards, the production will broadcast its performance live from the Winter Garden Theater on cnn, which is pretty incredible. The live telecast will start at 7pm and it'll be across a number of different CNN properties, including live streaming on cnn. The broadcast will also include a special pre show coverage outside of the theater and then it'll lead in to the performance. In a statement, George Clooney, obviously the co writer and the star, said, quote, I can't tell you how exciting it is to do something that's never been done. CNN is the perfect place to bring this story of courage to so many more people than we could ever have hoped. Live tv, no net. Buckle up everyone. This is pretty exciting. Certainly not something that we have ever seen before. I, I don't know, I mean, maybe back in the day, but I don't think off the top of my head that I can remember any Broadway show that has ever been broadcast live on television. So this is not only something for the history books, but also something that should make a lot of theater fans and George Clooney fans very excited. And speaking of stage productions that are going to be able to be watched at home, yesterday Disney confirmed that the West End production of Frozen starring Samantha Barks will be able to stream on Disney on Friday, June 20 this week. This was filmed last year before the show wrapped up its London run in September over at Theater Royal Drury Lane. In addition to Samantha Barks, the cast is led by Laura Dawks as Princess Anna, Jimmy Cassongo as Kristoff, Craig Galavin as Olaf, Oliver Ormsen as Hans, Richard Frame as the Duke of Weselton and Michaela, Jade and Ashley Burchall alternating in the role of Sven. All right, that is all for my breaking news update and I'll send you over to the rest of TODAY on Broadway. Welcome to TODAY on Broadway for Friday, May 16, 2025. I'm Broadway Radio's Matt Tamneni. If you are a member of our Patreon and at the Mezzanine tier and above, you have already seen and potentially maybe even listened to the very delayed latest episode of Some Like it pop with Jennifer McHugh and I, I had recorded that before I went to New York last week and then for various reasons of busyness and laziness have not been able to get it out until yesterday. So it is available in the feed now. That also means that I am now clear to finish up my travelogue episode that'll be coming to you over the weekend that'll talk about all of the last shows that I saw for the 2024, 2025 Broadway season. But I will also tell you there's going to be another special travelogue episode that is going to be of shows that I have already seen many times. So you don't need to hear my thoughts on them because I've talked about most of them here already. But my friend Taylor, who accompanied me to five shows, including Floyd Collins, so I'll let her talk about that one as well. But she had never seen six Sunset Boulevard, Omari or Hadestown, and we went and saw all of those last weekend. She's a friend here from Orlando who has a theater degree but has kind of fallen out of seeing new shows in New York since she works for Disney and doesn't get up to New York as much. So we going to talk about those shows and see what she thought having seen them for the first time and maybe give you a little bit of insight if you haven't seen those shows, but more importantly if you have about what an outsider who is experiencing them for the first time thought about them. And maybe that'll give you some perspective on if you want to bring some friends to see those shows either in New York City or if they are on tour near you. But I'm going to go through all of the news today. Grace's performance schedule for To Free Mockingbird has her have off days on Wednesdays and Thursdays, which is kind of interesting. She does Mondays and Tuesdays, then takes Wednesdays and Thursdays off and then we'll have shows Friday, Saturday and Sunday. So I didn't want to overload her, wanted her to be able to not only save her voice, but save her energy for her weekend run starting later tonight. So I'm going to run through all of the news by myself today. And we're going to Start in Washington, D.C. at the John F. Kennedy center for the Performing Arts, where yesterday the New York Times reported that a group of more than 90 employees of the Kennedy center are meeting to discuss unionizing. And in response to all of the absurd changes that the Trump administration has implemented at the once revered arts organization, the workers, which come from a ton of different departments at the Kennedy center, including programming, education, marketing, fundraising, PR and probably some more. As they are adding to this, they put out a statement that cited concerns over partisan interference in programming, the dismantling of essential departments and job security following the dismissal of nearly 440 staff members. Their statement goes on to say, quote, we demand transparent and consistent terms for hiring and firing, a return to ethical norms, freedom from partisan interference and programming, free speech protections, and the right to negotiate the terms of our employment. The move to unionization is backed by the United Auto Workers, the uaw, and comes on the heels of many changes that we have chronicled here over the past few months, including firing everybody on the Kennedy center board who was not partisanly aligned with the new administration and Trump placing himself at the top of the organization as chairman. In February. A UAW representative filed a petition for a union election with the National Labor Relations Board on behalf of those workers yesterday and Tim Smith, a director at the uaw, said, quote, this is a ground up worker led effort aimed at improving transparency and working conditions. We're proud to have their back as they work towards a union election. I can't imagine that this is going to go over well with the Trump administration. Clearly they have, you would think, more important things to worry about, but I can't see them doing anything to help this along the way and will probably turn this into some big culture freak out like they do everything else. But I for one wish those Kennedy center workers well and hope that this is the first step to getting that organization back to the prominence and respectability that it should always have. Now, if you have been a listener to Today on Broadway for a number of years, you have heard us talk about the fact that there probably should be more country music musicals out there because of the innate storytelling to that genre of popular music. And every time we talk about this, whether it's a show that you know, it comes from country music writers like Shucked or the Dolly Parton musical or something that just kind of relies on the ethos of country music. I always say I want to see a musical from the Chicks, whether that features original music or stuff from their catalog. Well, it seems that my wish has been granted. And perhaps semi ironically, it's also coming from a writer who I talked about on this new episode of Some Like It Pop, which is now available in the Patreon feed at the Mezzanine Tier and above. It seems like best selling novelist Taylor Jenkins Reid is diving into the musical theater space and is going to write a new jukebox musical titled Goodbye Earl, featuring songs from the iconic band the chicks. All three of the chicks, Natalie Mains, Marty McGuire and Emily Strayer, are involved in the project as executive producers. Taylor Jenkins Reid is writing the show with her childhood best friend Ashley Richard Roger, and it follows two friends who unite in an attempt to kill one of their abusive husbands. Of course that is what the song Goodbye Earl is about. And if you remember that iconic music video for the song, it featured Jane Krakowski who gets married to Dennis Franz who plays Earl and he eventually becomes abusive. And Jane Groski's character reaches out to her high school best friend who is played by Lauren Holly, and they come up with a plan to take care of Earl with some poisoned Black Eyed Peas. So we will see how much that music video inspires what actually happens in the show, but obviously it is sticking very close to the plot of the of the song itself. If you are not completely familiar with Taylor Jenkins Reid, she is one of the most prolific and most read authors working together today. Some of her most famous books include One True Loves, which was turned into a rom com movie starring Philippa sue, the Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, Daisy Jones and the Six Malibu Rising. Carrie Soto is back in the forthcoming Atmosphere, which is going to be released in just a few weeks on June 3rd. She is a great writer, a very interesting way that she always approaches things with some sort of different frame story, oftentimes telling things through the story of a journalist. A lot of cases which of course appeals to me. I just finished up reading the Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, which is what I talked about on Some Like It Pop. I'm going to be reading Carrie Soto is back next. So looking forward to that one which is about a tennis player. Very much inspired by Serena Williams. Nonetheless. Love this. Love the chicks. Saw them when I was in college. They are fantastic. I love their music. I cannot wait to see what this is all about. All right, let's dive into some real quick theater nominations and these are the Dorian Theater Awards, which come from the Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics. And our friend Ashley Steeves is a voting member for this organization so she will be having the opportunity to vote on all of these. The nominees for Outstanding Broadway Musical are Death Becomes Her Dead Outlaw, Just In Time, maybe Happy Ending, Operation Mince, Be Meet and Real Women have Curves. Outstanding Broadway Play the nominees are English John Proctor is the Villain, the Hills of California, the Picture of Dorian Gray and Purpose. Outstanding Broadway Musical Revival. The nominees are Floyd Collins, Gypsy Pirates, the Penzance Musical and Sunset Boulevard. Outstanding Broadway Play Revival nominees are Eureka Day, Our Town, Romeo and Juliet and Yellowface. Outstanding LGBTQ Broadway Production. The nominees are Cult of Love, Death Becomes Her Purpose, Redwood and Smash. They have categories for Best Broadway Performance, you know, lead Featured Musical Play. I will let you read those. They also have an ensemble category which I love, but something that Very few if any other awards giving organizations have they have a Broadway Showstopper award which is to go to a standout production number or scene. The nominees are Death Becomes her for the Gays performed by Megan Hilty, which is appropriate for this awards organization. Organization. Rose's Turn from Gypsy performed by Audra McDonald. John Proctor is the villain. Spoiler alert because this is, you know, the crux of the of the finale of the play Green Light performed by Sadie Sink and Amalia. You maybe Happy Endings Chasing Fireflies from Darren, Chris and Helen J. Shin and Sunset Boulevard from Sunset Boulevard performed by Tom Francis. They also run through a number of Off Broadway awards and then they have a couple LGBTQ specific categories. The LGBTQ Theater Artists of the Season. The nominees are Michael Arden, Tommy Dorfman, Jonathan Groff, Brandon Jacobs Jenkins and Jinx Monsoon. And then finally the LGBTQ Theater Trailblazer Award for a lifelong commitment to creating art that inspires empathy, truth and equity. The nominees are Andre de Shields, Brandon Jacobs Jenkins, Jinx Monsoon, Andrew Scott, Paul Tazewell and George C. Wolf. The winners of these awards will be announced on June 2nd. All right, let's run through some show and casting type stuff. Believe it or not, it has been 10 years since the musical Be More Chill had its world premiere at the Two River Theater. And to celebrate that decade of existence, they will have a two concert presentation happening in July on July 24th and 25th at the Two River Theater where it premiered in Red Bank, New Jersey. The original cast is coming back to together, including such familiar names as Will Connolly, Lauren Marcus, Eric William Morris, Will Roland, George Salazar, Jason Sweet Tooth Williams and more. There will be other folks that'll be joining it presumably from throughout the runs of this show across the course of time. So stay tuned for that if you are a Be More Chill aficionado. Now I I had this story saved from earlier this week and somehow I never got it into the show. I had it saved in the wrong place folder. But one of my favorite voices working on Broadway, Aisha Jackson, is going to be taking over the role of Daisy Buchanan in the Great Gatsby starting in just about a month. It's actually exactly a month from today. She will take over that role from Sarah Hyland who is departing on the previous day. Of course. Asa Jackson most recently was seen in City Center Encore's production of Wonderful Town opposite Anika Noni Rose. She is going to be returning to Broadway at the Broadway Theater in the Great Gatsby. She was most recently seen on Broadway in the Notebook replacing Joy woods and and then before that as Snow White and Once Upon a One More Time. So I didn't get a chance to see Sarah Hyland. I love Aisha Jackson. I love her voice. I think she's incredible. So they continue to do things that make me want to come back to this show. I haven't yet since I I saw it in previews on Broadway. It's not a show that I love, but what I've always said is that it really fit Jeremy Jordan and even Noblezada's voices super well. And I would love to hear Aisha Jackson sing some of these songs. So I might have to head over to the Broadway theater, especially since they often have at least now I don't know about how far into the future have some performance dates, especially Monday nights that a lot of other theaters don't. Speaking of having an opportunity to see great talents in shows, Rashidra Scott is going to have a handful of performances playing Norma Desmond at the St. James Theater and Sunset Boulevard over the next few weeks. Next weekend she's going to do the show on Friday, May 23rd at 8pm Then she's going to do both shows on Saturday, May 24th at 2 and 8. So if you have not seen her, if you have not collected her on your Pokemon of Norma Desmonds, head over to the St. James Theater box office and pick up tickets for next weekend. Now, you can't exactly set a clock to it because you never exactly know when it's going to happen, but it is never a surprise when Charlotte Dambois is announced to be returning to the Broadway production of Chicago, which she will do starting on May 26, that is a week from Monday. She's going to be returning to the role of Roxie Hart and she will star opposite Sophie Carmen Jones, who has extended her run as Velma Kelly. Sophie went basically from playing Nini in Moulin Rouge straight into Chicago. So these two great dancers are going to be sharing the stage together. Charlotte is going to be replacing Ashley Graham, who is currently playing Roxy. Max Von Essen is playing Billy Flynn right now. Rema Webb is Matron Mama Morton, Greg Hildreth is Amos Hart and Arlo, as always, is Mary Sunshine. All right, I have a handful of recommendations for you to wrap up this week. Coming up, a week from today, Next Friday, on May 23rd, 3rd, PBS's great performances will present Girl from the north country that was filmed on Broadway. They have released a video of the song Like a Rolling Stone from that featuring Mayor Winningham and The rest of the cast, check that out. I know that this is a show that is very devices. I kind of love the show. It's not, you know, I don't think it's great, but I think it's really good and I enjoyed and I'll be looking forward to watching it. The other recommendations I have are from this season. The first comes from the Kelly Clarkson show and she recently had Tony nominee Jack Malone from Operation Mincemeat on to perform the song Dear Bill, which is I, I mean, look again, I will have make predictions at some point in an episode, but that is one of the songs of the season. It's not going to be like a my Days. You're singing it all the time, but it is a moment that just kind of knocks you out. It comes out of nowhere and it's so powerful. So checked out Jack Malone doing Dear Bill if you haven't seen it already. And then yesterday, Tony nominee for best musical Dead Outlaw performed a couple of songs on the Today Show. They did something for nothing and normal. So you see pretty much everybody in the cast there doing those numbers. So if you want to get a sense for what this show sounds like, you have an opportunity to do that with these videos. 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 @Rob Broadway radio. Don't forget SoHo Playhouse. Grace Aki's To Free a Mockingbird, running now through May 25th. Ticket link is in the show notes. Make sure that you get over there and check out this show. You never know when it's going to have an opportunity to be performed in New York City. I know Grace would really appreciate it. All right, have a wonderful Friday, a wonderful weekend, and we'll be back to talk to you on Monday.