Grace Aki (3:46)

Yeah, I mean, I look at the fact that like Billy Porter is about to be in Cabaret on the West End and I was like, weren't we just at Shuffle Along? Like, it's just so crazy to think that all these, there have been so many iterations of Kinky Boots since the initial. Like, I feel like it's a lifetime ago for Stark Sands. Like he's had a million other things. Annalee Ashford, A million other things. So, yeah, I think it was a huge launching point. Leader Hall Salia Carvajal at the time. And I think that there's, you know, so many, it was a launching pad for so many people and that ensemble stayed together for so, so, so long. I genuinely believe. I know they did the Off Broadway last year and it didn't last as long as they wanted to, but if in a couple of years time they did like a full Broadway remounting, I think it would still be very popular. It seems to be. I've still never seen it, but I think it's still like a very popular show.

Matt Tammini (4:40)

How have you never seen it?

Grace Aki (4:42)

I don't know. I missed it when it was on Broadway. It was just never something that I was able to get to and then it was gone. So.

Matt Tammini (4:51)

Yeah.

Grace Aki (4:52)

All right. I like the movie.

Matt Tammini (4:54)

Oh, really? Have you. Yeah, I've never seen it.

Grace Aki (4:56)

Yeah, it's good.

Matt Tammini (4:58)

Very cool. Yeah, it was based on a movie, so. Speaking of things that hopefully people will have the opportunities to see, let's dive into this week's theatrical schedule a little thin. As we said, there's not a lot going on at this time of year for new shows launching because of the cold winter months. But opening on Monday over at the Greenwich House Theater is an off Broadway illusion magic show called Mind Play. It stars mentalist Vinnie diponto who is a Drama Desk nominee. He wrote the show with Josh Koenigsberg and is directed by Andrew Knysler. It is a show that involves audiences that it's interactive and it kind of goes through a journey through his own mind. It is kind of a very throwbacky to old school storytelling mentalist illusionist that is very up close and fun that is running at the Greenwich House Theater for a strict limited engagement. But the limited engagement is through April 20, so you have a little bit of time. But it's a 90 minute no show. So 90 minutes, no intermission. So if you want to check that one out, head over to the show notes then. Also happening on Monday, we get the first preview performance for the Vineyard Theater's return engagement for for Sam Kisijukian's play art installation, 300 Paintings. This had run in the fall at Vineyard, but this is a show from an Australian comedian named Sam Kisijukian who went through a six month manic episode and created 300 large scale paintings. And he didn't know at the time that he was kind of going through this mental state. And what actually ended up happening was that these paintings were documenting the process that he was going through and is now put together a show for it. So this one again, return engagement only running from January 13th through February 23rd. And then later in the week, Grace, I am coming up at the end of the month on the 25th. This is a show that I really hope that I can squeeze into my schedule. I'm not sure that I'm going to get to because it closes the day after I get into town. But this is Show Boat A River. This is a reimagining of the iconic, seminal, groundbreaking musical Showboat. It is an adaptation that reframes the classic for today's audiences and it transforms 1880s Jim Crow and overlays it into the challenges of today. It is running at the NYU Skirball center just through January 26th. It began performances last week on Thursday. So a very short run. But I've never seen Showboat. So I've seen the movie but never seen a production of it. So I'm really, really excited. Hopefully have the opportunity to check this out. But of course. Book and lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein ii, music by Jerome Kern, based on the novel by Edna Ferber. And this one is directed and adapted by David Herskovitz. Also happening on Wednesday, Grace over at the Irish Rep. This is a new show called Beckett Briefs from the Cradle to the Grave. These are like short one act shows written by Samuel Beckett. Each has a different cast. There is the first one called Not I that features Sarah Street. The second one is just called Play and it features Roger Dominick Casey, Kate Forbes and Sarah street again. And then the last one is Craps Last Tape and that features the iconic star of stage and screen F. Murray Abraham, who will presumably be coming back to Broadway next season in Queen of Versailles. So this one Directed by Kirian O'Reilly and it will run from January 15th through March 9th. Then this is one that it took me a while to kind of like find the link for this one because I knew what was happening but I was a little confused. So if you're looking for this one, go to the Show Notes and get the link directly because it is an upcoming production of Cymbeline, Shakespeare's Cymbeline that'll begin preview performances on January 17th at the Classic Stage Company. But it is not actually a production by the Classic Stage Company. Instead this is a production by the National Asian American Theater Company. And they are going to be doing this show beginning on January 17th running through February 15th. And it is going to feature an all Asian cast but also an all femme cast. So women and non male identifying actors. And it is a show that doesn't get done very often. William Shakespeare show that is not normally part of the traditional repertoire. It features a new modern verse translation by Andrea Tome and directed by Stephen Brown Fried. So this one looks to be very, very cool. If you want more information on this, again you can't get it through the Classic Stage Company website. So if you want to check it out, head over to the Show Notes. And then finally on Sunday over at the Ethel Barrymore Theater, the recent Broadway revival of Our Town will end its limited run, obviously directed by Kenny Leon, has great stars, Jim Parsons, Zoe Deutsch, Katie Holmes, Richard Thomas, Ephraim Sykes, all these great people. So if you haven't a chance to see that one, you have a week left. All right, Chris, one little bit of news and I'm going to ask you a question that is potentially going to bring you existential dread. But we found out last week that the Sutton Foster led Broadway revival of Once Upon a Mattress will get a cast album. They finished up their Los Angeles run and they're either heading into or just headed into the studio for this one. But it is going to be available pretty quickly in terms of cast album stuff. But it is going to be available from Center Stage Records on March 28th. All right, Grace, we're recording this on Sunday, January 12th. That means that in one week's time, potentially the United States government could shut down TikTok as somebody who is not only a social media influencer in her own right, but whose day job involves getting social media influencers to talk about Broadway shows. 1real briefly, what is going on and then more importantly, like, how is this going to impact not only those creators, but the shows that they work with and most importantly the audiences who look to that content to help them learn about theatrical endeavors and then also to decide what to purchase tickets to see?

Grace Aki (11:35)

Yeah, it's really challenging because, well, first of all, the quote TikTok ban of it all is just a portion of the bill that's being presented. And I think that people should kind of look into that on their own because there's a lot that is potentially like at stake in terms of like data and just a whole host of things. What I find kind of insane is that then that kind of positions Metta, of course, you know, a US owned company to be just even more of a conglomerate. And what's hard is, is that like the way that meta and like Facebook and Instagram are positioned for creators is not the same economy for creators. On TikTok people creators are able to be so handsomely compensated for their video watch times versus the way that they are through those other platforms. And this is people's like whole job, like whole livelihoods are dedicated to making sure that you watch a video over 60 seconds long so that they are paid and then also through endorsement deals and brand deals. And that's where I come in. Like I work in collaboration with compensating or gifting creators on both platforms. What's crazy is that through TikTok, especially since 2020, the playing field of accessibility has widened so much in terms of, you know, how people are learning about rush lines and ticket policies and new casting notices and things that they are not learning through a, with all due respect, Broadway world graphic on Instagram. They are learning so much more in depth information and there's validity to all of it. So it's not to put the other down, it's just that the, the way that people are able to communicate and articulate like we do here on Broadway radio, frankly, is a different medium. And so I think that the scary part, in terms of just like the little portion of Broadway that we talk about or regional theater, I mean, the regional theater conversations that I see on TikTok, especially, like, I would have never guessed in a million years, you know, even like talking about your, your high school, what show that they're going to pick for their spring musical. There's just so much videos, a lot. Yeah, they're so good. And there's just like a, a whole range of storytelling opportunities that exist on that platform alone that you cannot and will not rep quickly on another. And I think that we, we would suffer in the artistic community a tremendous loss. Also, the way that people, candidly, especially that work on shows, speak on TikTok is very different than the way they speak on Instagram because Instagram has kind of become like, like a glorified LinkedIn, like people use it for networking and business purposes. On TikTok, it feels much more like a social medium. And I've seen people speak very freely in a way that I don't think that they ever would on another platform like the business and, you know, like struggles maybe of rehearsal and things like that. You never know. So I think it's actually like really catastrophic. I don't mean to be doomsday, but it could be a significant loss in terms of how we have progressed so much in this community and accessibility and the way that we are able to talk about so many of these experiences, I think it would be really, really detrimental to our community to, to lose it financially and emotionally.

Matt Tammini (14:56)

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So what is the status of, like, is there any hope that either that'll get taken out of the bill, somebody based somewhere other than China will purchase the North American operation? What is, what is the, the potential for this to be averted over the next week?

Grace Aki (15:14)

Yeah. Kevin O'Leary talked about like a $17 billion buy. Mr. I don't know.

Matt Tammini (15:18)

Mr.

Grace Aki (15:18)

Wonderful, wonderful. I don't know if that'll happen. I Think it's kind of too late, frankly, because it should have. It would have needed to start now because those acquisitions take a very long time or. Or, you know, Trump or whomever decides that they want to keep it, I don't know. But, you know, they have all of our data anyways. I think that's what's so funny to me. The whole. The whole upset is that they're like, we don't want China or anybody else to have our data. Honey, you have my facial recognition at this point. You have my blood samples. Like, do you really think that my use of TikTok is going to change all of the, you know, the. The private data that you own from me? No. It's a control thing and it's. It's a us thing and it's really unnecessary, so. Because in terms of being sold to and data mined, I'm sorry, but we've all been on Facebook for 15 years like that. It's there too. So to think that it's external only is, to me, psychotic and probably ultimately racist. So there you go.

Matt Tammini (16:20)

Here we go. Story of America in 2025. All right, let's try to make things a little bit more joyful before we get out of here, Grace. But on Friday, I have a recommendation.

Grace Aki (16:32)

Sorry, sorry, sorry.

Matt Tammini (16:32)

Oh, okay. Yeah, go ahead. Tell me what your recommendation is.

Grace Aki (16:35)

Last week, I had the opportunity to see my mother's funeral. The show at presented by Plains Plow at Soho Theater sat with our friend Ashley Hefford. I really loved it. It's an excellent piece of one act storytelling. Obviously, I have a lot of ties to funeral shows. I really love them. It does an excellent job of not telling the exact story that you think that you're set up for. It tells a story about writing and the commerce of theater and the commerce of poverty, porn and the way that we talk about the most intimate parts of our lives. I think it's so well done. I think every element of the cast and the writing is exceptional. Plains Pal obviously does a lot of UK productions. They tour them. They've brought this in a whole host of Edinburgh Fringe highlights to Soho Playhouse. I recommend that you check out all of them, but that's the one that I've seen most recently that I'm going back to see on Monday. I'm not seeing the full show, but they are doing a grieving party and I can't wait to be there.

Matt Tammini (17:39)

Oh, wow. All right.

Grace Aki (17:41)

Yeah.

Matt Tammini (17:42)

Those are not two words that often get put together. Grieving and party. But good fun.

Grace Aki (17:47)

But it's running through the 25th, so you've got all month to see it. Make sure that you buy your tickets online and you won't regret going.

Matt Tammini (17:53)

All right, awesome. The one recommendation that I have is Last week, the upcoming Broadway production of Real Women have Curves released a music video featuring one of the songs. It is called Fly Away. Singing the song is the show's composer, Joy Huerta. She's accompanied by a group of musicians. It's a very acoustic version. I'm not exactly sure if that is how the song is going to be done in the show, but it's a really beautiful song, really lovely and sweet. This one is set to begin performances at the James Earl Jones on April 1, featuring a book by Lisa Loomer and Nell Benjamin, who are great so this is one of those shows we've talked about, Grace, where like, I don't know a whole lot about it. I didn't really follow it a ton when it was out of town. But I'm kind of excited to see what this turns into. So if you want to see a little bit of a glimpse into what this looks like moving forward, you can head over to the show. Notes 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 at Broadway Radian. You can follow me on Instagram @bww. Matt Grace, where can people find you?

Grace Aki (18:52)

You can find me at. It's Grace.

Matt Tammini (18:53)

Aki all right, everybody, have a wonderful Monday, a wonderful week. We'll be back to talk to you. Tom.