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Today on Broadway: Monday, June 2, 2025
00:22:55
Patti LuPone Responds to Open Letter and Apologizes to Lewis, McDonald; Criss Extends in ‘Maybe Happy Ending’; Gonzalez and Scherzinger Duet on ‘With One Look’ Since 2016, “Today on Broadway” has been the first and only daily podcast recapping the top ...
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- [00:02]
Matt Tamanini
Welcome to Today on Broadway for Monday, June 2, 2025 on Broadway radio's Matt.
- [00:06]
Grace Aki
Tammini and I'm tell me on a Sunday podcast. Grace Aki.
- [00:09]
Matt Tamanini
Grace, we are in Tony's week. How are you feeling? Are you excited? Are you well excited or scared? Are you nervous? Like, what is the vibe heading into this last week for you personally, for all the shows that you work on, all of that stuff?
- [00:24]
Grace Aki
I think what makes things, you know, exciting in this way is that like it there are some things that are genuinely toss ups, like where I' hearing like a very clear winner. I've heard a lot of people be like, I really want this or you know, divisiveness, et cetera. But I think that there will be a lot of surprises. Whereas in years past there weren't a lot. Like in the past two years, I think that there were only a few times where people were genuinely like, whoa, that came out of nowhere, like best director of a musical, things like that that I think were people had decided what it was and then it didn't end up being that and it was still, well, you know, celebrated and all those things. So yeah, I think that it's just everyone trying to get through. I think that what we also have to remember is that all the people that are performing on stage and also are on those creative teams have been working nonstop for the past month besides on the show itself, but at these press junkets, at these Tony's luncheons, at these Tony voter events, post show hangs, like all of these things. Spring road conference, Spring rogue, like there are hundreds of hours that are not documented on the stage that go into this. And so I think that on behalf of everyone else's schedule, my piece is so small in this, but like the people that have been out there just having to talk about their art and their process and all those things are also just exhausted. And so I am looking forward to Tony Sunday seeing all these people just get to get glammed, which is also work in and of itself, but ultimately feel celebratory of their art. And I think that that's the thing that we all need to remember is that like everyone made something this year. Everybody worked very hard and that's what it's supposed to be about. So I don't care who wins or loses. I mean, I obviously care. But yeah.
- [02:17]
Matt Tamanini
Coming up on Sunday, I will have a reaction episode coming to you right after the Tony Awards are done. I will go through all the categories. I will give my initial thoughts. Grace, I don't know if you'll be working on Sunday night, I assume. I don't know if you'll be there. Are you going to be there this year?
- [02:33]
Grace Aki
Yes. I hope I'm five fingers into a cheeseburger, you know what I mean? So wherever I am, I hope I'm eating.
- [02:45]
Matt Tamanini
Yes. I will run through everything on my own. That'll be Monday's episode, so it won't be in patreon, obviously, at 8 o' clock like normal, because that's when the Tony start. But listen to that. Also talking about all of the great creative onstage and offstage people that have been talking about their shows recently. Over the weekend, I released two special standalone episodes talking with Tony nominees this year. First purpose is Glen Davis, who is nominated both for best featured actor in a play and as a producer for the show. And then I also spoke with Kip Williams, who is the director and adapter of the Picture of Dorian Gray. Those are both in your feeds if you want to hear them talk about it. I will say that Kip Williams might be the smartest person I've ever talked to. Listening to him talk about everything that went into developing that show from an artistic standpoint was fascinating. And honestly, a lot of it was over my head. He's much smarter than me, so check those.
- [03:36]
Grace Aki
Yeah, he's the smartest man you've ever talked to. I don't know person is it? But no, he, he's. He's astounding. There's a video I actually got of us on the carpet that I want to release also because his brain and the way he is like just a genius when it comes to the progressive state of theater. I'm very excited by him.
- [03:56]
Matt Tamanini
Yeah, fantastic. But Grace, you mentioned, like some of these things are up in the air and as we normally do, we will have a Tony's predictions pool. Now it's going to be a little different this year because in years past we've used the one that like audience rewards and the Broadway League puts out. They are still doing that this year, but they're not making it a pool. So you can have like a league and go against other people. They are doing it. It is just like your. So I have gone with bracketology, which is like a thing. You can make your own pools in there. So I will have a link in the show notes if you want to participate. The winner will receive a theater Broadway care package with a bunch of stuff that I've accumulated that I will send out to you. So if you want to be involved, put your name in the like as your name in the pool. And that way when you win, I will announce who won and then you can send me an email and say, hey, this is me. This is my address. You can send it here. So we'll talk more about that as it gets closer, but I will have a link to that in the show notes. All right, all of that Tony fun stuff out of the way. Grace, we have to talk about a story that I mentioned last week that has only kind of begun circulating and percolating even more. But late last week, a group of over 500 different theater related professionals, including some Tony winners like James Monroe Iglehart, Malia Joy Moon, Wendell Pierce and others, signed an open letter calling on the Broadway community, it kind of in general, but more specifically the Broadway League and the American Theater wing to condemn or reprimand Patti LuPone over the comments that she made in the recent New Yorker article that we talked about last week as well. It says that LuPone's comments specifically about Tony Award winners Keisha Lewis and Audra McDonald were, quote, degrading and misogynistic. It is a blatant act of racialized disrespect. It constitutes bullying. It constitutes harassment. It is emblematic of the microaggressions and abuse that people in this industry have endured for far too long, too often without consequences. It asks the league and the wing to disinvite Patty and anybody else who, quote, uses their platform to publicly demean, harass or disparage fellow artists from industry events, including the Tony Awards. Now Tony, now Patty is a Tony's voter, so that's an interesting layer to be added into that as well. And they also encouraged those people, if they wanted to re engage with the community, to go through anti bias and restorative justice programs. I will have a link to that letter in the show notes, including everybody who has signed it as of the printing of that article. And I think probably many more people have added their names to it as well. That happened on Friday. Then over the weekend on Saturday, Patty actually posted a response and I think what can easily be described as an apology on her social media and I'm not going to read the full thing, but in part it says, quote, for as long as I have worked in the theater, I have spoken my mind and never apologized. That is changing today. I am deeply sorry for the words I used during the New Yorker interview, particularly about Keisha Lewis, which were demeaning and disrespectful. I regret my flippant and emotional responses during this interview which were inappropriate. And I am devastated that my behavior has offended others and has run counter to what we hold dear in this community. I hope to have the chance to speak to Audra and Keisha personally to offer my sincere apologies. And then she goes on. It's not very long. You can look at it in the show notes. I will have that there. You know, I think that this is a good, solid apology. I'm a little disappointed that she didn't reach out to Keisha and Audra beforehand. She says that she hopes to have the chance to speak to them. Maybe they don't want to talk to her, so maybe that's what that means. But I would have liked to have heard her at least say, I have reached out to Audra and Keisha to personally offer my sincere apologies. She doesn't really mention the racial side of this discussion that has been brought out, especially in that open letter that I mentioned before. She does say, though, that she, quote, wholeheartedly agrees with everything that was written in the open letter that was shared. So that is something that she at least acknowledges it, but doesn't really dive into, like, those specific racial microaggressions. I do think it's interesting, though, she apologizes specifically to Keisha and says she wants to apologize to Audra and Keisha directly. She doesn't mention apologizing to Glenn Close, whom she also called a bitch in the article. So I thought that was interesting, you know, potentially noteworthy, and somebody much smarter than me might want to dive into why that might be, but that's that I don't. I don't. The whole thing is messy and nasty and, you know, disappointing. So I don't. I don't know what else there really is to say about it, but it is there. If you want to read both the open letter and Patti's apology, they are in the show notes.
- [08:43]
Grace Aki
The only thing I want to say about this is that while everyone can have an opinion on everything in the world, this apology is not for us. Like, it is not on us to decide whether it is a good or acceptable or we forgive, like, as a community, because this is. This is for both of those women, particularly Audra and Keisha and the black theater community as a whole. It is on others to decide whether or not they want to accept that applause apology. It is not for us. I thought it was very funny and interesting how quickly the amount of people that reshared that apology, being like, see, she really did it. And I'm like, you want this to be okay? So Fast so that you can go back to idolizing and putting on a pedestal this forever, decades long, exhausting diva behavior that is not just by this one person, but by many people in this community. And I am frankly looking forward to the continued kind of like reckoning, but also like realization that not all of these things are just diva behavior. Some of it is bullying and rooted in misogyny, white supremacy and racism. So I, I hope that there is continued unlearning. I hope that people are being mindful about how they interact with things like this on the Internet or whatever, because I think this is a new era for how we kind of navigate this space and people being vocal about their lack of acceptance when they see something like this. I think that, like that first Keisha video when she talked about the, the comments about Hell's Kitchen, particularly that spun all of this. This was something that's been boiling, I think for a long time. This is not just like randomly. I was upset that she said we were loud. You know what I mean? So I'm grateful that people are taking note and that 500 signature letter was written. It hurts that people have to do that. But just to say that like the apology and all of those things, they're not for us usually. So I just want to be mindful of all of those things. And I can't wait to not hear about this shit anymore.
- [10:48]
Matt Tamanini
100%. I'm with you. I feel, you know, because we talked about it before going like, I don't, I don't want to talk about this, but we kind of have to. Nonetheless, let's talk about something that is much more fun. And over the weekend, on Friday it was announced that Darren Criss is extending his run in maybe happy ending. Could this be a campaign marketing style announcement graces you so often talk about? Maybe. But it has been announced that he will continue in the role of Oliver in the Tony nominated musical in his Tony nominated role as well through August 31st. He had a very nice statement talking about how he believes that the show will continue far beyond whenever his time is done with the production. But he is very excited to be continuing with the show for a few more months. I don't exactly know when his run was supposed to end, but to me he's the front runner for the Tony. And I think that this is a nice little bump because Tony voting ends on Tuesday. So a nice little bump to remind people that he's there, that he's, you know, going to be with the show for a while. So we will See what happens with Helen J. Shin. How long, maybe both of them continue. And if there is some Tony wins this weekend, what that means for the future of the show. All right, let's take a break from the news real quick to talk about our sponsor, Cash App. Depending on where you are in the country, school might be out for summer. You might be getting ready to head out on some summer vacations. I know I have way too much traveling happening over the next couple months and I'm excited about that. But it does present some issues when I'm away from my bank. My bank's kind of a local bank. I'm going to be away from it. How do I get cash? How do I give people money if I need to make sure that I'm paying them back for something? I'm going to be visiting family. I'm going to be seeing friends all around the country. I'm going to be going on trips. Fortunately for me, I am a regular and frequent user of Cash App. So it is so super easy to make sure that I am sending people money not only in a quick way, but in a secure way. Cash App is fast, it's easy, it's safe. And there is no way that I feel more confident about sending money to friends and family with than Cash App. They're going to make sure that I am in good hands while I'm traveling and that my money gets to the people that I owe money to. And perhaps more importantly, the money that other people owe me is getting to me.
- [13:03]
Grace Aki
Now, you guys all know that I love to go out to dinner. I love to have a little group hang. I love a post show meal. But you know what comes with that is that everyone ends up having to figure out how to split the bill at the end. And of course, I don't want to deal with that. So when someone slaps down a card, it's on everybody to kind of like send money somehow. And the quickest and easiest, less awkward way to do that is actually through Cash App. I can actually send personalized invoices to everybody. I'm a little businesswoman. Hello. And everyone's able to send it to me pretty immediately. Like, that's what's so nice about all of this. Like, we live in a digital age. We should not be having to figure out cash and figure out how we're, you know, oh, I'll get you next time. No, no, no. There might not be it next time. And I need my money now. So Cash App is the way to do this.
- [13:46]
Matt Tamanini
And for a limited time. Only new Cash App users can use our exclusive code to earn some additional cash. For real. There's no catch. Just download Cash App and sign up. Use our exclusive referral code Broadway in your profile. Send $5 to a friend within 14 days and you'll get $10 dropped right into your account. Terms apply. That's money. That's Cash App. All right, Grace, obviously we know that the Tony Awards are coming up on Sunday, but there is a ton of other really exciting things that are happening in the theater community this week. I'm just going to run through them quickly because we're getting late into the show, but I do want to mention the fact that tonight the Red Bull Theater Company is opening an Off Broadway revival of Moliere's the Imaginary Invalid. It is adapted by Jeffrey Hatcher and directed by Jesse Berger and has a tremendous cast. The show is playing at New world stages through June 29 and stars Arnie Burton, Russell Daniels, Manuel Falciano, Emily Kuachu, Mark Lynn Baker. The Mark Lynn Baker, Sarah Stiles, who is fantastic, Emily Swallow and John Dee. Check that one out. I I don't know if I'm going to make it up in June, but if I do, that will absolutely be towards the top of my list. I grew up with Mark Lynn Baker. I love him so much. Next Coming up on Tuesday we will have the opening for the new Donald Margulis show Lunar Eclipse. The two hander stars Reed Bernie and Lisa Emery and is directed by Kate Wariski. This show is playing at the Pershing Square Signature center, currently on sale through June 22. Then on Wednesday we have the new show Low Country. It is a world premiere play by Abby Rosebrock and directed by Joe Bonnie and it stars three folks, Keith Kupferer, Babak Tafti and Jodi Balfour, who you might know from the TV show For All Mankind. But she was also Jack who invested in Keely's marketing PR company on Ted Lasso in the third season. So she was great. So she's starring in that one so that should be a fun show. Then on Thursday we have the first preview performances at MCC from the new play Trophy Boys which is an American premiere by Emmanuel Matana and directed by Danya Taymor. This is a show that has sold out runs in Australia. It focuses on an all boys high school that is in a debate competition. They go up against their sister's school but all of the boys on this team are played by women or non binary actors including the playwright Emmanuel Matana. This one has been getting a ton of buzz and of course we love anything at MCC. This is playing through June 13th and then Grace, something that's really exciting that I want to remind everybody, everybody about on Friday night on CNN live from Broadway. Good night and good luck will air. If you haven't seen the show, I think it's done incredibly well. I do think that there are a number of Tony Awards that it very well could win on Sunday night. So if you want to make sure that you are getting an opportunity to see it and didn't want to pay a whole bunch of money to see it on stage, this is a great way. And Grace, I have to tell you, I went to Nighthawk Cinema to this screening that you coordinated of the film and I do think that they are kind of beautiful to see together. So watch CNN's broadcast of the show on Friday night, maybe watch the movie on Saturday and then watch the Tonys on Sunday. I think that would be a great way to kind of get yourself civically minded for the rest of this summer. I unfortunately won't be able to watch it live, although I will be recording it. I'll have it on DVR because I'm going to be heading over to the Dr. Phillips center for the Performing Arts on Friday night to see the national tour of Stomp. It's only here for a couple days over the weekend, but I'm going to be taking my 10 year old nephew Joey who I showed him a video of it to see if he wanted to go with me and he just kind of got mesmerized by. It was like the opening where they do the brushes and then I showed him they were playing on syncs. I cannot wait to see this with him. And as always, I love seeing things through his eyes. And then Grace, something that I know you had a little bit of experience with that I want to ask you about here. Coming up on Friday we will have the first preview of the new musical Bo the Musical from out of the Box Theatrics. It features a concept book and lyrics by Douglas Lyons, music by Lyons and Ethan D. Pakchar, directed and choreographed by Josh Rhodes and it stars Matt Rodin amongst others. You went to some sort of event for it earlier this week, right?
- [18:02]
Grace Aki
Yes. I was very excited to help coordinate this Pressy creator first look event for Beau with Out of the Box Theatrics. I love that company so dearly. I've been very excited about this project. I love Matt Roden, I love Douglas Lyons work. So this is really exciting. I love that they got to perform like three numbers. You'll of that on Socials. But also you should get your tickets because it starts June 6th and then runs through July 27th. So you'll have to go and come down to the West Village and see it for yourself. 154 Christopher street is their new theater location. I'm very excited about it, so come see it.
- [18:38]
Matt Tamanini
Awesome. Then on Saturday, we will have the first preview not only for a new production of one of literally my top five favorite shows, Machinal, but it's the first show from the new theater company, the New York Theater Company. It is directed by Amy Marie Seide and choreographed by Madison Hilligoss. This, of course, is the 1929 classic by Sophie Treadwell. I love Mackinaw. And if I can get an opportunity to come up and see this before it closes on July 3rd, I will. It is playing at New York City Center. Then, of course, we have the Tonys Tony Awards. Act One will start at 6:40pm Eastern Time on Pluto. The Tonys will begin at 8pm on CBS and Paramount. Plus we'll obviously be talking about that throughout the week. Don't worry about that. And then over the weekend, we'll have closings of Good Night and Good Luck and a Fellow on Broadway as well as Bus Stop at Classic Stage Company. With one smile I'm the girl next to all the love that you hungered for. All right, Grace. The one recommendation that I have is the final ham for Ham from this season. Had some great videos come out of that. We saw the cast of Operation Mincemeat perform. We saw Jordan Tyson and Joy woods do kind of like a jazzy rearranged version of if Mama Was Married from Gypsy. And then the highlight, at least for me, was Nicole Scherzinger and Mandy Gonzalez doing a duet version of With One Look. Just One look says the screen of Lame. They threw in a few little surprises that were kind of similar to like the backstage walk that we see during the show. So that was very fun. There were also appearances by Jonathan Groff, Otter McDonald, Sarah Snook, Francis Zhu, Alana Glazer, Jasmine, Amy Rogers and Christopher Jackson that were there to kind of like introduce things as well. And of course, Lin Manuel Miranda was on scene as well. So if you want to check out those videos, I will have them in the show. Notes I 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 BroadwayRadio. Grace, where can people find you?
- [21:26]
Grace Aki
You can find me at Grace Hockey.
- [21:27]
Matt Tamanini
All right, everybody, have a wonderful Monday, your wonderful Tony's week. And we'll be back to talk to you tomorrow. I say back where I was born, Sam.