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Today on Broadway: Monday, March 17, 2025
00:20:29
Zegler to Lead Lloyd’s ‘Evita,’ Theater Owners Screw Up Marquee Dimming Again, PBS to Air London ‘Next to Normal’ Since 2016, “Today on Broadway” has been the first and only daily podcast recapping the top theatre headlines every Monday through Friday....
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- [00:00]
Matt Tammanini
Hey, prime members, are you tired of ads interfering with your favorite podcasts? Good news, with Amazon Music, you have access to the largest catalog of ad free top podcasts included with your prime membership. To start listening, download the Amazon Music app for free or go to Amazon.com ADFreePodcasts that's Amazon.com ADFreeP Podcasts to catch up on the latest episodes without the ads. Welcome to Today on Broadway for Monday, March 17, 2025. It's St. Patty's Day. Was that bad? Was that a bad accent? I can't tell. Anyway, I'm Broadway Radio's Matt Tammanini and I'm coming to you on my own today because Grace is fleeing the United kingdom here on St Patrick's Day and heading back from London. So I am going to bring you everything that you need to know on my lonesome. But I will tell you there's a lot to get to today. So we're going to start off with a quick congratulations to one of our favorite Broadway couples. After years of being together, Reeve Carney finally popped the question to Eva Noblezada a week or so ago and they made it public. They shared the photos, but they also really made the official announcement at their cabaret at Green Room 42. Eva, before they started, said, oh, I've got to go get something. Hold on. She went into the audience and said, I've got to get this from my future mother in law. And everyone kind of went crazy. And she got the ring and went on and went on stage. And so we've got a article from People magazine that has a bunch of the pictures and a video From Green Room 42 of the announcement at their cabaret. So if you want to check those out, you can do that. Congratulations to those two crazy kids. And so hopefully this leads to many, many years of happiness with the two of them. All right, let's get into the news and we are going to start with something that was finally announced on Friday. This is something that has been in the ether and I've teased it a little bit here on Broadway Radio and it is the fact that Rachel Zegler has signed on to play Eva Perrone in Jamie Lloyd's production of Evita at the London Palladium. This had long been rumored to be a role that Rachel's west side Story co star Ariana DeBose was going to take. But apparently scheduling conflicts, presumably with the Prime Video TV show that Ariana is doing with Nicole Kidman and Jamie Lee Curtis prevented her from taking on this role. So instead they went with the Maria to Ari Zanita and Rachel will be taking on this role. The show is scheduled to play a 12 week summer run from June 14th through September 6th. That would put it in line for a potential late fall opening on Broadway if they wanted to. But I would think that probably makes it most likely that it will come to Broadway in the spring of 2026. No other casting has been confirmed for the rest of the show, particularly either for Shea or Juan Perrone. But in the article from Baz Bumble Boy from Deadline, it did say that director Jamie Lloyd was in New York City auditioning people for the show. I have heard that for the role of Shea, Jamie is going to go with somebody who has been in and currently is in one of his other shows, the one that is currently playing on Broadway. And while he does not always walk through Shubert Alley, he does occasionally walk through Shubert Alley and you might have seen him walk through Shubert Alley. So that is what I am hearing from that. Again, no confirmation on that. That is just the rumor on the street. Long ago, even probably before Ari was rumored, the thought had been that the movie Shay Antonio Banderas could be playing Juan Perrone. If you ask me, there's really with the casting of Rachel, no chance of that happening. They are just so far different in age. It would be just too much of an age gap to overlook. Obviously there was a real life age gap between Juan and Eva Perron, but it was only about 20 years. There is a 41 year age gap between Antonio Banderas and Rachel Zegler. So I would not expect that casting to happen, although that would have been very cool. Nonetheless, Rachel Zegler is starring in Evita and what's interesting about this is is that I have less than zero doubts that she can sing this score and she is going to absolutely, as the quote in Basma Boy's article says, blow the roof off the London Palladium. She is going to sing the hell out of this. But I am interested what this means about the production because when this was originally done at the Regents Open Air Outdoor Theater in London, it was staged with Sam Pauley as Ava to be kind of like a Beyonce concert. There was a lot of dancing. I don't know if Rachel can dance. I've never seen her really dance dance. And I do think that's interesting because obviously Ariana DeBose is a dancer by trade and that would have made sense if they were sticking with that kind of conceit for the production to have somebody who has has the dance skills that of Ariana DeBose. But despite the fact that they have this connection from west side Story in terms of type, Rachel and Ari are very different. So I think that's it's incredibly interesting to see what that means for how Jamie is going to approach this. Obviously, it's been, what, six years since this was originally staged, so it doesn't ne he's not necessarily tied to doing it the way that he did in the past. So we will see what happens again. I'm dying to hear her sing this score because there is no doubt in my mind that she will absolutely sound magnificent. So looking forward to that and hearing more about this production as it unfolds. In other news that we got on Friday, I'm still wrapping my head around this. This is something that I think probably aligns with what Grace had mentioned in the past. But all the times that we've talked about how the Broadway League and the Committee of Theater Owners have bungled the dimming of lights for Broadway stars, Grace has always argued that they need to come up with some other way to honor people when they die, rather than dimming the lights because all that actually leads to is people getting upset about who does and doesn't get recognized. Well, the newly formed Broadway in Memoriam Committee, which is still theater owners but also in consultation with industry service organizations, has announced this new idea, what they are calling Broadway in Memoriam. What they're going to do is they are going to create a quarterly tradition that is dedicated to honoring those who have died in the past quarter that have left a mark on Broadway in some way. So the second Tuesday of September, December, March and June, throughout the Broadway season, they will recognize multiple honorees to ensure that the contributions of these artists and writers and creators and industry professionals are remembered. The first one is going to take place on June 10, and they will celebrate people who have passed away in 2025 with the list of honorees to be announced in advance. On the evening of each of these events, the marquees of all 41 Broadway theaters will be dimmed simultaneously. But it gets a little complicated because if that's how we're going to do this, I don't know. I mean, I don't love this idea, but I don't dislike it either. I don't have a problem with it this way. I think this is probably, without putting words into her mouth, somewhat close to what Grace had envisioned, where it's a little bit more universal and everybody can have an opportunity to recognize anybody. But the committee does reserve the right to honor single individuals who have profoundly impacted Broadway in one way or another. And of course, you have people like Stephen Sondheim or Chita Rivera. So they are still going to recognize people individually, but then have this quarterly thing. So I'm not sure what the point of the quarterly thing is. So are they just saying, okay, only the biggest and the best, which is really what they wanted all the time? They get pressured into honoring more people because the theater owners have such a limited scope of who they determine to be worthy. This just seems like one step forward, two steps back. Maybe two steps forward, one step back. I don't know. It just seems like they're bungling it again. I just don't understand what the point of this is. If you're saying we're going to do a quarterly thing, do a quarterly thing. Don't say we're gonna do a quarterly thing. It's gonna be encompassing everybody, and we're going to, you know, honor everybody equally, and it's gonna make everybody happy and hopefully calm down people getting angry at us. But it's a very Orwellian thing where, to paraphrase Animal Farm, all Broadway artists are equal. Just some Broadway artists are more equal than others. So I'm not sure that they've really nailed this as much as they think they have. So we'll have to wait and see. But I can guarantee you at some point, there are going to be people getting upset that somebody is not getting this super special recognition that fans believe that they deserve. And the theater owners and the recognition committee or whatever are going to say, well, they're going to be included in the quarterly thing, but then they're going to get pressured by fans into doing an individual recognition for them. It's a mess. It's always a mess. And the theater owners never stop making things messier than they have to be. All right, this is a very busy week in New York theater, so I'm gonna run through everything very quickly. Lots of stuff happening on Broadway. Of course, if you want more information on any of these shows, I will have it in the show notes. But tonight, Monday, March 17, we have our next Broadway opening, and that is over at the Helen Hayes Theater, where Brandon Jacobs Jenkins new play Purpose, will officially open, is directed by Phylicia Rashad and has a wonderful cast, including Alana Arenas, Glen Davis, John Michael Hill, latonya Richardson Jackson, Harry Lennox, and Kara Young. Cannot wait to see this one. I love all things Brandon Jacobs Jenkins, and of course, anything that Kara Young is in. And then on Tuesday night over the Hudson Theater, we have the very first Broadway performance ever of Jason Robert Brown's the Last Five Years. This one, of course, is directed by Whitney White and stars Nick Jonas as Jamie Wellerstein and Adrian Warren as Kathy Hyatt. Now, just as a sneak peek, those two, Nick and Adrian were on the Tonight show last week and performed the last 10 minutes. Here's what I'm going to say about this. Nick does not sound bad to me, but he doesn't sound like he's singing musical theater. It is. It is a very pop vocal for him and Adrian is singing it more traditional Broadway. But I'm still a little up in the air as to what this really means for the show moving forward. But we will have to wait and see.
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Grace
Till the world explodes Till there's no one else who has.
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Matt Tammanini
All right. Also happening on Tuesday night down at the Lucio Lortel Theater, we have the official opening for the one person, Vanya, featuring Andrew Scott and directed by Sam Yates. If you want more information about that, you can can check it out. Then on Wednesday we have another Broadway opening and this one will take place over at the Gerald Schoenfeld Theater with Buena Vista Social Club. It is based off of the Real Life music collective in Cuba, also inspired by their albums and the documentary about them. It features a book by Marco Ramirez and all the music, of course, is by the Buena Vista Social Club. It is directed by Sahim Ali and choreographed by Patricia Delgado and Justin Peck had four phenomenal reviews off Broadway. So it'll be interesting to see if this one with Broadway reviews gets itself into the Tony race alongside currently maybe Happy Ending, which I think is in the lead as of now. So we will see what this show, which I think is the first one of the spring that really puts itself into the mix for best musical, how that impacts things moving forward. Also opening up on Wednesday night over at New York City center from the Manhattan Theater Club is the Off Broadway show We Had a World. This one is the latest play by Josh Harmon, directed by Tripp Korra Coleman and features Andrew Barth Feldman, Joanna Gleason and Janine Sarales. Also happening on Wednesday night over at the Abrams Arts center is the new show from the New York Theater Workshop called Becoming Eve. It features Tommy Dorfman, Judy Kuhn, Tedra Milan, Richard Schiff, Brandon Uranowitz and more. Then Thursday night, another Broadway opening as Operation Mincemeat, which might be the other new show this week that is going to enter into the best musical race, officially opens at the John Golden Theatre. The cast for this, which includes some of the writers, is the original London cast. It is directed by Robert Hastie, and the show is choreographed by Jenny Arnold. Again, you throw this one into the best musical race. I think it really could end up doing very well in that race, especially if the ticket sales continue to be as strong as they have been. Also, Thursday night, we're not done because over at the Booth Theater, we have the first Broadway performance of John Proctor is the villain. This one is going to open on April, 14, 15th. It is the new play by Kimberly Bellflower and directed by Donya Taymor. It is led by Stranger Things star Sadie Sink. And this is one that I think, you know, kind of is a little under the radar in terms of best play. But I would not be surprised if this one does very well and starts to get people talking with a potential impact of inserting itself into that race. All right, we're gonna head over to Sunday. We do have a Broadway opening. But what's interesting about this, even though it's practically a week away, we do already have a review out. And this is for Othello, playing at the Athel Barrymore Theater. It, of course, is directed by Kenny Leon, stars Denzel Wasington and Jake Gyllenhaal, along with Molly Osborne as Desdemona, with a bunch of other wonderful people in there as well, including Andrew Burnap, Kimber, Elaine Sprawl, Christina Saju and more. But here's the thing. So the New York Post and Johnny Oleksinski, you know, not my favorite newspaper or theater critic, but he very rightly wrote an article, and I did not read this article. So it very well was probably incredibly snarky. But the. I think it kind of deserves to be snarky, the fact that Othello on tele charge, not like secondhand ticket sellers, is selling tickets to this show for $921. And I get it. You have to make money on shows for investors. Like, you take a show like this with Denzel and Jake, it's going to be very expensive for them anyway, so you have to pay them. And then you want to make sure that you can get as much money as you can so you can invest that in other shows. I get it. But $921 is absurd. So Johnny Oleksinski wrote an article about that for the New York Post criticizing them, and then had his invitation to the show rescinded so he was no longer invited. So, again, I hate it when people make me side with the New York Post. But the New York Post did the right thing. They bought Johnny a ticket and he wrote his review and they released it over the weekend, more than a week before opening. I have no problem with this. I think that this is the exact thing you should do as an organization. I might have maybe waited until opening night and published it anyway. But I do kind of like the fact that they put a spotlight on this behavior because this is not something that producers should be doing. And I think this is a very, very bad look for them in doing this. But the review is brutal. I mean, he absolutely destroys it. He says it's boring. He says it makes no sense. It says that very little of it is connected to anything that would put any kind of insightful context onto the show. So I will let you read that it is in the show notes. I have not seen it. I doubt I'm going to get invited because I don't think they're really inviting anybody other than Tony voters. So I don't think that I'm gonna get it. I was hoping to see every show this Broadway season. It'd be the first time I would ever do that. But I'm certainly not paying $921 to see Othello or to see anything really. So we'll see what happens with this one. Then Off Broadway three shows are closing on Sunday. Dakar 2000 from Manhattan Theater, Club, Grangeville from Signature Theater, and the great Privation from soho Rep. Alright, run through the rest of the news here real quick. Last week MCC announced that they would be releasing a new album that are all studio versions except for one which we'll get to in a second of some of the biggest hits from the history of Miscast. It is MCC Theater's Miscast the Studio Sessions. It celebrates some of the biggest hits from the past 25 years of the annual fundraiser. They already released one track from it and that was the aforementioned. Even Opalsada singing Go the Distance that she did in 2019 at Miscast. The other songs in the album are Jonathan Groff and Jeremy Jordan singing Let me be your Star, Ben Platt singing the wizard and I, Katrina Link. If I were a rich man playing the fiddle as well, I was there for that one. Unbelievable. The Human Heart by Leslie Odom Jr. Nicolette Robinson. What is it about her? From Stephanie J. Block, who I'd be from Rachel Zegler, who we've also talked about Edelweiss from Lea Salongu, which I was also there to see that in person. Come to your senses From Marla Sparza. Obviously he was the original star of Tick Tick Boom Off Broadway. And that's a song from that show. Beautiful City from Godspell by Kelly O'Hara. Endless Night by Heather Headley. My God, I cannot wait to hear that. And then the one live song on the album, it would not be MCC Miscast without Gavin Creel and getting choked up talking about it. It is his Take Me or Leave Me with Aaron Tveit. So what is awesome about this is they dropped this information on Friday, March 14th. It's going to be out on Friday, March 28th, so we do not have to wait long. You can hear that in just a little under two weeks, but you can already hear Eva singing from Hercules. We also found out on Friday that Great Performances will be airing the West End transfer of the Donmar Warehouse's production of Next to Normal. It will air on May 9th. Check your local listings as always. This, of course, is the production that starred Casey Levy and Jamie Parker and others. I've heard for a long time that they want to bring this over, so I don't know if this helps or not, or if this is them saying, well, it's not coming to Broadway. Let's put it on pbs. I don't know, but I've only heard great things about this. I don't love Next to Normal. I like some of the songs as I've talked about before, but I will certainly be watching this. Anytime I can see a great production of anything on tv, especially with someone like Casey Levy, I will certainly be watching. All right, I'm going to run through some real quick show and casting news. This is weird. I don't know what to think about this, but it was announced that the upcoming Off Broadway musical Goddess, which is set to begin performances on April 29th at the Public Theater, has lost one of its creative. Jocelyn Bio, who had been credited as the book writer, has decided to step away. She said in a statement, quote, the beautiful thing about making theater is how it continues to grow and evolve over time in this stunning show. Goddess is no exception. It has evolved to a different place where I feel it is best for Sahim Michael and Al James to continue the journey. I remain a huge fan of the show and wish everyone well. I have no doubt that New York audiences will be delighted, moved and inspired by the word of this groundbreaking show. The people she mentioned Sahim Sahim Ali, who is the director and he is now going to take over as the official book writer. He is joined by James Iams, who is of course the Pulitzer prize winner for Fat Ham. He is joining the creative team as providing a bit additional book material and the music and lyrics is by Michael Michael Thurber. The show is set to star Amber Maan as it did in its Off Broadway tryout a couple years ago at Berkeley Rep. I haven't heard any tea on this, but it is certainly interesting when a show about a black woman loses a black woman from the creative team. So maybe there is something to it, maybe there's nothing to it but a lovely and and generous statement from Jocelyn. All right, we have a sneak peek inside the rehearsal room of Love Life from New York City Center Encores where Kate Baldwin sings the song Mr. Right. And then from Broadway backwards we have Jordan Fisher leading a company singing Defying Gravity. So these are two wonderful songs that you want to check Accepting limits cuz someone says they're so Some things I cannot change but till I try I'll never know. 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 oddrading. You can follow me on Instagram @bww. Matt all right, everybody, have a wonderful Monday, a wonderful week, and we'll be back to talk to you. To.
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Grace
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