← BroadwayRadio
BroadwayRadio
Today on Broadway: Monday, March 24, 2025
00:19:14
‘Beaches’ to Tour Before Broadway, ‘Jonathan Larson Project’ to Close Early, Busy Week on Broadway Since 2016, “Today on Broadway” has been the first and only daily podcast recapping the top theatre headlines every Monday through Friday.
Loading summary
Transcript23 lines
- [00:02]
Matt Tammini
Welcome to Today on Broadway for Monday, March 24, 2025. I'm Broadway Radio's Matt Tammini and I'm.
- [00:07]
Grace
Tell Me on a Sunday Podcast Grace.
- [00:08]
Matt Tammini
Ake Grace, a little bit of a weird last couple days in the podcast feed because on Friday instead of having it today on Broadway because I was out and you were out, we had a special interview episode with Cara Donnelly who is getting ready to do her one person show as part of the New York City Fringe. You can hear all about that in the podcast feed on Friday. Then on Saturday did an unusual Saturday Today on Broadway because I didn't get an opportunity to do the reviews for Operation Mincemeat because as you can probably still tell a little bit, I've been under the weather so I was not up to it on Friday. So I did those reviews as well as an interview with Michelle Azer who is currently playing Ruth Bader Ginsburg in the show All Things Equal that played by the time you hear this yesterday on Sunday here in Orlando, but a great conversation with a fantastic actor. I've seen her do this show before a couple of years ago. It's awesome. So check out those things from us. And then on Sunday of course we had this Week on Broadway and I haven't seen the episode yet, but I'm sure they talked about a whole bunch of great things that you are going to want to see coming up this spring. But Grace, for us we are diving into this week with a story that has us already looking to potentially the spring of 2027 or even later. And that's because the newest version of the musical adaptation of Beaches is going to head out on a pre Broadway national tour in the fall of 2026. So they are calling this a pre Broadway tour. So potentially that means they would want to come in as early as spring 2027. But generally a touring season, Greece is a full season, so maybe the fall of 2027. They have not announced casting or locations or anything for this yet, but I do know that at least Jessica Vosk, who had played the Bette Midler role of Cece in the international premiere of this show in Calgary last year, she commented and shared it. I did not see if Kelly Barrett shared it on her stories when it was announced last week. But as we talked about before, the show has gone through a lot of different incarnations. It had previously been done in 2014 and 2015. It had such names attached to it in different incarnations as Shoshana Bean and Whitney Basher. So I think it's interesting grace that we are already talking about something in the 2020, I mean potentially 2027, 2028 season, potentially coming to Broadway. I know that probably makes your head spin as somebody who is just trying to get through the next month of the 2024, 2025 season. But when people say a pre Broadway national tour, we don't get this a ton. We've obvious with the Wiz. But what is the timetable? What's the trajectory of something for that? Assuming that it plays a full touring schedule, which is not exactly what the Wiz did. The Wiz did it is doing its full tour now after the Broadway run. The full season is normally like a fall to fall, but this is. We don't know if that's what Beaches is going to be like. I guess maybe talk about what the differences are about doing a full season on the road versus what the Wiz did, which was kind of like a truncated ramp up to Broadway.
- [03:33]
Grace
Yeah. So a lot of. So a lot of shows are starting to like look at doing this. And what they'll do is like a couple of months out on the road as a basically a pre Broadway tryout. Instead of doing it at one regional house, they'll go city to city and work on it. But then they'll also be able to make good money playing these massive houses. Before that, they create one of the tour stops being New York and being Broadway. So that's like what the Wiz did and then they went on a more traditional national tour. I think that what Beaches is doing is the former, which is the. The Wiz route where they're going to take a couple of cities that they think would be really great markets for this show and then they're going to build one of those tour stops to be Broadway. Like that makes the most sense to me for them. And then after that Broadway run, they might take a national tour where it would be like a full season. But I do not anticipate them, especially with two like Broadway stars like that, that they're. They're only doing this to work on the piece and to. You know what I mean? Like it's not most of the time a national tour is post Broadway run is. Is after Tony Noms or Wins and you're able to ride high across the nation on a lot of those factors. I think that the. What Beaches is going to do is that kind of like whiz pre Broadway run.
- [04:54]
Matt Tammini
Where would you think a show like this would play? You said it will hit markets where they think it'll Do. Well, where. Where would those be? Do you think this is a California? Hit the Pantages or whatever, maybe San Francisco and then come back east, which is not dissimilar from the Wiz, did that to a certain extent, but hit other places. Where are you thinking this might go on that pre Broadway run?
- [05:19]
Grace
In all honesty, I don't know. I don't know where they were able to identify the key markets for the show were. It might be the Midwest, it might be California, to your point. Cause isn't that a setting of the film?
- [05:33]
Matt Tammini
I don't know. I'd never seen the movie. But I mean, it is a. It is a muse, it is a music story. So, like, I wouldn't be surprised if LA is part of it. I know in 2014, like, I think it actually had its world premiere, which is a much different version of the show in Chicago. So maybe they go back there on the way, you know, kind of crisscross back East. Who knows?
- [05:51]
Grace
Yeah.
- [05:52]
Matt Tammini
All right, let's talk about some things that we do know though, Grace. And we do have some show and casting stuff. And unfortunately, it's going to start with some disappointing news because it was announced last week that the Jonathan Larson project is going to close earlier than expected. The show will wrap up its run at the orpheum Theater on March 30. It officially opened on March 10. At the time of closing, it will have only played 51 performances off Broadway. I'm especially disappointed just for personal reasons, because I was literally supposed to see it the day after its new closing date. So that's thrown my schedule off a little bit. But obviously the most important thing is that people who do want to see it are able to get down to that theater downtown and celebrate not only the legacy of Jonathan Larson, but the incredible cast of folks that are in it. Andy Bantas, Adam Chandler, Barrett Taylor, Iman Jones, Lauren Marcus and Jason Tam before it wraps up in, I mean, just under a week at this point. A little bit better news though, Grace, is that we found out that Joshua Harmon's We Had a World is extending yet again. You spoke with Andrew Barth Feldman before the show began. Performances from the Manhattan Theater Club over at New York City center. And it will now play through May 11th. It had originally begun performances on March 19th. So this is a good nearly two month run off Broadway for this show, which it was not originally anticipating. In addition to Andrew, the show features Joanna Gleeson and Janine Siralis and is directed by Trip Coleman. I have started to hear some rumors Grace, that this might not be the end of the road for this show. While it might not extend again off Broadway, it might end up somewhere else in New York City with a more extended run. Perhaps Manhattan Theater Club might bring it back to the Samuel J. Friedman we have seen, especially last season, where every best play nominee had had an Off Broadway run for Manhattan Theater Club and then was brought to Broadway. I'm starting to hear that this might be the future for this show as well. And then finally in this section, Grace, this one comes to us from the West End and we have found out in a nice pithy little video on social media that Vanessa Williams is extending her run as Miranda Priestley in the Devil Wears Prada. She is now going to stick with the show through October 18th at the @ the Dominion Theater. The musical officially opened this past December and is currently scheduled to play through January 3rd of 2026. Who knows if anybody actually ends up taking over for Vanessa if it does close on January 3rd, or if she continues through the end of that run? I It's wild to me, Grace, when we're talking about shows that have gone through different incarnations, kind of like Beaches did, which also like the Devil Wears Prada, began performances in Chicago, that this apparently is a very, very different show, I would have said that following the Chicago run that I thought it was nearly impossible that it would actually end up on Broadway. But now, based off of the reviews, not only critical reviews, but like just friends who saw it in Chicago and then also in London, and the fact that Vanessa continuing to stay with it like that just seems like it could be a little bit more positive for the show to actually make it to New York, when I thought that would have been a long shot. And if it did make it a very poor decision, but now it seems like it might actually work, I will take your silence as saying that you can neither confirm nor deny anything. So anyway, let's get on to this week's schedule. Grace and I know this is when things are starting to get incredibly busy for you, and we do have a lot of Broadway things happening this week, but we're actually going to start downtown at the Classic Stage Company on Monday night with an Off Broadway opening. And that is the Alice Childress play Wine in the Wilderness, directed by Lachanze. It is currently scheduled to play through April 13th. As always, I'm going to focus a little bit more on the Broadway stuff, but if you want more information about any of the shows mentioned in this schedule, you can head over to the show Notes Then on Tuesday night, we have our next Broadway show, Beginning Performances. This one happens at the aforementioned Samuel J. Friedman Theater and it is Stephen Sondheim's Old Friends. It is currently scheduled to play just through June 1st, which seems like that is ripe for an extension or two or four at least getting it to Tony Sunday and beyond. But this is a review of some of the best songs written by Stephen Sondheim. The musical staging and direction is by Matthew Bourne, who is an acclaimed choreographer, especially in the ballet world. But it has Justin unbelievable list of performers including Bernadette Peters, Lea Salonga, Bonnie Langford, Beth Leavel, Gavin Lee, Jasmine Forsberg, Joanna Riding, Jason, Penny Cook, Jeremy Seecombe, Kyle Selig, Daniel Yearwood, and more. Obviously it had a different version of the show play London multiple times in previous years and had just recently done a California run. I'm very excited to see this show and cannot wait to hear all about who's doing what songs and all of that stuff when it begins performances this week. Also beginning performances this week on Wednesday in fact will be the long awaited run of Love Life from New York City Center, Encores. Directed by the great Victoria Clarke and starring Kate Baldwin and Brian Stokes Mitchell. This is a musical written by Kurt Viall and Alan J. Lerner. This is a short one. This is not one of those two week City center runs. It said it will just be March 26th through the 30th. So if you want to check that out, make sure that you do. Also beginning performances on Wednesday out at St. Ann's Warehouse in Brooklyn will be a production of the Cherry Orchard which is a new adaptation and directed by Benedict Andrews. If you want more details, hit up the show notes. Then on Thursday night we have two things happening on Broadway which is when things especially get interesting. The first will happen at the Music Box Theater. We have the one person production of the Picture of Dorian Gray. It is adapted and then directed by Kip Williams and stars Sarah Snook. Now, okay, Grace, I've heard that it might not be Sarah Snook. Have you heard this, that the pronunciation might be Snara Snook? Okay, tell me exactly how to pronounce this.
- [12:22]
Grace
Sarah Snook. You can watch her on CBS Sunday morning. They did a feature. It was great. And then one of the first questions they asked was like actually how do you say your name? And she said Sarah Snook. So yeah, we've been saying it wrong and we have to fix it.
- [12:37]
Matt Tammini
Snook. Snook. That sounds a little bit more Susan to Be quite honest with you, Sarah Snook, I like that. But this has been one of the most anticipated shows of this season, getting unbelievable reviews. When it played London, not only does Sarah play every character in the show, I. I believe it's like 26, but there is a ton of video features involved. And what's interesting about this is, is that there are five other people mentioned and listed in the cast list for this one person show. They are all camera operators. So I thought that was really interesting that we have that kind of recognition, which is not something that we normally see for a show. So, Grace, did you see this in London?
- [13:21]
Grace
No, I didn't. I cannot wait to see it.
- [13:24]
Matt Tammini
Okay. Yeah. This is not only right up your alley for the one person shown us the succession of it all, but definitely a very, very cool opportunity. Also happening on Thursday though, up at Lincoln center will be the first Broadway performance ever of Floyd Collins. Obviously a show that has had multiple runs in different parts of the country, especially off Broadway, but this one features a score by Adam Gettle and a book by Tina Landau, who also directs this production. The dance seque are by choreographer and Broadway performer John Rua. The cast is led by Jeremy Jordan in the title role. Also in the show are Jason Gotay, Sean Allen Krill, Mark Kudish, Lizzie McAlpine, Wade McCollum, Jessica Malaski, Taylor Trench and Cole Vaughn, in addition to a tons of fantastic ensemble people. And then Grace, on Friday, a show that you are working on finally begins performances on Broadway at the Marquis Theater. This is Stranger Things, the first shadow. It is obviously inspired by the Netflix series created by the Duffer Brothers. It was written by Kate Treffery and features an original story by the Duffer Brothers, Treffery and Jack Thorne. Stephen Daldrey directs and it is choreographed by Koro Messam. I. I don't know. I'm assuming there's not a ton of dance in this, so I'm guessing this is more. I don't know, maybe you can tell me, is this like fight choreography or is it more like ethereal, dreamlike staging? Where does the choreography come into this, Grace?
- [14:59]
Grace
So I think that because there is so there are going to be so many effects and I know that the show has probably gone through some changes before the Broadway run.
- [15:10]
Matt Tammini
Sure.
- [15:11]
Grace
I would not be surprised if the movement is based on all of the things that have to be at play for those special effects. There is. Here's the thing though, and not to spoil anything, but there is a show within a show, so it might have to do with that. If you don't already know the plot of the show, There is a show within the show, and I think that's all I can leave that with. But it does take place at a high school. The show does. So that's all I can say.
- [15:40]
Matt Tammini
Are we gonna. I've never seen an episode of Euphoria, but I know the meme, like, is this show about us? Are we get. Are we getting a high school production kind of thing mixed in there?
- [15:49]
Grace
Maybe.
- [15:50]
Matt Tammini
Okay. All right. This will be very interesting to see. I have seen some people going through the marquee, like the Marriott Marquis Hotel lobby and like seeing some of the marquee to be redundant with the word, but also like some of the other stuff that's in there and they've said how cool it is. So I think this is going to be a really great opportunity to really get immersed in this story, and I'm looking forward to seeing this one as well. Then a couple other things happening. Off Broadway performances begin on Saturday from the WP Theater for a new show called I'm guessing it's Minority, but I'm not exactly sure where the emphasis is because it's minor than a.iti so it's minority, but it has to do with an International African Arts conference that is happening in Paris. So I think that might have to be with like a minor key, but I'm not exactly sure. So we might have more about this one in the future, so stay tuned for that. And then finally, like, after a dozen or so extensions, Seleno v. Barnes is actually going to close on Sunday. This is a show I interviewed both of the stars of the show. Gosh, it feels like, you know, a year ago now, but I don't think it's been that long. But if you haven't had an opportunity to see this, get down to Asylum NYC and check this one out. It is delightful. And also, actually, I should have mentioned on Saturday the 29th, that's when I'm getting to town. So I will be in town for a little over a week, so I will run through my whole schedule later when it gets closer. But finally, Grace, I've got some recommendations. I'm going to run through them quickly. Two Broadway things, a new video montage from Gypsy, including Audra singing Everything's Coming Up Roses. We also have new highlights from Hadestown with Merle Dandridge singing Live in It Up. And then we have some audio from an upcoming Off Broadway show that we've talked about before called the Last Bimbo of the Apocalypse. They have released released a song called Something out of Nothing and it features Patrick Nathan Falk, Carrie Renee Fuller, Luke Islam and Millie Shapiro. The show will begin performances off Broadway on April 22nd. So you want to check that one out. Feel free. And then Grace, not to necessarily tie everything back to Stranger Things, but have you watched this new, I guess, post apocalyptic rock opera called Odessa?
- [18:11]
Grace
Not yet, but Sadie Sink is in it and she is currently starring in John Proctor as the villain and she does star in Stranger Things, a TV show. So no, I have not seen it.
- [18:21]
Matt Tammini
Okay. Yeah, it is on Hulu and it also features Kelvin Harrison Jr, Murray Bartlett and Regina hall. So like some pretty good names in there. It's available to stream on Hulu. I have not seen it yet either. I am currently an episode and a half away from finishing my binge of the new Shondaland show starring Emmy winner and Broadway vet who' Aduba the Residents. So maybe I'll put this on my list next. But here you go. A rock opera on screen starring a current Broadway star. Check that one out. 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. Broadway Reading. Follow me on Instagram @bww. Matt Grace, where can people find you?
- [19:01]
Grace
You can find me at. It's Grace Hockey.
- [19:02]
Matt Tammini
All right, everybody, have a wonderful Monday, a wonderful week and we'll be back to talk to you tomorrow.