Transcript
Matt Tamanini (0:00)
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Grace (0:33)
Tell Me on the Sunday Podcast Grace.
Matt Tamanini (0:35)
Aki Grace, I am in New York. We are recording on Sunday. Obviously I've already seen two shows, two shows that are probably going to be in the conversation for best musical. I saw Buena Vista Social Club and Operation Mincemeat. On Saturday. I'll have all my thoughts about every show that I see over in Patreon on standalone travelogue episodes. So if you want to hear all of that, head head over to patreon.com broadwayradio broadwayradio.com patreon and sign up at the mezzanine tier and above. There will be lots of other things that I see this week that I'm sure you will want to hear all about, so join us over there. Unfortunately, Grace, we do have to start off with some sad news because on Sunday morning it was announced that legendary star of stage and screen Richard Chamberlain died at the age of 90 years old. He had been a huge part of both Broadway and television circles for many, many years, perhaps most well known to wider audiences as stars of the original Shogun series and the TV miniseries the Thornbirds. I first became aware of him in the show that triggered my love for theater. I saw him in the pre Broadway national tour of My Fair lady and she played Henry Higgins opposite Melissa Erico. That was back in 1993 and then it came to Broadway. That was just one of his many theatrical cred. He also starred in the Breakfast at Tiffany's musical that never officially opened. Back in the mid-60s he did a production of the Night of the Iguana, Blythe Spirit, and then played the Captain in the Sound of music in the 1998 revival. So for anybody who knew or loved Richard Chamberlain, our thoughts go out to you this weekend back home. I have the show poster of him and Melissa Erico hanging in my bedroom. So I will definitely be thinking about that and I might reach out to my grandmother who took me to see that production today just to kind of touch base with her and reconnect over how special that memory was for me. But moving on into the news, Grace something that is also a little concerning and disconcerting. It was reported in the New York Times on Friday that Tony Award winning mega producer Scott Rudin, who has not been working in theater or film, at least not publicly, for the past 4ish years, is planning to return to the New York stage sometime in the near future and it has brought up a lot of concerns from people. If you Remember, back in 2021, Scott Rudin was the focus of a number of articles across multiple publications, including the Hollywood Reporter, New York Magazine and many others that accused him of being a to be polite temperamental, but to not be polite abusive boss. Everything from yelling at employees to throwing staplers at people and being a general difficult person to work for. Since then, he has stepped away from professional life and as far as we know, has not really been involved with anything theatrical. However, it does now seem that he is trying to plan a way back to Broadway. It is not 100% clear if he has rejoined the Broadway League, which is something that he would need to do, and he has not officially been barred from anything. Although I do believe, Grayson, you might remember better than I do that I think there were calls for him to be put on a no work list from Actors Equity and maybe potentially other unions. So I don't know if that ever happened or if it did happen and that has expired. But the New York Times is saying that he is looking to do multiple Broadway shows in this next season, including a Broadway run of Samuel D. Hunter's Little Bear Ridge Road. He also wants to work with Laurie Metcalf and Nathan Lane, both of whom he has worked with multiple times in the past. He is apparently working on a new play by David Hare called Montauk that'll star Metcalf and be directed by Joe Mantello. Metcalf is also apparently potentially working on a revival of Death of a Salesman with Nathan Lane on also directed by Joe Mantello. All of these people have worked with him many, many times in the past, so it makes sense that they would be potentially the first people that he would go to if he is planning a return to Broadway. He's also apparently working on a Broadway run of Bruce Norris Cotton Field to be directed by Robert O'Hara and an off Broadway run of Wallace Shawn's what We Did Before Our Moth Days to be directed by Andre Gregory. It seems to me, Grace, that when you look at a New York Times article like this that has not only potential productions, but stars and directors and timelines that this is not just like a trial balloon that is being floated up there, that maybe sometime in the future Scott Rudin will get back to producing theater. This sounds like something that not only has long been in the works, but is probably going to happen whether people like it or not. Unless there is a huge massive outcry that makes it just so toxic for artists to participate, which while there has certainly been an outcry, I don't think this is Kennedy center level situation where people are going to completely pull out. I think people like Lori Metcalf, Joe Mantello, Nathan Lane, Bruce Norris, Robert O'Hara, Wallace, Sean, like, they knew when getting involved with Scott Rudin that it would probably be a bumpy ride and they were prepared for that. So to me, and again, who knows what happens? But to me, this sounds like this is not a test balloon to see if it should happen. This is the first part of the announcement of rolling out something that will happen. I have hear rumors that while this would be the first official projects that Scott Rudin brings to the stage since he left four years ago, these are not the first things that he has been producing. Whether he has been the main person on any shows like he was in the past, probably not, but has certainly been a major part of productions behind the scenes. So this is a situation that I think a lot of people will be looking at. I don't know that there has been a lot of public attrition that Rudin has talked about in the past, which I think a lot of people would probably require before they felt comfortable working with him again. But who knows? It's all very messy. It's all something that, you know, feels like a million years ago, but also feels like a couple months ago. And it's going to be tricky to see how Broadway and many of the institutions that surround Broadway react to something like this if and when it actually does happen. Grace?