Matt Tiumnini (0:01)

Welcome to Today on Broadway for Thursday, April 24, 2025. I'm Broadway Radio's Matt Tiumnini. I'm coming to you solo today because I am heading out to the Riverside Theater in Vero Beach, Florida to see their production of Beautiful. We'll talk a little bit more about that in the coming days. And Grace is wrapping up all the work she had to do following the Stranger Things, the First Shadow opening that happened on Tuesday night. And that is where we are going to begin our episode today. As I said on Tuesday over at the Marriott Marquis Theater, Stranger Things the First Shadow officially opened on Broadway. This, of course, is a prequel play to the Netflix series Stranger Things. It was written by Kate Treffery, based on a story that Treffery came up with, along with Jack Thorne and the Duffer Brothers. The creator of the original series, Stephen Daldry, is the director. It is set in 1959 in Hawkins, Indiana, where the Creel family seeks a fresh start, especially their teenage son, Henry, who is eager to escape his troubled past. Initially, things go well. He finds friendship and joins the school play. But when a wave of shocking crimes strikes the town, Henry is forced to confront a terrifying truth is something inside him that connects him to the horrors unfolding around him? As this thrilling mystery races forward, shadows of the past are unleashed, relationships are tested, and the town of Hawkins faces the ultimate can the power of friendship outshine the darkness within? As of recording time, the review aggregator site Did They Like it has collected 17 reviews. Seven of them are positive, five are mixed, and and five are negative. We will start with the New York Times, where Elizabeth Vicentely handled the reviewing duties. She was mixed on the show. She said the First Shadow fulfills its franchise requirements in terms of spectacular art direction and compliance to the series canon, to which it adds tantalizing tidbits. Whether it is satisfying as a piece of theater is a dicier proposition. Kobe Castle, writing for Theater Elite, did think that the show did enough on its own merits. He was positive, saying enough can't be said that this production doesn't change the game of Broadway. It smashes the game board and and shoots it into a new dimension. When you take one of the most watched television shows in history and bring it to the stage, the pressure is high. But Netflix and producer Sonja Friedman cracked the code, thanks to the work of hundreds of artisans and crew. A nod should be given to Jaime Harrison and Chris Fisher for their work on illusions and visual effects. Stranger Things the First Shadow may just be the best production, visually speaking, to ever hit Broadway. Well, in this universe anyway. Sarah Holdren from Vulture was a little more mixed, saying, if the First Shadow is purely an act of fan service, at least it's an unapologetic one. And if the audience around me was any judge, a satisfying one. Is it a play? I mean, yes. Ish. Is it an extravagant TV meets theater meets theme park hybrid that has probably not entirely heartening implications for the future of Broadway? For sure. Is it also so unrelentingly absurd that it's hard to be mad at? Absolutely. Matt Winman of AME New York was a negative saying, a three hour fan wiki brought to life, complete with origin stories, stilted dialogue, lame jokes and sequences seemingly constructed only to set up the next visual effect. Yes, there are plenty of them. Levitations, transformations and a monstrous spider that hovers over the audience like the Phantom's chandelier. Emilyn Travis was positive writing for Entertainment Weekly, saying, immersive, heartfelt and exhilarating, First Shadow is a must see spectacle for the Stranger Things obsessive as much as it is for the theater aficionado who wants to see the medium P to new heights. It does a phenomenal job of not only fleshing out a complicated character, but also providing context for the extreme lengths that Henry goes to in the TV series. Adam Feldman was mixed for Time out in New York, giving the show three out of five stars, saying, the First Shadow doesn't offer much by way of characters or plot behind adding meager flesh to already familiar bones and patting a skeleton doesn't make it scarier, just bulkier. We'll wrap up with a positive review from Brittany Samuel of Broadway News. She said, three hours into Stranger Things, the First Shadow universe passes and a blink by the end you're convinced they've pulled off another trick, an exorbitant spectacle wrapped around the scrappy, gushy heart of the original. As we have talked about in different various forms and with different people here on Broadway Radio, both Grace and Ashley Hufford said that this show has changed tremendously from what was on stage in the west and in London to what is on stage on Broadway now. The reviews were not as kind either critically or word of mouth coming out of London, but it seems like this show has figured some things out. Is it going to be for everybody? Probably not. Is it going to be for somebody who wants an O'Neill or Williams style drama? Probably not. But if you are good with this type of storytelling, I think that this one sounds like it should be a lot of fun and I'M looking forward to seeing it in a couple weeks. Yesterday we got a new set of awards. This one's a little different. These aren't for necessarily productions and actors for the year, but yesterday the Dramatist Guild of America announced that Shayna Taub, Itamar Moses, Pete Parnell, Morgan Maguire, Christina Rae colon, Clarence Koo, C. A. Johnson, and students and teachers from Santa Rosa High School were the recipients of the guild's 2025 awards. Taub will receive the Frederick Lowe Award, recognizing achievement in a theatrical score for Suffs. Pete Parnell will be honored with the Flora Roberts Award, presented to a dramatist in recognition of distinguished work in the theater and to encourage a continuation of that work. The Lanford Wilson Award, established by the estate of Lanford Wilson, is for an early career or emerging writer. The co recipients for that one this year are Maguire and Colon, Koo and Johnson will both be receiving the Horton Foote Playwriting Award, funded by the Richenthal Foundation. This award is presented to a dramatist whose work seeks to plumb the ineffable nature of life. The Hall Warner Award is the only award given by dramatists to dramatists. It is presented annually to an author in recognition of their play dealing with controversial subjects involving the fields of political, religious and social mores of the times. This year's recipient is Itamar Moses for the Ally. If you want all of that information, you can check it out in the show notes. Hey, I just met you and this is crazy, but here's a new musical so call Me maybe. Yesterday we found out that Broadway vet and pop princess Carly Rae Jepsen is teaming up with a slew of creators, including TV movie writer and star Lena Dunham, to come up with a stage musical adaptation of 10 Things I Hated about yout, which of course is an adaptation of Shakespeare's Taming of the Shrew as well. The score will be written by Carly Rae Jepsen and Grammy winner Ethan Gruska with a book by Golden Globe winner Lena Dunham and Jessica Huang. Christopher Wheeldon will direct and choreograph and Tom Kitt will handle the music supervision, arrangements and orchestrations. I know that this show has been going through some workshops and stuff like that, so they did make the announcement yesterday. I I think Carly Rae Jepsen just kind of writes bops. So if we are going to get a musical about 10 things they hate about yout, I think that she is somebody who is Makes ton of sense. Makes a ton of sense. I'm also really glad this is not being a jukebox musical because while you could definitely do that with songs from the era that the movie was released in the late 90s, this feels like it should be one with an original score. Especially, you know, just the fact that it was based on a play. So let's, you know, treat it with respect and give it a fully fleshed adaptation. Speaking of shows in development, yesterday was announced that producers Michael McFadden and Katie Lipson have launched a new full service theatrical production company called TRW Production. This is a partnership with Theatrical Rights Worldwide and they are working on two projects right now. A stage version of the 2007 rock Rom com music and Lyrics, and a stage adaptation of the 2012 musical film Joyful Noise, which starred Dolly Parton, Keke Palmer, Jeremy Jordan, Courtney B. Vance, Jesse L. Martin, Andy Carl, Francis Zhu and more. Todd Graff, who wrote the beloved film Camp, is adapting that one, so keep your eyes out for those products now about shows that are actually happening on stage very soon. Yesterday it was announced that the Public Theater is going to extend the new new musical Goddess even before the show begins performances. The show will kick off its performances next Tuesday, April 29 and it has extended to now be playing through June 8. It is directed by Sahim Ali and stars Amber Aman. Speaking of shows coming to Off Broadway very soon, yesterday we got more casting announced for the upcoming Off Broadway premiere of a new true musical. Joining the previously announced Betsy Wolf, Charl Brown, Adam Grouper, Mauricio Martinez, Jill Abramovic and Honor Blue Savage will be Gabriella Carrillo and Paul Witty. The show Begins performances on June 21st with an official opening on July 20th. Yesterday we got information about this year's edition of one of Broadway care's Equity Fights AIDS perennial favorite events, Broadway Bears. This annual burlesque spectacular will return on June 22nd for two shows at the Hammerstein Ballroom and this year's theme is wizard of Oz Base and it is come out, come out, presumably wherever you are, but also obvious other meanings. We have a teaser for this year's production in the show notes if you want to watch that. Speaking of some other recommendations, on Tuesday there was a medical emergency that happened in the audience over at the Belasco Theater during a performance of maybe Happy Ending. And while that was being attended to, they paused the show as they do. And while things were being taken care of in other parts of the theater, Darren Criss, Helen J. Shin and Des Duran took to the stage to do a little bit of an impromptu concert that included Shin singing somewhere over the Rainbow Duran singing Fly Me to the Moon, Chris singing Teenage Dream while accompanying himself on the guitar. And we have video of it from maybe Happy Ending. Who provided that video? So check that out in the show notes. And then finally, we had the opening earlier this week on Broadway at Lincoln center for the very first Broadway production of Floyd Collins. Now we have highlights for that show with Jeremy Jordan and Lisa McAlpine. If you want to check them out in the show notes and get a sense as to what this show looks and sounds like, you can do that now. All right, tonight, just as a reminder, we do have the opening of Pirates the Penzance Musical over the Todd Hames Theater. What we're going to do tonight is because I'm going to the national tour of the Lion King that is in Orlando. We're going to Grace and I are going to do a normal episode. We're going to put that on in Patreon. Then when I get home I'm going to do the reviews by myself for Pirates because we don't want to wait until Monday's episode to get you all those reviews because we will also have to figure out reviews for Just In Time, Dead Outlaw and Real Women have Curves. So if you are on Patreon listening, you will have just like a normal non review episode coming to you at the normal time. And then I will do a separate standalone episode with just the reviews for Pirates the Penzance musical, but in the regular feed it'll all be pushed together into a normal episode. All right, that's all that we have here today. Thanks for listening to Today on Broadway. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram rodwayradio. Enjoy these last few days of the 20242025 Broadway theatrical season and we'll be back to talk to you tomorrow.