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Today on Broadway: Thursday, Aug. 21, 2025
00:18:48
Letts’ ‘Bug’ and the Muppets coming to Broadway, reviews for ‘Take a Banana,’ Criss to return to ‘Maybe Happy Ending’ Since 2016, “Today on Broadway” has been the first and only daily podcast recapping the top theatre headlines every Monday through Fri...
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Matt Tamminini
T Mobile welcome to Today on Broadway for Thursday, August 21, 2025. I'm Broadway Radio's Matt Tamminini and I'm.
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Grace Aki
Telling you on the Sunday podcast Grace.
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Matt Tamminini
Aki despite what you might have thought, despite some text messages I got from dear friends and loyal listeners, Today on Broadway is not dead. We just took a couple days off, as I mentioned last week because I was out on a boat with my brother seeing all kinds of new things on the largest cruise ship in the world, the Star of the Seas. I'm sure if you follow me on social media you saw some of those posts, saw Back to the Future, the musical on a ship, flying car and all. So thank you for the patience and letting me go out and do that. Hopefully you enjoyed all of the extra content that we had in the feeds and we are ready to dive back into things. But remember, coming up on Sunday we will have our next Patreon exclusive episode and this one I chatted with with friend Ashley Hufford about the best show that she saw over the past month in which she has seen nearly 55 different shows because she went to the Edinburgh French Festival. So she talks about the best shows she's seen and then a different show. She talks about the best show that she has seen in New York City this entire calendar year. And when I tell you that what that show is, Greece absolutely shocked me beyond belief. I cannot overstate how much I was surprised to hear her say what that show is. So listen to that Sunday in the patreon feed at 8pm But Grace, we have a ton of news to get through because I want to run through everything that we missed over the past few days. But we're going to actually start with two stories that dropped on Wednesday and I was going back and forth. I was like, I'm not sure which one to lead with. Then I saw your Instagram story and I was like, well, I guess I know which one we're going with. And that is the fact that the 2021 Chicago Steppenwolf Theater production of Tracy Letts Bug is officially coming to Broadway later this year. Begins performances on December 17, ahead of a January 8 opening at the Samuel J. Friedman Theater. Starring in this production, as it did in Chicago, will be Tracy Letts, his wife, the indomitable Carrie Coon and Amir Smallwood, directed again by David Cromer, who basically never misses. This is a show, Grace, that you, I think, saw and reviewed in one of your earliest episodes, or at least in the first couple months of Broadway radio. This is a show I have seen, but not at Steppenwolf. It is weird, it is creepy, it is a little bit unhinged. Tell us why you almost had an out of body experience. When Bug was announced for Broadway on Wednesday, I.
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Grace Aki
To all the people that kept this secret from me, screw you. This was shocking news. This morning I threw my phone. I was like, you've got to be kidding me. I have been talking about this show even recently as one of the most unforgettable theatrical experiences of my life was seeing this show at Steppenwolf. I know how it feels when a show transfers from especially something as respected as Steppenwolf or Goodman or, you know, any of those Chicago institutions. And sometimes, you know, I am a little bit reserved because it was so special. It was so deeply scary and crazy and not to like, you know, I don't know what, you know, terms they're using in the marketing of it because I don't want to scare anyone away by any means. But, yeah, it's one of the most thrilling pieces of theater. The performances by Namir Smallwood, the performances by Carrie Coon. There is. There's just so much to discuss in a piece like this and the fact that 30 years after its original, you know, conception of a play, it is now coming to Broadway. I'm assuming this will be in the revival category.
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Matt Tamminini
Yeah.
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Grace Aki
But it's just truly, I mean, I cannot tell you how excited I am for this to be at Manhattan Theatre Club. I've already written, you know, I wrote on the press rooms announcement, my friends that work on the show, partnerships. I said, you're going to have to keep me away from the Friedman Theater because I'm going to want to go every night just to watch the audiences. Like, I cannot tell you. This is maybe the most excited I am about a fall piece that I'm unaware of. You know what I mean? It just brought me so much excitement. Today. I mean, we did a show the other day where we were talking about what's coming up that we're excited about and I was like, you know, there are some things that I know are in the pipeline or whatever that this was not on my bingo card. This came out of nowhere. I can't express besides what you can hear in my voice, how thrilled I am that audiences in New York are going to experience this play.
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Matt Tamminini
If you are unfamiliar with Bug, either the play or the movie version, which I'll talk about here in a second. It revolves around an unexpected and intense romance between a lonely waitress played by Coon and a mysterious drifter played by Smallwood. What begins is a simple connection between two broken people in a seedy Oklahoma motel room. Two twists into something far more dangerous when reality slips out of grasp, paranoia, delusion and conspiracy take over in this sexy psychological thriller. As I said, there was a film version made of this all the way back in 2006. It starred Ashley Judd and Michael Shannon along with Lyn Collins, Brian F. O' Byrne and Harry Connick Jr. Just an absolutely creepy ass play, but is so smart and so good as almost all things. Tracy Letts are so looking forward to your regular freakouts about this one when it begins performances at the end of December. Now the other story from yesterday is the fact that the Muppets are coming to Broadway. Like literally the Muppets. Kermit the Frog and a bunch of other Muppets are coming to Broadway. Now, I'd heard a few rumblings about a possibility of this happening. I think a lot of people assumed that it was going to be a Muppet Christmas Carol turned into a musical. That is not the case. The Muppets are going to be the special guests of magician and illusionist Rob Lake when he sets up a residency at the Broadhurst Theater, beginning performances on October 28th. It is a limited engagement through January 18th, and as I said, he will be joined by Kermit the Frog and other Muppets. Rob Lake is known as one of the great illusionists of our time. He's done a ton of TV stuff, he's done live shows all over the world, but he does have theatrical roots as well. He has served as a consultant and illusion designer for Walt Disney Imagineering. He also did some work for Adele's Las Vegas residency, and he is a consultant and illusion designer for both Aladdin on Broadway and Death Becomes her on Broadway. So while he is a magician, an illusionist, and does his own show, he definitely has an understanding of how to make those types of things work on Broadway and in theater. Bethany Pettigrew is going to serve as a creative consultant for the show, and Kevin Zak is going to be a script consultant. So this is fascinating. Not what I would have guessed the Muppets would have been involved with Grace, but it does seem to open up some very cool opportunities for something that's very different. And unlike a magic show and unlike a Muppet show we've ever seen before.
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Grace Aki
I think that everyone had a thousand theories about this rumor and none of them were this. And I think that that's great. Like, I do love that this is. This is not the Muppet show, guys. Like, this is just the Muppets will have an appearance with. I thought something that was kind of cool was that a lot of the partners are a part of this. Got to do kind of like a one on one photo shoot with Kermit. I'm seeing a lot of, like, industry people post theirs today, which is really cool. That doesn't happen, you know. And so I'm just. I'm excited for this to happen on Broadway. I hope it opens the doors to other things.
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Matt Tamminini
All right. We missed the opening of Jeff Ross Take a Banana for the Ride while we were off for a few days. So I'm not going to do the full review recap, but I will tell you that. Did they like it? Has collected 10 reviews since. Six are positive, two are mixed, and two are negative. Laura Collins Hughes of the New York Times was positive, saying, quote, take a Banana is, however, a willfully upbeat show. Whenever it gets too dark, Ross detonates another joke in his banana yellow suit. He takes us on a tour of his family and childhood with the help of old photos and home videos projected inside the many large, ornate frames on Beowulf for its handsome curved wall set. Hayley Levitt of Theater Mania was also positive, saying, quote, this deeply personal, moving, and undeniably funny show is first and foremost a love letter to the chaotic people and pets that made Ross who he is. The experience of losing them is what he roasts, and there's really no punching any higher than that. Robert Hoffler of the Wrap was negative, saying, quote, death does not become him. Frankly, it's a bore, as is his fixation with his own health, which went bad from the get go. And finally, Adam Feldman of Time out in New York was positive, getting the show a slightly above average three out of five stars, saying, quote, here. Though laughs are not the final goal, vicious comedy may be Ross's superpower. But this show aims to reveal his secret identity as the nicest of guys, an Ubermensch. So if you want to read more reviews, you can head over to the Show Notes While I will have the Did They Like It? Roundup. Now, Grace, let's run through a bunch of show and casting news. And as I have been telling you almost from the beginning, as I have been hearing, it was announced yesterday that Darren Criss will be returning to maybe happy Ending following his nine week absence in which Andrew Barth Feldman is still slated to take over the role of Oliver beginning on September 2. A production source told Broadway World quote, months prior to casting Andrew Barth Feldman, it was planned that Darren Criss would take a leave of absence starting September 2nd and return to maybe happy ending on November 2nd. The production is grateful to Andrew Barth Feldman for taking on the role of Oliver during Darren's nine week leave. I don't know if this changes anything, but I will say Grace, I think that it would have at least had some marginal impact on the response to Andrew's casting if this would have been announced at the time. Maybe not a large impact, but at least a modicum of change I think on how people reacted if this had been announced at the time, but too late to know if that's actually the case. But very excited that even more people will have an opportunity to see Darren in this incredible show and incredible role that he created. All right, in other Broadway casting news that is kind of a return, but not necessarily the upcoming Broadway production of the Queen of Versailles has announced that basically the entire company that did the show's out of town tryout is back. All of the principals are back. We already knew that Kristin Chenoweth and F. Murray Abraham were going to be returning to the roles of Jackie and David Siegel when the show begins performances at the St. James Theater on Oct. 8. They now have revealed that rejoining the show will be principals Melody, but you, Stephen DeRosa, Greg Hildreth Tatum, Grace Hopkins, Isabel Keating and Nina White also in the company. Many of them from the pre Broadway run include such names as Christopher Gur, KJ Hippensteel, Cassandra James, Andrew Kober, Ryan Nixon, Shaya Renee and more. So congratulations to everybody there. I know they had a really cool event over the last few days that I was out, but I saw some stuff on social media. So looking forward to seeing what another Stephen Schwartz show on Broadway looks like. And Grace, this is something that we'd actually theorized about at one point because we know that Kerry Butler is currently part of the cast of Heather's Off Broadway, but she is going to be departing the show because she's going to be joining the Encores production of Bat Boy which is coming up in October. So we knew that she was going to be leaving at least for some small period of time. We now know it'll be a full month. She will be replaced by her former Mean Girls co star Keeping it in the o' Keefe Benjamin family as Kate Rockwell will be taking over as Westerberg High school guidance counselor Ms. Fleming from October 10th through November 10th and then Butler will return to the role on November 12th. I think this is so much fun. I love Kate Rockwell. I still think her album Grace I don't know if you were working at Broadway Records when they released it, but her album at Broadway Records is one of my favorite solo theater performer albums of all time. So I don't. I think I might be seeing Kate instead of Carrie because I'm planning on trying to see this in October. So looking forward to that and also looking forward to seeing Carrie in Bat Boy as well. All right, some other real quick casting stuff. We've talked about the upcoming Breaking the Binary Theater one night only concert production of the Drowsy Chaperone and now we have the complete cast. This is going to be happening on October 20th. In addition to the previously announced stars, Laverne Cox, Jocelyn Defries, Alex Newell, Peppermint Jonathan Van Neese, Betty who we now know that in the company will be Max Mendoza, Crumb, Dylan Mulvaney, Chris Renfro, Garnett Williams, Gio Coppola and Futuba Shiota rounding out all of the principals. If you want to see who they're playing, head over to the show Notes. The ensemble will be Patrick Nathan Falk, Lux, Zachary A. Myers, Rin Rivera, Nora Schell and Charlie Steiner. What a great group and looking forward to seeing lots of videos for that. And then I don't know that this means anything, but I think it's probably a pretty good marketing thing here, Grace. But we've talked about the fact that this version of Pal Joey that has been kicking around for years now that is being co directed by Savion Glover and Tony Goldwyn. It is going to have a run at Arena Stage this year, but it is now no longer being called Pal Joey. Instead it is being called Shay Joey. So it is going to play the Washington D.C. theater from January 30th through March 15th and it still, I guess probably has hopes of coming to Broadway. But the Encore's run wasn't great and at least wasn't well received. So we'll see what happens with that. And Grace, let's go over to films. Another bit of news that I saw on your social media that you were very excited about is the fact that there is a film adaptation from Focus Features in Amblin of Death of a Salesman in the works and getting ready to play the roles of Willy and Linda Loman will be the incredible Jeffrey Wright, Oscar nominee and Tony winner and Oscar winner Octavia Spencer. This film is being directed by Chionye Chukwu, who will co adapt it with Pulitzer Prize winner Tony Kushner. This is amazing. Like I this is one of the all time great American pieces of theater, Grace and the fact that we are getting a new adaptation of this for the big screen starring two incredible performers is something to be looking forward to and I would not be surprised if this is a major Oscar contender whenever it is released.
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Grace Aki
I really loved this production and I think that Jeffrey Wright is gonna be excellent in it. I think it's just a really great match made in heaven. So I'm thrilled at this announcement.
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Matt Tamminini
Speaking of recent Broadway shows that are apparently making the way to the big screen, on Tuesday, Deadline exclusively reported that the show that played the Manhattan Theater Club recently Inc. Which was based off of the real life rise of Rupert Murdoch into the powerful media mogul that he is today, is being turned into a film. Danny Boyle is set to direct and Guy Pierce and Jack o' Connell are in the running to be in the film. Guy Pearce is slated, at least at this point, to play Larry Lamb who was the founder of the sun, and then Jack o' Connell is in talks to play Rupert Murdoch who came in to run it. I saw the show at the CMOJ Friedman years ago. It is a very compelling, well written show as all James Graham plays tend to be, and we will see what happens with this one if it actually ends up happening and how this one is received in a even more different media landscape than it was when it played Broadway. And then the finally theater movie news that we have, we have the first full trailer of the upcoming film adaptation of Kiss of the Spider Woman starring Jennifer Lopez. I think that many people, myself included, thought that Jennifer Lopez was wrongly robbed of an Oscar nomination for Hustlers. I don't know what the Hollywood appetite for movie musicals are currently, but based off of this trailer, it certainly looks like she could be commanding a lot of noteworthy Oscar buzz. If this is as good as the trailer seems to make it Appear, Grace.
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Grace Aki
Yeah, I watched it several times. I forgot that Diego Luna was in this, and I am a huge Diego Luna fan. So I think as a reminder, Aileen Mayagoita, who was in Real Women have Curves, is going to be making her, I believe, feature film debut in this, and she was so fantastic. And Real Women have Curves. So I didn't see her present in that trailer, but it's certainly stunning. And I can't wait because I don't know anything about that musical at all, so I can't wait to see it because I have no idea what it's about. I'm not even joking. Not even a little bit. So I'm thrilled.
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Matt Tamminini
Oh, Grace, you're gonna. It's. It's gonna rock your world. I think. Like, it's really, really good. Yeah. In addition to Aileen and Diego, you also have Tonitia in. In the cast, as well as Josefina Scaglione, who is in west side Story. So I think this is going to be very, very buzzy when it gets released in theaters on October 10th. All right, Grace, anything that stands out that we missed that we didn't cover here? I mean, there was a lot of news. I had to pare it down, but anything that we didn't talk about that you feel like we have to.
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Grace Aki
No, we got to talk about Bug. And that made me happy.
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Matt Tamminini
Yeah. That's all that matters. That's all that matters. Okay, everybody, thanks for listening to today on Broadway. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. BroadwayRadio. If you want more BroadwayRadio, head over to Patreon.com BroadwayRadio Grace, where can people find you?
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Grace Aki
You can find me at graceaki.
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Matt Tamminini
All right, everybody, have a wonderful Thursday. We'll be back to talk to you tomorrow.