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Welcome to Today on Broadway for Thursday, February 19, 2026. I'm Broadway Radio's Matt Tammanini and I'm coming to you with news that I have wanted to share for almost exactly one year on February 21, 2025. My brother. Nice. And I got to see Jamie Lloyd's incredible production of Much Ado About Nothing in London's West End and I have been dying for it to come to New York ever since. And today, 363 days later, I can finally share that that is officially happening because it was announced this morning that the production will be making the jump from London to New York this fall along with its high profile stars, Tom Hiddleston as Benedick and Hayley Atwell as Beatrice. No other word on if any of the other stars from the production that played at Theater Royal Drury Lane will make the jump as well, but I would imagine the that Mason Alexander park, who is currently playing Mary and oh Mary in London, will come back to the United States as well with it. We don't really know exactly when the show will be on Broadway other than it will be this fall and it will play 10 weeks only at a Shubert theater to be announced. I have heard that it will slide in to the Winter Garden Theater following the recently extended production of Death of a Salesman starring Laurie Metcalf and Nathan Lane, produced by Scott Rudin. I then also heard that Jamie Lloyd will stick at the Winter Garden Theater with a certain musical that recently took London by storm for the spring of 2027. So put that in the back of your minds and see if that ends up happening as well. But Tom Hiddleston, Haley Atwell, two of my favorites from the Marvel Cinematic Universe, of course, Loki and Agent Carter. But this production is easily one of my top theatrical experiences of all time and I'm not very good at picking these types of things. But off the top of my head this the pre Broadway national tour of My Fairy lady that starred Richard Chamberlain and Melissa Erica that I saw in seventh grade, that really ignited my love of theater. And seeing Hadestown at the Walter Kerr in previews, in maybe seeing Book of Mormon before I heard the cast on, before the cast album was out. Like those are up there as my favorite theatrical experiences. I'm sure there's others that I'm forgetting that I could easily go back and once I jog my mind, like slide those in there without problem. But much Ado in London with this cast, one of the most exciting, joyful things that I've ever seen. Such an incredible production. And again, it sticks with Jamie Lloyd's theme of really paring down everything that is happening in the play. Obviously, both Evita and Sunset Boulevard have big things to look at, but in terms of his plays, they are very minimalistic and really focus on the words. And when you are doing things from Chekov and Beckett and Shakespeare, you have such rich, beautiful, nuanced texts to work from. It really, it really hits so, you know, so much so that my brother who is, you know, likes theater but is not a theater person, certainly not a Shakespeare person, and my 15 year old niece, when this was announced, I sent it to them and they were both like, all right, we're in, we're going back, we're going to New York to see it. So if you did not have this on your radar, absolutely put it at the top or towards the top of things that you were looking forward to in the fall of the 2026, 2027 season because it is a magical production and I cannot wait to see it again. But that is not the only news that we got on Thursday morning. This is actually news that I teased on yesterday's grosses episode. But we now know who is going to bridge the gap between Jonathan Groff and Jeremy Jordan in just in time over Circle in the Square Theater. There's going to be like a three week period in between when Groff Sauce ends and when Jar Jar starts. And in their stead will be SAG winner, Tony Emmy and Golden Globe nominee Mr. Shu himself. Matthew Morrison taking over as Bobby Darin. He will play the role beginning on April 1st after Groff ends his run on March 29th. And then he will wrap up his run on April 19th before Jeremy Jordan starts on April 21st. This will be interesting. I am not sure what the Matthew Moore Morrison draw is these days. It's been a minute since he's been on Broadway. The last time he was on the boards was 10 years ago playing JM Barrie in finding Neverland. So it'll be interesting to see what types of crowds, if any, he draws. Obviously an incredible resume starting, you know, with some ensemble work in Footloose and Rocky Horror, but then as the original Link Larkin and Hairspray and as the original Fabricio and Light the Piazza Lieutenant Cable in South Pacific. So he's, he's got the chops, people, you know, he's kind of become a meme at this point. But people forget he is a legit Broadway talent and Broadway star. So it'd be interesting to see what this looks like. I I also wonder if depending on how long Jeremy Jordan is in the role, if he is being Matthew Morrison is being prepped to take over afterwards and this is kind of a trial balloon to see if actually show up to see Matthew Morrison. I don't know how long Jeremy is in the role of Bobby Darin. I would imagine if he's coming in in April that he will play through this summer. So looking at some sort of Labor Day ish into his run would make sense. It would also make sense if that's the end of the show if they can't find somebody to sell as well as Groff. And I don't know what Jeremy's ticket sales and advance is like right now, but that could be a natural end point for the show. I know that there are always shows that want to get into Circle in the Square because of the immersive nature of that of that space. So we'll see what it looks like. But two big pieces of news. One of my most anticipated shows of all time coming to Broadway this fall with Much Ado and then Matthew Morrison returning to Broadway in just in time, in just what, five, six weeks or so. I imagine we will start to have more of these today on Broadway episodes as more things get to be announced. Obviously the spring season, as more shows are opening, there won't be casting announcements or anything like that for the spring. But as those things begin performances and begin opening, we're going to start looking forward to more things in the fall as those announcements come. So make sure that you are following along to Broadway Radio wherever you get your podcasts. And if you want more Broadway radio, head over to patreon.com broadwayradio thanks as always for listening. This has been Matt Tammanini and I'll talk to you.