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Today on Broadway: Thursday, Feb. 20, 2025
00:23:57
Sutton Foster to Lead ‘Coal Miner’s Daughter’ on Broadway, Cynthia Erivo to Host Tonys, Newsies Surprise Kara Lindsay at EPCOT Since 2016, “Today on Broadway” has been the first and only daily podcast recapping the top theatre headlines every Monday th...
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- [00:02]
A
Welcome to TODAY on Broadway for Thursday, February 20, 2025 on Broadway Radio's Matt.
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Tamminini and I'm Tell Me on a Sunday podcast. Grace Ake.
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Grace, I have a story for you at the end of this episode. It was both awe inspiring and absolutely depressing. I will get to that. It was an incredible night for me on Tuesday. We'll talk about that here at the end of the episode. But I went through a whole cavalcade of emotions over at Epcot and we'll talk about that here in a little bit. But let's start first with the news that the memoir turned film, Coal Miner's Daughter will be coming to Broadway. This, of course, tells the story of country and western star Loretta Lynn's life. It is being adapted for the Broadway stage by Sam Gold and Janine Tesori. Gold will direct and Tesori will do the music production. Those two, of course, last worked together on Fun Home and star as Loretta Lynn will be, honestly, somebody who I would not have guessed. It'll be Sutton Foster. Apparently, before Loretta Lynn died a number of years ago in 2022, she had not only approved the project moving forward, but also approved Sutton Foster's casting for the project. And what's interesting about this is that this will be an adaptation of Lynn's career and stories, but it will not just be confined to to the iconic 1980 film that starred Sissy Spacek as Loretta Lynn, it will go beyond that as well. Patsy Lynn, Loretta Lynn's daughter, who also served as her producer and manager, will be a consulting producer on the project along with Loretta Lynn's longtime advisor, Nancy Russell. So it has everybody who is close to Loretta as a part of it and it is moving forward. As I said, Loretta Lynn in the film was played by Sissy Spacek. Also in the film was Tommy Lee, Jo D'Angelo, and more obviously, a lot of the songs that Loretta Lynn sang will be included, like Coal Miner's Daughter, you Ain't Woman Enough, the Pill, I'm a Honky Tonk Girl, One's on the Way, and many more. And there will be a lot of surprises that people who only know about Loretta Lynn from the film will get to experience on Broadway. But Grace, this just ties into what we had talked about a week or so ago with the Dolly Parton musical. Country music stars are some of the best musical storytellers in popular music and the fact that it has taken so long for us to get them to write shows for the stage or for their stories and songs to find it to find their way to the stage is kind of fascinating, but it does seem like we are starting to get more and more of them. We had that. What's it called, Music City was a show that Bedlam has been doing off Broadway that's extended like a ton of times. So a lot of country music stuff coming to New York stages now and in the next few years. And this one seems, with a team of Sam goldjeanitasori and Sutton Foster, like it'll probably be a pretty big hit as well.
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B
Yeah. You know, I think that this just naturally makes sense. I've actually talked about this previously for a couple of years now because there are so many, like, films and memoirs and things like, about her specifically. Will they mention the Loretta Lynn Jack White album that I love so much? They probably will not. Do I want it to be part of the show? I do.
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A
Yeah. It certainly seems like, in terms of, like, pop culture, things that make sense for a stage adaptation, this would be it. You have the songs built in that have a familiarity with audiences. You have a star like Loretta Lynn that a bunch of people know, and you have the backbone of a tried and true narrative that was incredibly acclaimed. It was nominated for multiple Oscars, including best Picture. Sissy Spacek won for best Actress, best Screenplay, Nomin nomination. All of those things. So, like, we know this is a story that can be told well, and we'll see how it is done on the Broadway stage at some point soon.
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B
I also want to say lastly, on the coal miners, daughter of it all, like, people can. Can feel how they want to feel about Sutton Foster doing it. She is a Georgia girl. Like, she is a Southern woman. You know how I feel. Whenever they adapt someone especially who's Southern story to the stage, there's just an ability to bring that. That a lot of people don't have. I feel like often these. Even though she's like a Kentucky girl, I still feel like it's something that Sutton would be able to bring to this that others could not. So I appreciate very much that they are sourcing that from. From someone who does come from that area.
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A
I will say she was born in Georgia, but I think she grew up in Michigan, didn't she?
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B
Matt, let me have this. I don't have many Georgians. Okay, I've got you.
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Have you And f. Yeah.
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Gray Henson, Sasha Hutchins, who. They're all from Macon, but that. That's. That's kind of it for right now.
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Okay. All right, that's fine. I'll give it to you but mention all the Academy Awards with Coal Miner's Daughter. Now we know that by the time the Tony awards happen on July 8th of this summer, they might be hosted by an EGOT winner. Of course, the last three Tony Awards were hosted by an Oscar winner. And Ariana DeBose. She has already said she will not be doing it for a fourth straight year, but this year they will be hosted by potential EGOT winner and best Actress winner Cynthia Erivo. They announced yesterday that she will lead the telecast that will happen on CBS at Radio City Music hall on Sunday, June 8th. She is obviously a Tony Award winner from 2016. In the color Purple, she is acclaimed for her performance as Elphaba in the first of two Wicked films that could get her to EGOT status by the time these Tony Awards happen. I will be honest with you, Grace. As great as Cynthia is, I've never thought of her as a host in this way, and that might just be me. But like, Ariana DeBose made sense because she's like a song and dance woman, so that makes sense. Cynthia is much more of like the dramatic belty songstress. So I don't know that this makes sense to me off the bat, but what it does do is it makes me incredibly excited to see a different side of her that we don't see. We've seen her be very open and vulnerable during all of the press tour interviews that she did for Wicked, but I'm hoping we get to see a little bit more of her comedic side. Obviously, her and Ariana Grande had a ball filming Wicked together and doing the press tour, so I'm hoping we get to see a little bit more of that lighter side from Cynthia, but I don't think we've really seen a whole lot of before.
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Yeah, I listen, I really want her to prove me wrong and be an incredibly humorous showman. Like, I'm very excited. She's obviously such a star. She's very charismatic like I. And she's going to belt her face off the way that she did the 2016 Tony Awards, I hope. But even if she doesn't, I think she's like an incredibly charismatic individual. I always want my hook supposed to be funny, so I hope that, you know, she's able to add that in there. My question, every year, have we talked to Wayne Brady? Like, what's going on in. In the. In the pool to. To say Mr. Wayne Brady, he's the perfect host and I do want that to happen at some point in time. He literally is a hilarious song and dance, man, that has Broadway and television credits. It just makes sense to, to me. But you know what? I will take it. Ms. Erivo is having the year of years and I think this is very exciting.
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Yeah. The rule has always been that to be the Tony Ward's host, you have to have been on Broadway. That's why someone like Stephen Colbert has not probably been asked to host. But Wayne Brady, as you said, has not only been on Broadway, but he actually works for cbs. Let's Make a Deal is a CBS program, so it is kind of surprising that he hasn't been tapped to do it yet. I wonder if it just has to do with the filming schedule for let's Make a Deal. They don't like they film like three months over the course of one week, like three months of shows over the course of one or two weeks. So I wonder if it just has to do with when they have the studio space scheduled that he's never done that. But you're right, he does seem like an absolutely perfect fit and hopefully that happens someday in the future now that he's done multiple Broadway shows. But real quick, sticking with Cynthia Erivo, they did announce yesterday that Wicked will arrive on Peacock on March 21st. That will be almost exactly four months following its theatrical release and exactly eight months before Wicked 2 Electric Boogaloo hits theaters in November. All right, Grace, let's dive into some show and casting news. And we're going to start with something that I teased yesterday, but we discussed the fact that John Cardoza was exiting the Broadway production of Moulin Rouge in the role of Christian coming up on April 13th. And I said that the person who I had heard was going to take over that role would be reuniting with Solea Pfeiffer. And that is because Jordan Fisher is set to be the next Christian in Moulin Rouge at the Al Hirschfeld Theater. Of course, he played opposite Solea, Orpheus and Eurydice in Hadestown on Broadway. They were tremendous together. Jordan will take over on April 25 and is currently scheduled to play through July 20. But knowing how many times he extended in Hadestown, anything can happen. So we will see how long he sticks with that role. But you at least have, what is that, three months to check him out. I will say Grace, I don't know that I would have guessed this would be the career trajectory for Jordan Fisher. Obviously, he started with a little run in Hamilton, did a little run in Dear Evan Hansen, but he is such like a big name for a younger group of audience members That I thought he would be a Hollywood TV movie guy trying to chase those roles, but he really just seems to kind of be going from one Broadway show to another. Obviously after Hamilton and Dear Evan Hansen. He did Sweeney Todd before going into Hadestown and now going into Moulin Rouge. Like I'm surprised by this but also really excited about it because he was an incredible Orpheus. I didn't necessarily love him as Anthony in Sweeney Todd, but he was great in Hadescent and I think he'll be really good in Moulin Rouge as well.
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I agree. I fear I must return to the Moulin Rouge once again. I really enjoyed that show and I think that they're nailing it. I want to see John Cardoza before he leaves. Obviously I haven't seen Andy Carl yet, but this, this just makes sense to me. And you kind of teased it yesterday on the show, but I think this is really smart. And I don't know if they have plans to continue the run or to close and all those things, but like, if somebody knows how to wrap up a show, it's Mr. Fisher. He knows what he's doing and I think he's going to be really perfect as Christian.
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A
All right, let's talk about some Broadway extensions here. Yesterday it was announced that Operation Mincemeat, just a few days after it began performances on Broadway, has extended by four weeks. The show will was originally scheduled to only be a 16 week run, but it has now extended an entire month and instead of closing right around the Tonys, it will wrap up its run on July 13th. Of course, if the show does incredibly well and continues to sell. And we'll talk about grosses here in a few minutes, but then goes on to win some Tonys, this could turn into an open ended run. So we will see what happens with this. But that is obviously a very good sign for the folks over at the Golden Theater to see another four weeks of Operation Mincemeat now on sale. Speaking of shows getting extensions before they really get much performance time under their belt, this one actually has no performance time under the belt because it was announced that Glengarry Glen Ross has extended by two extra weeks. The show will now run through June 14th. So that is two more weeks for the production that will begin performances on March 10th. So we are just about three weeks away from that one more. Let's throw in one more extension. This one's off Broadway. But Grace, it was announced that the Off Broadway show Curse of the Starving Artist from the new group which is currently playing at the Signature center will now run an additional week through April 6th. It is not yet open. It'll open on Tuesday, February 25th. It has an incredible cast led by Calista Flockhart, Christian Slater and Cooper Hoffman. Extra time for this one. I'm not surprised given the incredible cast, not to mention Kyle Beltran who is one of my favorites. But a great show with great stars having opportunity to play a little bit longer off Broadway. All right, let's dive into last week's grosses and as I said, we got Operation Minspeed gaining performances last week just had one preview, but that did take us from 27 to 28 shows on Broadway and the grosses had a very nice rebound thanks in no small part to the President's Day weekend in Valley Valentine's Day as well. Those increased 14% to 32,188,003 bucks. Attendance though was actually down by 2% to come in at 243,319 people. But the average ticket price went up by nearly 20 bucks to come in at $132.29. What is interesting about this is that there was still only one show north of $2 million, but a second one was very close. Wicked came in at 2,628,457 buc, followed by Hamilton at 1.9, Lion King at 1.8, the Outsiders at 1.5 and then in its final week on Broadway, All In Comedy About Love came in at 1,526,260 bucks. The rest of the shows north of seven figures in descending order are Romeo and Juliet in its final week on Broadway at 1.48, let's say followed by Gypsy, MJ, the Great Gatsby, Death Becomes Her, Sunset Boulevard, Aladdin, Hell's Kitchen, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, Cabaret, the Kit Kat Club, Moulin Rouge and Juliet and the Book of Mormon. Redwood was very very close, coming in at 988,796 bucks. Also very gratifying to see maybe happy ending in relatively close shouting distance to this seven figure mark at about $887,000. In its one performance on Broadway, Operation Mincemeat brought in 111,460 bucks. So if you extrapolate that to an eight show week, that comes about 892,000 ish. So not too bad overall for them. In total though, Grace, 18 of Broadway's 28 shows played to 90% capacity or more. Wicked, Operation Mincemeat and All in were at 100%. The outsiders was 100.74 and Romeo and Juliet wrapped up its run at 103.34% capacity. Grace, I believe I talked about this on a show that you weren't around for, but the fact that this show had what the producers are saying is the youngest ticket buying audience in recorded Broadway history really is a testament not only to the show, as we talked about many, many times, the familiarity that younger audiences have with the title Vermeer and Juliet, but also I think the stars and the production team and the marketing. Because this show, it was obvious that they were targeting younger folks from the moment they dropped that first key, Art, and it obviously worked. It was a very successful run doing things that very few Broadway shows ever really try.
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Well, it's also like, frankly, having the budget to get Gen Z stars. I mean, these, these two individuals, Rachel Zegler is like, known to the theater community, but Kit Connor is massive through Heartstopper and everyone underestimated that capacity. And I think that it's just, it's, it's not, I don't know, there seems to be a misunderstanding of like, the fact that Gen Z, especially, like they are in a place where they are concert goers, they are Netflix watchers, they are fandom based. And like you look at Taylor Swift ticket buying and you look at Beyonce ticket buying, and then, you know, you, you skew younger. You look at the Heartstopper audience. The way that people showed up for Joe Locke, like that is the wave of that future. So if and when you're gonna have something like an old IP like Romeo and Juliet, this was genius. Like, this entire project was so well thought out from the collaboration of having those ca, the willingness to do that next level young marketing. Like, this is how you're able to push things progressively forward. Look, what young person likes reading Romeo and Juliet besides me? Not many. You know what I mean? Like, if you were to tell, you know, a 17 year old, oh, do you want to go see? Yeah, I don't know, Willem Dafo in the Tempest or whatever, you know what I mean? They might not respond the same way. Oh, do you want to see Kit Connor and Romeo and Juliet? I would give, you know, everything for that. And then the way that we were able to transform the circle in the square theater because it's independently owned, all of those things matched up perfectly. It's not just one particular element of a show like that or a campaign like that. It was that all things fired on all cylinders. And I just think that that is a testament to your point. About recouping and having the youngest ticket buying audience believe in and watching and believing those, you know, marketers and producers and whatnot that are saying, hey, we see a potential here. Taking that leap, I know was no small feat and I think it's super exciting and impressive and hopefully is also beneficial for shows like John Proctor is the villain, Kimberly Bellflower's Broadway debut with this play and having a star from Stranger Things that also a huge Gen Z brand behind her. I just these are the exciting things that I know are the future of Broadway. And I'm sorry to get on a rant on it, but I think it's really important to note.
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No, I think I love that perspective. All right, let's talk about my emotional journey on Tuesday night. As people know, I live in Orlando, I have an annual pass to Disney and I have been traveling a lot over the last couple weeks. So I haven't had as many opportunities to get over to Epcot's Festival of the Arts where they have the Disney on Broadway concerts. But last night, Tuesday night, by the time you're hearing this two nights ago, I was going to go, I'm saying I'm going to see it. Kara Lindsay, one of my favorites, you've all heard me talk about her many times. And Rodney Ingram from Aladdin are going to be doing their 30ish minute concert three times at EPCOT. So I finished work, we recorded and I was like, oh, I'm going to go to the 6:45 show because there's three 5:30, 6:45 and 8:00. I'll get home in plenty of time, go to bed early, I'll be great. Unfortunately, some things happen with work. I had to do a little bit more work and so I didn't end up going to the 6:45 concert, but I went to the 8:00 concert. And when I tell you that Carolindsi, given everything that she has been through, as we've talked about here, being just about three weeks out of multiple months of chemotherapy, she was full of all of the silliness and hyperactivity that we love from her and she was amazing. If you want to see I filmed her doing Watch what happens. If you want to see it, it's on my Instagram. But it wasn't until after the show that I realized that if I had gone to the 6:45 grace, I would have been treated to an unbelievably special surprise. Because during that show, Rodney Ingram, as I said, the co star of the concert, went off script and asked Kara if she had heard the rumors of newsboys dancing around the parks earlier in the day. Kara was confused, had no idea what was going on until Tommy Bracco jumped out of the audience and said that the rumors were true and started going into some dialogue from newsies. He was joined by Jacob Guzman, Aaron J. Albano, who's been a guest here on Broadway radio before, and Adam Kaplan, who together launched into Kings of New York. It's so delightful. Kara just keeps saying, what is happening?
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What are we doing?
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I'm nervous. Do you trust me? No, I'm not.
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Jasmine.
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Well, I've been selling. I was just curious if you'd heard the rumors about the newsies on Broadway dancing around the parks yesterday. What? The rumors are chilling. Wait till my own man gets a load of this. I won't be lasting long on the top tonight. And they went into the song. Eventually she said, I don't know this song, of course she does. And she remembered it all and not only sang it along with him, but did some of the choreo as well. And the concert that I saw at 8 o'clock, Rodney and Kara saying something to believe in. But for the 645 concert, Rodney gave way to Adam Kaplan, who of course played Jack Kelly multiple times as the understudy on Broadway to sing it with her. So I've got videos, not only of my video of her singing, watch what happens, but a couple different videos that people have posted. One is just somebody who recorded the whole thing and the other one is the official Disney one that has a little bit better sound but is edited. When I watched it, Grace, I had goosebumps. I wept through it. You being the huge newsies fan that you are, I'm sure that you had a lot of feelings about this, assuming you've seen it and maybe I'm breaking news to you at this point.
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No, no, no. I know all those guys and I was really excited about it. But no, it's just, it's so cool to see. And obviously a lot of those guys are original cast members and Adam Kaplan is so fantastic. But I think that him getting to do something to believe in. I'll never forget when Corey Cott, I think it was Adam's birthday, gave him the performance of Jack Kelly on Broadway so that he could go on. I think maybe for the first time. First time it was very cool. I think his family was in town and it was just a really magical moment. But they're just such a good group and, and I love that the newsy fandom will never die. That video just made me weep. Jacob Guzman, like going out there, too. It was just fantastic.
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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. You can follow me on Instagram at www. Mattgrace. Where can people find you?
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You can find me at. It's Grace aki.
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A
All right, everybody, have a wonderful Thursday, and we'll be back to talk to you tomorrow.