Grace Aki (7:02)

Listen, get your bag. You know what I mean? Like people love this show. They've loved it for decades and decades of decades. And this is the opportunity that I think that all of us have been looking for if you're gonna, and if Sunset taught us anything, like if you're gonna revive a show or if you're gonna, you know, do something, just do something different. Like, I don't need to see the same show in the Majestic. They don't need to like revive Phantom in all of the same capacity because they've, they've done that. And so, like, if they're going to bring that opportunity to, you know, the New York stages again, what will it look like and how will it be different? Especially with like ballroom cats coming and all these other things. They're continuing to elevate and diversify, especially Andrew Lloyd Weber's canon. Frankly, I think it's really exciting.

Matt Tammanini (7:45)

How are you on the immersive nature, not necessarily of this show, but I guess this as well, by just taking like something that we know and turning it into a much more interactive version of what we're doing. Like, are you, is this something that goes too far though? Is this like from a marketing standpoint even? Like, is that something that people would be interested in or is it going to turn off fans who know and love at least the core of the original property?

Grace Aki (8:14)

You know, it's hard for me to answer that question because I am not a fan personally. Like, this is something that I don't enjoy. I don't enjoy immersive experiences. I also also think that that term is used very liberally. Just because my seat is in a different place does not mean this is immersive. But that's a different story for a different time. But no, I think that for people that enjoy opportunities like that, I totally get it. But I do think that it, it varies from person to person. Do you know what I mean? Like, it just. Yeah, but this is the way to do it if you're going to do it at all.

Matt Tammanini (8:44)

Okay. All right, before we get into some other news, let's take a break to talk about our sponsors for this week. And we will start with Factor as we head into the summer. Make this your best season yet with nutritious 2 minute meals from Factor. Eating well has never been this easy. Just heat up for 2 minutes in the microwave as Grace does and enjoy giving you more time to do what you want. Get outside instead of prepping and cooking your food indoors. Factor meals arrive fresh and ready to eat, perfect for any active lifestyle.

Grace Aki (9:22)

That's why I love Factor so much. I truly don't even have time to like sit down and actually have a full on meal. But what I love about Factor is that I can choose between tens and 20, sometimes 30 meals between a week and actually get my breakfast on the go, get my weekend dinners in and I'm actually able to have a nutritious meal when I normally don't get the opportunity. And it only takes two minutes in the microwave. I know Matt likes to put them in the oven, but me, I like to pop them in the microwave because that's all the time that I have. But I'm still able to have a balanced, nutritious meal with Factor.

Matt Tammanini (9:51)

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Grace Aki (11:11)

One thing that I love about utilizing Cash App is the fact that I go to so many dinners, I go to so many things. And the fact that like everyone is in this uncomfortable place at the end of the night to say like, ok, who's splitting? What? How are we sending this? And the fact that like it's so easy to actually send each other something without making this awkward conversation happen. And the fact that you can send personalized invoices to your friends. Chef's kiss. Thank you. Cash App. You make it so easy to have these big dinners out so that nobody's left footing the bill for months and months and months trying to send reminders no no no. We have personalized for that.

Matt Tammanini (11:43)

So for a limited time only, new Cash App users can use our exclusive code to earn some additional cash. For real? There's no catch. Just download Cash App and sign up. Use our exclusive referral code Broadway in your profile. Send $5 to a friend within 14 days and you'll get $10 dropped right into your account. That's money. That's Cash App. All right, Some very cool news that came out yesterday, Grace the folks over at Buena Vista Social Club have announced a new educational initiative dubbed the Matinee Mission. The program aims to make Broadway more accessible and culturally enriching for New York City public high school students. Through a partnership with the city's Department of Education and the Situation Project, participating students will have an opportunity to attend a matinee of the show. The inaugural performance took place back on April 30th and the program is currently slated to serve the 5,000 students across at least five matinee performances in the coming months. There will also be classroom materials to go along with the performances, curated study guides and all of that stuff. So a very cool program that we love to see across Broadway shows. And then as a reminder, coming up on a week from today, it'll be Juneteenth and there will be a special Juneteenth concert in Times Square from 11am to 12:30pm and a number of Broadway stars will be a part of it. Andre de Shields will be recognized for his trailblazing career and other Broadway folks will be there to perform, including cast members from 15 different shows including Boop, Buena Vista, Social Club, Chicago, Gypsy, Cursed Child, Hell's Kitchen, the Lion King, mj, Moulin Rouge, Pirates, Real Women have Curves, six, Wicked, and many other. We know that Jasmine, Amy Rogers, Keisha Lewis will be on hand along with Nichelle Lewis, Mason Reeves, Natasha, Yvette Williams, and more. If you want more information, you can head over to the Show Notes. It will be hosted by John Michael Hill and Kara Young from the Broadway cast of Purpose and then Grace this might be something that you can appreciate or at least people in your office will Broadway News did a deep dive into the ticket prices for the 20242025 season and kind of took a mathematical look as to whether this season was really more expensive than previous seasons. I haven't dug down deep into it, but it's a pretty lengthy thing that I wanted to point people in the direction of as to like looking at the average ticket price, taking out some of these outlier shows like Goodnight and Good luck. That's making $4 million and trying to compare apples to apples to see exactly what this season looked like on the whole for Broadway. So if the grossest section of our episodes every week is your favorite thing, head over to the show notes and check out this report from Broadway News. And then finally, it's one of my favorite things, Grace. Every year for the first performances after the Tonys, to see all of the shows, thank the audience members to recognize their cast and crew members that have received awards. I've got videos from maybe Happy Ending, from Sunset Boulevard, from Purpose, from Operation Mincemeat. All of these shows celebrated their Tony success in one way or another. So if you want to check those out, you really should maybe grab some tissues because I know I needed them at multiple times. Have you seen any of these, Grace? Is there one that stood out to you as being especially poignant and emotional?

Grace Aki (15:22)

So obviously, I really love the Jack Malone call out that I got to see last night on social media after Minsmeet's show. I really love the Desderon flexing the tone and why Love. That was fabulous. There's so, so much of that. I know that it's. It's kind of bittersweet for some shows on the street. I know. But I think that the feeling in the theaters are electric to honor all of the performances that either happened or did not happen on the Tony Awards. Nonetheless, it's always a very good time to go see some of your favorite shows or shows that you haven't had the opportunity to see. Go see them right now.

Matt Tammanini (15:55)

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 Rodri Radio. And you can get even more broadway radio@broadwayradio.com Patreon Grace, where can people find you?

Grace Aki (16:05)

You can find me at it's GraceDockey.

Matt Tammanini (16:07)

All right, everybody, have a wonderful Thursday. We'll be back to talk to you tomorrow.