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Today on Broadway: Thursday, June 12, 2025
00:16:22
Hilty to take leave from ‘Death Becomes Her’; immersive ‘Phantom’ tickets go on sale this month, but is it actually ‘Phantom’? And first post-Tonys curtain calls Since 2016, “Today on Broadway” has been the first and only daily podcast recapping the to...
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- [00:02]
Matt Tammanini
Hey everybody, it's Matt. I'm here with some breaking news for the second episode in a row before we dive in to Today on Broadway proper. After Grace and I recorded, Megan Hilty announced that she was going to be taking three to four weeks off from playing Madeline Ashton in Death Becomes her on Broadway to deal with a vocal injury. She said in an Instagram post, quote, I love my job. Madeline Ashton is by far the most challenging and rewarding role I have ever taken on. The lengths to which I have gone to make sure can physically do the show is a job in itself. The regimen is too long for this post, but I do it joyfully because as I mentioned before, I love what I do. Which is why it is so painful to say that I will be stepping away from my beloved DBH family for three to four weeks while I recover from a vocal injury that only time can heal. She goes on to talk a little bit more about how vocal cords work and all that stuff, and then she wraps up by saying, quote, in the meantime, Madeline's fabulous shoes will be filled brilliantly and I'll be counting the seconds until I can meet you back and at the Lunt Fontan. Obviously this is disappointing to I guess, fans who wanted to come and see her in this show over the next month or so as the summer tourist season really kicks off. But you can tell from the message that this is something that really weighs on Meghan and is not something that she takes lightly. So of course we wish her the absolute best. We wish her a speedy recovery. Megan, as I've said here for years, is one of my favorites. She until this role, I don't think ever got credit for just how funny she is. So I hope that she is able to recover, get back to full vocal strength and get back over to the Lunt Fontanne making people laugh and marvel at her talent. All right, I will now send you over to the rest of Today on Broadway. Welcome to Today on Broadway for Thursday, June 12, 2025. I'm Broadway Radio's Matt Tammanini and I'm.
- [01:55]
Grace Aki
Tell Me on the Sunday podcast Grace Aki.
- [01:57]
Matt Tammanini
Before we get into the news, I just want to let you know that I'm going to be out of town this weekend and it's Father's Day, so we will not have a new episode of Today on Broadway. On Monday, however, I will have a special episode of Some Like It Pop that'll be in the feeds. If you are listening to this episode in the regular feed, that episode is already available on Patreon. So it is there first. Those are normally Patreon exclusives, but because I'm going to be busy over the weekend and Jennifer McQ and I, after we get through our normal episode, talk a little bit about the Tony Awards. I figured that was an appropriate thing to throw in there on a day when we wouldn't have something else. So if you want to hear something like it, pop right away and hear about all the movies and books and stuff that we talk about. Normally, that's in Patreon now, if you're listening in the regular feed, if you're listening in Patreon now, it'll be there by 8am on Thursday morning. Or if you want to wait until Monday and listen to that, it'll be in your feeds then. Grace let's start with news that has been thrilling fans with a PH for months now. But yesterday we finally got confirmation about when we are going to learn what the heck is happening with this immersive Phantom of the Opera thing that we've been talking about for months that has been dropping Easter eggs and all of that across New York City. What's been going on is they've been at some point they were like putting pieces of paper on lampposts. They were having like mirrors with the phantom mask on it around town. Then they've had these secret events where influencers provided some that involved like seances, some that involved like following a ghost hunter around. And some of them actually took place at the Majestic Theater where of course, Phantom of the Opera ran for 35 years. We'll get into all of that here in a second. But yesterday it was confirmed that tickets will go on sale to a priority invitation only list on June 30th. If you want to be a part of that list, you have to go to masquerade nyc.com as has been a part of this entire marketing campaign of theirs. It came with like this red letter, handwritten letter with a phantom mask on it. And it was signed OG which I guess is the OG Phantom. I'm not exactly sure if that has another meaning, but the letter said, quote, it is here that I shall present a grand masquerade, a spectacle that will astound you and that further explores my legend. I have instructed my minion Lloyd Webber to assist. Apparently we don't know the details, but it will be on somewhere on West 57th Street. And I'm going to pull the curtain back a little bit. I have heard from multiple people who know details about this production and this is not going to be Phantom of the Opera or at least not the way that we know it. From what I understand as mentioned in OG's letter, Andrew Lloyd Webber involved. So his score is part of this. However, the book by Lloyd Webber and Richard Stilgo apparently is not part of the license that they have. It is just the music. So what we're going to see. And of course this could all change. This is just what I've heard from from sources but I think it does bear mentioning because they are tying this so closely to the Broadway musical that we all know is that it's going to be about somebody. This Ghost Hunter that has been a part of some of these viral pop up events trying to find the Phantom of the Opera and that he is somewhere in New York City and it will be kind of like asleep no more. You go through the, you know, this building or this venue. I'm not sure if it's going to have like it's going to force you to get to certain places when the songs happen. I don't know how it's going to work. But this is not going to be starting off with an auction and like I'm sure there will be a clapping monkey but it's not going to be, you know, lot 666 and all of that stuff like we are used to in the opening. It's not going to be the story of Phantom of the Opera, the musical. I also know that they are casting multiple people for the principals. There are multiple people playing the Phantom. There are multiple people playing Christine. They are from what I understand, names that we know. But you shouldn't expect to have like one big star doing every performance of this show. I think this is going to be a little different. I don't know Grace, if people are going to take to that. The Phantom fans are feral to keep the, the ph and F sounds going. I'm not sure if this is going to be what they like or if this is going to kind of come back to Bite Masquerade nyc.com because they're not giving the fans what they think they are going to get. But it's a little weird. The whole thing is an interesting operation but I'm looking forward to seeing what they come up with. But I just hope that people going in understand that this is not exactly Phantom of the Opera like we saw for three and a half decades on Broadway.
- [07:02]
Grace Aki
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.
- [07:46]
Matt Tammanini
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?
- [08:15]
Grace Aki
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.
- [08:45]
Matt Tammanini
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.
- [09:23]
Grace Aki
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- [09:52]
Matt Tammanini
So get started@factormeals.com Broadway 50 off and use code Broadway 50 off to get 50% off plus free shipping on your first box. That's code Broadway 50 off at Factor Meals.com Broadway 50 off for 50% off plus free shipping. And our other sponsor for this week is our friends over at Cash App. I've talked before about how a landlord that I had in the past always wanted me to send my rent money in via a certain unnamed money sharing app that is built into my banking app as well. And for whatever reason he had multiple phone numbers, but the phone number that I always talked to him on was not the phone number associated with his account. So when I sent the money to the phone number that I knew, it went to some random place in the Internet that he did not actually have access to. So that took my money out of the account, but I had to wait two weeks for it not to be claimed named in order to get it back to actually send it to the right phone number. That is not a problem with Cash App. Cash App is simple to set up. It makes it very clear who you are sending it to. Everything is confirmed before you send it. It is the best way to either send or in my landlord's case, I guess receive money to make sure there are no issues when it comes to your finances.
- [11:12]
Grace Aki
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.
- [11:43]
Matt Tammanini
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?
- [15:22]
Grace Aki
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.
- [15:55]
Matt Tammanini
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?
- [16:05]
Grace Aki
You can find me at it's GraceDockey.
- [16:07]
Matt Tammanini
All right, everybody, have a wonderful Thursday. We'll be back to talk to you tomorrow.