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Today on Broadway: Thursday, June 19, 2025
00:20:25
‘Cabaret’ to close with Porter and Wallace, Jeff Ross to bring solo show to Broadway, Jinkx to play Mary Todd Since 2016, “Today on Broadway” has been the first and only daily podcast recapping the top theatre headlines every Monday through Friday.
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- [00:02]
Matt Tamnini
Welcome to Today on Broadway for Thursday, June 19, 2025. I'm Broadway Radio's Matt Tamnini and I'm.
- [00:08]
Grace Ake
Tell Me on a Sunday podcast, Grace Ake.
- [00:10]
Matt Tamnini
Grace, we had a ton of random news thrown at us on Wednesday. There's a lot to get through, but I wanted to make sure that everybody remembers that there is even more Broadway radio over at patreon.com broadwayradio or broadwayradio.com patreon if you want to hear that. Check us out there. But let's dive into the news. There's a lot going on so we're just going to kind of hit each story, talk about it and go from there. But we're going to start over at Cabaret at the Kit Kat Club where they announced that they will play their final Broadway performance on Sunday, October 19th. That will end a 14 month run on Broadway that has had some really high points at the box office and then it had some pretty low points over the last two months. As we mentioned on yesterday's show, the grosses were down quite a bit for the past couple months, which is not unusual considering all of the new shows on Broadway. But the producers have decided to wrap things up in October. But they are going to go out with a pair of new stars and these are stars that have played these roles before over in the west. And Billy Porter and Marisha Wallace will wrap up the show as the emcee and Sally Bowles respectively. They will take over from the current stars, even Opalzada as Sally Bowles and Orville Peck as as the emcee. They will depart on July 20th. Billy and Marisha will start on the 22nd and then they will run the show through October 19th. So this is something that I don't think you're gonna wanna miss if you haven't seen it on Broadway. I've heard that especially Marisha is incredible in this show. And Grace, you and I have both interviewed her here on Broadway Radio. She's one of those talents that I'm really kind of annoyed that she ended up kind of defecting over to the UK after she did Dreamgirls in Lo and hasn't really been back to Broadway since. Now she is here and I think this is going to be one that a lot of theater fans are going to love to be able to see with these two stars.
- [02:09]
Grace Ake
I'm very excited for Marisha and Billy both respectively having like cut their teeth on the Broadway circuit and getting this like amazing moment in London for them to now come home a little bit and do that on Broadway is very exciting. I love Marisha. Obviously she's been on the show, we've got to talk to her, but she's just so special and like, I think that this is a very exciting time. This is no never happened in history where that cast is as representative as it is. So I'm very eager and excited to see their version of the show.
- [02:40]
Matt Tamnini
All right, well, one show we'll be wrapping up on Broadway. We found out another show that will be coming to Broadway and it is a little unusual, admittedly. This is a show that we previously talked about having announced a Broadway run, but we didn't know a ton about it at the time. This is a new one person, I guess, solo show from stand up comic Jeff Ross called Jeff Ross, Colon Take a Banana for the Road. This is going to begin performances on August 5th at the Nederlander Theater. It'll play for eight weeks through Sunday, September 29th. If you are unfamiliar with Jeff Ross, he has kind of become this generation's roastmaster. Anytime there's a roast on Comedy Central or on Netflix, he is either the person hosting it or one of the main roasters. But this show is going to be slightly different than that. It's described as a, quote, strikingly rare insight into his life and. And Take a Banana for the Ride is named, quote, for his beloved grandfather's practical and loving travel advice. This exhilaratingly intimate one man show offers a peeled back. Ah, nice pun there. Look at the heart and soul of America's roastmaster. But don't expect to get away un skewered. This is one of those things, Grace, where we had a hole in the schedule at the Nederlander Theater because Redwood closed up earlier than probably anyone would have liked. But in these kind of difficult times in the summer where it's not an easy task to get a show in during that time period because they're missing out on the spring opening, then they're kind of in a little earlier, before the fall openings. To have something like this, which is very unique and out of the box for Broadway, even though we've had a number of one person shows to come in and take a house for a couple months, I think that's great. Even though if I, you know, I don't know what to expect from a Jeff Ross one person show. But a house is going to be filled and people will be working, so I'm all for it.
- [04:32]
Grace Ake
Yeah. And he'll probably have surprise guests, you know what I mean? Like, not to say that you know, it's not enough for him to have just done this himself, but that's kind of his, like bread and butters is the way he interacts with his, like, comedian friends and the way that they kind of, you know, riff off of each other. So I'm, I'm curious if that happens here, but if not, like, that is super cool. I love. I'm a big fan of these buyouts. Like, I think that they're necessary. So, yeah, I'm supportive, very much so of this.
- [04:58]
Matt Tamnini
The show is going to be directed by Steven Kessler with creative consultation from Jeff Calhoun, who obviously knows his way about Broadway and grace. Do you know who the dramaturg is for this show? No. It's one Seth Barish, who I believe that you are familiar with. Hell yeah.
- [05:14]
Grace Ake
Of course. It is the best in the biz.
- [05:18]
Matt Tamnini
So real quick, if people who don't know who Seth Barish is, explain who he is and what his impact on your life is.
- [05:23]
Grace Ake
Yeah, so Seth Barish is the co founder of the Barrow Group Acting School, which is where I went, but also is the reason for Mike Birbiglia's solo work. They met, you know, developing his solo pieces. He has been kind of the core collaborator for not only Mike Birbiglia, but a lot of other comedians. Death let me do my show, the Rachel Downtown piece that is now a Netflix special. If you've ever seen Rachel Bloom. Rachel Bloom. If you've ever seen the film don't think Twice. He plays Lorne Michaels. He's also been on the Sopranos. He has a very illustrious film career, which you should definitely look up on IMDb. But when I took his storytelling, playwriting workshop, etcetera, he fully changed my life. I take so much of what he said with me in all of the work that I do, frankly. I mean, he is probably my favorite educator of all time. Now that we should have favorites. But the most probably impactful in the adult part of my life, but also a wonderful, kind person. He and his partner Lee run the Barrow Group and it is. Ask anybody. I mean, Anne Hathaway went there, for goodness sake. Like, it's. He is truly. I wish that he was more of a household name, happy to keep, you know, the secret alive in New York City. But he's, he's truly look into his work. If this is of interest to you, any of his, you know, prior collaborations, because he is also. His book about acting is available at the drama book shot. Why am I promoting Do I work for you? But like his. But his book is incredible. Like I don't know a single actor friend that doesn't own it, that doesn't talk about how that was the book. Similar to like the artist's way that changed their life in some capacity. So definitely the actor's companion. Maybe I can't remember the title, but I own it. Two copies because I lend it out a lot and then I keep one for myself. But it is, you can see it in the spiral that David Coren's created at the Drama Book Shop. So check it out sometime.
- [07:21]
Matt Tamnini
Awesome. All right, into some other very exciting news. When Kolaskola wraps up their run on June 21 as Mary and O Mary, or at least this run, they might come back for other ones. Conrad Rickamora, James Scully, Bianca Lee and Tony Mott will remain with the show through August 2nd. That is the time when Titus Burgess is going to be playing the role of Mary once again. But when those folks all leave, starting on August 4th, will be someone coming straight over from Pirates, the Panzan's musical. That is right. Jinx Monsoon is going to take over the role of Mary. We don't know the rest of the company that she is going to be playing with, but she will be there for an eight week run through Saturday, September 22nd. And what's interesting about that is tickets had previously only been on sale through September 24th, but the show has now also extended through January 4th of 2026. So this show that just kind of keeps getting a new life, it was a limited run, then it extended, it extended, extended, extended. It is now going all the way through January or into January of 2026. Obviously buoyed by the Tony Awards wins. So Grace, from an extension standpoint, that's awesome. Excited that more people get to see it. Jennifer McHugh, my co host from Something at Pop, just saw it last night and loved it. But then to have Jinx stepping in like that feels like just about as perfect of a casting as they could possibly have come up with.
- [08:48]
Grace Ake
Yeah, I mean a lot of people put this in their dream casting whenever I was on TikTok. So I'm excited that people are going to get the fan service there. But it is exciting that, you know, anybody can play this part. But like at the same time, I really love the the smart, thoughtful casting decisions that are going behind this role. I'm hopeful for even more. Like I'm just, you know, I want people that get comedy, I want people that can throw themselves and do their own spin. And I know that Jinx will do that.
- [09:15]
Matt Tamnini
I mean, the rumor for a long time is that Bowen Yang was going to come in and do Abe Lincoln. Like, I feel like this run for Jinx might overlap pretty well with Dead Period before snl. Do you not see that one?
- [09:28]
Grace Ake
No, I just don't think that at this point in his career the Broadway debut is going to be this late into a run of a show in a supporting role. I could be wrong, but it just. Yeah, like, I think that there's going to be a strategy at play or like he's going to get in on the producing team of something. Like he cares so much about this space that I don't think that it would be, you know, a kind of like a year two situation of something. But maybe I'm wrong. Like, of course he would slay in the role. Has nothing to do with that. It's just that like you're looking at all of these careers of these like a listers at this point. You know what I mean? Like the, the podcast being on snl. I don't even know if he's rejoining. I'm assuming he is for the next season, but who knows? So. But I agree with you. I feel like that would be very cool. Listen, just cast people from the film Fire Island. If you got Conrad, then you got Bowen. Like who else? Matt Rogers? Like, you know what I mean? Like who, who else? What are we working with?
- [10:25]
Matt Tamnini
So yeah, could you imagine Bowen as Abe and Matt Rogers as John Wilkes Booth? Like, yes, that would be that. I mean, it might be year two of the show, but that would be pretty great casting. That would be a lot of fun. But anyway, going on to another show that has had a lot of success on Broadway. We know that the Tony Award winning revival of Sunset Boulevard will be wrapping up its multiple time extended run at the St. James Theater on July 20. Unfortunately, Tom Francis will not be in the show when it wraps up because he has a new Peter Berg movie called the Mosquito Bull that he has to go film. So he is heading off after the performance on July 6th. So if you want to make sure that you see Tom Francis or AKA Soda Scout playing Joe Gillis before he leaves Broadway, make sure that you do it by the 4th of July weekend. He will be replaced by Pierre Marius who will take over the role on July 8. He is currently a member of the show's company. He's an understudy for Joe. He plays Sammy in the cast as well. We know Diego is already going over to play Shay in Evita. So a lot of people I had My friend Annie Doleman is coming in from LA just because she wanted to see the show. Make sure she saw the show before it closed and it's going to be after Tom has left, so she was really disappointed but I assured her that it is still going to be a great experience. See it nonetheless. And then one more casting replacement in a recent Tony winning show and that is over at Purpose where latonya Richardson Jackson will wrap up her role as the matriarch of the Jasper family, Claudine Jasper on July 13th. She will be replaced by Brenda Presley, who will take over the role on July 15 and will then carry the show through August 31, which is when it is currently scheduled to close. She has been seen in the original Broadway company of Dreamgirls as well as Lions the American Plan and she was also in Cats on Broadway. This should be a really exciting casting addition to that wonderful ensemble over at the Helen Hayes Theater. All right Grace, let's take a second real quick to talk about our sponsors for the week and let's start with our friends from Cash App Foreign There was a time when I had to pay my rent via a different non Cash App money transferring app and every single time I did it I got nervous. I wasn't sure it was going to go through. There were multiple times when things went wrong and I was out of that money for two full weeks because something went wrong and then my landlord could claim the money so I had essentially paid it but it hadn't been received. So then I had to pay the rent again and just wait for that money to be refunded back to me through the errant transfer in the first place. Fortunately, now I know better and now I know Cash App because that is not something that you ever have to worry about. With Cash App you don't have to wait days for your money to show up. You don't need to worry about getting hit with big fees to make sure that you can get your own money faster. There's no processing delays with no explanation as to why there is some sort of issue. Cash App is a safe, easy and fast way to send, receive and transfer money to friends and family. I love using Cash App and it just makes my life way less stressful.
- [13:51]
Grace Ake
Grace yeah, there's one thing about like going out with a group or even just like doing a simple like online marketplace transaction where sometimes you got to meet up with people. You don't know what the best way to facilitate money is. But with Cash App it makes it Easy, affordable, and you get it quickly. That is one thing that I cannot stand when I am trying to close something out of my life. I will wait for months and months. But with Cash App, you can actually send a personalized invoice and it's super easy and not awkward.
- [14:19]
Matt Tamnini
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- [15:20]
Grace Ake
Well, that's the thing is like, I love to take in so much multifaceted media, whether it's from our own country or others. And it's super important to protect yourself. And that's why I love VPN access like this, because it makes it to where you're not constantly scared like, oh, what is the cookie situation? Am I able to actually access this? I just want to take in a movie. I just want to take in a TV show. And this is the perfect opportunity to do so.
- [15:42]
Matt Tamnini
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- [19:10]
Grace Ake
Grace oh yeah, and like I didn't also know about this either. I think it's very exciting but yeah, so listen, the Cher canon lives on because burlesque is playing in London and here we got this. I mean, let it continue. When is Moonstruck coming?
- [19:26]
Matt Tamnini
Well, I've heard rumors of a moonstruck show coming to Broadway. I don't know if those are dead or not, but I mean, look, if we can get multiple Mamma Mia. Movies, one of which Cher appeared in, obviously, like, we should get multiple ABBA musicals. We're having Mamma Mia. Come to Broadway at the same time that Chess is coming to Broadway. We've got multiple Cher shows. Like, I think this is great. Take all of the feel good nostalgic music that we love and just run shows of it all the time. I really feel like there could be a house on Broadway dedicated to just that and it would never be empty because the shows would be amazing. 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, odweredian. And if you want, if you want more Broadway radio, head to patreon.com broadwayradio Grace, where can people find you?
- [20:11]
Grace Ake
You can find me at. It's Graceaki.
- [20:13]
Matt Tamnini
All right, everybody, have a wonderful Thursday. We'll be back to talk to you tomorrow.
- [20:26]
Grace Ake
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