Matt Tim (0:00)

Hey prime members, are you tired of ads interfering with your favorite podcasts? Good news, with Amazon Music, you have access to the largest catalog of ad free top podcasts included with your prime membership. To start listening, download the Amazon Music app for free or go to Amazon.com ADFreePodcasts that's Amazon.com ADFreeP Podcasts to catch up on the latest episodes without the ads. Welcome to Today on Broadway for Thursday, March 6, 2025. I'm Broadway Radio's Matt Tim and I'm on my own today because Grace is out there influencing influencers at some Broadway show, I'm not sure which one, getting them to see something new coming to the main stem. So I'm going to run you through all of the news today on my own. And friends, we are not going to start on the Broadway. We will not start in New York City. In fact, we will not start in the United States. At least not in the literal sense, although this show is based in the United States. But yesterday morning, Baz Bama Boy from Deadline reported exclusively that the world premiere of the Greatest Showman has found its dates and location. We had previously learned that Disney Theatrical was working on a stage adaptation of the film. Then we later found out that it would debut in the UK primarily because of costs. But now we know that the show will begin its life in March of 2026 in the as Baz describes it, British west country city of Bristol. Then it will go to the West End and eventually to Broadway. We also found out who the book writer and the director of the show will be. Both have worked with Disney in very successful projects in the past. The director will be Casey Nicholaw, who of course is responsible for Aladdin, which is still doing great business on Broadway, as well as the forthcoming West End production of Hercul. Tim Federle, of course was one of the creators and writers behind High School Musical the the series and brings with him the fact that he has not only written a book for Broadway with Tuck Everlasting, but also as a former Broadway performer himself. So both the book writer and the director choreographer have experience on stage and working with Disney. So it seems like the Mouse House and Tommy Schumacher, who is responsible for Disney Theatricals, really felt like they knew what they wanted out of these guys and hopefully they get it. Of course, no casting has been announced. In fact, one of the producers for Disney and Court said that they are still going through auditions and callbacks, but she did say of course at this point anything could happen technically, but they do not have any anticipation of people from the film returning for the stage production, While people like Zendaya, Zac Efron, Michelle Williams and Hugh Jackman were unlikely, Perhaps Keala Settle might return to the show is how Baz Bama Boy framed that question to her. But for the most part, unless something strange happens, it will be completely new people in the show. Now, as we've talked about multiple times before, there have been workshops of this. The most recent one I believe was in like November of 2023. Don't quote me on the month, but I can tell you now who was involved with that. I don't think this has been reported anywhere else so exclusive here on Broadway. Rad I've mentioned before that Josh Henry played P.T. barnum, but also in that company were Mackenzie Kurtz as Charity, his wife Cristiani Pitts as Anne, which is the Zendaya role Ryan McCarten as Philip, which was the Zac Efron role. Tiffany Mann as Letty, which was the Keala Settle role and then Ashley Lauren played Jenny Lind who was played by Rebecca Ferguson, even though Lauren Allred provided the singing voice. I will also note that in the ensemble of that workshop was Hannah Corneo. And the only reason I mention her is because yes, she's a former Elphaba on Broadway. Yes, she was a replacement Yitzhak on the tour of Hedwig and the Angry Inch. But when this announcement happened about the Greatest Showman coming to a stage, they did this huge big presentation at D23. Ryan Vasquez sang the main song from Greatest Showman. But one of the people in that group of musical theater performers doing songs at D23 was Hannah Corneo. And as far as I know, like I don't know her career inside and out, but there's nothing in her resume that sticks out to me that would say, oh, it makes sense for her to be there. A lot of the people that were involved had some sort of connection to Disney theatricals, had been in a show before, had led a show before. That was not the case. This does not mean that she is involved with this. It doesn't mean that she is taking over one of these roles. It doesn't mean anything. But I would just note that she was there at the D23 presentation that happened in August of 2024. Could that mean that she is going to play a charity or Jenny Lind? I don't know, but it certainly is something interesting. In the interview with Basma Boy, Court said that because of the nature of the film and the time, length and all of those things. Some of the parts were kind of sketches, but they are being fleshed out for this stage adaptation. Primarily the role of charity, who is P.T. barnum's wife. She was pretty flat in the movie, court said, so they're going to expand that role to give her a full arc. Same will happen with Anne, which is the Zendaya part, another part that was a little under baked in the film version. Bass also reports that the show will actually move from this Bristol run to the West End at Andrew Lloyd Webber's Theater Royal, Drury Lane. That's where I saw Much Ado About Nothing. It is a gorgeous theater, absolutely magnificent, puts most puts all Broadway houses to shame. Quite honestly. When it comes to the lobby, it is spectacular. So I would not be surprised if that's there and then goes somewhere else in New York City. I don't know if this would be something where Aladdin closes, so it could take the New Amsterdam. Obviously the Lion King isn't closing anytime soon, so it's not going into the Minsk Off. Or would they do something like they did with Frozen, where they would rent or partner with another theater owner to have three shows running at the same time. We will wait and see what happens, but very exciting for fans of this Pasek and Paul movie musical. In other less exciting news, we got more cancellations happening at Washington D.C. kennedy Center. The national tour of Hamilton had originally planned on playing the theater in the nation's capital in 2026, but announced yesterday that they would be canceling their engagement there. It was originally scheduled to be part of the 250th anniversary of the signing of Declaration of Independence, but that will not happen. Lin Manuel Miranda and Jeffrey Seller said in a statement to the New York Times, quote, this latest action by Trump means that it's not the Kennedy center as we knew it. The Kennedy center was not created in this spirit and we're not going to be a part of it while it is the Trump Kennedy center. We're just not going to be a part of it. In a follow up statement to Playbill, Seller said Hamilton was proudly performed at the Kennedy center in 2018 during the first Trump administration. We are not acting against his administration, but against the partisan policies of the Kennedy center as a result of his recent takeover. Hamilton is a large and global production and it would simply be financially and personally devastating to the hundreds of employees of Hamilton if the new leadership of the Kennedy center suddenly canceled or renegotiated our engagement. The actions of the new chairman of the board in recent weeks demonstrate that contracts and previous agreements simply cannot be trusted. We also found out that Tony nominee Melissa Erico has moved a concert that had originally been scheduled to play at the Kennedy center to a venue in Northern Virginia. This is a concert that features a World War I theme. Erico did indicate that this was something that had to do more with seating concerns. Okay, call it what you will. That seems like a very convenient way to avoid the politics of it. But nonetheless, it is another cancellation at the Kennedy Center. I reached out to friends who would know better than I would about whether or not Legally Blonde or any other Kennedy Center, Broadway, Center Stage productions were going to continue to happen at the Kennedy center this season and in the future. And I was told that as of now, and of course everything could change is that the Center Stage productions as of now are not going to be affected. It's just tours and rentals and things like that that are coming in. Those are the things that the Trump administration are kind of attacking because those are contracts and they don't see them as something that they want to spend money, money on. Obviously anything can happen. But we are now on March 25, we are effectively three months from the beginning of performances of Legally Blonde. This would be the time when we started to hear at least casting for Elle and for Emmett and maybe Paulette and Warner and Professor Callahan and Vivian as we start to get those things. I would imagine that if this is going to continue to happen, this would be the time when they would normally be announcing some of those castings. Now, just because they don't announce them in the next couple days or weeks doesn't mean that Legally Blonde is going to get canceled at the Kennedy Center. They might just be trying to hold their horses a little bit and get a little bit closer to get a little bit more confidence about whether or not this is going to continue to happen. But we will wait and see what happens. If this show does actually take place in Washington, D.C. it closes the week like the weekend before my birthday. My birthday is like a Wednesday or Thursday. I think this year, like I'm considering going up and and seeing it. I don't know how I will feel about going to the Kennedy center, but I also don't know how I feel about missing a star studded Broadway star led cast of Legally Blonde. So I'm not sure it's something I will have to wrestle with and think on from a personal perspective. I've drawn the line on a lot of things and just I've skipped things that I've wanted to see over, other things that I did not feel morally comfortable for me and whether this is one of those things we will have to wait and see in the future. All right, we're going to take a break real quick to talk about our sponsor for this week, Factor. I don't know how this happened, but somehow we are already in March and that means that sooner rather than later it is going to be spring and then it's going to be summer and then all of a sudden you're going to blink and it's going to be the holidays and it's going to be the end of the year. 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Alright, I'm gonna run through some other show and casting news that came up to us on Wednesday day We have a new star joining the production of the Great Gatsby. We pretty much found out who all of the replacements for the principal parts would be, except for who is taking over the role of Nick Carraway from Noah J. Ricketts when he departs at the end of the month. Ticking over for him will be erstwhile Prince Ali from Aladdin, Michael Malia Kel. He will take over the role beginning on March 31st. He will of course be joining Ryan McCarten and Sarah Hyland who recently joined the production. Also, he will join Lineau and Austin Colby, who will also be stepping into the roles of Myrtle Wilson and Tom Buchanan. On that day. They will join Charlie Pollock, who is playing George Wilson, Terrence Mann as Meyer Wolfsheim and at some point Samantha Polly will return. She is currently out on a medical leave having to deal with an injury that she sustained in the show. And I will also note that the show will also be welcoming four new ensemble members on March 31, Nathaniel Hunt, Preston Taylor, former Broadway radio guest Chase Peacock and Chase Maxwell. They are offering two chases for the price of one at the end of the month. Moving slightly uptown and Off Broadway Yesterday it was announced that Ghosts has been extended at the Lincoln Center Theater starring Hamish Linkletter, Lily Ray, Billy Crudup and more. The show was originally scheduled to run through April 13 and will now conclude on April 26 if it does not extend even further beyond that. We had previously talked about the reconceived adaptation of Berthold Brecht, the Mother that will be playing Off Broadway this season. It was co conceived by Nina Bieber and Jessica Hecht and it will be playing at the Baryshnikov ART center from March 29 through April 13. We now know who will be joining Jessica Hecht in that production and that is the future Beast himself, Fergie Philippe. They will be a part of this show that is described in press notes as part documentary, part autobiography and part disco. The show shifts the Brecht story to take place during the 1980 Miami race riots, which followed the murder of Arthur Lee McDuffie by police. Along with Hecht and Philippe, the cast will include Zane Payes, Portia Johnson and Delilah Napier. And then finally, we have been giving you updates about the forthcoming Broadway's Leading Ladies concert that will be filmed, gosh, on Monday night. It'll be filmed on Monday at Town hall for later airing on pbs. We discussed all of the incredible people that had already been announced. Lachanze, Jennifer Holliday, Lindsey Mendez, Jessie Mueller, Kate Baldwin, Judy Kuhn, Jennifer Simard. And now we have five more people who I'm guessing will round out the cast. I don't know that they will announce anybody else, but joining the production are Mandy Gonzalez, Soleila Pfeiffer, Adrianna Hicks, Amber Amon and Helen J. Shin. Apps, just freaking dynamite. Like this is 10 out of 10, no notes. Of course there are other people that we could have wanted to have in there, but not a single miss in the entire cast. But even more, more. We found out some people who will be presenting some songs and hosting. The one and only BB Neuwirth will be the evening's host with original Broadway A Chorus Line cast members, each one legendary in their own right. Bayork Lee, Kelly Bishop and Priscilla Lopez serving as presenters. Look, if we don't get Kelly singing a little bit of at the ballet or Priscilla singing a little bit of nothing, I what are we doing? What do we do? They've got to do something. They've got to do some sort of performance or we will riot. All right, folks, I will wrap up with a deep feel good recommendation that came to us from the Gershwin Theater on Tuesday night. Now look, I'm going to give you the official videos. There are scads and scads of unofficial videos. There are slime tutorials all over the interwebs of this if you want more. But on Tuesday night at the Gershwin Theatre, Wicked made history not only once but two times over where we got the first ever full time black actor to play Elphaba on Broadway with a bow of Lincia Cabetti. And we also saw Jenna Bainbridge, who made history as the first ever wheelchair user to play Nessa Rose. Those two made their first bows on Tuesday night. They were joined by new cast members Ali Trim, who isn't really a new cast member. She'd been a standby for Glenda, but now she's the full time Glenda. Natasha, Yvette Williams as Madame Morrible and Daniel Quadrino as Bach. Daniel Quadrino seems to be like the most popular guy working in musical theater because everybody seems to love him. Everybody very excited to see him as Bach on Broadway. 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. Radwayrading if Follow me on Instagram @bww. Matt all right, have a wonderful Thursday and we'll be back to talk to you tomorrow.