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Today on Broadway: Thursday, May 29, 2025
00:20:08
Star-Studded ‘Chess’ Broadway Revival Confirmed, Full ‘Ragtime’ Cast Announced, Sabrina Carpenter Could Join ‘Mamma Mia! 3’ Since 2016, “Today on Broadway” has been the first and only daily podcast recapping the top theatre headlines every Monday throu...
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- [00:02]
Matt Tammanini
Welcome to Today on Broadway for Thursday, May 29, 2025. I'm Broadway Radio's Matt Tammanini and I'm.
- [00:07]
Grace Hockey
Tell Me on a Sunday podcast, Grace Hockey.
- [00:09]
Matt Tammanini
Grace, we have a ton of very big news, so we're just going to dive in today and we are going to start with something that I've been talking about for the past week or so as we started to see social media accounts pop up, Equity casting notices pop up. But yesterday it was confirmed that Chess will be coming back to Broadway for the very first time since its infinitely short 1988 original Broadway run. It will be back on Broadway this fall at some Shubert theater to be announced. We don't exactly know when, we don't exactly know where, although I have heard some rumors about that. But as I had teased, there are three fairly exciting stars in the lead roles here. Playing Freddy Trumper will be Tony Award winner Aaron Tveit. Playing Florence Vassi will be star of stage and screen and always controversial figure Lea Michell. And playing Anatoly Sergaevsky will be one of like the theater community's favorite actors who isn't a big star yet but very well might be following this run. Nicholas Christopher this will be the first time that Lea Michele has originated a role in a Broadway production since Spring Awakening. Obviously she returned back to Broadway just a couple seasons ago as a replacement in Funny Girl. Nicholas Christopher has bounced around to a bunch of shows here recently. Sweeney Todd, he's been back in at Hamilton a little bit, but most recently Off Broadway starring opposite Sherry Renee Scott in Little Shop of Horrors. Aaron Tveit obviously won his Tony and kind of goes in and out of Moulin Rouge whenever they need him to come in. But this is interesting, Grace, not only for these stars, but as I had mentioned, it had not been a part of the casting announcement, but the book is being written by Emmy winner and former Buffy the Vampire Slayer co star Danny Strong, who also wrote like the last two Hunger Games movies and did a bunch of really cool stuff. This is the book that they did at the 2022 Entertainment Community Fund concert that was a lot funnier than a lot of other scripts that we have seen in the past for Chess as they've tried to reinvent this show. So I'm excited for that. I know that this is going to be a very problematic show just because we're not sure if it's any good, if it can actually be worked or adapted. But with a new book by Danny Strong, this company of actors so far and Michael Mayer directing Lauren Lotaro choreographing and Brian Youssefer as music supervisor. This is gonna be one of my most anticipated things of the 2025, 2026 season.
- [02:45]
Grace Hockey
I love Brian Youssefr. I'm a big Brian Yousefher fan. He's obviously been for the past two weeks working on the Mystic Pizza album that I have heard sung in my house before. F goes into record every day and so I'm excited about that. And also worked on Hard of Rock and roll, beautiful noise, tons of other things. But he's so fantastic at Orch. Soon as I saw him throw those videos up on his story, I thought, thank God they're in great hands.
- [03:11]
Matt Tammanini
Yeah, I'm very interested to see what they do with the rest of this cast. As I mentioned the other day, everybody in the principal cast except for Svetlana has been cast according to the Equity casting notice. So I'm assuming at least we'll have Bryce Pinkham back. Sean Allen Krill had done the 2022 concert, so we'll see what happens with that. But I'm really kind of interested to see where they go with Svetlana, whether this is going to be another name that somewhat rises to the level of maybe not Aaron or Leah, but at least the Nicholas Christopher who is one of those kind of beloved under the radar stars on Broadway or if it's going to be somebody who is an up and comer and nobody has really ever heard of before because it's not the biggest role. But man, does she have some great moments in that show. So we'll have to wait and see. But very excited. And the fact that it's going to be here on Broadway in the fall means we're not too, too far away from getting some more answers. What's interesting is we had that announcement on Wednesday, but we also got a lot of information about another Broadway revival that is going to be hitting the stage this fall. And this one comes to us from Lincoln Center Theater where we got the almost complete cast announced for the forthcoming Broadway revival of Ragtime. We already knew that Joshua Henry was playing Cole House, Walker Jr. Casey Levy was playing Mother, and Brandon Uranowitz playing Tatya. We found out yesterday that basically all of the principals from the City center production are back, which is what we all assumed. Colin Donnell will be back as Father, Nichelle Lewis will be back as Sarah. Ben Levi Ross is back as younger brother, Shana Taub is Emma Goldman, John Clay III is Booker T. Washington, and Rod Cyrus is Harry Houdini. The one principle or not even really principle, but featured that we didn't get is who's playing Evelyn Nesbit? The girl on the swing over at City center was played by Stephanie Stiles. Nobody was announced for that role and I don't think that's something they just folded into the ensemble that would have been. They announced Harry Houdini and, you know, so they're going to announce Evelyn Nesbitt. But they did not mention who was going to be doing that. So I think that's interesting. I don't know if this is maybe trying to wait and confirm what Stephanie's schedule is like. She had also been a part of Urinetown at Encore, so I don't think that that's coming to Broadway, but maybe they're trying to bounce out schedule. She also does TV and film stuff. She's on the Apple TV show Loot. So I don't know if they're filming another season and kind of wait if she can figure it out. I'm not sure. But that was interesting. That stood out to me. The only other change from the main people that you might be interested in is Sarah's friend who is the soloist until we reach that Day had been done by Tiffany at City Center. It appears that she is going to be replaced by Charity Angel Dawson in this production. She will be a member of the ensemble. But the rest of this ensemble grace is also incredible. We have Tanika Gibson, your friend Marina Kondo who I saw at To Free a Mockingbird on Sunday night. Morgan Marcel, who I know also came to te Free a Mockingbird. John Rapson, who I don't know if he came to see To Free a Mockingbird, but he should have and a bunch of other folks. So absolutely incredible crew and I'm excited to see what they do with this. Whether or not they keep it the very static Stand and Sing City center production or if they take advantage of the Vivian Beaumont Theater and Eleanor Scott, who's the choreographer, does amazing work. And if they reinvent this for the.
- [06:49]
Grace Hockey
New space, you know, just on the Nesbit bit, I've noticed that a lot. Most productions, I'm not talking about the the one that we are talking about, but most other productions have Evelyn Nesbit that as the mother cover in an ensemble track.
- [07:06]
Matt Tammanini
Oh, really?
- [07:07]
Grace Hockey
Yeah. That's most of the time. So I wouldn't be surprised if that happens here. I don't know Inside Baseball for it, although I will be working on this production particularly. I was there on set for that announcement video, but that is what I've seen In most cases from regional productions. So it would not surprise me here if they were differentiating from the encore's production and had it more standardized like others. But I could be very wrong and then she could get announced tomorrow. But yeah, that's just generally what I have seen.
- [07:36]
Matt Tammanini
Yeah, that's interesting. I don't know how that would work with this. They obviously didn't have to worry about that necessarily with the City center production. So, yeah, very exciting. We'll see what happens. But for the most part, we know the entire cast performances will begin at Lincoln center on September 26th. And again, very excited for this. Now we just have to get the spelling bee announcement that we all know is coming and then we will have three really, really exciting Broadway revivals coming to the stage this season. Speaking of things that got a lot of people excited and specifically my mother, yesterday, out of nowhere, we found out that the always fantastic Christopher Jackson is coming back to Broadway. When? Next week. He's going to begin performances as Davis in Hell's kitchen starting on June 3rd. That is Tuesday of next week. He will be replacing Tank, who is currently playing that role. He will wrap up his run on Broadway on Sunday. That means that Christopher Jackson, who has always been my mom's favorite from Hamilton and In the Heights, will be playing opposite my mom's literal favorite, Jessica Vosk in this show. So I don't know if this is going to have to be like a summer trip up to see this for mom, but was really kind of surprised that I don't know if Tank had to, like change his schedule and dip out a little earlier. But this was a pretty quick announcement for someone of C. Jack's status to be joining in. But when you're talking about people who can just sing and coming in to do a role like this, Grace Christopher Jackson is towards, if not at the very top.
- [09:12]
Grace Hockey
Listen, it's almost Father's Day and Daddy's home. That's all I'm saying.
- [09:17]
Matt Tammanini
That's very funny, very good. But yeah, so that should be very exciting. Tickets on sale now certainly hopefully get a very good bump. And I will say I got to meet Tank backstage at Hell's Kitchen a couple weeks ago along with the veteran of stage and screen, Keisha Lewis. They were all wonderful and enjoyed that experience immensely. All right, let's take a break from the news real quick to talk about our sponsor for the week, Cash app. One of the most annoying things about not using physical hard cash anymore is that whether you're depositing a check or sending money to something else. You always have to wait for it to clear or you have to pay extra to get your money right away. That is not something that you have to deal with when you're sending or receiving money from Cash App. If you've ever tried to cash out your money from any other cash sending app or even from your bank, a lot of times, and all of a sudden there's some sort of processing delay and it takes 24 hours to get your money. What is actually happening there is whoever is holding that money for you is collecting interest on it. Cash App doesn't do anything like that. It's a safe, easy and fast way to send, receive and transfer money to families, friends, people you're sharing drinks with, or in my case, your accountant, Sal. But it's incredibly easy. You don't have to wait around for days just to get your money. It's your money. You shouldn't have to wait. Whenever I have to send Sal money every quarter after he does my taxes, it literally feels like by the time I hit send, I get a text from him that says received. It is almost instantaneous. It is incredible how simple and easy and honestly, stress reducing using the Cash App is. Grace.
- [10:56]
Grace Hockey
Yeah, one thing that I know is that like going out with a bunch of friends can be the greatest time in the world. Until it comes to the bill time. You know, this is the moment where everybody looks around and says who wants the credit card points? Who's trying to do this, who's trying to do that? And not everybody can split the bill. I mean, goodness, we're in New York City, we're going to see shows, we've got somewhere to be. So by using Cash App I'm able to actually divvy up and personalize each person's contribution to the meal ticket so that there's, it's an ease of process, it's not stressful, it's not awkward. It goes immediately back into my account and I can just go on living and then go to my post show drinks where I do the exact same thing all over again.
- [11:32]
Matt Tammanini
All right. For a limited time only, new Cash App users can use our exclusive code to earn some additional cash. For real? There is 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 ten $10 dropped right into your account. Terms apply. That's money. That's Cash App. All right, Greg, we're going to talk about grosses right now, but not only are we to talk about this week's Broadway grosses. We're also going to talk about this season's Broadway grosses because as of May 25, the 2024, 2025 Broadway season has officially ended. And based off the data we have, the total gross comes in at $1.89 billion and with attendance of 14.7 million people. And those numbers beat even the pre pandemic record holder of the 2018-19 season, which came in at $1.83 billion. So despite the fact that theater in general, even in New York City, even on Broadway, is not exactly in the same spot that it was pre pandemic because of a full season where at this point 40 theaters are currently filled, obviously increased prices and a lot of extra playing weeks, Broadway is on a financial standpoint, back on a bottom line number there. However, of course that also means that the average ticket price was the most expensive in history, coming in at $129.12. That is an increase of about $0.70 over the 2022, 2023 season. So that does of it. We'll have an article in the show notes if you want to get more information about the total season. But overall, good news for Broadway. Obviously you always have to look at the fact that it's costing more for people to come, but it's also costing more for these shows to be making. So it's not like this is record profits, but it certainly is record grosses. In total last week, Broadway came in at $47,275,423 with attendance at 342,076. Obviously helped by Memorial Day weekend, the Average ticket price $138.20. Good Night and Good Luck climbed back up over $4 million, coming at $4,238,813. Othello was next at 3.3 million, and then Glengarry Glen Ross was in third place at 2.75 million. But they were aided by the fact that they did nine shows last week due to the holiday. In fourth place was Wicked at 2.35 and then the Lion King at 2.06. The rest of the shows north of seven figures in descending order are Hamilton, Death Becomes Her, Aladdin, Moulin Rouge, the Outsiders, MJ Buena Vista Social Club, Just in Time, oh Mary, Gypsy, the Great Gatsby, the Picture of Dorian Gray, which did it in just six performances. Maybe Happy Ending, Sunset Boulevard, Stranger Things and Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. Down at the bottom of this list but for obvious reasons, Call Me Izzy did its first two Broadway previews last week and came in at $211,172. If you extrapolate that to a full eight show week, that comes in at 800 DOL. In total, of Broadway's 40 shows, 26 played a 90% capacity or above. Oh Mary, Operation Mincemeat, Othello and Wicked were all at 100%. Above 101% were picture of Dorian Gray Hamilton, Buena Vista Social Club, Outsiders, and maybe happy ending. Above 102% were goodnight and Good Luck and John Proctor is the villain. And then above 103% was just in Time all right Grace, let's move into some really quick news things before we wrap up the show. I talked about this earlier in the week when we found out that Bonnie Milligan was going to be doing the first Reaction Cam. But now we know who is going to be hosting the Tony Awards act one pre show that'll air on Pluto on June 8th and that will be current Tony nominee Darren Criss and Tony Award winner Renee Elise Goldsberry. What's interesting about this is in the past I believe this has always started at 6pm this year it's not, but it's not going to start at 7 either. It's going to start at 6:40, which seems a little strange. How you're going to do this is and I will note that in years past it's changed on which channel you can find it on in Pluto despite press releases coming out and it has still changed. But it'll be found on the live music channel which is found inside the entertainment category on Pluto tv. So if you are not sure how this works with Pluto, if you don't use that service regularly, maybe sign on a little early and try to find it ahead of time. But it's interesting Grace. I think Darren has done either this before or at least something else. I'm not 100% sure, but Rene hasn't done a ton of this but I think she is perfect. I don't think people realize just how dang funny Rene Elise Goldsberry is.
- [16:34]
Grace Hockey
I think that they do at this point because of her collaborations with people like Mulaney documentary now.
- [16:41]
Matt Tammanini
Yeah that's true.
- [16:42]
Grace Hockey
Girls 5 Eva. Like she's now had all of these television opportunities with the Broadway video, Tina Fey Lorne Michaels crowd of them all that I think that she's gotten there by that niche crowd. Like it totally makes sense to me that like the Simon Riches of the world are now like hold on. She's adorable.
- [17:01]
Matt Tammanini
Oh yeah. Forgot about that too, you know.
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Grace Hockey
So I think that that has surpassed her stage time because if you think about like her roles in Hamilton and Rent and like all of these other things are so heavy, but she is multifaceted and incredibly entertaining and I'm just excited that she gets to have all these oftentimes for especially musical theater actresses specifically, and also gorgeous ones, frankly, people don't like to see pretty people be funny. They don't like it. It's weird and it's usually rooted in misogyny and we could have a whole conversation about it. But it's, I think that this is, is a great example of like let people flourish. Like let, let's see people's character work on a person that you would not otherwise deem a character actor. And I think it's just a perfect example of like how we. You don't really know someone's full talent potential unless you give them an opportunity.
- [17:55]
Matt Tammanini
And Grace, earlier this week you had a wonderful conversation with Felicia Curry, who can currently be seen Off Broadway in Bowl ep. That show has announced that it is extending. It is currently playing at the Vineyard Theater and it is a collaboration with the National Bul Black Theater and the new group. It is now added an extra week to its run and will play through June 15th. And finally, Grace, this is not a recommendation, but it is something that I think is going to get a lot of discussion on social media. And in an interview with Deadline's Baz Bama Boy, Judy Kramer, the uber producer of all things, Mamma Mia. Did tease the fact that they are currently at work on Mamma Mia 3. Basically everybody from both original movies is either officially back or to be back depending on like how the script gets final gets finalized. She's very tight lipped. She didn't want to give away. But she did mention the fact that like Sabrina Carpenter would be a really good person to be in one of these movies if they could find a role for her. Of course she does have, you know, before she became a super mega international pop star, she was on Broadway. She was doing the role of Cady Heron in Mean Girls on Broadway before the pandemic. Then she went on to be, you know, one of the biggest icons of popular music in the world right now. She could be a pretty good Amanda Seyfried's daughter, Meryl Streep's granddaughter, something, you know, I'm not sure how that would work, but I think that would be very exciting for a lot of people because I feel like the Venn diagram of people who love Mamma Mia. And love Sabrina Carpenter probably has a lot of overlap.
- [19:33]
Grace Hockey
Grace, it totally makes sense to me. You gotta find another blonde to carry the story, I guess. But she has her roots in theater. She's got her roots in the stage and comedy and stuff. So I would love to see her do any number of things in that vein as well.
- [19:49]
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 rodwayradio. Grace, where can people find you?
- [19:56]
Grace Hockey
You can find me at. It's graceaki.
- [19:57]
Matt Tammanini
All right, everybody, have a wonderful Thursday. We'll be back to talk to you tomorrow.