C (3:41)

Yeah, I fully agree. I mean, I'm excited. I genuinely thought this show was going to be a very short commercial, like 16 week moment. Not because I didn't believe in it, just because like, I just figured that would be the case. But like, I love that they have this replacement cast. I love that they've got these, these great people stepping in. Sarah was so phenomenal in both the shows that I've seen her in this, this year, in the past year.

B (4:06)

Oh great. I haven't seen her at all.

C (4:08)

Yeah, yeah. I just thought she was so lovely and I just love her as a person. So I'm very excited for the great talent that they're going to have over there.

B (4:18)

So I know that at one point Groff had said he was contracted to be in the show through like early January, like through the holidays or whatever. Obviously we don't know. They haven't said like how long either Sarah or Sadie are supposed to be in the show. I'm assuming through January. But is this a show that you think could continue without him? Like, is there somebody out there that could like A Sarah Hyland and Jane Krakowski replacement be big enough to fill the shoes of Jonathan Groff? Or is this just something that needs him at the center of it? Because I can't imagine. I mean. Well, I'm sure he would probably love to continue to do this show. Like, he's very famous and has lots of other things I'm sure he has to do. But, like, is there somebody else? And I don't think you need to name a name, but if you have ideas, great. But like, but is this a show that's just so built around him? Like you were saying, that 16 week run would have made sense because it was a star vehicle. Could this continue with somebody else as the star?

C (5:15)

I mean, there's a possibility that they're talking about that I have no idea. But I think what's interesting is that whenever I hear feedback from theatergoers, et cetera, people that I have seen just demand that they see this show have all kind of led with, I have to see Jonathan Groff. Like, I have to see him. I love him. And so I hope that there is interest for Bobby Darin's story and him as a human being for any actor. Actor. But like, I think that I kind of like put out like the tour model of like, is this a show that I think would do well on a tour without Jonathan Groff? I don't know. You know, I really don't know. I don't know that the show is. I mean, it's an excellent piece, but like, I'm just, I'm unsure of it. But like, they might, they might have plans for that and like, good for them because I think that they've established something. But I agree with you. I think it would have to be an individual that people would want to see fill the shoes of Bobby Darin versus fill the shoes of Jonathan Groff. Like, I think that it's like, who is someone that people are like, I don't care what they're doing, I've got to see them do it. And then the people that enter the theater fall in love with the story, fall in love with Timber's direction, fall in love with Bobby Darin. But I think they have to get to the door first because I don't know, it's not like the same as if someone's doing the Elton John story. If people go, I don't care where I am, I just have to see Elton John's music. And I love that an actor is embodying that. It's a very different But I think that you have to get people to the door. And I think that the door has been. I've got to see that man spit. So good for them.

B (6:51)

Yeah. Like, do you think some of the. And I'm gonna throw out two names that probably could not do it because they will be on Broadway and other shows at the time. So that's why I'm using these two as examples. But could it be somebody who is a big Broadway star who has legions of fans? Like in Aaron Tveit, again he's gonna be in Chess. So like that's not possible for him to replace in January probably. Or does it need to be somebody who is a big star in the theater community, has lots of fans, but is also a TV person? Like Darren Criss. He's going back into maybe happy ending and presumably since he's coming in in November, he'll continue into January. So like, do you think that it would have to be somebody who draws from outside the traditional theater community?

C (7:33)

I don't, I believe. I don't like separating. You know what I mean? Like the theater community versus Because I think that a ticket buyer is a ticket buyer and I have seen so many people have fandoms and those fandoms cannot always have the ability to come to the theater. However, people. I think that the, the, the proof of the. What, what Groff did for Merrily and also, let's say it, one of the, I'm going to say the biggest actor like globally is Daniel Radcliffe. The combo platter of them helped sell a show that otherwise would have been untouchable. But like, I think that you have to ask, like, do those fans show up? Whenever Aaron returns to Moulin Rouge, the fans show up. So there is proof that his fandom shows up and buys tickets. I think that Darren's has also kind of done that. Like, I do believe that there are a lot of Gleeks out there and starkid fans that have shown up. I don't, I don't know. I'm not gonna like compare people's like net worth or anything, but like, you know what I'm saying? Like, I think we have to ask ourselves, like, do those people show up or do they have a fandom? Because I don't think that they're always the same thing.

B (8:55)

Yeah, that's, that's interesting. I think people like those two Aaron Darren throw in like a Jordan Fisher or, or a Jeremy Jordan, like they have their own built in fandoms and it would be interesting to see if those people would show up. For a show about a guy who, you know, in a lot of cases is like they're the same age or older than those fans grandparents. So it'd be interesting but interesting case study to see what they do. I would imagine. I'm going to guess that they're going to just close in January, but I would be very happy to be proven wrong because I really enjoy the show and I'd love opportunities to see see it with different people. But let's head from Circle in the Square and go over to the St James because yesterday we got some additional information about the standby guest star alternate role for the Queen of Versailles. And we got the initial dates that Sheri Renee Scott will step into the role of Jackie Siegel for Kristin Chenoweth. And I'm honestly, I'm a little surprised as to how this is working. These are not like the Mandy Gonzalez every Tuesday kind of deal. It is actually just four dates as or four performances as of now. And obviously if Cheno can't go on, she would step in in the standby position, obviously. But as of now, Sheri Renee Scott is going to perform the show on November 5th. On Sheri Renee Scott is going to perform the role on November 25, both performances on December 3 and then January 20. Normally how they do this Grace, if, like, if somebody is going to be in for the standby role, what they normally do is either or like on an, on a consistent basis. Like with the, the Mandy thing, they don't initially put those performances up for sale. And then like, once those dates are announced, then they put them up for sale or they, when they are put up on sale on Telecharge or wherever the tickets are being sold. It says Kristin Chenoweth will not be in the this performance. It'll be performed by Sherry Renee Scott. So I haven't gone through and checked to see if, like, they're only selling seven performances after opening. But I was a little surprised that it was not a more consistent thing with Sherry because she is, you know, like Mandy Gonzalez, a pretty big name in the theater community.

C (11:06)

No, I think, you know, with the Beanie and Leah and Julie Benko performances, I think we've set up like a really nice community thing that happens on said Tuesdays or whatever they might be with like the sandwich board outside. Like, I view it as like a positive. I don't view it as like a, you know, like, oh, bummer, you're getting this person. Like, I, I think that the community has widely, positively embraced these things that I would like to normalize them. Listen, if it were up to me, if we could make the same money, I want five show weeks. You know what I mean? Like, you know, if. If we could do that. If there's a world, great. But I. I like the idea that this is standardized. You know, it's. It's not. I don't think it's like this. I don't like it. I don't think it's this way for Elphabas because it's kind of like the green girl is the thing. And not particularly like the actor always, but, you know, I think it's cool. Like, I like. I like the consistency of us doing this moving forward. If it works.

B (12:13)

Yeah, I agree. All right, let's talk about last week's Broadway grosses. And from week to week, we were consistent with 28 shows. But last week was the first week that we had performances of art on Broadway. They only did three performances, so that kind of changes things a little bit. But they replaced Call Me Izzy, which had closed the previous Sunday, so that's not exactly apples to apples. But because last week was heading into the Labor Day holiday, we did see a 7% increase in grosses to come in at $30,631,166. Attendance, though, was actually down a little over 20. Almost about 2,300 people to come in at 237,500, 539 people. The average ticket price made up for that, jumping up 8% to come in at $128.95. Two shows were north of $2 million. Hamilton in that Hamilton era, doing very well at the top at $2,264,454, followed by Wicked, just over 2 million. Then we had the Lion King, Mamma Mia, and maybe Happy Ending rounding out the top five. Obviously, that was the final week of Darren Criss in his initial run and maybe Happy Ending before he comes back. The rest of the shows, north of seven figures in descending order, are Death Becomes her, mj, Just In Time, oh Mary, the Outsiders, Aladdin, Buena Vista Social Club, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, and Purpose, which not only closed out its run on Broadway with its best total of $1,020,309, but also set a house record for the Helen Hayes Theater. That's obviously a very tiny house, so the fact that it was able to do over a million dollars is great. It actually supplanted the last Brandon Jacobs Jenkins show to play in that theater. Appropriate. Looking at the the week as A whole there were only three shows that saw week to week declines. One of them was Wicked. Not worried about them. Aladdin not worried about them. And then stranger things. The first shadow was down about $30,500. Still did pretty well at 863,000. I mentioned art coming in for its first three previews. In three shows it did 668,504 do. If you average that out over an eight show week, that is over $1.7 million over at the Music Box Theater. So a very good start for them. In total, 20 of Broadway's 28 shows played to 90% capacity or more, which is fantastic. Wicked, Purpose, oh Mary and Art were all at exactly 100% while Mamma Mia was just under 101. While the Outsiders was just above 101 along with Hamilton a little bit higher. John Proctor is the villain and maybe happy ending. We're right around 102.5 and just in time continues to lead the way at 103.61%. All right, let's run through some show and casting news here, Grace. Yesterday we got the complete cast announce for the upcoming New York premiere of Rajeev Joseph's play Archduke that is gonna be running off Broadway from the Roundabout Theater Company directed by Darko Treznik. We already knew that the show was going to star Patrick Page. He is going to be joined by Jake Byrne, Tony Award nominee and icon Christine Nielsen, Adrian Rollette and Jason Sanchez. The show is scheduled to begin performances off Broadway on October 23rd and is currently scheduled to play through December 21st. We also got some casting announcement for the upcoming return engagement of Bo the Musical. We already knew that Matt Rodin was going to be returning to the show as Ace, but there is going to be a cast change in the title role of the show as Beau in the original run from out of the Box Theatrics was Chris Blissett. He is being replaced in this production by Tony nominee Jeb Brown, most recently of Dead Outlaw. But this is actually a return for Jeb Brown because not only did Jeb do the original cast album, he appeared in the role in the 2022 filmed version of the musical as well. So he is coming back to this role which he helped originate over the past few years. Of course the show begins performance as at St. Luke's on October 13th. And then Grace, I assume that because you are the social media maven that you are that you know all about cost and Mayer, you, you know these two dancer choreographers, right?

C (16:34)

Of course.

B (16:35)

What people might not know is that they have started to get into theatrical choreographing. They did a couple productions of Waitress here in the past year. They are now getting ready to launch their own dance show Off Broadway. It is called 11 to Midnight and the show is going to begin Off Broadway in the spring of 2026. Well, yesterday they announced the cast for the show. The cast will include both Cost and Mayer. Their names are actually Austin and Meredith. Their group name was kind of just come from derivations of their actual name. But they will be in the show along with Brendan Chan, Katie Simon, Ake Richardson, Mackenzie Olson and Tyson Hill. The show is set at a New Year's Eve apartment party in New York City where seven friends are gathering to ring in the new year. Be fun. Looking forward to hear all about that and then in kind of theatrical business views Yesterday it was exclusively reported by Variety that Thomas Schumacher, who has led Disney Theatrical for decades at this point will be stepping down from his position next month. It was announced in a Studio wide memo that was sent out on Wednesday. Disney Theatrical will now be led by Managing Director Andrew Flatt and Executive producer Anne Court, two longtime Disney veterans who have worked closely with Schumacher over the past 20 years. Even though Schumacher is leaving Disney, he will, quote, continue shaping the face of global theatrical landscape as a behind the scenes force focused on the next generation of artists and audience. According to the memo sent out by Disney. Schumacher initially joined Disney in Disney Animation as the producer for the 1990 movie sequel the Rescuers down under and then moved over to Disney Theatrical in 2002. So should be an interesting change over at Disney Theatrical. See if anything noticeably different comes out of them. If they kind of switch up their philosophy with shows. If they move some things around and have more shows on Broadway at the same time, it'll be interesting to see. And then finally grace my recommendation here comes to us in the form of a new album that is getting ready to come out next week. It'll be coming out on Friday, September 12th. It is a new album celebrating the songs of Michael Finke. It's called get what you Want, the Songs of Michael Finke. It is going to have an absolutely great group of stars being a part of it. Emily Afton, who is one of my favorites. She's been in Hadestown for so long as one of the workers. Like every time I go. I'm so glad to see her because she's always there. Ari Axelrod, Donna Lynn Champlin, one of my favorites. Alan H. Green, your fiance, F. Michael Haney, Tommy Kaiser, Sarah Naughton, Kyle Taylor Parker, Jelani Remy, Kate Rockwell, Annalise Scarpachi, Justin David Solomon, Talia Suskower, and more. What is the song that F is singing on this? Have you heard it? Do you know anything about it?

C (19:35)

Matt, I can't wait to find out with you. This is great news. You broke news to me. I love this.

B (19:41)

You didn't even know F was on this album.

C (19:43)

No, F is on 100 albums. I'm not trying to be mean, but they have the most amazing voice in the world and I did say that before we were together. So listen to that and I'm sure it's going to be excellent.

B (19:56)

Yes, and it was produced by Finky and the one and only Robbie Roselle, so should be exciting. Looking forward to listening to that. I may or may not have gotten a preview, so maybe I can share that with you, Grace, so you can hear your fiance whale on a new song. 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 at Broadway Radio. And if you want more Broadway Radio, head over to patreon.com broadwayradio Grace, where can people find you?

C (20:20)

You can find me at graceaki.

B (20:22)

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