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Today on Broadway: Tuesday, Aug. 5, 2025
00:21:40
‘Jesus Christ Superstar’ thrills on stage and social media, Victoria Clark joins ‘The Punch’ on Broadway, Grace talks SummerSlam experience Since 2016, “Today on Broadway” has been the first and only daily podcast recapping the top theatre headlines ev...
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- [00:02]
Matt Tamminini
Welcome to Today on Broadway for Tuesday, August 5, 2025. I'm Broadway Radio's Matt Tamminini and I.
- [00:08]
Grace Locke
Am Tell me on a Sunday podcast and exhausted Grace Locke.
- [00:12]
Matt Tamminini
Like you, I was hoping you would be like in the undisputed heavyweight champion Grace Hockey because like you went through the equivalent of a professional wrestling match over the weekend with how into everything that you were at SummerSlam at the Meadowlands on Saturday and Sunday.
- [00:28]
Grace Locke
Yeah, so we were at MetLife for the entirety of the first ever two night SummerSlam because it was a MetLife that meant that I got to play at the American Dream Mall all weekend. So it was really magical. As you can hear, I had a horrible time. No, I can't. I will talk about it, but I have no voice. Unlike when I'm at the theater. I was vocal. So there you go.
- [00:55]
Matt Tamminini
Yeah, we're going to talk a little bit about it at the end. I know because you and I were texting during the show. You even sent me some of your TikToks before they went up, which was, which was awesome. But yeah, so we'll talk about that at the end of the show. There was a ton of content in your podcast feeds over the weekend. We had a new episode from Jan Simpson and an episode of Some Like a Pop we had this week on Broadway. So if you missed any of that, head back into the various feeds, Patreon or otherwise, to get caught up. But the biggest story, no offense to SummerSlam in the theatrical world, was what happened on the other side of the country. Another multi night but short weekend event, and that was the Hollywood Bulls, Jesus Christ Superstar. And to say that I have watched the equivalent of the entire production via social media, Grace is not that far off of being true. I have watched so many videos, I don't know that if you actually had an opportunity to actually do that yet, because you were out and about on Saturday and Sunday. But the amount of love that has flooded social medias for Cynthia Riva's performance, for Adam Lambert's performance, for Philippa Sue's performance, for the entire cast performance. And then we had talked about the fact that like Josh Gad had to drop out because he got Covid, we didn't know who was going to replace him and John Stamos ended up replacing him. But for the third night of it, on Sunday night, when Jennifer McHugh actually went, Josh Gad showed up again and played the role of Herod after he had tested negative for Covid. So it really is just a kind of a Special production that happened at the Hollywood Bowl. I have watched every single video that I've scrolled across. Probably my algorithm is going to all be Jesus Christ Superstar for the foreseeable future because of that. But really, it seems like the work that Cynthia and Adam especially did was incredible. And I don't think that there's really any chance of, like, this production transferring to Broadway, but I would love to have an opportunity to see it in a different format, to see it live, and to revel in some of these performances in the actual space where they're happening, because it seemed remarkable, it seems special, and I can't wait for even more videos to pop up so I can watch them incessantly on a loop for now until the end of time.
- [03:11]
Grace Locke
Grace. Yeah. I just love when, you know, the entire theater community goes, yep, great job. A. Okay. It's not often where there's kind of a unanimous love of. Of a performer like that, so. Especially with Jesus Christ Superstar, which everyone loves. It's so funny that there is. There's so much Andrew Lloyd Webber in the Zeitgeist right now. It's almost disturbing. But I do think that it's. It's exciting for, you know, what's to come in terms of all of these revivals and conversation.
- [03:45]
Matt Tamminini
It's interesting because, like, I would not say that I am a die hard Cynthia Erivo fan. Not saying that I'm not, But, like, I think there are some people who are like, cynthia is the. The goddess of all things musical theater. I think she's great. I think sometimes her vocal histrionics detract from what I generally like about the songs. But every single video that I have seen of her in Superstar, I'm like, oh, that was the right choice. Oh, that was a better choice than anything I've ever seen before. Yep, that was a beautiful acting decision. Yep, that was a great vocal decision. It just seems like she absolutely nailed everything, and we know she's great. Like, that's not what I'm saying, but, like, I'm. I'm often like, that was good. It was a little much for me, but every single thing that I've seen from her is perfect. And I go back to. For longtime listeners know, when they announced NBC was doing Jesus Christ Superstar live, the first thing that I said as soon as they announced it was, adam Lambert needs to play Judas. That didn't end up happening there, but I am so glad that he had the opportunity to do it, because I can think of no person. I can think of no singer who is better vocally equipped to do that role than Adam Lambert. All due respect to Brandon Victor Dixon, but like, I think that he is the perfect Judas vocal part. And I've already started like going from the just the clips of Superstar to the vocal teacher reacts to clips of Superstar. And I love all of that stuff too. So please somebody figure out how to either do this in New York or do an album with them all doing it. Because I would really, really love to hear all of this in perpetuity.
- [05:24]
C
I will drink your presence, baby take me, you down Before I change my life Before I change my mind.
- [06:06]
Matt Tamminini
Of course, in the show notes we will have links to where you can watch a ton of these videos if you haven't seen them on your own social media. And I highly recommend that. All right, let's dive into this week's theatrical schedule. Grace there's not a ton of like previews and openings and closings happening this week because we are in that weird month where like if things are still running, they're probably running until around Labor Day. If they're playing in the summer and closing, they probably have already closed. So it's a fairly minimal week in terms of all of those types of things. But tonight, Tuesday, August 5th, over at the Nederlander Theater, we do have a new show beginning performances on Broadway. And this is the one man show. Jeff Ross, Take a Banana for the Road. Jeff Ross is a comedian known as kind of like the roastmaster general of this generation. This is a one person show which seems to be a little bit more in a storytelling vibe than what we normally associate with him. The name of the show, Take a Banana for the Road is based off of something that his grandfather used to tell him as well as other kind of helpful bits of advice and little nuggets. He wrote the show and is being directed by Steven Kessler. It is currently scheduled to play on Broadway through September 28th. Don't know a ton about Jeff Ross's kind of like normal standup routine, so I'm interested to hear what this is all about. There has been some names that we are familiar with that are associated with this. We had previously talked about the fact that the dramaturgy Grace is being done by one of your mentors, Seth Barish. And the creative consultant for the show is Jeff Calhoun, who of course Broadway director and choreographer in his own right. Things like Newsies, Bonnie and Clyde, Gray Gardens, things like that. So there is definitely some theatrical heft behind this show, even if it is not necessarily a traditional stage show Moving on On Wednesday over at the Richard Rogers Theater, Hamilton will celebrate its 10th anniversary on Broadway with the Hamil 10 performances. I did not win the lottery to get to go to the matinee on Wednesday, August 6, but I'm sure that there is going to be a ton of really fun stuff that they are doing over the weekend. They announced that, or it might have even been Monday morning. They announced that they were going to be doing a citywide scavenger hunt in August for the Hamilton 10th anniversary. But knowing them, I would not be surprised if there is tons of other fun, exciting things happening around the anniversary this week and throughout the month. Then on Thursday we have the opening night for Ava the Secret Conversations. This is the show that stars and was written by Downton Abbey star Elizabeth Misgovern as she plays plays the incredible Hollywood icon Ava Gardner telling her life story to a real life journalist, Peter Evans, talking about her marriages to Mickey Rooney, Artie Shaw, Frank Sinatra and more. That show is currently scheduled to play through September 14th over at New World Stages. Then also on Thursday night over in Central park at the recently revitalized Delacorte Theater, we will have the first performance of William Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, directed by Sahim Ali. It is of course this year's free Shakespeare in the Park. It has a a phenomenal cast. Just doing some of them in alphabetical order. John Allison Conley, Peter Dinklage, Chris Davis, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Lupita Nyong', O, Sandra oh, Daphne Rubin Vega and more. Just a great group of people. I still have never seen a Shakespeare in the Park Grace, so I feel like I need to get this on my bucket list. So I eventually do it at some point, whether it's this year or in the future. And then finally on Friday, interestingly enough, we will have an Off Broadway closing. I don't know much about the show, but I know just from social media that friends have gone and seen it and enjoy it. It is called Delaria. It is wrapping up its run at the Dr. 2 Theater on Friday. It is a new play by Julia Randall and directed by Alex Keegan. All right, so let's dive into some show and casting news. Grace. Yesterday we got additional casting for Manhattan Theatre Club's upcoming Broadway premiere of James Grams play Punch. We knew a little bit of the casting already, but Deadline exclusively reported that two time Tony Award winner Victoria Clark has joined the show. She joins the previously announced Camilo Cano, Flavia, Will Harrison, Sam Robards and Lucy Taylor. In addition to Clark. We also know that the cast is going to welcome Cody Castro and Peter Merrick. The show is slated to begin performances in just over a month at the Samoa J. Friedman Theater on September 9, ahead of an opening on September 29. Speaking of fun, Broadway cast additions, joining Keanu Reeves and Alex Winner in Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot, directed by Jamie Lloyd, will be stage and screen star Brandon J. Durden, who I have loved for a long time, especially from the Americans. They're gonna begin performances at the Hudson Theater on September 13th for a run that is currently scheduled to play through January 4th. And then Gracie, this is something that I teased I had heard about a while ago, but Jordan Tannehill's play Prince F, which had a highly acclaimed run off Broadway, is going to have a return engagement on Broadway this time, at least for now, for six weeks only, playing at Studio Seaview. It is going to begin performances on September 11th and play through October 25th. It is directed by Shayak Misha Chowdhury. And this is one grace that had, like a lot of people really excited when it played Playwrights Horizons. So now that it has a little bit, I guess, a bigger, a longer, a wider commercial run at Studio Seaview 1 I'm excited that more people have the chance to see it and hopefully I'm going to be in town during that time, so hopefully I get a chance to see it. But I also am excited that, like, this is the stuff that Studio Seaview is going to use that space for hopefully in the future where shows that had great runs but maybe kind of short because of the traditional subscription, not for profit season. Having an opportunity to do a more commercial run so more people can see it, I think is a great use for a space like that in between bookings for things that it already has.
- [12:07]
Grace Locke
Yeah. I'm curious to see how their quote, like schedule or seasons are going to work. But, you know, utilizing the space for Off Broadway Darlings is going to be the first show in that space with Seaview that is not like they, you know, it's, it's celebrity led blank, you know what I mean? So I'm curious to see what this means for the rest of the season for them in terms of like the fall into the spring. But I think this is really exciting and I'm glad because a lot of people really enjoyed the show.
- [12:40]
Matt Tamminini
Do you think that they might just eschew seasons in the traditional format because they're not doing, as far as I know, like subscriptions. So, like, could they just be like, we're gonna run show shows and just announce them when they come up, as if it was like they were scheduling shows into a Broadway house. Like, obviously when CVU does things on Broadway, they have to work with the theater owners and work around those kind of schedules. But could they kind of take that mindset and just be like, all right, we're going to put this in here when the show's ready and then maybe we'll grab something for a return engagement from here and not really plan things out and announce things in advance, do you think, like, that's the, a possibility, the most likely scenario? Like, how are you feeling that they're going to probably program this moving forward?
- [13:27]
Grace Locke
It depends on if they start booking out, like full season rosters. Like, if they're, if their goal is to just kind of like have an extra space that they maintain controlling rights of, then they might just start like ad hoc going, you know what, this didn't work downtown. Or like there were, there was a short season for this subscription. So maybe, you know, we like the show enough, we want to produce it here, keep making money, who knows. But the good news is that they get to decide there could be a Broadway show that has an untimely closing, that it just can't work for whatever it is, and it might be an intimate play that can work and transfer there. I don't know. It's exciting, though.
- [14:09]
Matt Tamminini
It is. And what's nice about it is that Seaview has been involved with some of the best, most interesting creative boundary pushing shows on Broadway and off Broadway for a number of years now. So, like, I for the most part trust their judgment in terms of like the type of stuff that they are going to do. So it is very exciting. All right, a couple other quick show and casting things here. Chicago announced yesterday that they are going to welcome back Bianca Maraquin into the role of Velma Kelly. And welcome to the Cell Block for the very first time. Tam Mutu as Billy Flynn and Jacqueline B. Arnold as matron Mama Morton. They began performances next Monday on the 11th at the Ambassador Theater. And on Friday it was announced that a new satirical musical comedy play called 44 the Musical Will Come to Off Broadway this fall. If you could guess, the 44 in question is Barack Obama. The casting will be announced at a later date, but we do know that it'll begin performances on October 14th at the Daryl Roth Theater. It had already had sold out celebrity packed runs in Chicago and Los Angeles before coming to New York, so we will see what happens here. It is apparently a limited eight week run, but as we have seen with shows at Daryl Roth, at the Darryl Roth theater and at Dr. 2. Like those things can extend quite a while if they are successful. So we will see what happens with this one. I'm a little hesitant with anything that is super overtly political right now just because I'm like, is this really the time for something like this? But we will. But we will see what happens with that. All right, Grace, wrap up. I know you are fond of saying that some of the best theater in the world happens not on stage but in a squared circle. So talk to me about some of the highlights. One of the greatest swerves in professional wrestling history happened on Saturday night. The show opened with you and me texting about how the entrance of one professional wrestler had us in tears. So tell us the big picture takeaways from the two night SummerSlam at MetLife Stadium.
- [16:21]
Grace Locke
My, my two cents is this. I firmly believe that if you love theater, you should also check out other avenues of live entertainment. And one of the avenues that I choose to take in is Wrestling Worldwide, etc. Etc. The WWE specifically, often but not limited to that. I just think that there's something about the way other communities and globally have really maximized the fact that they continue to sell out arenas. I don't know why we kind of turn up our stadiums and like, I don't know why we, as often as we do in society kind of turn our nose up at certain, you know, professional, whether it's drag racing or NASCAR or WWE or you know, monster truck, whatever it might be. Like these are live entertainment avenues. And the fact that, you know, Broadway and live theater, etc, I don't think is as often welcoming or understanding of those community bases. But I look at all of the innovative ways that they're using technology. One was that I, you know, had talked about an actor in a show wearing like meta glasses, the meta Ray Bans, to record something that they were doing. And then a wrestler that I'm not going to name because I don't like him used them on this insane move in the middle of SummerSlam match. And they were able to put that on social media and people were saying, oh my gosh, I can't believe I was able to see that point of view. It was so amazing, it was so innovative. And I'm just like people in theater want to do these things very often, but they're met with whatever kind of pushback and then I see them being done in things like the WWE and otherwise and I just get so jealous and I start to think like, what are ways that we as theater goers and makers can continue to innovate, to push our audiences to see more and to be a part of that action the way that other people do in sports, in wrestling, in just all of these different avenues. And I think that that's just something that I like taking in and learning from and hopefully being able to use that in positive ways for the theater community. But it was really great story. Listen, I told an executive over the weekend, I think this is going to happen because story structure says this. And then she goes, wow, you called it. And I was like, well, yeah, because that's Playwriting 101. When you see all of these storylines play out, it's high drama, it's high camp, it's high comedy, it's theater. And I just think that it's so fun to watch. So my family is very big into technical, technical wrestling. Nothing could bore me more. I do not care about people hitting each other. I do care about costumes and characters and storylines and songs and powerful audience moments. And I think that I got to see a lot of that this weekend. I was very fortunate.
- [19:24]
Matt Tamminini
I think the thing that I take away from this weekend of SummerSlam is where we are in the arc of Kayfabe, where Kayfabe is like the illusion that everything that happens in professional wrestling is real. And in the past, like that is what the industry clung to and like everything was real. They never acknowledged that anything was scripted or choreographed. And that has evolved over the years to the point in recent years the WWE would do press conferences following their premium live events like SummerSlam where they wouldn't completely pull the curtain away, but did quite a bit. Now it seems to the pendulum might be swinging back a little bit to where they it's a little bit more of a wink and a nod. They used the illusion of Kayfabe to have what I thought was the one of the most shocking twists in recent WWE memory with Seth Rollins returning. And I loved the moment. I don't know if you've seen this on social media, Grace, where Seth Rollins wife, the man Becky lynch backstage gloated at the camera to how her social media posts tricked people into thinking that her husband was actually injured when he wasn't. So I'm interested in terms as you were talking about the story structure, about how moving forward they are going to blend the traditional old school professional wrestling storytelling with this new idea that social media and the world and I know Seth Rollins was a guest host on the Rich Eisen show when he talked about his injury that either was over exaggerated or was completely fake. And I'm really interested to how that is the next evolution in professional wrestling storytelling now that people are so used to knowing that there's a line of demarcation between what is real and what is fake and how they start to blur that line again. All right. That is all that we have for either SummerSlam recaps or today's show. So thank you for listening to TODAY on Broadway. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Rodrigo. If you want more BroadwayRadio, head over to patreon.com broadwayradio GraceWhere can people find you?
- [21:23]
Grace Locke
You can find me at Graceaki.
- [21:24]
Matt Tamminini
All right, everybody, have a wonderful Tuesday and we'll be back to talk to you tomorrow.
- [21:36]
C
Sam.