B (5:41)

Adam Feldman of Time out in New York was positive, giving the show four out of five stars, writing, quote, much of the pre opening press about this revival has revolved around the 96 year old Squibb, who might be the oldest actor ever to play a principal role on Broadway. She merits that attention with a remarkable performance that combines frostiness and fogginess into a firm coat of rhyme. But the other actors are equally good. Burstein, who radiates human tenderness, is perfectly employed as the play's kindest character and his final scene is devastating. Lowell finds the appropriate levels of stiffness and charm for his foe Walter. And Nixon is simply the best I've ever seen her on stage, as Tess labors to connect with her mother, or alternatively to give up any hope of connecting with her, Nixon invests her testiness with complex underlying notes of bitterness and exhaustion. Shayna Russell of Entertainment Weekly was mixed, I guess, giving the show a B. So that'd be like the lower level of positive, upper level of mixed, I would say. She wrote, quote, for all the grief boiling over in Marjorie Prime, I walked away yearning to be more thorough, thoroughly wounded. But Harrison's script is less interested in piercing the heart than it is the mind. It's much too busy prodding at the bounds of humanity. What makes us who we are? How much can we rely on technology? Can it soothe us, numb us, replace us completely? Marjorie prime offers few clear cut answers, but does one thing clear. There is no replacement for the power of human love and connection and the absence of that is what keeps this show from truly leaving a mark on on its crowd. I will wrap up with Johnny Oleksinski from the New York Post who wrote, quote, harrison's story is topical, that's for sure, frighteningly so. What elevates it above the ripped from the headlines hackery of say, so many political dramas co written by Wikipedia is that it's so profoundly human and lump in the throat relatable without ever toppling over into boohoo sentimentality. The play exposes its audience's emotional weaknesses like few others do. I reckon that most ticket buyers will silently ask themselves if they would buy a prime if they had the chance, and they'd probably be uncomfortable with their honest answer. And then there's Squib. She and Margie are a salt and margarita pairing. The actress has a doe eyed Midwestern neighborliness to her that contrasts the dark and painful secrets Marjorie is hiding. She's whip smart, lovable, and ultimately heartbreaking. How fortunate we are to be here during June's prime. As of now, Did They Like It? Has not rounded up its its set of reviews, but I will put a link to either that or the homepage of Did They Like It? As well as the Broadway World Review Roundup in the show Notes.

B (8:16)

All right, let's head over into the news and On Monday, the 83rd annual Golden Globe Awards announced their nominees. And as always, there were a lot of theater people and theater projects that were represented. And of course the biggest thing, at least from our perspective, is the fact that Wicked for Good got a slew of nominations. Both Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande were nominated, Cynthia in the best Lead Actress in a Musical or comedy category, Ariana in the supporting category. And while the film did not get a Best Picture, Musical or Comedy nomination, it was nominated in the Cinematic and Box Office Achievement category. And the other nominations that it got were in the original song category for Stephen Schwartz, who got nods for both no Place Like Home and the Girl in the Bubble. Another film that was nominated that has musical theater roots is the Lawrence Hart biopic Blue Moon. It is up for best Motion Picture, Musical and comedy, and its star, Ethan Hawke, got a nomination for playing Hart. Also, Hamnet, which is adapted from Maggie o' Farrell's novel about the marriage of William Shakespeare and Anne Hathaway, which is mostly imagined because we don't know a ton about their real life, that was nominated for best Motion Picture drama. Chloe Zhao got a nomination for directing. Her and o' Farrell both got a nomination for writing the screenplay and Jessie Buckley was nominated for Best Leading Performance for playing Anne Hathaway. And while it is not a theatrical piece, the movie musical K Pop Demon Hunters was nominated for Best Picture, Best Animated Picture and for Best Original Song for Golden. Other stage favorites were nominated as well. Steve Martin and Martin short for Only Murders in the Building, Sarah Snook, Michelle Williams and Carrie Coon as well. The Golden Globes will take place on January 11th and they will air on CBS. If you want to know where you can stream all of the TV shows and movies and all of the performances, I will have a link to my day job article in the show notes if you want to check that out. Obviously recognize that not everything is available to stream yet, but bookmark that and come back to it throughout the season as more things arrive on streaming.

B (10:27)

On Monday. We got a great collection of show and casting news and let's start with this new Off Broadway musical that I am very excited to hear all about. We have talked about this one before. It is going to be from the Manhattan Theater Club and it is Bigfoot with an exclamation point. It is written by the great Amber Ruffin who wrote the lyrics and co wrote the book with Kevin Scaretta and the music is by David Schmoll. It is being directed and choreographed by Danny Mefford and it is going to begin performances at New York City center on February 11th and they announced the principal cast for the show and it is incredibly exciting. Playing the Sasquatch at the center of the story will be Gray Henson, he of Mean Girls Shocked and Elf fame. Playing the core trio of humans will be Broadway alum and Saturday Night Live vet Alex Moffat, Crystal Lucas Perry and Katarina McCrimmon. The show is set to run for eight weeks off Broadway and the synopsis reads quote set in the town of Mud Dirt, which is like just mud and dirt combined into one word. A glow in the dark oasis that exists somewhere between a chemical dump site and nuclear power plant. Bigfoot is a larger than life musical tale of corrupt politicians, small town paranoia and misunderstood youth. When that youth happens to be 8ft tall, innocent and in dire need of electrolysis, it makes him more than a target. It makes him the subject of a can't miss can't myth musical comedy. Very excited about this. I love that Amber Ruffin is getting more and more into musical theater. Having worked on a number of shows already with Some Like It Hot and and the Wiz. Getting an original show from her is tremendous. Yesterday we also got news from the Hollywood Reporter, who reported this exclusively that A24 is next show at the Cherry Lane Theater will be a revival of the OB Award winning play you Got Older by Claire Barron. The show is going to begin performances on February 12th and is currently scheduled to play through March 9th. The show originally ran off Broadway in 2014 and in this production of it, Aaliyah Shawkat is going to lead the show as May. It follows her character as she returns to her hometown to take care of her sick father after the loss of her job and her boyfriend. She then meets a mysterious stranger who makes her realize that she may be drawn to the unknown than the familiarity of her family. There will be more casting announcements made in the coming days and weeks, but this show, like Marjorie prime, will also be directed by Ann Kaufman. This will be Alia Shawkat's stage debut. She is known for Search Party and Arrested Development. I loved her in the spy thriller on FX called the Old Man. She is very, very good and look forward to hearing all about that. This one in February. If you remember, we've talked about the fact that when Lost Boys comes to Broadway, it had originally been planning to have Casey Levy in the role of like the mom of the the main teenage characters, the role that was played by Diane Wiest in the original 1987 movie. However, she dropped out one because she said she wanted to spend more time with her family and two because Ragtime has extended into June. So presumably that time with family will come after Ragtime closes, when she would still be in the thick of things with the Lost Boys. But instead, without Casey Levy in that show, we will now have two time Tony nominee Shoshana Bean taking over the role of Lucy Emerson. She is the mother of two teenage boys who become embroiled in the vampire goings on in a small fictional California town. The show is scheduled to begin previews at the Palace Theater on March 17 and it features a book by David Hornsby and Chris Hawk and music and lyrics by the band the Rescue Hughes. It is being directed by Michael Arden and choreographed by Lauren Yolango Grant and Christopher C. Grant. And then finally in this section, Masquerade, the Off Broadway immersive Phantom of the Opera, directed by Diane Paulus, has announced an extension. It is now going to play for two extra months through March 29th. The tickets for February and March of next year will be released today, December 9th. So if you want to make sure that you are able to check it out, jump on those. They go very quick and they are very expensive. But exciting that this will have more opportunities for people to check it out. And I'm hoping to get in there at some point. I just don't know that I can justify 250 plus dollars for Phantom because Phantom is one of my least favorite shows I've ever seen. But I do love the idea of this and I love some of these performers and I love Diane Paulus. So maybe I'll suck it up at some point in the spring.

B (15:15)

All right, I'm going to leave you with this recommendation. I don't know. We've talked about it a little bit, but not a ton. I don't know how you have seen of Paddington the Musical, which is happening over in London now. You're thinking, oh my God, I can't believe they made a schlocky little kids musical about Paddington the Bear. Apparently, from everything that I've heard, this is incredible. Not only is it a phenomenal technological feat, which is something we're going to talk about here in a second, but from what I understand, the score is pretty great as well. And it's an actually a really good show. Tom Fletcher wrote the the music and lyrics, and he performed along with Paddington Bear himself on Strictly Come Dancing, which is the British version of Dancing with the Stars that they started it, we stole it and made it a less weird name, I guess. I don't know. Anyway, over the weekend they performed and this video was incredible because, like, I knew. I know how it works and I'm not going to spoil that if you don't want to know, but like, you are looking at it and you're like, this can't be real. This is a Paddington Bear who was maybe 4ft tall. And he comes out and he sings, this has to be animatronics. This has to be AI. It is not. This is what they do on stage at London Savoy Theater every night or eight times a week. It has now been extended through the end of 2026, and I have a feeling that this one will be on Broadway in New York fairly soon. I would imagine probably not this season, but if it's not on Broadway in the 2026, 2027 season, I would be shocked. But check out this video. It's not super long. Fletcher sings and then brings out Paddington for part of it. Like Paddington doesn't do like a big five minute number or anything. It's. It's fairly small, at least from the bear perspective, but it is remarkable. It's pretty incredible. If you want to find out how it all works, there are videos about that online but I don't want to spoil it. I don't want to ruin the magic if that's not what you're doing. Interested in finding out about. But nonetheless, paddington the Bear, Tom Fletcher, strictly Come Dancing, absolutely incredible. And cannot wait to see it on New York stage very soon. All right, that's all that we have for you today. Thanks for listening to TODAY on Broadway. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram @broadwayrading. If you want more Broadway radio, over to patreon.com broadwayradio thank you for listening. Have a wonderful Tuesday, a wonderful week, and we'll be back to talk to you tomorrow.