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Today on Broadway: Tuesday, Jan. 14, 2025
00:16:56
Seaview to Purchase Tony Kiser Theatre, Complete ‘BOOP!’ Casting, ‘Stereophonic’ ‘Masquerade’ Curtain Call Encore Since 2016, “Today on Broadway” has been the first and only daily podcast recapping the top theatre headlines every Monday through Friday....
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- [00:02]
Matt Tamminini
Welcome to TODAY on Broadway for Tuesday, January 14, 2025. I'm Broadway Radio's Matt Tamminini and I'm.
- [00:08]
Grace Lucky
Tell Me on a Sunday podcast.
- [00:09]
Matt Tamminini
Grace Lucky Grace, you had an unbelievably life changing moment on Sunday, something that has changed you from the inner core of your cellular makeup. And we're going to talk about visiting Sunset Boulevard starring Caroline Bowman later in the show. But real quick, no need to go in depth yet, cause I'm going to clear the way for you at the end of the show. But like, what was that experience like?
- [00:35]
Grace Lucky
Best night of my life. Moving on. To quote Austin Colby, best night next to my wedding ever. So there it is.
- [00:42]
Matt Tamminini
And we'll talk about Austin Colby when we get there. But there was a decent bit of news here happening on Monday, but I'm going to start there at Sunset Boulevard just because we're already there. It's not the biggest news, but we know that Caroline Bowman is leaving Sunset Boulevard to go take over the role of Karen in Smash on Broadway when it comes to the main stem later this spring. But we now know who's going to be replacing her as the standby for Norma Desmond, and that is Rasheedra Scott. She will begin performances on January 20, which is next Monday. Caroline's last week is this week. She'll finish up her run on the 19th. And of course she joins Nicole Scherzinger playing Normie Desmond and Mandy Gonzalez as the guest star, doing at least one a week. But the biggest news of the day, and this is kind of changing and breaking because it was originally reported by the Broadway Journal earlier in the day and I just got a press release. So I have not had an opportunity to compare the two. But I was told that there were some things in this initial Broadway Journal article that were not fully correct, mainly like who some of the partners were. But the big news is the Tony Kaiser Theater, which had been the Off Broadway home for second stage since 1999, was set to be abandoned as second stage was leaving that space and was set to move into the signature as it's Off Broadway home due to rising rents and all of that stuff. Well, now it appears that production company Seaview, which Grace, as you know, is one of the leading production companies on Broadway that is doing really cool and interesting stuff, they are going to be acquiring the Tony Kaiser Theater and renaming it Seaview Studios. They will be producing their own shows there, much like they have done Off Broadway in spaces like the Lucille Lortel they had done Danny, the Deep Blue Sea hold on to me, darling. Sweeney Todd at what then was the Barrow Street Theater. They're going to be taking over that property that has not only the performance space, but offices and rehearsal studios as well. Greg Noble is the co founder and CEO of Seav, also one of the leading young producers on Broadway. And this is great, Grace. I think this is awesome that we are keeping that wonderful theater as a theater because it used to be a bank and it has been used in a theater now for decades. But with Second Stage moving out, it very easily could have gone to something else. It could have become retail shops. It is fairly close to Times Square, if not in Times Square technically, I'm not sure. But it's really exciting to see not only that theater remaining a theater, but also to be one that is going to be controlled by, I think, think a really interesting artistic company that tends to do really great work and also has some star power. So I think that can actually get some people to trek off the Broadway Road and then head over a block or two to Seaview Studios to see some really cool, interesting pieces of theater in the relatively near future.
- [03:52]
Grace Lucky
I guess I was genuinely really shocked with that information. I was really excited for them, but I'm also had no idea. So congratulations to all of them. But I was wondering what was going to happen to this theater and I'm. I'm still curious what's going to happen with it under them. But I'm excited that it's not going to just like become, you know, an express or something like that. It's going to continue on.
- [04:16]
Matt Tamminini
Yeah. Seaview is one of these companies that is involved with all of like the coolest shows on Broadway. They were the lead producers on Stereophonic, the lead producers for Once Upon a Mattress, Romeo and Juliet, all in. Also coming up, Good night and good luck. On the last five years, every major show that basically is coming to Broadway that has some cool vibe or angle or star to it, Seaview is generally involved and like I said, all those sorts of things that they were the lead producers on. So excited to see what they do with their own home and looking forward to seeing what that space looks like with new occupants. In other news, Grace, yesterday we got the complete cast announcement finally for the upcoming Broadway premiere of Boop. The Betty Boop Musical. We already knew the principal cast was going to be returning from the Chicago run. Jasmine, Amy Rogers, Faith Prince, Eric Bergen, Stephen DeRosa, Anastasia McCleskey and more. Now we know the complete ensemble of the show. Many of them were also involved in the production in Chicago as well. One of the people that is going to be in it was a recent guest here on Broadway Radio, Tristan Butel, who is currently starring as Elsa in Frozen at the Multituder Theater. So if you want to hear her talk about that, and she does actually talk about her costume from Boop in our interview, so you can check that out. Some other familiar names you might recognize are Lawrence Alexander, Joshua Michael Barrage, ian Gallagher Fitzgerald, RJ Higginton, Morgan McGee, Ryan Nixon, Christian Probst, Amy Van Norstrand and more. So if you want to check out the complete list of who is going to be on stage at the Broadhurst Theatre when performances begin on March 11, you can head over to the Show Notes now. Grace I have two stories about filmed theater being available to be seen outside of, you know, a normal traditional theater space, but yesterday it was announced that the Universal Pictures Content Group, which is a Comcast company, has acquired the UK theatrical rights for Six the Musical. They had done a filmed version of Six fairly recently in the last year or so I believe, where they brought the original London Queens back and filmed it. It is going to be released in UK cinemas on April 6. We do not know what that means for a potential US premiere, but I will say Universal is owned by the same company as Peacock, so if it does end up having a life here in the States, it will also be available on Peacock. But from what the articles and press releases say, this was only picked up for UK theatrical rights, so there's no guarantee that it will end up here. But the fact that this has been filmed is awesome and that means that hopefully there is a life for this. I would love to see a Broadway version of this filmed as well, but Six continuing to keep itself relevant. I think the producers of this show have done a great job to keep Six at the forefront of conversations. Even now that it's been open for, you know, nearly five years, or been running on Broadway for nearly five years at least, it's still kind of always finding ways to be relevant.
- [07:30]
Grace Lucky
Yeah, I couldn't agree with you more. It's so funny that like we're in a time where this is like being talked about now, which is very exciting. So I'm, I'm just, I'm thrilled.
- [07:40]
Matt Tamminini
And speaking of filmed shows, we'd previously talked about the fact that Waitressed Musical, you could stream it by buying or renting it on various premium Video on Demand services. Then we talked about you could get it at National Theater at home. But now it appears that it is going to be available on the US based streaming service Max, formerly known as HBO Max, starting on Valentine's Day. That has not been confirmed via a press release by Max, but the pretty reliable site when to Stream has announced that or has it in its list of upcoming properties. So Waitress the Musical appears to be available to stream on Max, HBO Max beginning on February 14th of this year. I'm assuming we will eventually get some sort of press release from somebody or at least a comment from Sara Bareilles, but another win for those of us that not only love this show, but love the ability to stream theater at home. All right, Grace, I have some show and casting news that I want to talk about. Seleno v. Barnes has announced when it will close Off Broadway. It was most recently supposed to close at the end of January, but it is now pushing performances to March 30. Who knows if that sticks in terms of when the show will close, but as of now it is doing well enough to continue for at least almost two and a half more months. If you have not seen the show, it is a hilarious two hander that puts the spotlight on the injury attorneys Ross Salino and Steve Barnes during the 1990s. It is written by Mike B. Breen and David Rafidellis and directed by Wesley Taylor and Alex Weiss and stars Eric William Morris and Noah Weisberg over at Asylum nyc. This was a disappointing news, Grace, because over the weekend it was announced that iatsi, which is the labor organization that oversees backstage workers for Broadway and Off Broadway and a number of other things, but primarily in the theater community, those things. They've announced that they are going to strike against the Atlantic Theater Company and that that strike will mean that the Atlantic has to postpone productions of Grief Camp. And I'm assuming you know David Greenspan, which both actually began performances this past weekend, but the strike went into effect on Sunday afternoon. So they are shutting down those performances and going to reschedule them at some point. In a statement from iatse, they said that theater management, quote, demanded several provisions before continuing its further obligations to bargain with the union. The union believes this behavior for management constitutes an unlawful, awful failure to negotiate in good faith which caused the union to file unfair labor practice charges with the federal government. You hate to see this. You know we have been pretty pro union on here, Grace, but we love it when they're able to come to terms with the organization they are working with so it doesn't impact other people. We support the actions that they take to try to get a fair and equitable working arrangement. But you hate to see shows that had just started. Performances have to shut down. But I do hope that everything and everybody finds a way to work together and there is a. A remedy figured out sooner rather than later. And then one last show and casting thing that I want to mention. Grace. It was announced yesterday that when Boy George returns to Moulin Rouge, the musical, it's actually going to be 10 days later than he had originally planned to start. He was going to start on March 18th. He will now begin performances on March 28th. Delaying things just about a week and a half. So nothing too, too major there. All right, Grace, I want to turn it over to you now. Tell me all about Caroline Bowman. Norma Desmond, Sunset Boulevard. Let's start first before the show even starts. Because I know from videos that the crowd was rather rambunctious before the curtain actually went up.
- [11:32]
Grace Lucky
I don't think I've ever been in a theater that had that feeling. And I don't think I will ever have an experience like that again until they do a revival of this show in 15 years. And then it's her. You know what I mean? But I also don't. It's just. I was sitting on the house left box, and me and my colleague Dino were sitting there and I look over and of course, Austin Colby's dead center mez, front row leaving and chanting, yeah. Who's currently starring in Great Gatsby. But Austin Colby, who is Caroline Bowman's husband, he's leading the crowd, enchanting. Caroline. Caroline. And having people kind of like do the way it was just. It was like watching like the head football coach, like, see his kid go off and play at like, you know, a top ten school or something. Like, it was just so funny. They're. They're, you know, like the. The headquarter back and head cheerleader of Broadway, in my opinion, you know, they're just. They. They feel like athletes. They're not the same, you know, but watching her performance genuinely as, like my friend, but also as someone I admire, like, genuinely electrify the audience. Like, her name came up on the screen as it does in Jamie Lloyd's production of Sunset, and then the camera to her, I forgot about that moment. And I'm like getting goosebumps thinking about it because seeing her just like, you know, eyes come through across the St. James, people were screaming like animals like it was nuts. And then the first time she steps out on stage and does with one look, I just. Yeah, it's. It's just one of the most unforgettable nights we will ever have. And I saw at least 40 people from the Frozen crew there. There was an homage to her moment as Els. If you were there, you saw it, and it was just remarkably special. And the people in that room. There's a moment when Norma Desmond looks at the camera and she says, well, they're here for me, aren't they? You know, when he's saying we should cut down some scenes, you know, it can't all be you. The Salome of it all. And she just looks straight at the camera, and she kind of gave it a wink. And she was like, why? They're here for me? And the crowd screamed, because it was like, yes, everyone is here for you. Like, you fill the St. James with people that are obsessed with you. And it was just beautiful. And there was like, a moment in Act 2 when I saw her, you know, she was going through as if I'd never said goodbye. And all of us, like. And I'm crying thinking about it, but she hasn't been on Broadway in, like, years. She was on the Broadway national tour of Frozen for five years. There was a pandemic in there. There was also, you know, she was Elphaba. She was. She's been Evita. She's had all of these big moments. And when she's saying. As if I'd never said goodbye, and she sings like, I've waited long enough. I've come home at last. I thought that we were all going to lose our minds. Like, I'm just. I was sobbing because I was like, yeah, this is legitimately a return. It was so meta. And she's about to go off and do Smash. And it's just like, you can't buy that. You can't. You know what I mean? Like, you can't even fabricate that type of storytelling in a performance. And I'm just. I love what this production does. We've talked about it. I know it's very polarizing. Different capacities. I really don't care. I think that what they did with her performance, what they're doing with Mandy's performance and now Rashidra, like, it's gotta catch them all. You gotta. You gotta see everyone's Norma. Because even with his style and direction of this piece, everyone has given their own interpretation of. Because they are all women of an age to where they have something at stake here. You know, it's. It's just. It hits different for everybody. And I'm just. I'm so honored and moved that I got to see her. Do it. I wouldn't have missed it, but one of the most special things I will ever get to experience in my life.
- [15:23]
Matt Tamminini
I love that I'm sorry I couldn't be there. I will be seeing Mandy in a couple weeks, so adding that one to my Pokemon collection as well. But you're right. Just like I think people have long as I mentioned six earlier, but trying to collect all of the different queens and seeing all of them, I think that this will continue to be a similar thing with a sunset depending on however long it ends up running on Broadway. All right, the last recommendation that I want to send out to you is following the final Broadway performance of Stereophonic on Sunday night, the cast and the creators and a bunch of other people did a final encore of Masquerade on stage. So we have the video of that. That is very cool. I'm really super excited to see what this show does for a national tour. It is going to head out on a tour beginning in October. We don't exactly know what that is going to look like in terms of the number of cities and the types of theaters it's going to be, but fascinating to see who is in the cast and what this looks like moving forward. But love this song as you do. Obviously, Grace, you know this show is at the top of your Spotify wrapped, but if you want to check out this very, very celebratory moment, head over to the show Notes. 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 BroadwayRadio. You can follow me on Instagram @wwmatgrace. Where can people find you?
- [16:40]
Grace Lucky
You, you can follow me at Its Grace Hockey.
- [16:42]
Matt Tamminini
All right, everybody, have a wonderful Tuesday. We'll be back to talk to you tomorrow.