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Today on Broadway: Tuesday, July 29, 2025
00:13:53
Mulvaney announces Off-Broadway premiere, stars set for ‘Songs for a New World’ concert, highlights from ‘A Chorus Line’ anniversary concert Since 2016, “Today on Broadway” has been the first and only daily podcast recapping the top theatre headlines e...
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Matt Tamminini
Broadway for Tuesday, July 29, 2025. I'm Broadway Radio's Matt Tamminini and I'm.
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Grace Aki
Telling on a Sunday podcast, Grace Aki.
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Matt Tamminini
Grace we are coming into this final week of July. It'll be August on Friday. That means that we are starting to get around the, you know, the fall season. Lots of exciting stuff happening. So if you want to make sure that you are up not only to date with all of the news, but all of the insight and conversations and reviews that Broadway Radio has, head over to patreon.com broadwayradio broadwayradio.com patreon you can get all of it there. So let's start with news that was released on Monday morning and actor and writer Dylan Mulvaney is going to make her Off Broadway debut later this fall with the newly renamed show the Least Problematic Woman in the World. It is going to play at the Lucille Lortel Theater with performances beginning on September 20 and 20, and it is currently scheduled to play through November 30. It will be directed by Tim Jackson. The show had previously run under a different name, which you can Google I'm not going to say it. At the Edinburgh French Festival last year. Dylan has become a kind of a lightning rod for a lot of people in cultural conversations, and she is playing to that with this new title. Again, the Least Problematic Woman in the World. Gracie, you were in Edinburgh doing your show at the same time, so I don't think you got to see Dylan's show. But from what I understand, having friends who saw it over there and kind of know about it a lot more than I do, it's a great show.
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Grace Aki
Yeah, I'm really excited to finally see it. I love that it's being brought to New York. It's being presented, I think, by Seaview and wjp, who I think brought it over to Edinburgh in the first place. So I'm very excited for all of that and the fact that there's another solo show, especially written and created by a woman, happening at the downtown Lucille Lortel Theater. Very exciting for them.
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Matt Tamminini
Absolutely. Speaking of very exciting things, we're going to head over to London where I'm a little mad obviously that this is happening there rather than in New York because To celebrate the 30th anniversary of Jason Robert Brown's Songs for a New World, there will be a one night only concert of that iconic song cycle and it will feature Shoshana Bean, Titus Burgess, Jordan Fisher and Joy Woods. Jason Arbor Brown is actually going to go over to conduct the concert that will take place at the Evan Timm Apollo Hammersmith on the 21st of September. This is going to actually have two different performances on the same date. You'll remember that they did this. I think it was New York City Center Encores off Center that they did a recent production this that might have been five years ago. It might have been the 25th anniversary with Shashan Bean, Michael Kilgore, Soleila Pfeiffer and Colin Donnell. I don't think that there is any reason that we couldn't do a 30th one here as well with this group. I'm a little surprised that they are doing it with a complete New York based company, Grace. So I don't know if that means maybe it might come over to New York to have a either a one night concert or something, you know, Carnegie hall somewhere or maybe they'll do something a little bit more extended, who knows. But to hear Shoshana Titus, Jordan and Joy sing Songs for New World would be incredible. All right, let's get into this week's theatrical schedule, Grace. And we're going to start on Wednesday over at New York City center where we will have the first preview performances of the new show, Ava the Secret Conversations. This is written and starring Elizabeth McGovern from Downton Abbey fame. She's an Emmy nominated actor and she plays the great Ava Gardner. And this is taken from real life interviews that were done between Ava and writer Peter Evans in an attempt to kind of like get the juicy stories of her life because she was married to the likes of Mickey Rooney, Artie Shaw, Frank Sinatra and she had a turbulent relationship with Howard Hughes. So it's this great kind of pull back the curtain real life bio play of one of Hollywood's most iconic stars. So this one is currently slated to play through September 14th. If you want to see this one, we will have more information in the show notes. But then, Grace, on Saturday, we have the next Broadway show to hit the boards. And that is because Mamma Mia. Will return to New York City for a limited six month engagement at its original home, the Winter Garden theater, on Saturday, August 2nd. Grace, I am so excited about this show being back on Broadway. I saw this tour cast. It is the most recent national tour, the 25th anniversary tour cast. I saw them, they are fantastic. I'm not there, but I feel like this is like an odd. Like this is something that like you wouldn't think, oh, a national tour cast is coming in to do a six month run on Broadway. We've seen that before. Great. But it feels like there's a lot more excitement for this than in previous versions. Is it just because of like how beloved Mamma Mia is, how beloved ABBA is, how long it's been? What's the vibe around this one in New York?
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Grace Aki
We are in a global crisis, Matt. And I don't know if you're familiar with the origin of Mamma Mia On Broadway, but it feels a little timely. I think that like everyone returns to Mamma Mia if they like ABBA music when they need some joy. Like, I don't know anybody that doesn't. If you, if you don't already, like love that style of music. Like seeing that show is just such an exciting breath of fresh air. And I think that like there aren't a ton of shows on Broadway that do what that show does. So I think I'm hopeful and I think that most people are talking about this in a way of like, thank goodness, like I, I have seen maybe everything that's here, but I miss like some of the nostalgia that's tied to that show. I think it's super smart. So I think it's an interesting test to see if a Broadway show, if there's an open house and a Broadway national tour in some capacity is able to make this as part of their stop. If it makes sense, make it happen. I think what's challenging can be sometimes of like this, this confusion on the street of like if a tourist or someone else like, you know, sees this show in their, you know, it's, it's a load in style set or something, you know, that's usually peeled back for a national tour versus like a build into a Broadway house. If they then go, okay, well, that's what I think Broadway is. It can be all these different things. But I think that hopefully this will be an exciting welcome back for this show.
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Matt Tamminini
I mean, we're going to see this and Beetlejuice later this year as well, doing something very similar. So it's obviously not as easy as just like, oh, we had a sudden closing. Let's get a national tour in there. Because national tours are scheduled years, you know, in advance. But if you have something to plan for, I certainly think that it would be an interesting opportunity to get things into Broadway houses and kind of expand the life of some of these shows. But going from that's happening on Saturday, August 2nd. On Sunday, August 3rd, we have four Off Broadway shows that are closing and all of them are very much worth seeing if you have not already. The first one comes from Studio Seaview, the first show at after Seaview took over that Off Broadway house. This is the John Krasinski show Angry Allen. Then we also have out of the Box Theatrics closing up its Off Broadway show, Bo the Musical. Then we have Prince F at Playwrights Horizons, which is closing up after an acclaimed run. However, I will say that I have heard some rumors that this will not be the end of Prince F Off Broadway and maybe at a venue that I mentioned about 45 seconds ago. And the final one will be Trophy Boys Off Broadway from mcc. If you want to get information on any of those shows, head over to the show notes. All right, Chris, we've got some show and casting news that I want to dive into. Let's start Off Broadway with the Josh Sharp solo show Ta Da or Ta Da. I'm not sure where the emphasis is on that one, but this one is directed by Sam Pinkleton. It is playing Off Broadway at the Greenwich House Theater and it has extended. The show was originally supposed to play final performance on August 23rd. It is now adding three weeks, so it will play at least until September 11th. If you want more information, we will have that in the Show Notes. Then we have a pair of upcoming Broadway national tours. Announced casting let's start with a show that announced its complete casting and that is the North American tour of Suffs. They released their complete run of cities that they're going to be going to, and all of their actors are going to be a part of the show. Starring as Alice Paul will be Maya Kelleher. Playing Ida B. Wells will be Danielle Fulton as Carrie Chapman. Catt will be Maria Grandy. As Woodrow Wilson will be Jenny Ashman as Inez Mulholland will be Monica Tullia Ramirez as Lucy Burns will be Gwen Wood. As Ruza Winklowska will be Joyce Mimi Zeng. Livy Marcus will play Doris Stevens. Tricia Jeffrey will play Mary Church Terrell. Brandy Porter will be Dudley Malone. And if you want to check out the rest of the cast, you can head over to the show. Not they will begin their tour at the Capitol theater in Yakima, Washington on September 8th. I believe that Monday was their first day of rehearsals, so that is why we are getting this information. Now. Then the other show, the show that actually beat Sephs for best Musical two seasons ago is the Outsiders. They have found their principal casting. They will launch their national tour appropriately in Tulsa, Oklahoma at the Tulsa Pack on October 7th. Playing Ponyboy will be Nolan White. Playing Johnny Cade will be Bunnell Fanbrini. Playing Dallas Winston will be Jordan Wesley Travis. Roy Rogers will play Daryl Curtis Corbin. Drew Ross will be Soda Pop Curtis. Emma Hearn will be Cherry Valance. And we will have the rest of those principles. They've not announced the complete ensemble yet, but we'll have what they do have in the show notes and then the last little bit of show and casting information. Grace is friend of the show, fairly regular guest Jasmine Forsberg will star opposite Benji Santiago in the world premiere production of the new musical I and the musical at the McCarter Theater Center. This is an interesting thing because this is a show that is based off of a play that was written by Lauren Gunderson, one of the most produced playwrights in the country. But the play only premiered 12 years ago in 2013 and then she worked with Ari Afzar to turn it into a musical and the play version's original director Sarah Rasmussen is also directing this one. So a very interesting, you know, kind of almost Kimberly Akimbo way that it evolved from a play into a musical. It is a two person show and it follows a 17 year old named Caroline who is stuck at home with an illness and is surprised by a visit from Anthony, an overachiever armed with a class project. What begins as a homework assignment turns into a soul searching all nighter. The show will begin performances in New Jersey on September 13th and is currently scheduled to play through October 12th. It is a co production with the Olney Theater center, so we'll see if that ends up heading out there as well. Now Grace, one of the most fun things that happened over the weekend and this will be our recommendation Here is the 50th anniversary concert for A Chorus Line. They have not released any official videos from this, but I've kind of pieced together a handful of things that I found on social media. There's probably many, many more. So if you follow theater people or anybody who is in it or any influencers who are there. There are tons of videos, but I don't know what it is about this show, Grace, but I just feel emotional every time I see A Chorus Line or see Choreo from A Chorus Line or hear the songs. But I've loved all of these videos that I've been able to see since the concert happened on. I think it was on Sunday night.
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Grace Aki
No, that's really cool. I've been watching everybody's stories and posts about this event. It was just really lovely to see the community kind of like gather to support this. And also that there are so many people that were part of that show that are still with us. And I think that, that, you know, people don't often get to have their flowers while they're around. And I think that if and when we have the opportunity, we need to seize it. Absolutely. So this was really beautiful to watch.
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Matt Tamminini
Yeah, I loved all of the surviving original stars did the Line and had their headshots in front of their face and then someone came by and collected them and they went down. They put their name up, you know, the Kelly bishops, the Donna McKechnies, all of those people. Bayork Lee, all of those folks. It was a really special thing. And then people who have been a part of A Chorus Line over the years, the different revivals, the tours, the encore stuff, and then some other people that aren't but are major influences in the theater community had opportunities to perform. So we will have a ton of those videos in the show notes if you want to check them out. I'm sure there are more and hopefully we will get a really high quality version of some of those moments and numbers in the very near future. 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 broadwayradiant. If you want more Broadway radio, head over to patreon.com broadwayradio Grace. Where can people find you?
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Grace Aki
You can find me at Grace Hockey.
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Matt Tamminini
All right, everybody, have a wonderful Tuesday. We'll be back to talk to you tomorrow.