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Today on Broadway: Tuesday, Nov. 26, 2024
00:14:28
‘Wicked’ Has Record-Breaking Box Office Opening, ‘Blue Man Group’ to Close, Beyoncé Visits ‘Death Becomes Her’ 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]
A
Welcome to Today on Broadway for Tuesday, November 26, 2024. I'm Broadway Radio's Matt Tammini and I'm.
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B
Tell Me on a Sunday Podcast Grace.
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A
Ake Grace, this will be the last Today on Broadway that we have of the week. We will dive in to some holiday themed content on Thursday with an episode of Theatrical Things that we are most thankful for. We will sandwich that with some Elphaba talk first on Wednesday when I have a new Tell Me More episode speaking with the always incredible Mandy Gonzalez. And then on Friday we dive deep into our thoughts about all things Wicked movie. So even though we won't have traditional Today on Broadway episodes, we will have things to talk about here in the podcast feed. But unsurprisingly, the biggest story coming out of this past weekend in theatrical circles was the Wicked movie and it did massive numbers at the box office. Not only was it number one at the box office this weekend, more than doubling the number two entry, which was Gladiator 2, it did $114 million in North America and added another $50.2 million internationally to gross $164.2 million globally. That is the largest both domestically and internationally box office opening for a Broadway to movie adaptation. It is not the number one musical of all time. That was Frozen 2, at least in terms of domestic. But Grace, in terms of Broadway to film adaptations, what do you think had previously been the record holder in North America?
- [01:46]
B
Do we think it's Chicago? Like, do we think that it's Chicago? Or could it be Les Miserables? Is it Les Mis?
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A
It is neither Chicago or Les Mis, but I think those, especially Chicago because of how long ago it was probably if like it was today's dollars, it might have been number one before Wicked, but the answer is actually 2014's into the Woods and it only did 31 million. So this was like $83 million more just in North America than Into the woods had done, which is a wild and staggering number. Les Miserables was number one globally, so I guess we can count that too. Even though I was kind of talking domestically that had 103 million in 2012, so we'll give you partial credit for that, but I think that's wild that it is doing that well and I think it's really set up for a pretty good solid run. Grace, you and I have both paid to see it twice and I would not be surprised if people have seen it even more than that. And I think this is going to be one that people go back to and then more People discover throughout the holiday season as they're with family and they're with friends, and they're trying to find something that both kids and parents will like. And there's obviously going to be Moana2 opening up this coming week, but I think Wicked has some legs with it.
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B
I agree. But I think that this is also, it's a very exciting time for people that, you know, sing in their shower, you know, sing to their kids. And it's always considered, like, silly to, like, theater like this might actually help, even with Moana. Like, I think it helps the community as a whole a lot. So I'm very excited for these stats.
- [03:28]
A
Yeah. And just for a little extra Wicked content, Playbill had a couple good articles over the weekend where they one, break down the differences between Wicked Part one and the first act of the musical. Then they also break down all of the cameos, some of which we talk about Grace on Friday's episode. We don't want to spoil that yet because we know people might be saving to watch this on Thanksgiving with family. So we won't dive into that stuff yet. But there's plenty of that stuff if you want to check it out in the show notes. All right. We did have some legit news come out. I think it actually came out on Saturday, but we're going to talk about it now. Over the weekend, Blue Man Group announced that it would be closing not only its New York production on February 2, but also its Chicago production on January 5. They have played more than 17,000 performances in New York City since it began over three decades ago. But Blue Man Group, which started as kind of like this experimental theater percussion thing, is now owned by Cirque du Soleil. They've decided to shut down the Chicago and New York houses, although they will continue to run in Berlin, Boston, Las Vegas, and they are coming back here to Orlando in the spring after they shut down during the pandemic. And of course, they're also touring and stuff all the time. You know, I'm not surprised Grace, because it's been running for 30 years. But it is sad when things like this and we saw Stomp Close in the past year and Sleep no More coming up. These things that have been just institutions in the New York theater community outside of Midtown, outside of Broadway. It's a little sad when we see these things shut down because they have provided so much enjoyment for so many years.
- [05:17]
B
I agree with you on the, you know, they have provided so much joy. But I also think, like, good for them that they've had that time and that now it's like, time for something else. You know what I mean? Like, I think that these are. These are positive things. Like, you know, people often talk about how do we. And I'll quote Ms. Patti LuPone, term limits. Like, I think if a show can, like, continue to make money and recoup and, like, provide the art form, that is amazing. And I love that. And I also think, like, there are not a lot. There aren't as many as people would suspect in terms of Off Broadway spaces or Off Off Broadway spaces in New York City. And I am excited for whatever new art is going to come into a lot of these spaces that were previously housed by these institutions. Like, I'm glad that we have had them for as long as we have and the artists that have gotten to do that, I think it's excellent. But I am excited for whatever this path is forward.
- [06:11]
A
Speaking of shows and recouping, yesterday we found out that O Mary has officially become the first show from the 2024, 2025 Broadway season to recoup. Producers Kevin McCollum, Lucas McMahon, Mike LaVoy and Carly Briglia announced that the show has recouped its initial $4,525,000 investment, making it the first official hit of the Broadway season. It was capped off during this past week, which marked the 10th time that O Mary had set the box office record for the Lyceum Theater. So that's exciting. This was great. I know a lot of people were concerned about whether this would be a hit when it came to Broadway. It most certainly has been. I thought. I mean, I would have thought. I didn't expect a recoupment announcement, but I would have thought that if they're going to put this out, that they would have announced an extension. They haven't done that. So, you know, I've been maintaining that this thing was going to extend for months now. But we are, you know, less than a week away from December. We are a month and a half away, essentially, from their slated closing date. So if they are going to announce a third extension to carry it into the spring, I would imagine they would want to do that fairly soon to start selling tickets. Maybe there are contracts that need to be signed before that could happen. Maybe there are some other things in the works that have to happen before they can make that official announcement. But they are starting to get down to like, seven, eight weeks until they close up. So heading into the holiday season, I think people might want to buy tickets, Grace, for the holidays, if they know it's going to be open in February, March, April and so on.
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B
Yeah, buy a ticket. Buy a ticket to a damn show. I think that the best gift you can put under a a bush or a wreath or a whatever you've got is a little ticket to something. I am that person.
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A
So hopefully they will make an announcement here fairly soon for O Mary extending so that people can actually do that this holiday season. Something else that people will probably be buying a lot of tickets for but aren't able to do it just quite yet is the upcoming national tour of Hell's Kitchen. Yesterday they announced a multi year national tour kicking off at Cleveland's Playhouse Square in the fall of 2025. It will play more than 30 cities in the first year. Obviously the casting, further dates and where it is going is still to be announced, but obviously this was never in doubt that it was going to tour and I think it will tour very, very well adjusted as is done on Broadway. So keep an eye out for that starting in Ohio. And we'll be kicking off a national tour in less than a year from now, but with some more Alicia Keys and Hell's Kitchen news. There was a great article from Broadway News about the fact that Alicia Keys, high school music teacher who was one of the inspirations for Ms. Liza Jane in the show, is now in the show's pit. She is playing the keyboard in the pit and she does the piano playing for Ms. Liza Jane. So it's a great article from Ruthie Fireberg and just so cool. So check that out in the show notes. In some other news, yesterday we found out that Grammy winner Boy George will return to Moulin Rouge on Broadway next year. He will return to the role of harold Zidler from March 18 through May 25. He had previously done it for a couple months earlier this year. It is noted that after his first week Boy George will not do Tuesday night performances. And then Grace over the weekend there were a few very, very big reunions that happened at Broadway theaters. The first one happened at Our Town where Jim Parsons, longtime co star from the Big Bang Theory, Kaley Cuoco surprised him and went and saw it and then they had a nice picture behind from backstage. So it is very cool. We love seeing that. But then one that is just so incredible to me, obviously we knew Michelle Williams is back on Broadway in Death Becomes Her. But not only did one member of Destiny's Child show up, both members of Destiny's Child showed up to have a reunion with Michelle Williams, Beyonce and her mother Tina along with Kelly Rowland came to see the show and they put together a lovely little photo shoot of them all afterwards. So it is very cool that you know, I love this grace when you know, we see it a little bit more in theatrical circles where old co stars go to support their, you know, their friends from previous works in new shows. And I don't know what that is about it but it just makes me happy to know that these people who we look to as being attached for whatever reason, whether they were in a Broadway show together on TV together in a group together, that they are actually friends. Like I don't know if that's maybe a little cynical that like, oh, they're you know, they're not really as close as we want them to be. But it really does warm my heart when we see these people who have been connected professionally for whatever various reasons support each other personally as well.
- [11:27]
B
I'll say this, you cannot buy that type of exposure. You can't. Like the fact that Beyonce posted to her, I think 715 million followers dedicated to the post. That's unprecedented. It is literally something that you could never ever buy. You don't see Taylor Swift going to oh, Jack Antonoff's songs are at Romeo and Juliet. Like that doesn't happen. I just think, well and I think that it's. But I think it's bigger than that. You know what I mean? Like besides her, like showing her physically coming is no small act. You know Michelle Obama physically coming to see Audra in Gypsy. That is no small act.
- [12:12]
A
Oh, I didn't see that.
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B
Oh yes, apparently people did see her in the audience and she was ushered in and out similar to Beyonce. And I just think this is just really cool. We kind of take for granted that like, you know, why isn't so and show shown up? It's hard. It's hard not only schedule wise but like can you imagine just walking.
- [12:32]
A
No.
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B
The way people treat people at the stage door. You think Beyonce is going to be treated nicely? Like, like people are going to flock to these people because they're feral. They don't understand so and myself included and I think that this was just so special and I loved. You can ask people like would you mind sharing and it's usually like oh, because that's a commodity. That's something people get paid to do and I mean that's. It's actually priceless. You know what I mean? When we talk about like influencer, like postings on, you know, certain platforms, people with a million followers get anywhere from 25 to $30,000 per post. So I want you to do the math of what Beyonce's post actually is worth. It's priceless. It's literally priceless. So I just think that it's really magical that she did that. And it just speaks volumes also to the show and Michelle's performance in general.
- [13:22]
A
Absolutely. All right, we will wrap up with a feel good recommendation. If you have seen the Wicked movie, you know that one of the most, I don't know, viral or beloved parts of that show already is the choreography for what is this Feeling. It has taken on a kind of a life of its own. And a number of Broadway and touring shows have tried to recreate Christopher Scott's choreography. So we have a roundup of a bunch of those performances, including the Broadway cast of Wicked, the tour of Ann Juliet. They actually did it on stage at Back to the Future. Book of Mormon participated, Moulin Rouge participated. So some very cool stuff. I love those kind of viral things when Broadway shows get involved. All right, that's all that we have for today. Thanks for listening to Today on Broadway. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Aradian, you can follow me on Instagram @bww. Matt Grace, where can people find you?
- [14:15]
B
You can find me at Grace Hockey.
- [14:17]
A
All right, everybody, have a wonderful Thanksgiving week and we will be back to talk to.