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Today on Broadway for Tuesday, October 21, 2025 on Broadway Radio's Matt Tamnini. Grace had a meeting run late and then had to run out to ginger twinsies. So I am giving you today's news all by myself. But before we get started, I wanted to let you all know that there was a little bit of a technical hiccup dating back to last Thursday that was on my end. I did not realize that something wasn't right in our system to upload episodes. So they were being uploaded as far as I could tell and they were looking right and I was testing like I always do when showing up, but they weren't connecting to the RSS feed that feeds all of the podcast platforms, Apple, Spotify. So we were uploading the episodes, they just weren't showing up. They were in the Patreon feed. So we were doing the episodes but I went back in and fixed that and so Thursday, Friday and Monday's episodes are now in the regular feed according to the date and time that they were supposed to air. But that was on my fault. So I appreciate the emails that we got asking what was wrong. If it was a tech issue, it was all on me. James figured it out as soon as I told him that I that there was some sort of issue because this week on Broadway went up like normal. But he went in and looked and said, you're an idiot. This is what's wrong. This is how you fix it. So I fixed it. I apologize. I will be a little bit more cognizant of those little errors that pop up when loading episodes, but let's dive into the news and we're going to start with something that came out a little bit late in the day on Monday and that is we are going to have a new star taking over in Death Becomes her starting in the new year. That is because Megan Hilty will end her run in the show on January 4. She has been playing Madeline Ashton since the out of Town tried and then of course was nominated for a Tony for her portrayal in the show last season. She will be replaced by, honestly, someone who I think is about as perfect as you can imagine for this type of comedy and that is the one and only Betsy Wolf. There will be a couple weeks in between Megan and Betsy. Betsy will start performances with on January 16th. There is no word yet in terms of who else is going to be in the show as of that point. If maybe Jennifer Simard or Chris Sieber or Michelle Williams or anybody else will be departing on January 4th as well. That's a nine month contract, which is fairly standard nowadays. It used to be almost exclusively one year contracts, but we have been seeing a lot more nine month contracts, especially when it comes to fairly big stars. And I think Megan is based out of la, so maybe wants to get back there. Either way. I've also heard some pretty interesting rumors about some other potential stars going in at some point to this show. Whether or not any of those happen, we will have to wait and see. But when it comes to this type of musical theater comedy, Betsy Wolf is fantastic. So I cannot wait to see what she brings to this role and kind of makes it her own because as we've seen in Juliet, she is legitimately hilarious, so she should be fantastic in this. Speaking of legitimately hilarious actresses who are replacing in major Broadway shows, yesterday we found out that Jane Krakowski, currently starring in Omar on Broadway, has extended her run. In fact, it's not just her. She will be joined by John Andrew Morrison, who is currently playing her husband, and Cheyenne Jackson, who is currently playing her teacher. They are all going to continue their runs in the show through January 4th. That's about one month longer than they had originally planned. They were going to end their runs on December 7. They are now going to stick with the show into the new year. And as we previously talked about, Tony Mock, the person who originated the role of Mary's husband's assistant will rejoin the show on November 18, and Jen Harris, who is currently playing Mary's chaperone, will be in the show with them as well. I almost had the opportunity to go and see their first performance. It was I was waiting on tickets for a show to see if it was going to come through or not. In my backup, there were two seats together left in pretty decent spots at a fairly decent price that if I didn't get confirmation of the tickets, I was going to run over to the Lyceum Theater and grab those. But just as I was getting ready to head out, I got confirmation of those tickets. I would have loved to have been there, but hopefully this gives me enough time to head over there and check out this new administration registration before they wrap up in January. Now this is not a show that you can run over and grab tickets to see on Broadway, at least not right now. But yesterday we got the complete cast announced for the upcoming world premiere musical adaptation of the book and then subsequent film Wonder. It is going to premiere at the American Repertory theatre in Cambridge, Massachusetts beginning on December 9th. It is currently scheduled to run through February 8th. This story comes from a novel by RJ Palacio and and then was turned into a 2017 film that starred Julia Roberts, Owen Wilson, Jacob Tremblay, Mandy Patinkin and Daveed Diggs. It follows a boy named Auggie with Treacher Collins Syndrome, which is a genetic disorder that's characterized by deformities of the ears, eyes, cheekbones and chin. Starring in this musical adaptation will be the likes of Melvin Abston, Raymond J. Lee, Alison Luffy, Javier Munoz, Nathan Salstone, Pearl sun and more and alternating in the role of Auggie will be Garrett McNally and Max Vole. The musical features music and lyrics by Grammy Award winning duo the Great Big World, Ian Axel and Chad King, a book by Sarah Rule and direction by Tabi Megar and choreography by Katie Spellman. This is one that I've heard tremendous things about throughout the developmental process, so hopefully those reviews continue to be stellar at art and then maybe we get this show. I mean, it's cutting it close with a February 8th closing in Cambridge, so it makes it a little difficult to pull off a Broadway run this season. So if it does go well, I would imagine we would see this on Broadway sometime in the 20262027 season. We didn't talk about this on the show, but last week John M. Chu, the director of Wicked and Wicked Colon for Good, teased that there was going to be a big star who was playing the Cowardly lion in the film. And everyone was guessing all of these different things. Everyone from Lin Manuel Miranda, because John M. Chu directed in the Heights, the in the Heights film, to James Corden, because for a long time it was a rule that any movie musical made in Hollywood had to star James Corden. I reached out to a friend of mine who happens to work on the film with Universal and I was told that it is, it was an American actor that basically everybody loves. And that was confirmed on Monday because doing the voice of the Cowardly lion in Wicked for good will be none other than Emmy winner, Tony nominee, Academy Award nominee, the one and only Colman Domingo. Now, from what I understand, you're not getting a whole lot from the Cowardly lion in this film. It is a fairly small voice acting role and you might not even really be able to recognize Coleman's voice because he's doing a Cowardly lion voice. But nonetheless, as the article in Variety says, the character doesn't have a large part, which is what you would expect. But you will see him or the character at least in March of the Witch Hunters. So fascinating. Love anything that comes up Coleman Domingo, because Colman is one of the absolute best. All right, there are two upcoming readings of plays that I wanted to point out to you. The first one is going to happen on October 27, which is next Monday. It is going to happen at New York's West Park Presbyterian Church and it is going to be a charity reading of Kenneth Lonergan's hold on to Me Darling, which was recently Off Broadway starring Andrew Driver. This one is going to be a charity reading to benefit the center at west park and the preservation of the landmark West Park Presbyterian Church. The reading will include none other than Academy Award winner Matt Damon and Emmy winner Alec Baldwin. Also in the cast will be the great J. Smith Cameron, who also happens to be married to Kenneth Lonergan, as well as Gretchen Mull, Lucas Hedges, Peter Friedman and Charles Everett. The reading will be directed by Neil Pepe, who also helmed both the original Off Broadway production in 2016 and then last year's Off Broadway remount in 2024. Information on where you can purchase tickets if there are any left will be in the show notes. And then the other one that was announced will be a one night only reading of the iconic 1987 romantic comedy film Moonstruck. And this one is actually going to be happening on Broadway. This is going to take place on November 10th at the Music Box Theater and the Academy Award winning film Just so happens to have been written by acclaimed playwright John Patrick Shanley, who has a revival on his shows getting ready to run off Broadway here this fall. Starring in the show will be real life husband and wife Rose Byrne and Bobby Cannavale. Also featured will be Steve Buscemi, Steven DeRosa, Patti LuPone, Mary Lou Rosado, John Turturro, Stevie Van Zant and Des Durant. He is playing crooner which makes you seem to think that he is going to be singing that's Amore which is like this big huge opening scene in the film. So that's very cool. But in addition for NPR dorks like me serving as the host and reading stage directions will be none other than, Wait, wait, don't tell me. Host Peter Sagal. And then directing this will be the Tony Award winning director Doug Hughes who helmed Shanley's Doubt on Broadway. So absolutely bonkers that this is happening. Tickets begin at $150 and this will benefit the arts organization New York Stage and Film. All right, moving over to a little bit of theater business news. Yesterday it was announced that the entertainment company mari, which was founded and run by Ari Emanuel, has purchased Todaytix. The platform joins a group of other like entertainment and sports type platforms under the MARI umbrella and according to Ari Emanuel, this is going to be used as a quote technology engine for the portfolio. Brian Fenty, who is the co founder and CEO of TodayTix Group, will remain as CEO and will then join Mari's executive leadership team and co founder Merritt Baer will continue as artistic Director and producer at Secret Cinema, which is another movie event operation owned by TodayTix. TodayTix had previously been sold to Greathill Partners which was a private equity firm. So MARI bought the platform and organization from them. I've got to tell you, I don't love this. Ari Emanuel is a venture capital guy. He is looking to make money off of things. And while of course all of these things are businesses, today Takes has always been a business, especially in some of the other things that both Grace and I pay attention to. When they're owned by Ari Emanuel, the quality tends to go down. One of those things is the wwe. Obviously you hear Grace talk about that quite a bit. I am not as passionate and loyal of a follower as she is, but the WWE was recently purchased by Ari Manual's TKO Group holdings which also owns ufc. And if you search the Internet, lots of WWE and pro wrestling fans are not happy with the way that TKO is running the business. They are jacking up prices, lowering the fan experience really making it difficult for fans to enjoy the product that they had grown to know and love for decades. So I'm a little concerned about what this might mean for Today Ticks, hopefully, because Brian Fenty and Merit Baer are going to be remaining in leadership positions that we won't see a demonstrable change, and they will just kind of use what Today Ticks is so good at across the other brands in their portfolio. But I am a little bit concerned that the deals and the rushes and all of those things where perhaps the ownership doesn't make as much money as jacking up prices and charging higher fees and stuff like that, maybe that's going to be something that we lose with Today Takes. I hope that's not the case because as we know today, Tix has been a wonderful way to increase accessibility to theater in New York, in London, around the country, but then also for other types of arts and cabaret and music and so many other things. So hopefully this is not a step backwards for Today Ticks, but we will have to wait and see what happens after Mari takes control moving forward. All right, one of the episodes that kind of got lost there for a few days was the one that dove all the way in to the reviews for Lincoln Center's Broadway revival of Ragtime. You can go back, you can listen to those. That was on Friday's episode. But the recommendation today actually also happened on, on opening night, and we just kind of found out about it through a social media post that went up over the weekend from Joshua Henry, who of course is starring in the show as Coalhouse Walker Jr. On opening night, 15 minutes before curtain, Josh got a package from the original Coal House, Brian Stokes Mitchell. And for some reason, Josh thought that it would be a good idea to look at it and open it on camera before heading out on stage. And it was a picture of Stokes, a little grandiose, but I think he's earned that. But it was a letter telling Josh that Coal House now belongs to him in all ways. And you can see how emotional Josh is. He's crying and tearing up. He even says that it was a bad idea to, to do this so close to performance. But then Josh also wrote a lovely tribute and thank you to Stokes because of what he did, not only for, for this role, but also in helping younger in helping younger black performers find a path to the stage in musical theater. So it's really lovely. I will have the link in the show notes if you want to watch the video and then also read what Joshua posted about Stokes. So very lovely, very touching, and no greater person to pass a torch from and to than Stokes and Josh Henry. 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. And if you want more broadwayradio, head over to patreon.com broadwayradio have a wonderful Tuesday and we'll be back to talk to you tomorrow.