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Today on Broadway: Wednesday, April 23, 2025
00:19:08
Drama League Announces A-List Nominees, Roast Master Jeff Ross Aiming for Broadway, Clooney and LuPone 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 Tammanini
Welcome to Today on Broadway for Wednesday, April 23, 2025. I'm Broadway Radio's Matt Tammanini and I'm.
- [00:07]
Grace Hockey
Tell Me on the Sunday podcast, Grace Hockey.
- [00:09]
Matt Tammanini
Grace, after we are done recording, you are heading over to the Marriott Marquis, I assume to get ready for the Stranger Things opening night. Lots of stuff happening there. The schedule is going to be crazy. But as we mentioned on yesterday's show, because these reviews are not being released until midnight, we will not have them on today's show. So they'll be a part of tomorrow's show. I hate doing that, but I'm already yawning and it's like not even 5 o'clock yet. So that is gonna have to wait until the reviews are available for tomorrow's episode. However, one thing that we do have that we did not have to wait very long on is another round of award nominations for this season. And yesterday the Drama League announced their nominations. And these categories are a little different than some of the ones that we will see in things like the drama desk, the OCCs and the Tonys. They only do production categories, direction categories, and then they have one single performance category. There are 50 people nominated, and it is everybody whose name you know on or off Broadway this season. So they do a lot of celebrities. Many of them don't deserve it, but they try to get every big name in there. So let's run through the production categories first. And these also generally are ones that have big stars but not always involved. The outstanding production of a Play category goes to the Antiquities Becoming Eve, English, Good Bones, Good Night and Good Luck. Here there Are Blueberries, John Proctor is the villain, Liberation, oh, Mary, the Picture of Dorian Gray, Purpose, Stranger Things, the First Shadow, and Walden. Outstanding revival of a play. The Cherry Orchard, Eureka, Day Ghost, Glengarry Glen Ross Home, Othello, Romeo and Juliet, A Streetcar Named Desire, Vanya, Wine in the Wilderness, and Yellowface. The one notable exception that was not included, there was Our Town, which I thought just based off of how many stars there were in it, Grace would get a nomination for the Drama League. Moving on to musicals. Outstanding production of a Musical. Boop. The Musical, Buena Vista Social Club, dad. Outlaw Death Becomes Her Drag the Musical, Just In Time. Macbeth In Stride Maybe Happy Ending. Operation Mincemeat. Real Women have Curves, Smash and Stephen Sondheim's Old Friends. Outstanding revival of a musical. Cats, the Jellicle Ball, Floyd Collins, Gypsy, the Last Five Years, Once Upon a Mattress, the Marriage of Figaro, Pirates, the Penzance Musical, Sunset Boulevard, and you'd're in town. So, Grace, I know these announcements are coming out, what, a week and a day before the Tony nominations. Do other nominations influence the Tonys at all? Either from a nomination standpoint or from an eventual voting standpoint?
- [02:43]
Grace Hockey
There's no, like, actual, like, factual. Yes, we know this to be true, but how can it not? You know what I mean? Like, how. How, in what world is someone not a part of that community, that voting body, and not looking at what is getting that traction? Because nobody likes to be an outlier, you know what I. I mean? Like, I. And I'm not speaking on behalf of anybody, but like, if you felt really strongly about one particular performance and it's not getting any traction on any capacity, you might go, oh, I feel a little crazy now. You know what I mean? Unless you're like, no, I wanna. I wanna charge this, you know, so everyone wants to gather up and champion the same things, because that feels good. That's just, like, common. But at the same time, I do think that it is interesting that once you start to see gravity leaning in a way, it continues to lean that way, you know? So I think that we're going to be following close attention, obviously, with all of the nominations for every single voting body, outer critics, drama desk, all of those things. But I do think it's going to be interesting as things shake out in the next. I'm going to go ahead and say three weeks. And what you all are seeing is like, of course, at the day of this, you know, nominations announcement, you get the Death Becomes her tour, which will influence the spring road conference, which will influence the voting body of the Tony voters. That will probably be a part of that. You know what I mean? It all is kind of like consequential in some capacity, but it's really smart. So you all will start to see, like, those announcements popping up, surprise performances at benefits, all of those things that I think are a part of the community.
- [04:14]
Matt Tammanini
Yeah, we will talk about that announcement here shortly. But I am not going to run through all of the distinguished performance nominees there. Like I said, there's like 50 of them in here. But I will point out some of the ones that I was especially heartened for. Mainly people who are either young or not big stars, because they did nominate every TV and movie star that was on or off Broadway this season. Like, I love Robert Downey Jr. But he did not deserve a nomination for Nick, for McNeil, yet he is nominated here. I have not seen just in time. So I'm not. This is not a slight on Gracie Lawrence but like just the fact that she's like the third or fourth build person in that show like makes me surprised that she is nominated where like Erica Henningson is not. But Gracie Lawrence is a bigger name. So I mean not sure but some of the names that I was really excited about were Natalie Venetia Belcon. I love that she was nominated here. Tala Ash from English Kit Connor, Jack Malone, Marjan Neat, Jasmine, Amy Rogers and of course Cara Young. But to me, Grace, like I it's hard for me to always take this one especially because they do so often favor celebrity. But like if we were just going to pick one performance from the season, to me it has to come down to either Cola Scola or Nicole Scherzinger. And you work on Sunset so I'm not going to put you on a in a position to like pick one. But like those are the two ones for me that seem like they stand out from this season. Like you can't tell the story of the 2024, 2025 New York theatrical season if you don't start with one of those two.
- [05:46]
Grace Hockey
Oh, I mean you just named two of my favorite performances of the season so I'm not conflicted there. I think that they're phenomenal. So I'm fine with that.
- [05:55]
Matt Tammanini
Yeah. I just feel like if it's anybody else, I don't know, maybe I'm forgetting something or honestly I haven't seen everything yet. So maybe it's something from a show that I haven't seen yet. But if it's anyone other than those two, I think it would be a pretty bald faced show as to what's actually important. But sticking with awards and nomination announcements, yesterday it was announced that stage and screen stars Sarah Paulson and Wendell Pierce will be the ones making the Tony nomination announcement. They this year. That'll take place a week from tomorrow on May 1st. It'll start on YouTube at 9am however there will be some of the categories revealed on CBS mornings at 8:30. So it's one of those things we're going to have to bounce back and forth because the YouTube does not start until 9. So you're going to have to watch on CBS for the the initial usually the bigger categories. So Sarah Wendell would love to see them in a show together either on stage or screen. All right, let's get into some show and casting news, Grace. But yesterday it was announced that Emmy nominated comedian and like the guy who hosts all of the celebrity roasts, Jeff Ross is getting ready to take his one man show Take a Banana for the Ride on the Road and that it is planning to have a Broadway engagement at the end of this tour. No dates have necessarily been announced, although we do know that the first stop on the eight city Summer tour will take place in May in Los Angeles. The rest of the schedule will be announced shortly. Speaking of things coming to New York City after it was supposed to make its Broadway debut last summer, Rob Madge's My Son's a Queer but what can youn do will finally have its New York premiere. It'll take place at the New York City center, but it'll be for just three performances and it'll be a part of the venue's Pride programming. It'll take place from June 13th through through the 15th. So everybody who loved the show over in the UK, wherever you saw it and were really excited about it on Broadway last summer, this is finally your opportunity to see the show in New York. And then finally with the New York centric stuff here, yesterday we had a little bit of a kind of a unusual casting announcement coming out of Hadestown because Philip Boykin and Casey Dela Cruz are both going to be taking over roles in the show that were a little bit unplanned. Boykin will return to the role of Hades, which he has done many, many times, obviously, and Casey Dela Cruz will take over the role of Eurydice. She has done the role as an understudy. I've actually seen her on Broadway do the show, but they are only going to be in there for a limited time. Casey Delacruz will only play Eurydice through May 4th. That is when Haley Kilgore's run was supposed to end. And then Philip is going to do the role until May 20 with Matthew Patrick Quinn taking over from there. And then Philip will be back to do the summer run on June 1st. They'll be joined by Myra Malloy, who will take over As a on May 6 along with Ali Louis Borski as the new Orpheus. I do know that Tom Hewitt and Hayley Kilgore have both been dealing with injuries, so that is probably why they are leaving a little earlier than expected. All right, Grace, Last week's Broadway grosses were pretty substantial. There was a pretty massive jump over the previous week's total. In fact, it jumped over six and a half million dollars despite the fact that there were no new shows on Broadway. Obviously with performances being added to preview period that increased. But in total the Broadway grosses came in at $50,874,940. That is the high for this year so far by a substantial amount, even beating week one at the beginning of the year. During the holidays, total attendance came in at 357,319 people and the average ticket price saw more than an $8 increase come in at $142 and 38 cents. With that we had not one, not two, but three different shows that eclipsed $3 million last week. Good Night and Good Luck still led the way at $3,882,090. Wicked was in second place, but one note here that they did have nine performances. So that does color things a little bit at 3.3 million and then Othello was at 3.1. We had another four shows that were north of 2 million. Lion King was at 2.9, Glengarry Glen Ross at 2.3, Hamilton at 2.16 and Aladdin at just over $2 million. Of course the holiday weekend certainly helps that, but it is still pretty impressive to see those numbers nonetheless. The rest of the shows north of seven figures in descending order are mj, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, the Outsiders, Moulin Rouge, the Great Gatsby, Hell's Kitchen, Gypsy, stranger things, the first shadow in just seven performances, the picture of Dorian Gray which did $1.14 million but it was a pre planned six show week. Then rounding it out we also had Death Becomes her and Juliet oh Mary Buena Vista Social Club, Cabaret, the Kit Club and Smash. And then Grace. Let's get to the news that you mentioned earlier. Death Becomes her has announced that it will go out on a multi year national tour starting in the fall of 2026. It will begin that tour from Cleveland's Playhouse Square. We already know that it will stop in places like Los Angeles, San Francisco, Denver, St. Louis and Charlotte with obviously many many more to be announced along with casting. You talked about this Grace, about how this can be used as kind of marketing for the the Tony season and stuff like that because so many people that are associated with these road venues. You talked about the the spring road conference that'll be happening here soon as well with announcements like these, like how big of a part of a Tony's campaign is stuff like this that is geared specifically towards maybe getting the people who are involved with the road conference that you mentioned to think about. Oh this is coming to our town. Maybe we should pay a little bit more closer attention to this one and then perhaps hopefully leading to further nominations and wins.
- [11:50]
Grace Hockey
I think that the Way that I can personally answer this is the fact that, like, if you think about it, like, logistically, if you are in, let's say, St. Louis, right, and you have access to the, you know, St. Louis, Missouri, you know, whatever their theater is, Right. That. That gets all.
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Matt Tammanini
The Fabulous Fox. Yeah. Great.
- [12:12]
Grace Hockey
Okay, so let's say that you have access to that. Do you believe that a show that has the Tony Award winning best musical is going to be the one that people will want to pay for if they're. If they're going to buy, you know, one or two tickets for a tour per year? Or do you think it's going to be the one that doesn't garner any Tony wins? You know what I'm saying?
- [12:36]
Matt Tammanini
Yeah. To me, I've always been. I've always kind of thought of it differently. Like, I would think that maybe Death Becomes her isn't the best example, but something like Back to the Future, let's say, which is another, you know, musical based off of a movie. Like, I don't think Back to the Future needs to be able to say Tony Award winner to sell tickets as opposed to something like Buena Vista Social Club. But Death Becomes her might. So to me, I've always thought, like, if I was the guy who was running the Fabulous Fox, like, I would be like, ooh, if this one's going to go out on tour, I want it to have. I want it to be able to say it's a best musical nominee or best musical winner. Because otherwise people might not come and see it where Back to the Future people definitely will either way. Does that make sense or am I overthinking it?
- [13:22]
Grace Hockey
No, I mean, it's definitely that. Like, you and I are not typical theater goers. We are also not typical, like rural. Like you, you know, inhabit Florida and like you going to see theater is very different than an average ticket buyer that's just like looking to go do something at night. Like, that is literally it. It is not a always a theater fan. It is not somebody who's, you know, familiar with that ip, whether it is original or a variation of a film or, you know, a TV show or anything like that. It's people that are just looking for something to do and people gravitate naturally towards the one that other people have decided was good. Like, that's just, you know what I mean? Like, that's just normal.
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Matt Tammanini
That's what you said at the beginning. That's what you said at the beginning when it came to award nominations.
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Grace Hockey
Yeah, exactly. So it's all. It's all a natural kind of occurrence that, you know, you can try to dictate that movement. But good is good, usually. And. And I think that it just. It just varies. So I think I answered that without answering it, but you know what I'm saying.
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Matt Tammanini
No, no, no, no. I think that's great. And I think the fact that I love that idea of good is good, and people are going to like things generally universally. Like, I don't think that there's a ton of shirts, although there are probably obvious examples that, like, people in St. Louis are gonna love, but people in New York hated. You know, there might be some things where it comes to, like, the content of a show not resonating as well in different places, but, like, good is good. If it's a good show, people are gonna like it.
- [14:45]
Grace Hockey
To quote Sunset Boulevard, audiences are a lot smarter than you give them credit for. Like it. You know, I think that that's true universally because at the end of the day, people come to New York from other places and it's locals. It's both. So you gotta kind of go where they go.
- [15:01]
Matt Tammanini
Yeah. Speaking of good shows that are out on the road, yesterday they announced the new principal cast that'll be joining the national tour of Wicked starting In May, on May 20th in Salt Lake City. And Grace, one of your favorites will be in the company. Playing Glenda will be Zoe Jensen, late of the Heart of Rock and Roll. She will be joined by Jesse Davidson, who will be playing Elphaba. Eileen Takei will take over as Madame Morrible. Nicholas Garza will play Bach. Ethan Kirschbaum will play Fierro. Drew McVetty will play Dr. Dillamond. Jada Temple will play Nessa Rose. Blake Hammond and Carly Augustine will continue on in their roles as the wizard and Elphaba Standby, respectively. And then we've got a handful of recommendations that I want to send out. They had the public rehearsal performances for New York City Center Encores production of Wonderful Town yesterday. So we've got great performances by the entire cast, but especially Inika Noni Rose and Aisha Jackson. So check those out. Then another thing, Grace, that you mentioned that is very well timed and is obviously part of a Tony campaign, both for nominations and for WINS. But Audra McDonald and the rest of the principal cast for Gypsy went down to Washington, D.C. to do an NPR Tiny Desk Concert. They did if Mama Was Married Together. Wherever we go, you got to have a gimmick. And some people. So check that out. And then we talked about it on yesterday's show, Variety is finally doing the actors on actors series with Broadway folks. And we got the first one. George Clooney, Patti LuPone. I haven't watched it. It's like 50 minutes long. That's amazing. I cannot wait to sit down and watch this. But Patti LuPone and George Clooney, like, what an absolute hoot. That'll be. 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. Rodaryrading. You can follow me on Instagram, BWW, MattGrace, where can people find you?
- [16:51]
Grace Hockey
You can find me at graceaki.
- [16:52]
Matt Tammanini
All right, everybody, have a wonderful Wednesday, and we'll be back to talk to you tomorrow.