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Today on Broadway: Wednesday, Aug. 13, 2025
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‘Two Strangers’ to come to Broadway this fall, Soo and Pasquale to star in Encores’ ‘High Spirits,’ Katie Holmes to play Hedda Gabler at Old Globe Since 2016, “Today on Broadway” has been the first and only daily podcast recapping the top theatre headl...
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Broadway for Wednesday, August 13, 2025. I'm Broadway Radio's Matt Tammanini. I am here on my own today because Grace is off doing birthday stuff. Her birthday was on Tuesday so she is out gallivanting across Hoboken as far as I know. I'm not sure what she's doing actually, but she is out today. But we'll be back tomorrow as far as the plan goes. So I'm going to run you through all of the news by myself, but I want to remind you that later this week, probably on Thursday, Grace and I are going to be recording a Patreon exclusive episode. We've got some things that we want to talk about, but if there's anything that you want to hear us talk about, if you have any questions, if you have any things that you don't understand or want some insight on or just want to hear our opinions on, please feel free to email us@patreon broadwayradio.com okay, let's start with the news and the biggest news from yesterday is the fact that the new musical Two Strangers Carry a Cake Across New York will be coming to Broadway this fall. It'll take up shop at the Longacre theater beginning on November 1st. This is a show that had a tremendous run in London's West End, then played in Boston earlier this year. Both of those runs were extended. Great reviews. Now it's going to be coming to Broadway for an open ended run. Starring in the show. It's a two hand musical. Starring in the show will be the leads from the Boston run, Christiani Pitts and Sam Tutty. The show is written and composed by Jim Barney and Kit Buchan and is directed and choreographed by Tim Jackson who also is the director of the upcoming Dylan Mulvaney show the Least Problematic Woman in the World that we've talked about here recently. It'll be the Broadway debut for Tutty, who is an Olivier Award winning actor for Dear Evan Hansen. And then Christiani Pitts is returning to Broadway having led Bronx Tale and King Kong the Musical, which I thought is an underrated show. I thought she was fantastic in it. The show is described this Meet Dougal, an impossibly upbeat Brit who has just landed in New York City for the first time to attend the wedding of the father he's never met. Meet Robin, the sister of the bride in a no nonsense New Yorker with a lot of errands to run, including picking up the groom's estranged son from the airport. Including picking up the groom's estranged son from the airport. These two strangers begin their journey together navigating New York City secrets and second chances. I do think that it is interesting that Kevin McCollum is the lead producer on this show. Of course, McCollum has had one of the most storied producing careers of the 21st century on Broadway, but the show does have at least some similarities to another big hit that McCollum shepherded over from the UK, which is six small cast, scrappy kind of production that you don't necessarily think of immediately as a Broadway show, yet it has turned into a huge, huge hit. So we will see what happens about with this one. I know people who have seen it over in the UK and just absolutely loved it. So that is very exciting to have an opportunity to see this on Broadway and especially with things like not only six, but maybe happy ending, doing really well on Broadway, these small musicals. It'll be interesting to see how this one fits in. But with this one coming to the boards in the fall, that means currently we only have four theaters that will be unoccupied in the fall. It's actually five, but the Todd Haymes Theater is undergoing renovations. But the August Wilson will be vacant once Cabaret closes up on October 19th. Then we have the Barrymore which is currently open, the Majestic which will be open following this week when Gypsy closes, and then the Nederlander which is currently occupied with Jeff Ross's Take a Banana for the Ride, but that's closing at the end of September. So four theaters currently open in the fall. And then I will say obviously Two Strangers is an open ended run. So as of now that means that there are 11 theaters in the spring that are currently available. Of course, if any open ended shows, take some of those in the fall that will lessen what is available in the spring. I also have 7ish shows that I think could close between now and January or February, making their theaters available for the spring, so we could still have quite a bit of turnover with shows that are currently on Broadway. But as of now, we know for sure four theaters have vacancies for this fall, so it'll be interesting to see what pops up over the next few months. Now this is a very exciting announcement. Not a Broadway announcement, but pretty exciting for New York theatergoers nonetheless, because when the musical version of Blythe Spirit comes to New York City center encore season on February 4, it will feature two incredible stars who also happen to be married to each other. From February 4 through February 15, the Encore's production of High Spirits will be led by Philippa sue as Ruth and her real life husband Stephen Pasquale as Charles. The show will be directed by Tony Award winner Jessica Stone and it will be, I think, the only major production of this show in New York City since its Broadway debut in 1960. It of course is based off of the iconic Noel Coward play Blythe Spirit, but it features music, book and lyrics by Hugh Martin and Timothy Gray. This will not be the first time that Pippa and Steven have worked together. Of course, they did the Guys and Dolls production back in 2022 at the Kennedy center for the Center Stage series. They also are the co narrators for an audible original romance Rich Girl Summer, which you can listen to as well, but this should be very exciting. Tickets go on sale to the general public on October 21st. Then yesterday Broadway News had an exclusive report that says that the Grammy Awards are changing some of the rules around the best musical theater album. This is something that has gone back and forth over the years. They've changed this rule specifically multiple times. But now in terms of Grammy nominations and then subsequent wins, the number of principal vocalists who are eligible for recognition has gone from four to six. And these rules will take effect for the 68th annual Grammy Awards, which is the ones we are currently in. That means any music released from August 31st of last year through August 30th of 2025 is eligible under these new rules. The Grammys, I think are normally in February, so that'll happen in early 2026, I believe. In addition, the Best Musical Theater Album category will also recognize producers, lyricists and composers who were involved in the creation of more than 50% of an album's playing time. So that goes along with these six principal vocalists. But if an album is ensemble driven, so like if there are no real principal vocalists, everybody on that album will receive a winner's certificate, which is something that was introduced about six years ago for situations like this when there were no specific vocalists to lead an album. Maybe we'll have to get our friend, cast, album producer and recording industry insider Robbie Rizzell in here to talk about this for a Patreon episode in the coming weeks. But very exciting anytime we can recognize even more people. I am all good with that. All right, let's talk about last week's Broadway grosses. We did see an increase in the number of shows on the boards last week, going from 28 to 29 with the introduction of Jeff Ross's Take a Banana for the Road. There are 29 shows. The grosses came in at $31,003,860, an increase of just about 1 million bucks over the previous week. The attendance also increased, though that went up 6% to $251,610, but the average ticket price dropped to $123.22. Only two shows played to north of $2 million last week, but there are two that probably would have if not for other circumstances. We'll get into here in a second. Wicked led the way at 2.24 million, followed by the Lion King at 2.23. Then Hamilton was in third place at 1.7 million. But you'll remember the matinee last week for the Hamilton performance had pretty much all of the tickets sold for only $10. So it did very, very well despite the fact that one show was essentially completely comp to. Not exactly, but pretty close. And then Mamma Mia came in 4 4th on the grosses ladder at $1.57 million. But it only did seven shows. So things are looking very good for Mamma Mia. Over at the Winter Garden, Aladdin rounded out the top five and then the rest of the shows north of seven figures in descending order are maybe Happy Ending Death Becomes Her MJ Just In Time, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, oh Mary, Gypsy, the Outsiders and Buena Vista Social Club. In its first week on Broadway, the aforementioned Take a Banana for The Road did seven performances, only did $172,648. So not a lot of action there's in the first week for Jeff Ross, but hopefully that picks up moving forward. In total, 19 of Broadway's 29 currently running shows played a 90% capacity or more. We had Wicked, oh Mary, Hadestown, all at exactly 100%. Mamma Mia was just a little bit over that. Hamilton was at like 101.5. The Outsiders was just under 102. John Proctor villain was just over 102, maybe Happy Ending was about at 102.5 and then Just in Time was at 103.24%. All right, let's dive into some shown casting news, and there's some pretty interesting things going on here. Let's start out over in California at San Diego's Old Globe Theater, when coming up in the 2026 season, the elder millennial icon Katie Holmes will lead a new adaptation of Henrik Ibsen's Hedda Gabler. It is going to be directed by Barry Edelstein, who is the Globe's artistic director. He also directed Holmes and the Off Broadway production of the wanderers back in 2023. I think that was a roundabout show. This will kick off the season, beginning performances on February 7th and currently slated to run through March 8th. It is a new adaptation from the playwright and screenwriter Aaron Cressida Wilson. She has been involved with some very cool films over the years. Secretary Men, the Girl on the Train, Chloe. She's done a bunch of theater work as well. And she mentions, and I think this is pretty universally accepted, that Hedda Gabler is the women's equivalent to Hamlet, although women have and I think should increasingly play the role of Hamlet. So getting an actress of Katie Holmes charisma certainly feels like it would fit into the world of Hedda Gabler. So looking forward to hearing all about that. And who knows, maybe we will see this one move east at some point, going from California to New Jersey. Yesterday the cast was announced for the upcoming Two River Theaters production of Agatha Christie's Murder on the Links. This is a reimagined take on the show by Darko Tresnik, who also directs it. So it is kind of being considered a world premiere. It is going to run from September 13th through October 5th, as of now, at least. Leading the cast will be Kate Baldwin, Maria Bilbao, Hiram Delgado, Jose Espinoza, Jason o', Connell, Campbell Scott as Hercule Poirot, and Tony nominee Lauren Worsham, who of course did Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder with Darko. We will also hear the voice of Patrick Page in this show. So that's very exciting. Love all things Agatha Christie, especially her stage work. This one follows Hercule Poirot, who is summoned to a country chateau in Florida, France, where he discovers a body on the golf course with a knife in its back. Very fun and obviously a fantastic cast. All right, now we've got some information on a couple of very, very small intimate shows. The first one will take place in Brooklyn. It is called Slanted Floors. It is going to be led by Kyle Beltran and Adam Chandler Barrett. It was Created by Billy McKenty and directed by Ryan Dobrin. It is going to run from September 9th through October 10th for an audience of five. The show follows Chandler Barat as a freelancer who has a hard time separating the media he consumes from the gigs he works and the ideas he tries to execute. Thankfully, his partner Teddy, played by Beltran, is coming home soon to serve a special dinner. Audience members are invited to witness the surreal events in one person's day, sharing in the meal of two partners, dining, dishing and dreaming in the unremarkability of queer domesticity. Going from that to another show in New York City that is fairly intimate and involves some different types of consumption, though fortunately a few more people than five will be able to see this one, although not a tremendous amount, the site specific theater company On Guard Arts has revealed its 20252026 season and leading the way will be the world premiere of Hansol Young's new play Last Call, a play with cocktails that will run from September 19th through October 13th and it will play a variety of private homes and apartments and throughout the city and they will seat anywhere from 20 to 40 different people. Young Codorex with Dustin Willis and the play is described as equal parts ghost story, house party and theatrical seance. The production will feature a rotating cast including Chris Bano, Esco Joulet, Dorcas Leung, who I loved in the Notebook, Brian Quijada, Nicole Villamil and Mitchell Winter. Now to a production of a show a little bit more traditional. We'll head out to Chicago where the Goodman Theater announced itself centennial season, which will feature two world premiere productions. The first will take place from September 6 through October 5 and it is called Ashland Avenue. It is a new play by Lee Kirk and directed by Susan V. Booth, the artistic director at the Goodman, and it will be led by Jenna Fisher of the Office fame. The piece centers on a once legendary video store and the family fighting to keep it afloat long after its heyday when owner Pete's daughter Sam rejects her role as the family business's heir. Apparently tensions flare as 40 years of dreams come to a close. The Otherworld premiere will kind of overlap just for a day or two, but essentially run right after it in the smaller space at the Goodman and it is called Revolutions with the S in parentheses. It is a new punk metal hip hop musical by Zaya Dares Dorn with the music by Rock and Roll hall of Famer Tom Morello of Rage against the Machine and Audio Slave. It is being directed by Steve H. Broadnax iii. When an American soldier and aspiring musician comes home from Afghanistan, he finds himself a part of the resistance to the occupation of the south side of Chicago. And then also in the season for the 48th year, the Goodman will stage Charles Dickens A Christmas Carol for the holidays. This time it'll be directed by Malkia Stampley for the very first time. And Christopher Donahue will play Ebenezer Scrooge for the second season that will run from November 15th through December 31st. Alright, that's all that I have for you today. Don't forget to send in your questions for Grace and I to discuss on our Patreon episode for this week. Patreonroadwayradio.com alright everybody, that's all that we have for today. Thanks for listening to Today on Broadway. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram rodwayradio. And if you want more Broadway radio, head over to patreon.com broadwayradio have a wonderful Wednesday and we'll be back to talk to you tomorrow.