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- [00:00]
A
Oh, hey, welcome to gift wrapping. Whoa.
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B
So is Saldana.
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C
Hey, can you wrap these please?
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A
Wow. IPhone 17s.
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C
You splurged at T Mobile. You can get four iPhone 17s on them. The new center stage front camera is amazing for group selfies. It's the perfect gift for everyone.
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A
I'm the worst. I only got my mom a robe.
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C
Well, it's better than socks.
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A
So I have to trade in my old phone, right?
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C
No AT T Mobile. There's no trade ins needed when you switch. Keep your old phone or give it as a gift.
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A
Incredible.
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C
In fact, wrap up my old phone too for my aunt Rosa.
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A
Forget that.
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C
Aunt Liz will be jealous.
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B
Like my family drama.
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C
Oh, I got it. I'll give it to my abuela. I'll take reindeer paper with. Hey, where are you going?
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A
To T Mobile.
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B
The holidays are better. AT T Mobile get four iPhone 17s on us. No trade in needed when you switch plus four lines for just 25 bucks a line. And now T Mobile is available in US cellular stores with 24 monthly bill credits and 4 eligible board ins on essentials for well qualified customers. Auto pay + taxes, fees and $35 device connection charge credits ended balance due if you pay off earlier. Cancel Contact Us Finance Agreement 256 GB$830 required Visit T mobile.com welcome to Today.
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A
On Broadway for Wednesday, December 3, 2025 on Broadway Radio's Matt Tamnini. Grace is out at a show tonight and I wasn't able to record earlier with her, so I'm gonna run you through all of the news on my own today. And we are going to start with the news that the Broadway in Memoriam committee, this new group comprised of theater owners in consultation with other members of the industry, has decided that Broadway will dim its lights for Tom Stoppard on his own. That actually happened last night at 6:45pm it was an announcement that came out on Monday night, so they did it on Tuesday night. Normally these things are done in groups and there will be another one happening next Tuesday, December 9th that will honor a number of people including some folks as Jerry Adler, Robert Redford, Patricia Rutledge, Diane Keaton, June Lockhart, Diane Ladd, Pauline Collins and all marquees will be dimmed simultaneously on December 9th at 6:45 in their honor.
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Getting into some other news. Yesterday, the upcoming Broadway production of all out comedy about ambition by Simon Rich announced the final members of the cast. If you remember, we already knew that a number of folks like Eric Andre, Abby Jacobson, John Stewart, Jim Gaffigan, Ben Schwartz, Wayne Brady, Cecily Strong, Mike Birbiglia, Jason Manzoukis, Craig Robinson, Nicholas Braun, Ashley park and Ray Romano had been announced. There are others will have the complete list including the schedule in the show notes but we found out the rest of the company on Tuesday and those names are Ike Barinholtz, Jenny Slate and Beck Bennett. Much like all in last season, the cast will consist of four actors at a time rotating through the entire run, which is currently scheduled to go from December 12 through March 8, a couple extra weeks than they had last year. The first company will feature Eric Andre, Ike Barinholtz, Abbi Jacobson and Jon Stewart. The final company will be Nicholas Braun, Ashley Park, Ray Romano and Jenny Slate. They also announced that Kevin delagula and Olivia Puckett will serve as the understudies for this production. We will come back to Kevin d' Alagula later on. In addition to the company, the Grammy nominated soul pop band Lawrence Obviously one of the main members of Lawrence is Gracie Lawrence, who was a Tony nominee for Just In Time and aside from Jonathan Grof, Gracie was the best part of that show. She absolutely blew me away as somebody who didn't really know much about her before. They're going to be performing original music on stage for every single show. They will also include songs from one of their biggest albums, Family Business, so that should be fun. They began rehearsals yesterday with this announcement, so looking forward to hopefully being up in New York at some point to check out all out.
- [04:07]
Late on Monday, The Muni in St. Louis announced its 2026 season. As always, there will be seven shows spanning two months in the summer going from mid June through mid August. They will run for just about a week and then have three or four days in between each one. It'll start with Hairspray on June 15th through the 21st. After a couple days they will then mount Shrek Musical from June 25th through July 2nd. Then coming back after the Independence Day holiday will be South Pacific from July 6th through the 12th. Then they will have Disney's Newsies from July 16th through the 22nd. Then beginning on the 27th of July running through August 2nd will be Ain't Too Proud, then on August 6th through the 13th will be appropriately Meet Me in St. Louis. Or is it Meet Me in St. Louis? Like I mean it's spelled St. Louis but I've always heard St. Louis so I need to figure out how that is actually pronunciated, which is not actually a word either but that seemed fitting. And then the season will wrap up on August 17th through the 23rd with something rotten. Generally with the Muni we get the directors announced like in January and then they start announcing the castings in the spring like like March, April, ish. And they kind of roll those out once a week and all of that. So excited to see who will be a part of this. I'm going to go on record here though and say something rotten August 17th through the 23rd. I'm going to guess that Rob McClure and Maggie Lakis will play Nick and be bottom in Something Rotten. 1. They've done it on tour. I interviewed them here on Broadway Radio about that tour. They were so freaking funny in that and they are regulars, especially Rob are regulars at the Muni. So that would be my guess. Although I do think that Rob will probably be getting ready to do Damn Yankees on Broadway in the spring. So maybe he doesn't want to go down to St. Louis and sweat his butt off for for a week in that sweltering Midwest heat. But that would be my guess as of now.
- [06:07]
All right, let's look back at the Thanksgiving week box office on Broadway and who Boy was it a good week for the main stem. Roses jumped up 19%, which was nearly $8 million over the previous week. Attendance did increase by 7,500 people. That's a 3% increase. And the average ticket price jumped 16% up to $162.35. Here's the kicker. Hamilton was the top show last week and it's really hard for Hamilton to set new box office records. But it did. Last week was not only a holiday week, so that helps, but it was also Leslie Odom Jr's final week in his return to playing Aaron Burr. And Hamilton did $4,877,800, an increase of almost 1.2 million over the previous week. Even though it had a lower capacity. We'll get in that, it was still a really good capacity, but because of the holiday and Leslie leaving an absolutely insane number over at the Richard Rogers. But that wasn't the only incredible number. Both Harry Potter and the Cursed Child and Wicked also eclipsed $3 million last week. Cursed Child did 3.15 million and Wicked did 3.01. And then we had multiple shows north of 2 million. Lion King was at 2.79, Chess was at 2.07 and Mamma Mia entered the 2 million dollar club at 2.02. The rest of the shows north of seven figures in descending order are Aladdin, MJ, the Outsiders, Ragtime, maybe Happy Ending, Art Death Becomes Her, Stranger Things, the First Shadow, Waiting for Godot, the Great Gatsby, Buena Vista Social Club, oh Mary, Just In Time, Moulin Rouge, Hadestown, the Book of Mormon and Hell's Kitchen. And Juliet was literally one ticket, depending on where that ticket was at $999,606.
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In total, 22 of Broadway's 34 shows played a 90% capacity or more. Wicked, Godot, Ragtime, oh Mary and Cursed Child all played to 100% capacity. Exactly. Maybe Happy Ending was just a little bit more. And Hamilton was at the top at 101.26%. You might be saying, how is that possible? Just In Time always is in the lead. And you are right. But last week, for the very first time, Jonathan Grof missed a performance and his understudy went on. And I believe, if the social media videos that I saw were accurate, that Sarah Hyland was also out. So it seems like a number of people probably took that opportunity to get a refund to come back and see Grof, which, you know, I can't fault people for that if they have the opportunity to do that. Obviously, some people weren't able to do that because they were probably in town for the holiday. But nonetheless, Just In Time came in at 88.86% capacity.
- [08:56]
All right, let's dive into some show and casting news. Yesterday we got the new Audrey and Seymour that will be joining Little Shop of Horrors Off Broadway. And at least for the Audrey, it's not necessarily a new Audrey, it's an old Audrey coming back. And she's actually not old. She's in her mid-20s. But nonetheless, it is Joy woods, who of course was one of the Ronettes in the original cast of this production, who later came back and played Audrey opposite, I believe it was Matt Doyle at one point. Well, she is going to be returning and she will be playing opposite Disney star and Emmy award winner Joshua Bassett, he of High School the the series and also the inspiration for Olivia Rodrigo's smash hit Driver's License. Ooh, I don't know a whole lot about that. But when this was announced today, Ashley Hufford and Kaitlin Berg in our group chat gave me the rundown about who he was and all of that drama. I knew a little bit of the driver's license thing, like it was based off a boyfriend who was also on High School the the series. I didn't realize exactly all the details and I didn't know that Sabrina Carpenter was in the middle of this, but nonetheless, I got an education, but the duo will begin performances at the west side Theater on December 19th and their run in the show is scheduled through March 1st, going from Skid Row out to across North America. Yesterday, the first national tour of the Great Gatsby found its leading couple. And speaking of people who have starred opposite Matt Doyle playing Daisy Buchanan will be Sinzel Ahmadi, who did the recent Korean production of the show opposite Matt Doyle who played Jay Gatsby. So she is going to be taking on the role of Daisy Buchanan on tour and starring opposite her as Gatsby will be Jake David Smith. The rest of the cast will be announced at a later date. The show will begin performances on January 31st at the Hippodrome Theatre in Baltimore, Baltimore, Maryland. Coming back to New York and in a very festive bit of news, a private invitation only industry presentation of a new play called the Naughty List by Tawny Odell will be held Next Wednesday on December 10th. It is a three character play about the reconnection between mature sweethearts after 373 years of marriage. A heated argument between Santa and Mrs. Claus threatens to unravel one of the world's most famous power couples when Mrs. Claus runs off with two youthful reindeer in training the night before before Christmas, Santa is forced to decide if the woman he loves should come first before his professional responsibilities. Starring in the show will be Daniel Breaker, Norbert, Leo Butz and Michelle Federer, who also is Norbert Leo Butz's real life wife and the original Nessa Rose in Wicked on Broadway. So that sounds hilarious and delightful and perfect for this time of year.
- [11:30]
Then moving off Broadway for a very limited developmental run from December 17th through the 21st. Kevin Zak's new play, a Kidman Carol A Gay Dementia on Australian Dames will run at Theater 511. The show will star the great Marla Mendel as Nicole Kidman and Josh Sharp. Of Josh Sharp, Tada will play Cate Blanchett. It is a story that sees Blanchett being visited by three different spirits of Kidman in order to learn the true meaning of award season. I find this absolutely hysterical. I don't know anything about this show but I know Kevin Zak is very funny and obviously Marlo Mindel and Josh Sharp are great too. So looking forward to hearing about anybody who goes and sees this and maybe this will have a future run that I will be able to check out.
- [12:19]
Now. Earlier in the episode I mentioned that Kevin Delagula is going to be joining the cast of All out well, that means that the show that he is currently in, the Baker's Wife Off Broadway Classic Stage Company will need to replace him and they have found the person to do that and it will be the one and only Steve Rosen, multiple time Broadway radio guest here. He will join the company as Antwan on December 9th. Kevin Delagula will play his final performance on December 7th, which I believe was like the original ending date before the extensions. So that makes sense. Obviously. The show is led by Ariana DeBose and Scott Bakula and also features an incredible company of Arnie Burton, Robert Cuccioli, Alma Cuivera, Nathan Lee Graham, Judy Kuhn, Mainu Narayan, Kevin William Paul, Will Roland and more. The show is currently playing at CSC through December 21st.
- [13:07]
I'm going to wrap up with two recommendations. Even though the show is closing in January, the Queen of Versailles is making its rounds to hopefully get people over to the St. James Theater to see it during the holidays. Kristin Chenoweth, backed up by Stephen Schwartz on piano, visited the Late show with Stephen Colbert to perform the song this Is not the Way. We will have the video of that in the show notes. And then also the social media accounts of Hell's Kitchen released a clip of Jessica Vosk singing Pawn it all at her final performance. She wrapped up her run over the weekend, so if you want to see Jessica sing it down, as the kids say, we will have that clip in the show notes. All right everybody, that's all we have for today. Thanks for listening to Today on Broadway. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram at Broadway Radio. If you want more Broadway Radio, head over to patreon.com Broadway radio radio have a wonderful Wednesday and we'll be back to talk to you tomorrow.