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Today on Broadway: Wednesday, Jan. 15, 2025
00:15:00
Damiano and Zegen Wed, Gracie Lawrence to Join ‘Just in Time,’ ‘Waitress’ Officially Coming to Max 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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Transcript15 lines
- [00:02]
Matt Tamanini
Welcome to Today on Broadway for Wednesday, January 15, 2025. I'm Broadway Radio's Matt Tamanini and I'm.
- [00:08]
Grace Aki
Tell me on the Sunday podcast, Grace Aki.
- [00:10]
Matt Tamanini
Grace, yesterday, I guess I don't follow the right people on social media, but I found out that a Broadway couple got married that I didn't even know was a couple because it was on social media. And I saw an article shared about it from People magazine that Tony nominee Jen Damiano has married Broadway star and Marvelous Mrs. Maisel star Michael Ziegen. They got married over the weekend and they posted a photo on social media. There was an exclusive in People magazine. These two met when they did the off Broadway production of Bob and Carol and Ted and Alice. And I guess they, like, made it official. They went to the tonys together in 2022. I guess I missed all that. I did not realize that these two were together. And to be quite honest with you, I forget who I was talk talking to recently about Jen Damiano. And we were talking about, like, she hasn't done anything in a long time. So I guess she got married. Congratulations to them. And I guess I need to pay more attention to people's social lives and social media.
- [01:17]
Grace Aki
Don't. You don't have to. I think that this was very, like, under the radar. Like, I don't think anyone knew they were even together. I was like, first of all, that is an amazing collaboration of two people. Like, I'm obsessed with them. Like, I want. I want to see them work together again. Like, I love both of these actors immensely. What a catch. What a find.
- [01:38]
Matt Tamanini
Yeah, absolutely. So one other thing that I want to mention is that it was confirmed as I expected it it would be, by a Warner Brothers Discovery press release yesterday that Waitress the Musical will begin streaming on MAX on Valentine's Day. We talked about that because it was from another source, but it hadn't been officially confirmed. It now has been confirmed. You can find the live capture featuring Sara Bareilles, Charity Angel Dawson, Caitlin Houlihan, Drew Gehling, Dakin Matthews, Eric Anderson, Joe Tippett, Chris Fitzgerald and others on the streamer beginning on Valentine's Day. All right, Grace, this is a story that I'm going to need a little bit of your insight on. I think we've talked about this person before, but now we know that Gracie Lawrence, one of the members of the popular pop band I guess Lawrence, will be making her Broadway debut opposite Jonathan Groff in the upcoming musical Just in Time. The complete cast for that show was announced yesterday. And it does include Gracie Lawrence as well as the great Emily Bergle. Gracie Lawrence is going to be playing Connie Francis, who is one of the great loves of Darren's life. And Burgle will be playing both Darren's mother and his mother in law. They joined the show that will begin performances at Circle in the Square Theater on March 28 ahead of an April 2020 23rd opening. Other names in the cast include Joe Barbara, Michelle Paul, Lance Roberts, Cesar Samoya, Christine Cornish, Julia Grandin, Valeria Yamin, John Tracy Egan, Tari Kelly, Matt Magnuson, Corey Michelle Petion, and Larkin Riley. So for people who don't know who Gracie Lawrence is and who the band Lawrence is, I know she's on like sex Lives of college girls too, but why is this a big deal for a lot of people?
- [03:30]
Grace Aki
You know, she's on Sex Lives of College Girls. She's definitely like a theater adjacent person. I think that this makes sense. And also on the show, she's auditioning for the school show, so it totally makes sense for me there. But I think that this is something that a lot of people are going to be very excited about. And it's definitely like, you know, one of those moments where the music world is crossing over the theater world, which makes the most sense to me.
- [03:53]
Matt Tamanini
Like, Lawrence is a very, like, they're not a theater band and it's like her brothers and sisters, I don't know, but they like the stuff I've seen of them. Feels very theater kid energy.
- [04:06]
Grace Aki
Yeah, very much so. It's, it's very theater kid vibes. Like they've even, like, I've seen them perform like on stage. Like, I think that Nick Blaymire even performed on stage with them, if I'm not crazy. They've, they've done a lot of theater stuff. I mean, Darren Criss, like, they've, they've, they've collaborated with so many theater people that I'm just like, they're practically a theater kid themselves.
- [04:28]
Matt Tamanini
And now Gracie officially is all right. This is one of those shows just in time that we've kind of been like, I'm not sure what the audience is going to be like for this. It could be a lot of older people or it could be a lot of people who love Jonathan Groff, who knows? But it is going to be coming into a Broadway season that is very, very interesting. And as we look at last week's Broadway grosses, I'm actually kind of encouraged because it's a, it's going pretty well, all things considered. Obviously, coming out of the Christmas and New Year's holiday, things are markedly down. They are down about 29% or about $13 million, but they still came in at a very solid 32,176,529 bucks. And that is more than the second week of last year by a substantial amount, almost $5 million. So that is a positive that houses are filled and people are still going to see shows. Total attendance last week was at $254,320, and the average ticket price was at $126.52. Wicked, despite an $868,000 decline, was still at 2,425,656 bucks. Hamilton was in second place at 1.85 million, followed by the Lion King at 1.75. Gypsy in fourth place at 1.75. And then listen to this all in Comedy About Love at the Hudson Theater came in in fifth place at $1,669,676. With an average ticket price, hold on to your hats, folks. Of $215.61. That is more than $40 more than the number two show on that list, which was Hamilton. So that show, all of those stars, it is working. The Hudson is not a huge theater. It's not a small theater, but it's not a huge one. So the doing that well is pretty remarkable. The rest of the shows, north of seven figures in descending order are the Great Gatsby, the Outsiders, oh Mary, Aladdin, mj, Cabaret, Hell's Kitchen, Romeo and Juliet, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. Death Becomes her and Stereophonic. In its final week on Broadway, Hadestown was less than $5,000 away from that. I'm a little surprised that it didn't do a little bit better considering it was Jordan Fisher and Maya Rifico's last week on Broadway, but nonetheless, still a solid week overall. In one bright spot. Even on the bottom half of these grosses, GR Grace is at the 5 lowest grossing shows this week. English, Eureka Day, Cult of love, left on 10th, and a wonderful World. And of course English is still in previews and adding performances. But all five of those shows actually saw week to week increases and English and left on 10th both saw more than six figure increases. So I think now that kind of like the tourists are out of town, these shows that might appeal more towards local New York adults who wanted to see these plays before they headed off are coming into the city to see that. So that is good. In total Of Broadway's 30 total running productions, 22 of them played to 90% capacity or above exactly at 100% were wicked, stereophonic, Omer and All in at a little over 101% was Hadestown. At 102.5 was the Outsiders. And Romeo and Juliet continues to lead this pack just a smidge under 103% capacity. Grace, is this a time of year when you see straight plays get a little bit of a bump because the traditional families and tourists aren't here, making it a little bit harder for people who are maybe bridge and tunnel folks who want to see a straight play a 90 no come in town so they don't have to avoid those huge gluts of people in and around Times Square.
- [08:16]
Grace Aki
I think, you know, I think it's a good assessment. I don't know that for a fact, nor has that ever kind of analogy been discussed. But I do think that there's a lot of validity for the fact that a lot of these plays right now are celebrity led. And this is celebrity season. This is the Golden Globes, this is the Oscars, this is, you know, award campaigning time. And I think that the eyes on celebrity culture, especially around the straight plays are very strong because you have people, red carpets, you've got openings, you've got award season stuff that I think is helping to support the the aggressive influx of straight play culture.
- [08:48]
Matt Tamanini
I love that. Speaking of straight plays, this is not going to be on Broadway, but it will be Off Broadway. We'd already talked about this idea of the rotating cast for the Off Broadway show My First Ex Husband, which will not only be written by the View co host Joy Behar, but will feature her as well. It's going to begin performances on January 29th with an opening night of February 6th at the MMAC Theater on West 60th Street. It is a rotating cast. We know that first cast was going to feature Joy Behar, Susie Essman, Tova Felichu and Adrienne See more. But additional cast members have been announced with varying dates which you can find in the show notes. But these are some pretty bold faced names to be included in this Off Broadway show. They include Judy Gold, My Queen, Susan Lucci, Cathy Moriarty, the Great Tanya Pinkins. Susan Lucci and Tanya Pinkins are going to be doing the cast, doing the show together. They appeared on All My Children Taylor for many, many years, which I have to see it anyway. Also Vann Cox, Gina Gershon, Jackie Hoff, Andrea Nevado from Jane the Virgin, who I absolutely adore. So a great group of folks are going to be in my first ex husband if you want to see the specific dates. Like I said, I've got them in the show notes and you can check that out. In other news, we talked about this a little bit, but before Gavin Creel passed away he had taken part in a new documentary that is called Common Denominator and it is going to have a screening coming up on January 27th and then it'll be available to stream in February. You can get, you can win tickets to the screening at the link in the show notes but in the documentary Gavin talks about his journey with mental health and he also performs some songs from his the musical that he wrote and starred in, Walk on Through. So I am sure that is something that a lot of people are going to want to check out both in person at the screening, but also when is it available in February to be able to stream at home. Chris One of the big awards that musical theater writers can win as they are kind of like working on developing their career, is the Klebben Prize. And yesterday we found out who the 2025 recipients would be. They are Benjamin Velez and Madeline Meyers. Velez is being honored for his work with lyrics and Myers for hers as a librettist. Velez is going to make his Broadway debut this year as part of the creative team for Real Women have Curves. There's going to be a special ceremony and invite event on February 3rd that will present these two with the awards. This year's awards were selected by a judging panel of some great folks, Raja Feather Kelly, Clint Ramos and Rachel Sussman. The award includes a $100,000 prize payable over two years and this has been given out for 35 years. This comes from the Cleven foundation, which was founded in 1988 following the death of Edward L. Cleven, who was the lyricist for A Chorus Line. So a great honor for these two and looking forward to seeing what they are all about because I'm not familiar with either. And finally in news here, Grace I had just talked about the fact that I went and saw Mystic Pizza at the Riverside Theater in Vero Beach, Florida over the weekend where EFF is starring in that show. While I was there I talked with our friend Oscar Sayles who is the press rep and he gave me a little insight about their next show which is going to be masterclass. And he told me that a certain Tony winning star is going to be playing Maria Callas and at that Tony winning star is Karen Ziemba. It was confirmed yesterday via press release that Karen Ziemba is going to be leading that production that is being directed by DJ Salisbury and it will run from February 4th through the 23rd. The rest of the cast will be in the show. Notes. I have already reached out. We are setting up an interview with Karen Ziemba because she's amazing. I love this show. This is one of my favorite shows of all time. Saw it with Tyne Daly, Al Silber, Sierra Boggess and others on Broadway and it was remarkable. So I cannot wait to see Karen Ziemba in this show over in Veronica. All right, Grace. That's all I have. I. I don't have a recommendation. Do you have anything in your wild web of connections and things that you do, you know, about in and around New York City?
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Grace Aki
You know, I don't. I feel totally like empty minded. I'm so sorry. I'm trying to think, you know, it's so funny. Like, I feel like I'm overwhelmed by the number of new shows coming up and how they're all going to start at the same time. So I'm recommending that everybody pace themselves and that they try to just schedule if you' coming in, you know, try to bang them all out together or just, you know, you've got a lot of start dates that are happening at the same time, you know, in March and April and whatnot. So if you can try to get in to see other shows before then, I highly recommend it.
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Matt Tamanini
Yeah, I'm going to be in New York starting on the 25th, and I'm only there. I come in on the 25th. I leave like at 6am on the 30th. So I'm really there for just five days. And I'm packing in basically everything that I've missed so far. I'm going to see all in Wonderful World, Cult of Love, Eureka Day and Gypsy. I'm also going to see English, which I haven't missed because it'll be during the preview period. And I'm also throwing in return trips to Sunset to see Mandy, oh Mary, to see Betty Gilpin and Hadestown, to see Hayley Kilgore and Carlos Valdez. So I'm packing in a ton of stuff in that short period. But I couldn't wait any longer because I didn't want to miss those shows. One, because many of them are closing, those straight plays are closing. But then, like, it's just a glut of how many new shows are going to be happening by the time I'm probably back in town. So that that advice is, is very well given, Grace. And it's something that I am certainly going to be taking advantage of. In a week and a half. Yeah, in a week and a half. So looking forward to that. 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 @broadwayrading. You can follow me on instagram@www.mattcrace. where can people find you?
- [14:49]
Grace Aki
You can find me at. It's Grace Hockey.
- [14:50]
Matt Tamanini
All right, everybody, have a wonderful Wednesday and we'll be back to talk to you tomorrow.