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Today on Broadway: Wednesday, Jan. 22, 2025
00:17:42
‘Dead Outlaw’ Brings Back Off-Broadway Cast, Henningsen Joins ‘Just in Time, Keke Palmer Eyeing Broadway Return 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]
A
Welcome to Today on Broadway for Wednesday, January 22, 2025 on Broadway Radio's Matt.
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B
Tamminini and I'm Telly on the Sunday podcast, Grace Aki.
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A
Thank you everybody for giving us the Grace, no pun intended, to take yesterday off. There was just no news on Monday because of the MLK holiday that everybody was not working and then I was very focused on the Ohio State football game that happened on Monday night. Thank you. We won national champions. Go Bucs. But we are back gonna round out the rest of the week with our regular Today on Broadway schedule. But on Saturday we will have a Patreon episode. On Tuesday I spoke with our friend Ashley Hufford and dove into some of the shows that she is most looking forward to in the spring. We went deep on Operation Mincemeat. Try to figure out what that was all about because she saw it twice in London. Then we discussed Smash. She saw the workshop that happened last February. So she had a lot of great insight about that. We also talked about some Off Broadway shows and some other things. So if you are not a a member of our Patreon, you can head over to patreon.com broadwayradio broadwayradio.com patreon all of our Patreon exclusive episodes are available to everybody on the Mezzanine Tier and above. But Grace, after everybody had Monday off for the holiday, we did get back into some pretty exciting news happening on Tuesday. And it started with the announcement that the entire Off Broadway cast of the multi award winning musical Dead Outlaw will be returning for the Broadway run that will happen over at the Longacre Theater beginning performances on April 12. That means that Andrew Durant, Jeb Brown, Eddie Cooper, Dashiell Eves, Julian Nettle, Ken Marks, Trent Saunders, Tom Sesma, Emily Fink and Max Sangerman will be in that show that is being directed by David Cromer and it's by David Yazbeck, Eric Della Pena and Itamar Moses. Again, I didn't see it off Broadway but I, I assumed that the Off Broadway cast was going to be coming with it. But this just gives it a little bit more momentum. Getting ready for Broadway. Having this incredible run last year at the Manette Lane Theater and I think this is one of those shows that is in the lead, if not jostling for the lead I guess with some other shows, but probably one of the front runners for the Tony for best musical this year. Grace.
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B
Yeah, it's been on the forefront of everyone's conversations in terms of new shows to be looking out for so I'm excited that they the same cast. Matt, you and I got to see Tom Sesma together or what are we doing?
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A
That's what I said. I was just about to say, like, we're seeing this together. Like it's a Tom Sesma show. We don't have a choice. I think we are contractually obligated to Broadway radio to see this show together.
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B
If you don't know what we're referencing. Many years ago now, we went to see the Sherlock Carol. Sherlock.
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A
Carol Christmas.
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B
Yeah, Sherlock Carroll with Tom Sesma because we're both big fans of his, but also I think that we have a very niche subculture of fandom and we have to continue that.
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A
Yeah, absolutely. That would have been. That was 2020. Was it 2022? No, that was. It must have been 2021 because I think everyone was still masked. So, yeah, it was 2021 at New World stages. So it was three, three plus years ago. Now, since we saw that show and saw saw Tom Sesma last together, he's obviously done a lot of other shows since then. And we've probably both seen him in multiple things, but always look forward to seeing Tom and we had him here on Broadway radio for that show. So hopefully to talk about Dead Outlaw as well. But that was not the only casting news for a Broadway show that we got yesterday. On Tuesday, just in time, the upcoming jukebox bio musical of Bobby Darin that is starring Jonathan Groff completed its casting announcements when they announced that Erica Henningsen is joining the cast as Sandra Dee. Now, what's interesting about this is back in 2019, I think when they did this show at Lyrics and Lyricists, Stephanie Stiles played that role. And Erica Henningson and Stephanie Stiles are very good friends. They went to college together and they are such good friends that I believe they were in each other's weddings like they were bridesmaids in each other's weddings. So just a nice little keeping it in the family thing, I guess. Obviously, Stephanie Stiles has been doing a lot of encore shows lately, so I'm interested to see what she has going on. But Erica Henningsen returning to Broadway. We just talked about on Monday show that her husband Kyle Selig is returning to Broadway in Old Friends. So it'll be a very fun spring for that couple. Hopefully they're able to line up their schedules and commute into midtown together. But Erica joins obviously the aforementioned Grof, Michelle Pak, Joe Barbara, Emily Bergle, Gracie Lawrence, Lance Roberts, Cesar Samoya, Christine Cornish, Julia Grandin Valeria Yarman, John Tracy Egan, Terry Kelly, Matt Magnuson, Corey Michelle Pitinode and Larkin Riley. You know, it's interesting, Grace, for a show that, like, I don't know that a lot of people, at least in our circles, are, like, super amped about. They're getting a pretty interesting cast. Obviously, Groff was always going to be the attraction here, but we previously talked about Gracie Lawrence coming from kind of different worlds in the theater world. You throw in Erica Henningsen, who has a very sizable fandom, not only from Mean Girls, but from Hazbin Hotel. You throw in Broadway vets like Michelle Paak and Cesar Samoya and John Tracy Egan. Like, they've put together a really, really solid and interesting cast for whatever you feel about the show and its, you know, subject matter going in.
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B
Oh, I'm very excited. I've been excited. I, I think that the, Yeah, I, I But, you know, I grew up learning about, like, beyond the Sea and Bobby Darin and his story and his life. I like that kind of throwback piece. I especially love a period piece like on the 60s. I'm obsessed with, like, the 50s, 60s, 70s, like, era of music. And so I've been excited about this. And I love Jonathan Groff at the end of the day, like, I am my mother's daughter and I want to see him spit on me. So I. But I think with the rest of this cast, I think they've rounded out a really good group. I love that, you know, we've got Sandra D. In there. We've got. And not the version from Greece that everyone, you know, likes to quote from Stalker Channing. But I think that this is going to be really lovely. And I like Circle in the Square. I just like all the elements of it. So I am preemptively a fan. I've been thrilled at every single casting turn. So I'm excited to see this actually come to fruition. I really am.
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A
And you mentioned the fact that this is at Circle in the Square Theater, and from what I've heard, nothing confirmed, but from what I understand, like, they're going to make this into something akin to Lady Day at Emerson's Bar and Grill, where there is tables and seating on the floor and then the normal stadium seating around it as well. But they're going to turn some of what is now the playing space at Romeo and Juliet into, I'm assuming, very expensive tickets because they are going to be in the Splash Zone, as you mentioned, with Jonathan Groff. So I think you add that kind of, that's the kind of immersive that I like. I don't like the immersive where it is also interactive. But if you're up close and personal, like, you know, like they've got the can can seats at Moulin Rouge, or at least they did when they opened. I don't know if they still do, but like, that's kind of fun to be right up in there and like you can look and it's 360 and you look around and you turn and see all this stuff. Like, I think that's cool. And it adds another level of, of intimacy for a show, you know, for any show. So I'm excited to see what they do with this. And the cast, as we said, is dynamite. Speaking of Romeo and Juliet, actually no transition intended, but yesterday the New York Theater Workshop announced a new cast member that'll be joining the upcoming premiere of Becoming Eve this spring. It is a play written by Emil Weinstein. It is based on the memoir of Abby Shava Stein and it is being directed by Tyne Raffaelli. It'll begin performances on March 19th. Joining the production is Romeo and Juliet star Tommy Dorfman. The show is set the week before the Jewish high holidays and three rabbis find themselves in a room fighting to save a family suspended between orthodoxy and modernity. One of the three, Shava, which is played by Dorfman, is the child of a dynastic Hasidic rabbinical family who was destined to become a leader of the next generation before her trans identity imploded the strictly gendered world in which she was raised. So I, you know, I love this Romeo and Juliet. I thought Tommy Dorfman, who I was not familiar with before this, I thought Tommy was incredible and so powerful, especially alongside Gabby Beans, where they both played multiple roles, being able to bounce back and forth between them. I thought it was a great performance. So I'm very excited to see what this show is all about and of course from its New York Theater workshop. So it's going to be tremendous either way.
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B
I think between Becoming Eve, All About Eve, becoming what was the TV show with Sandra? Oh, killing Eve. I don't know. Yeah, I don't know all of the differences, but I am very clear that they are all very different subject matters. So I, I definitely at the, at the onslaught of this announcement thought, oh, cool, we're getting an adaptation of that really cool TV show. It's not that. It's, it's really not. But I am interested in this and I really love that Tommy is having this really great moment in the theater, I think, between Romeo and Juliet and this show. I'm excited to see them continue on. I remember I was really starstruck when I saw them at Plaza Suite opening night with Sandra, or Sandra with Sarah Jessica Parker and Matthew Broderick. And I was like, oh, my God, Tommy Dorfman's here. This is so cool. And so I'm just excited for them to continue on in the theater. I hope to get to catch them in Romeo and Juliet. I don't think that that'll happen because there's only four movies.
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A
You still haven't seen it?
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B
No. It's really hard. Ticket, Matt.
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A
I know, but I just, I just assumed. Okay.
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B
All right, now listen. They're selling babe. I can do a pull up at home, but I want to see it. I obviously really want to see it.
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A
Yeah. So for people who are unfamiliar with Dorfman, they were on the TV show 13 Reasons why, and Jane the Virgin. Where do you know them from the most?
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B
I frankly know them as being a part of, like, the zeitgeist in pop culture and fashion. Like, I, I, I knew them through the lens of, like, Teen Vogue. And so I had just aesthetically been following them for, like, many years. I didn't follow them through acting. So I was excited when they were joining the cast of Romeo and Juliet. I didn't know that they had had the pedigree of doing these other TV shows. So I think it's cool that people are interacting with them in different ways, that maybe didn't know them as an actor, as a performer. So I think that's really cool.
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A
Do you know who Tommy Dorfman's famous cousin is?
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B
No, who is it?
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A
Tommy Dorfman's cousin is Andy Dorfman, who was a contestant on the 18th season of the Bachelor and went on to be the 10th Bachelorette.
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B
Wait, I love Andy.
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A
Yes. That is Tommy's cousin. Yeah. She walked out on the Bachelor. Juan Pablo Galavis in the ninth episode of the Bachelor, and she was apparently the first former attorney to appear on the Bachelorette. So there you go. All right. This is amazing Grace, because I have been hearing these rumors for a while. I mean, probably going on six months, but I didn't know a lot of details. When the Broadway revival of Gypsy was first announced and people were speculating about who was going to be playing Louise, a lot of people threw out the name Keke Palmer, and that made a ton of sense to me. I thought that would have been a great casting choice. I haven't seen it yet, but I'm just assuming that Joy woods is amazing, because Joy woods is always amazing. But at the time, I had heard that, yes, Kiki is planning to come to Broadway, but no, it is not in Gypsy. Well, earlier this week, she let the cat out of the bag while promoting her new movie on Watch what Happens Live. Andy Cohen, seemingly forgetting the fact that Kiki was the first black Cinderella, Broadway, asked her if she would ever want to do Broadway, and she said, oh, my God, yes, I love doing Broadway and I'm hoping to do a show at the end of the year. She went on to explain that she was working with Debbie Allen on a show, and that show was about Step and Fetch it and Muhammad Ali. This was a show that Debbie Allen had directed at the Center Theater group back in 2023 called Fetch Clay Make Man. Palmer goes on to explain that she would be playing Muhammad Ali's first wife in the play. Keke Palmer is. It's amazing to me to have seen her growth as a performer and into a star because she. If it wasn't for the pandemic, she might have just been hosting, like, the Afternoon Today show. But as soon as that got canceled, the pandemic kind of wiped that out. And she's gone on to do such amazing things and she's become a huge, massive. She was already a star, but like a huge, massive megastar. Greece. And bringing her to Broadway in a show directed by Debbie Allen just seems incredible. It just seems like such a. Such a great idea, and I cannot wait to hopefully see this happen.
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B
Yeah. I mean, listen, we've been waiting for her return to the stage for years, ever since Cinderella. And, like, especially after Scream Queens, I've been waiting for a comedy vehicle, something like Funny Girl like that. I'm just like, she's a star. She is a bonafide star. I think that she is now more in the zeitgeist than she's ever been. But we'd be so lucky to have her at the theater. So I can't wait for there to be a. If I can't re. You know, if I can't do a revival of Barefoot in the park, let it be Keke Palmer, please. Something.
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A
That'd be good. Yeah. I mean, like, going back to, like, 2012 when she did Joyful Noise with, like, Jeremy Jordan and Andy Carl and Queen Latifah. Like, I thought she was great in that. She was amazing in. Nope. And her new movie, One of Them Days is doing very well at the box office for an Indie film. So very excited for her and hopefully we do have an opportunity to see her back on Broadway soon. All right, Grace, let's dive into a couple of recommendations. Earlier this week, the cast of Death becomes her performed the song that was then. This is now on the Today Show. If you haven't had an opportunity to see this show, this will give you a very good indication as to what this show is alike. This performance features Jennifer Simard and Chris Sieber, so definitely you want to check that out. And then something that I didn't know about because it happened over the weekend and I hadn't seen it, but the Great Gatsby released some footage of its incoming stars, Ryan McCarten and Sarah Hyland performing, I believe, at the New York City Public Library. But they are singing My Green Light. And so if you are wondering what Gatsby will look like without Jeremy Jordan, without Eva Noblezada, you should definitely check out this video. They sound great on it. The first comment on the Instagram post is eva, all caps, standing ovation, heart emojis, fire emojis. I, you know, this was a show, Grace, that I liked. I actually enjoyed seeing it. I don't think it's a great show, but I like, I enjoyed seeing it both times, but I don't think that I would have ever, like, chosen to go back. But because of the uniqueness of seeing Sarah Hyland return to her Broadway roots in this show after having been one of the stars on one of the most successful sitcoms in the 21st century, like, I think I might have to go back and see it just to say, oh, yeah, I saw her back on Broadway for the first time in decades.
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B
Listen, I agree. I would not. It wasn't my first thought of like, oh, she's gonna go into Craig Casby or something, but I was hopeful that it was something. And listen, if they can get her in, let them do it. They are doing well and I think it's exciting and I'm hopeful that more young people are inspired by seeing them. Obviously, you've got the Liv and Maddie crowd that to see Ryan McCarten, you've got the modern family crowd that, you know, parents and, and children are there to see. Modern families. Sarah Hyland. This is smart. This is a really strategic move. It's really beneficial for them box office wise. And you've already got like the school groups coming in to see based on the book. So I think that this is all around a winning strategy. And I think it's very exciting to see. I can't wait to see both of them. I hope I get to. But otherwise, like really smart of them. Especially after the Ava and Jeremy of it all. I did not know how they were going to pull it off. This was the move. This was the move. I think it's great.
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A
It's such a thin needle to thread because of how popular both of those performers are and how just utterly incredible they are. Like, it is so hard to find people who can step into those shoes and carry it on. And just from this little clip, they both sound wonderful. The one thing I will say, Sarah is rocking some very high heels and she is still like a foot shorter than Ryan McCarten. She's a very diminutive woman. Grace, I know you, you, you feel that. But it is kind of funny to see them next to each other because it is a good foot difference with her at least 4 inch heels. So that'll be fun to play with for stage pictures on Broadway. 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 at Broadway Radio. You can follow me on Instagram @bwmattgrace. Where can people to find you?
- [17:28]
B
You can find me at its Grace Aki.
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A
All right everybody, have a wonderful Wednesday and we'll be back to talk to you tomorrow.