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Today on Broadway: Wednesday, July 16, 2025
00:16:16
Soo and Gad join Hollywood Bowl’s ‘JCS’; Newell, Cox, Betty Who in ‘Drowsy Chaperon’ concert, Miss Piggy in ‘Oh, Mary!’ movie? Since 2016, “Today on Broadway” has been the first and only daily podcast recapping the top theatre headlines every Monday th...
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- [00:02]
A
Welcome to Today on Broadway for Wednesday, July 16, 2025. I'm Broadway Radio's Matt Tammini and I'm.
- [00:07]
B
Tell me on the Sunday podcast Grace.
- [00:09]
A
Ake Grace, you had your latest stage and screen or screen and stage series screening at the Nighthawk Cinema in Brooklyn on Monday night. How did it go?
- [00:18]
B
Honestly, I was thrilled. I thought it was super well attended. It was sold out. We had a great chat. I got to talk to Mikey Graceffa who is in the incredible Company of Death becomes her the Tony Award winning show. And it was just time, I think that like seeing a comedy, especially just like one as campy as that one with a room full of people, like it was just so great. Like people clapped when Isabella Rossellini turned around. It was just a great time. I love watching movies in community with other people, even older movies that still pack the same punch, that still get laughs. So it was awesome and I can't wait to explore this more with Nighthawk.
- [00:58]
A
Awesome. Well, let's dive into the news and on yesterday's show we talked about the fact that Milo Manheim and Rola Sparza had joined the upcoming Hollywood bowl concert production of Jesus Christ Superstar. Well, just shortly after we recorded, they announced a whole slew of other cast members, including some very big names as well. Starring as Mary Magdalene will be the one and only Tony nominee. Philippa sue playing King Herod is about the best King Herod casting I think they could have come up with as Tony nominee and Disney legend Josh Gad will be taking on that role. Also in the company will be Zachary James playing Caiaphas, Tyrone Huntley who was in the 2022 revival of Jesus Christ Superstar as Simon and Brian Crumb as Annis. Also in the company are some names you might be familiar with playing different ensemble and apostle roles. Joey Toronto, Clinton Roan, Brad Sharp, oh Yoyo Joy, John Krause, Nathan Madden, Morgan Marcel and a number of others. This of course is going to be happening at the Hollywood bowl on August 1st through the 3rd with a company led by Cynthia Erivo as Jesus and Adam Lambert as Judas. Sergio Trujillo will direct and choreograph and we always talk about these graces like this is, you know, summer stock for a listers and like they put together a really, really great company. So I cannot wait to see all of the videos coming out of Hollywood in just over two and a half weeks. Speaking of phenomenal casts for very limited events, yesterday we found out in an exclusive report from Variety that on October 20th there is going to be A one night only concert production of the Drowsy Chaperone happening at Carnegie Hall. It is going to be presented by Breaking the Binary and the company for this is going to be fantastic. Playing the role of Janet Vandergraft, the role originated by Sutton Foster will be Tony award winner Alex Newell. Playing her betrothed Robert will be Hadestown. And pop star Betty, who playing man in chair will be Queer Eye for the Straight Guy. Jonathan Van Neese. Playing underling will be trans activist Jocelyn Defries as the chaperone will be the one and only Emmy nominee Laverne Cox. Playing Mrs. Trottendale will be Broadway and Drag Race alum Peppermint. It'll be directed by L. Morgan Lee and it will kick off the fourth annual Breaking the Binary Theater festival which we have talked about before in years past. Grace, a phenomenal cast. The only major role, I guess not the only major role, but like the biggest role that stood out to me that they haven't cast yet is Rudolfo, who was played by Danny Burstein in the original company. I am hoping against hope that that turns out to be Murray Hill. That's my vote for Rudolfo in this production.
- [03:53]
B
But that's what's smart. I love Breaking the Binary. I'm in love with that team. I'm such a fan of all involved and I think that these types of performances are so exciting and exceptional and I think that, yeah, more. I just want more of them. I don't know. I know they're hard to do, they're expensive, but you should support them.
- [04:15]
A
Yeah, they're expensive. But like this has got a big rollout in variety. Like this is getting, you know, the traction and the eyeballs that you want from big events like this because obviously something like this helps feed the rest of the program that Breaking the Binary does not only from an attention and marketing standpoint, but also from a ticket price and a ticket sales standpoint as well. So if you have the opportunity to see this in New York City on October 20th at Carnegie Hall. Highly, highly recommend. All right, the big story coming out of Hollywood on Tuesday, Grace was the announcement of the nominees for this year's Emmy Awards. And and as always, they are chock full of theater performers. Martin Short was nominated for best actor in a comedy series for Only Murders in the Building. Both Jean Smart and Uzo Aduba, both obviously Broadway vets, including Jean Smart on Broadway right now. We'll get to her more in a bit here in a second. They were both nominated for best actress in a comedy series. Sterling K. Brown was nominated for best actor in a drama series. In some of the drama and comedy supporting categories we had theater alums like Sam Rockwell, John Turturro, Michael Urie, upcoming Broadway star Evan Moss Bacharach, Liza Colon Zayas, Cheryl Lee Ralph. They were all nominated. Moving over to limited series categories, best actor nominees included Jake Gyllenhaal and Brian Tyree Henry. Best actress in the limited series nominees included Cate Blanchett, Kristin Miliotti and Michelle Williams. Dawson's Creek, not Destiny's Child. In some of the supporting categories we had Deirdre o', Connell, Ruth Nega. Guest categories John Bernthal, Bryan Cranston, Cherry Jones, Cynthia Erivo, Alan Cumming was nominated for best outstanding host of a reality competition program for the Traitors. Even Glenn Weiss was nominated for directing the 77th annual Tony Awards. So that would have been the 2024 ones. The last ones hosted by Ariana DeBose and then Kristen Anderson, Lopez and Robert Lopez were nominated for outstanding music and lyrics for Agatha all along. So tons of theater folks nominated. As always. The 77th Annual Emmy Awards will take place on September 14th. They will air on CBS and they will live stream on Paramount. Plus I also have an article that I did for my day job of where you can stream every single one of the nominated series if you want to catch up over these next two months. Grace, what was your favorite TV watching experience from this past year, whether it included a theater connection or not?
- [06:41]
B
Yeah, for sure it was Love island. But if I have to get real with you, I think that it's the fact that the cast of Dog Day Afternoon as featured in the Bear are both nominated. I think it's pretty spectacular. We've got a lot of good stuff coming up. I haven't seen the latest season of the Bear. I think that my favorite TV watching experience this year because of the type of media that I like is the studio. That series by Seth Rollins got a lot of nominations. Seth Rollins? Oh my God. Not Seth freaking Rollins. Oh my God, that's me too. Talking about WWE on my theater podcast. I could never know. But I think that like it's through Apple tv. Plus I think that the studio, because I I love TV and film and theater that talks about its own business in a genuine self referential way. I don't think it's always achievable. I think that half of the time it sucks and it fails and it ends up being like really hateful. I think that the studio was able to manage both the humor and the heart of filmmaking in a really fun way. As a person who has never made a film in their lives, but loves movies and loves actors and all of the things, I feel like that they. I hesitate to use the infamous last words of any journalist, but, you know, it was a love letter to cinema. And I think that, I think it was great. And I loved every second of it, even the cringiest ones. Or as my bonus dad used to call them I Love Lucy moments.
- [08:10]
A
Yeah, it was the cringy moments that people had warned me about because I don't do that very well. But it's on my list. I need to finish the second season of Shrinking and then I'll go. I'll go into that probably afterwards. But I love that. All right, let's talk about last week's Broadway grosses coming out of the Fourth of July weekend. Obviously, things rebounded a bit as people weren't necessarily fleeing out of the city as they did during that holiday, but we remained at 30 shows on Broadway. The grosses inched up 7%, coming at $32,813,389 on although attendance actually declined a bit, not much, just over about 1200 people to come in at 260,530 butts and seats. The average ticket price obviously accounted for that loss in attendance to raise the grosses by more than 2 million. The average ticket price was $125.95. We did have three shows north of $2 million. Again, not a surprise at this point. Those were wicked at 2.3, the Lion King at 2.19 and Hamilton at 2.13. The second to last week of Sunset Boulevard was very close at 1.97. Then Aladdin rounded out the top five. The rest of the shows north of seven figures in descending order included MJ maybe happy ending, which is unbelievably awesome that maybe Happy Ending is coming in seventh on the grosses list now. I'm so thrilled about that. Then we had just in time. Death Becomes her, the Outsiders, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child John Proctor is the villain in the last week of Sadie Sink in the lead, Buena Vista Social Club and oh Mary Stranger Things. The first Shadow was pretty close as well. In total, Broadway had 23 of its 30 shows playing at 90% capacity or more. That's pretty awesome. Even though you know we're down to 30 shows, having 23 of them be that close was very good. Hamilton and the Outsiders were north of 101%, but under 102, maybe happy ending John Proctor, the villain were between 1 or 2. They're actually both right about 102.5%. And then Just in Time led the way at 103.12. Grace, I can't tell you how excited I am for a show like maybe happy ending to be as high as it is to see death becomes her to continue to kind of creep up there. John Proctor is the villain in a very small house to be consistently pulling in north of seven figures. Buena Vista Social Club doing well. There's just a lot of shows that have had success this year to be very, very happy about. Where sometimes like in years past, which is like, okay, the show are the. Based on the really big IP are doing well. Okay, that's fine. But like, I'm just really excited about how successful some of these shows have been now either a year or 6ish months into their run.
- [10:54]
B
I think it's worth noting because there were a lot of new shows and even like new revivals, you know, for whatever that's worth. I don't even know if that's a sentence, but, you know, you know, brand this season's roster of shows, we have had a lot of ups and downs. We've had a lot of, like, casualties. But like, seeing these IPs soar, especially maybe happy Ending. But listen, like, it won the Tony Award for best musical. That's gotta be worth something. You know what I mean? Of course. I think if it hadn't, I would hope that it would still be up there. I hope that that's a part of why people are buying. But I think it's also like the genuine positive word of mouth with how excellent that show is. But I agree with you. I think that, like, we need to celebrate these successes. It's not guaranteed anymore. You know, most people entering a new Broadway contract pre 2020were used to at least a year of work, and now people are looking at two months in hopes of more than that. You know what I mean? Like, and I hate saying that that's such a. I don't, you know, I don't mean to be like, terribly negative, but it's just the lasting power is so different these days and you really have to, like, make your mark and you really have to be good and you really have to, you know, figure out whatever that sauce is. And I know it's a combo platter of all the different things, but we should be celebrating when these shows are being as successful as they are in such a, like a tumultuous financial season, just in general on the street. So congratulations to all of them. I think it's, it's excellent. And I hope that people continue to, to show up and show out in the fall because I know that there's more shows coming, but I've not heard a lot of original new musicals coming. I've only heard of revival talks. I've not really heard a lot about new shows. So I'm curious to see where that lands everybody.
- [12:45]
A
All right, Speaking of new shows, but also Jean Smart, who I mentioned earlier, after taking a few days off last week to deal with a knee injury, she came back, I believe, over the weekend on the 12th and the 13th. She it has been announced that she is going to be out again for the majority of the this week. So Joanna Day, her standby Tony nominee in her own right, of course, is going to be taking on the title role and call me izzy through Friday, July 18, hopefully giving gene enough time to recuperate and continue on the run for the next month that is scheduled to close at Studio 54 on August 17th. So hopefully Gene's feeling well enough to complete that run over the next four weeks. And Grace, this isn't necessarily a recommendation. It's just something fun that I thought I saw two news stories come up about oh Mary, and the first one is the fact that Amy Sedaris, who a lot of people have talked about potentially getting into oh Mary because Cola Scola really had their first big break in show business on Amy Sedaris TV show. They talked about maybe Amy Sedaris taking over as Mary in the Broadway production. And she said while she would love to do it, she doesn't think that she can handle that schedule. She was on Amy Poehler's podcast to actually introduce Kola Scola, but she didn't think that she could do it. She said, quote, I don't know if I have the energy anymore for that schedule. I don't think I could do it eight days a week. I mean, I'd like to because you lose weight, you'd get muscle. I mean, but man, it's a brutal schedule. That's for a young person. I mean, obviously the if you know Amy Sedaris comedy, she is very similar to Cole, which is why they worked together in the past and they are still very good friends. Cole mentioned Amy in in their attorney award acceptance speech, but that would be a pretty incredible casting coup, only perhaps upstaged by who Cola Scola would want to play Mary Todd Lincoln in a film adaptation. Have you seen this, Grace?
- [14:45]
B
Yes, I did see this, I think that they were just. I think I have to hope that they were being funny.
- [14:52]
A
I mean, funny or not, it would be pretty cool. Cole said that they would like to see some actresses like Linda Hunt or Cherry Jones potentially playing Mary Todd Lincoln on Broadway. But when it came to a film adaptation, Cole's pick is Miss Piggy. I don't think that would actually happen. I don't know if Disney would allow a Muppet to be in an O. Mary film adaptation, but nonetheless, it would be hilarious to me.
- [15:17]
B
I. You know, I'll take it.
- [15:20]
A
No. Are you not on board?
- [15:22]
B
I think. No, I think it's funny. I just, like, I think I. I want to see another actor do it, too. Like, I think that I would want. That. I would want. If. If it could happen, I would want everyone to be human and then Miss Piggy be the only Muppet. Does that make sense?
- [15:43]
A
Yeah. Going like the counter of normal Muppet movies where everybody's a Muppet except for one like Michael Caine.
- [15:49]
B
That's that exactly like. I think that's the gag.
- [15:52]
A
Yeah. I like it. I like it. 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 oddryradio. And if you want more BroadwayRadio, head over to patreon.com broadwayradio Gracework will find you.
- [16:02]
B
You can find me at Grace Hockey.
- [16:04]
A
All right, everybody, have a wonderful Wednesday, and we'll be back to talk to you tomorrow.