← BroadwayRadio
BroadwayRadio
Today on Broadway: Wednesday, July 23, 2025
00:17:47
Stars announced for MTC’s ‘Queens,’ JLo to produce ‘R&H’s Cinderella’ series, ‘Hamilton’ Ham4Ham 10th anniversary lottery Since 2016, “Today on Broadway” has been the first and only daily podcast recapping the top theatre headlines every Monday through...
Loading summary
Transcript22 lines
- [00:00]
T Mobile
Everyone's loving family freedom from T Mobile. We'll pay off four phones up to $3200 and give you four free phones all on America's largest 5G network. Visit your local T Mobile location or learn more@t mobile.com FamilyFreedom up to $800 per line via virtual prepaid card typically takes 15 days. Free phones via 24 monthly bill credits with finance agreement eg Apple iPhone16128GB8999 Eligible trade in eg iPhone11 Pro for well qualified credits end and balance due. If you pay off early or cancel contact T Mobile.
- [00:31]
Matt Tammaneni
Welcome to Today on Broadway for Wednesday, July 23, 2025. I'm Broadway Radio's Matt Tammaneni and I.
- [00:36]
Tony
Am Tony on the Sunday podcast Grace.
- [00:37]
Matt Tammaneni
Aki Grace we will have another very special Sunday evening Patreon exclusive episode coming up in the feed, so if you want to hear that, make sure you head over to patreon.com broadwayradio broadwayradio.com patreon and sign up at the resident tier and above. It'll be a chat that I have with our friend Oliver Roth, who is getting ready to produce the London and West End debut of Samuel D. Hunter's play Clarkston. It will be led by stage and screen favorite Joe Locke. Oliver has been working on this for quite a while, having to deal with Joe's Marvel shooting schedule and moving things around and trying to contend with that. So we're going to pull back the curtain a little bit and talk about the ins and outs of what it is like to produce this show specifically, but also just theater in general, all of the things that come up that you might not think of. So if you want to get insight into all of that, make sure you join us on Patreon. Now, Grace, we got the casting for a very exciting play that we already knew was coming to the Manhattan Theater Club Off Broadway this fall, but the cast makes it even more of a must see. It is from Pulitzer Prize winner Martina Mayo and it is called Queens. It is going to begin performances on October 14th and as many of Martina's plays are, it'll be directed by former Broadway Radio guest Trip Coleman in the cast. It will feature Brooke Bloom and Anna Chlumsky, Charlene Cruz, Marin Ireland, Julia Lester, Nadine Malouf, former Broadway radio guest Andrea Siklowski and Nicole Villamil. The play centers on a young Ukrainian woman who comes to an illegal basement apartment in Queens in search of her mother and who is forced to reckon with the difficult choices multiple generations of immigrant women who live in the home have been forced to make to survive. This show originally premiered as a Lincoln Center LCT3 show in their upstairs Clear Towel theater space, but apparently Mayo has gone through a major revision of the script. So if you've seen it off Broadway already, you will obviously recognize quite a bit of it, but it will not be the exact same show that you had previously seen in New York. So this is very cool. This cast is incredible with so many of my favorites of both stage and screengrace that this one is definitely going to have to hit that schedule as I'm actually already starting to look at what shows I'm going to be seeing when I come into town in October.
- [03:03]
Tony
Yeah. And I'll say this like, Martina is one of my favorite playwrights of this time period, so I'm very excited to have. I've never seen this work, so I'm very excited. When I saw this announcement, I feel.
- [03:14]
Matt Tammaneni
Like Anna Chlumsky is probably somebody that you. I don't know if you've grown up. I think, like the migrant, he can't.
- [03:23]
Tony
See without his glasses. He needs his glasses. I love her. I'm watching Veep.
- [03:29]
Matt Tammaneni
I was gonna say, like, going from my girl into Veep. She's been on Broadway and you Can't Take it with youh done a bunch of off Broadway stuff. Like, she's just like one of those people who is, like, not a huge star, but it's like a big enough star that you, like, see her name and you're like, oh, I know her. And then, like, you see her and she always delivers, whether it's a drama or a comedy. And knowing how incredible Martina's writing is, I think that she's going to be fantastic. And I think Moran Ireland is one of the best actors in the world. So getting to see them on stage together with Julia Lester and Andrea Ciklowski, this should be fantastic. All right, speaking of things that I am very much looking forward to, we got the cast announcement for the upcoming national tour of the Notebook, the musical. It is going to be heading out on tour beginning in September in Cleveland, Ohio, at the Playhouse Square. I've got some things to talk about with this Grace, but let's dive into the casting first. As older Ali, we will see Sharon Catherine Brown. As older Noah, we will see Bo Gravett. Alicia Desslero, who I think is tremendous, will be middle Ally. Ken Wolfe Clark will play middle Noah. Chloe Cheers will be younger Ally, and younger Noah will be Kyle Mangold. What's interesting about this casting is Grace, we are not going to see the racial breakdown that we saw on Broadway. That in my mind added to a lot of Alzheimer's dementia aspects where the different versions of the characters were cast as different races. In this at least principal casting, all of the alleys are played by black women. All of the Noahs are played by white men. And while that disappoints me, like I understand going into different parts of the country, it might not just be worth the headaches, but I really felt like that was a smart choice by the creative team on Broadway. That kind of added to the confusion of things that I'm sorry we're not get to see on Broadway or off on tour. But I, I do understand at least what I assume the logic is.
- [05:35]
Tony
Yeah, the whole like tour scenario is just so different these days. I feel like it used to be like a one to one where you know, a production would close and then they would immediately go on tour. But I think that now there's just so much different, you know, opportunity in the market and people have to like figure out what works best for each production and licensing and all those crazy things.
- [05:54]
Matt Tammaneni
Yeah, it is coming to Orlando this summer or this season and I'm very much looking forward to seeing it in whatever incarnation we get. All right, let's dive into last week's Broadway grosses. We were down a show from 30 to 29 with the closing of Boop. But despite that, grosses were actually up by 3%. They came in at $33,847,950 with total attendance coming in at 257,595 people. The average ticket price was up to $131.40 there. Three shows on Broadway last week that didn't see week to week increases and one of those was Call Me Izzy, which doesn't really count because they only did four shows last week. But what is very exciting is that Sunset Boulevard topped the list of shows last week. In its final week on Broadway, it came in at $2,481,018. It was followed by three other shows north of 2 million. That was Wicked at 2.4, Lion King at 2.2 and Hamilton at 2.19. The rest of the shows that were in the million dol in descending order, R Death Becomes Her, Aladdin, MJ maybe Happy Ending Just In Time, the Outsiders, Buena Vista Social Club, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child Cabaret at the Kit Kat Club, oh Mary, Moulin Rouge, Stranger Things, the Great Gatsby and Anne Juliet, as I mentioned, Call Me Izzy only played four shows, so you kind of have to remove that from the equation, especially because Gene Smart didn't do any of the four shows that it did have. But the next show up on from the Bottom was a still pretty healthy showing for Pirates, the Penzance musical that came in at 485ish thousand dollars. Remember, that is also in a subscription house, so the grosses in general for that are not going to be apples to apples. And it still did pretty well from there, though there were no shows below $620,000. So while some of those things were in the 600s and 700s, it's still pretty strong, especially because a lot of these shows are in smaller houses that were down there. The one that we saw on Broadway last week was John Proctor is the villain. Obviously Sadie Sinks last week on Broadway during the previous frame had juiced up the grosses fairly significantly, especially in the pretty small booth theater. But it came in at $681,000, which is actually above where it was before the Tony Awards. But obviously with all of the buzz that it had coming out of the Tonys, it kind of jumped up over the past month and a half. But it is kind of settling back down to where it was and hopefully with these extensions, more people will get a chance. Those grosses will increase as well. All right, Grace, I've got a lot of show and casting type things and we're going to start not on stage but over at Disney. And I'm a little like confused by this, but it was announced that they are going to be producing or at least distributing a new limited series that has been in the works before, based off of Rodham Hammerstein's Cinderella. That's great. You said, like it started on tv. It should, you know, it should be on tv. This is awesome. However, what's unusual about this is that it's actually being told from the viewpoint of fairy godparents. So I'm assuming we will have a lot of the Cinderella songs that we know, but it's going to be from the perspective of the fairy godparents. It is being written by Rachel Shugart, who is attached to EP and Showrun, and it is being produced by Skydance Television, Concord Originals, which is the licensing company that owns all of the R and H catalog and Jennifer Lopez's production company. So I don't know if Jennifer Lopez is going to be playing Crazy Mary in this series or not, but I'm a little interested in what this means just because. I don't know. I mean, why not just do something original if you want to do it from the fairy godparents perspective rather than taking an established property that has been on television three times and on Broadway and toured and been all around the world. But I'm interested, what are your thoughts on this? Grace? It just seems a little weird to me.
- [10:01]
Tony
Listen, people really like reusing ip. I cannot stop them. They will continue to do so. I agree with you. I think, you know, it just depends because you know that there's a lot of like testing involved with this, right? Like they do a lot of data analysis on the behind the scenes of like, will this perform better than this? Like if we adapt something like this because it's tried and true, is it going to perform better than if we try to establish, you know, a new IP from this perspective? I don't know. So I think that people generally know what they're talking about in that case. But I think that we are unfortunately, incredibly, you know, saturated with reuse of IP to the point where now things feel new because we've regurgitated so many of them so much. So, you know, I mean, it just depends. So yeah, like I don't, I really. Matt, I genuinely don't believe that like if Peter and the Starcatcher was, you know, coming to Broadway and we were given that conceit and we knew the plot of the show or whatever, I don't think that people would immediately go, oh, because Peter Pan. Do you know what I'm saying? Like a new thing. Exactly. It sounds like a brand new thing. Which I think is, is a lot of, you know, this type of, the conceit of this type of property. But I do, I do understand where you're coming from.
- [11:17]
Matt Tammaneni
This will not be the only R and H adaptation that we see on television. Most likely Skydance Television has a deal with Concord do a bunch of other things. They are working on a modern day adaptation of Oklahoma written by John Lee Hancock and great stage and screenwriter including of the Notebook on Broadway, Becca Brunstetter. So get used to a lot of this. I'm all for all these adaptations and I don't mind like a modern day adaptation. Love sexy Oklahoma. Except for the last 15 minutes. But it's the completely refocusing it that throws me off a little bit. But anyway, let's head back to the stage and we got more casting announcements for the upcoming Off Broadway encore premiere of the Two Hander Pen Pals. As you probably remember, this is played Off Broadway before it is coming back on August 15th at the Dr. 2 Theater. And it essentially has a rotating cast where two actresses will do the show for a week, a week and a half, two weeks at a time. We already knew that Kathleen Chalfont and Ellen McLaughlin were going to be doing it. They have now switched their dates from the end of September to the beginning of October. They are joining the previously announced Nancy McKeon and Gail Weiner, Michelle Clooney and Megan Fellowes, Kate Burton and Pauletta Pearson Washington and Sharon Lawrence and Maureen McCormick. Now we have a slate of other stars that will join this rotating lineup. They include Sharna Burgess and Paige Davis, Katherine Curtin and Marcia Cross and Emily Skinner and Donna Lynn Champlin. Emily Skinner and Donna Lynn Champlin Sounds absolutely delightful. So if you want to check out which dates, which weeks all of these pairs of actresses will be in, head over to the show Notes and Grace this is disappointing. I know a lot of people love the idea of this film being turned into a stage musical and we had thought it would be happening at Goodspeed musicals like the Goodspeed Opera House this fall, but unfortunately it will not. Goodspeed Musicals has announced that it has canceled or postponed. I'm not exactly sure how they're going to handle this. The world premiere of Mrs. Santa Claus, which is based off of a Jerry Herman made for TV movie from the mid-90s that starred Angela Lansbury. It was set to begin performances on November 14th. It is now going to be replaced by a new production of White Christmas. I'm not exactly sure what the reason for this was. They didn't really give any details in the announcement, but hopefully this does eventually make it to the stage because this is kind of one of those seminal things that are like sticks in a lot of people's memories of a certain age. And I guess we'll have to see if it ever actually does make it to musical theater officially or not. And then moving from Connecticut over to Cincinnati, Ohio yesterday we got the casting for the upcoming world premiere of the new rock musical called Mythic. We've talked about this before mainly because Kathleen Marshall is going to direct and choreograph and it is hoping to come to Broadway. Features a book and lyrics by Marcus Stevens and music by Orin Eldor and it very much sounds like six meets Hadestown. So it features the Greek myth of Persephone but turned on its ear. With gods reimagined as chart topping pop stars, power hungry politicians and attention seeking influencers. The cast will be led as Persephone by Anneliese Scarpachi. Playing Hades will be Julius Thomas iii. Playing Aphrodite will be Savvy Jackson. Playing Persephone's mother Demeter will be Mamie Paris, former Broadway radio guest. And playing Zeus will be Michael park. Actually, Annalise Carpacci. Grace, you've interviewed her here on Broadway Radio before, so lots of Broadway radio guests in there. The show is scheduled to begin performances on September 20th and play through October 19th in the Queen City of Ohio. So if you want more information on that, check it out. Grace, have you heard much about this show, especially with Broadway ambitions?
- [15:23]
Tony
I mean, I've heard cast recording, like I've heard the music of it, so I'm very excited by that. But no, I haven't heard in terms of like the pipeline of what's coming to Broadway, I haven't heard that. But I knew that they were working on this production for an out of town and I think that that cast is excellent. So regardless of whatever happens, I think that they're in a really good place.
- [15:43]
Matt Tammaneni
Yeah. Speaking of things outside of New York, Broadway HD has announced that it will film the current UK TV touring production of the Meat Loaf and Jim Steinman musical Bat out of Hell. It will be filmed actually on Thursday, it'll be filmed tomorrow, and it'll be streaming on Broadway HD sometime later this fall. And then finally, Grace, this is a recommendation, kind of, but not in the way that we normally do. But yesterday, Hamilton made a really exciting announcement because when they have their 10th anniversary day performance on August 6, they will have two shows that day. The 1pm matinee at the Richard Rogers Theater will feature an incredible $10 ham for ham lottery. And it's not just the normal like 30 tickets. A minimum of 1000 seats will be sold via lottery for $10 apiece. You can enter the lottery now. You have to enter by July 31st at noon, and then they will announce the winners between one and four on July 31st. I am going to enter. And if I win, I'm more than happ buy a plane ticket to fly up and see this, Grace. But you know, for all of the talk about how much money Hamilton has made over the years, how high the ticket prices are, they have always been committed to this ham for ham idea and for rushes in general and for lotteries. I think this is a great way to commemorate a decade on Broadway for them. And fingers crossed that I or maybe I guess some of you, but more me wins that that lottery here in a couple weeks.
- [17:21]
Tony
I think It's. I just want to say this. I think it's very smart that the way that you have to enter this lottery is through their app. They are making sure that you have to sign up and that they, you know, that the data will be collected in the best way. Like, I think it's very smart. So make sure that you do.
- [17:36]
Matt Tammaneni
That's how they do it on tour, too.
- [17:37]
Tony
Yeah.
- [17:37]
Matt Tammaneni
When they have the ham for ham tours on lottery, on tours, that's the exact same way you have to do it through their app.
- [17:43]
Tony
And they will be checking. So if you win, your name on your ID is what gets presented at that box office. They are not playing around. So I will be entering as well.
- [17:52]
Matt Tammaneni
Yes, absolutely. 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 BroadwayRadio. And if you want more Broadway radio, head over to patreon.com broadwayradio Grace. Where can people find you?
- [18:02]
Tony
You can find me at Grace Hockey.
- [18:03]
Matt Tammaneni
All right, everybody, have a wonderful Wednesday. We'll be back to talk to you tomorrow.