Grace Aki (2:44)

Yeah. And also like all of these injuries or whatever it is to your point, like they're all completely different. Like not, not a single one of them is like, ah, and this is, you know, why we, we have these conditions or whatever, inequity. It's like they're all completely different things. I also don't know how Jean Smart is even doing just like mental health wise that many times a week. Do you know what I mean? Like, I think it's, I think it just varies and I'm glad that they're getting the care that they need. But I do know that this is such a crucial time, especially when a lot of this is based on, you know, people are there to see those particular stars. And so it makes it really hard on the company and the grosses and all those things. So there's like 100 factors, but I just want everybody to be okay and that for people to still want to go see those shows because some of these covers and they're all phenomenal. So I'm very hopeful for all of that.

Matt Tamminini (3:31)

Yeah, you're talking about people like going to specifically see certain stars. That is obviously the case for Jean Smart. It is a one woman show and she is the, you know, the legendary star of stage and screen. Megan Hilty as well, being a Tony nominee for that role. Jessica Vosk, obviously, even though she's a replacement of the show, is a big star in her own right. That is probably garnering quite a bit of fan support in that role. So hopefully everybody is healing up and we will have them all back on stage soon. Speaking of some really fun casting news, yesterday we found out who was going to be taking over the role of Lance in and Juliet following Joey Fatone's forthcoming final performance. That will happen on the final day of this month, July 31st. Stepping in to those well worn sequins and puffy shirts will be none other than Tony award winner James Monroe Iglehart. He will begin performances in a 13 week run on August 5th, running through November 2nd. This is, I mean, one of the smartest, most interesting castings I've seen in a while. Like Joey Fatone makes a ton of sense in so many ways because of the iconic pop music. But if you're just thinking like somebody to play that over the top, fun, silly character from inside the Broadway sphere in terms of stardom, in terms of talent, in terms of sense of humor, JMI Seems about perfect. Grace.

Grace Aki (4:58)

I'm very excited about his performance as Lance. I think it's going to be really great. He's also like just, he's so good in everything that he does. But I think that he particularly has an amazing chokehold on, I mean, to say that, like, he's so energized. Like, the way he commands a crowd in shows like Aladdin, the way he commands a crowd in shows like Hamilton, within that kind of like ensemble of principles. Like, I think that he's going to fit in so well in Aunt Juliet. And so I'm very, very exc for this announcement.

Matt Tamminini (5:28)

Yeah, this one seems great. Going from one Tony Award winner joining an already running show to a Tony nominee joining an already running show. We know last week that Montego Glover took over the role of Rose in Gypsy on Broadway during Audra McDonald's vacation. Well, as we kind of speculated, maybe she's a replacement, maybe she does the tour. Those things still might be the case. But earlier this week we found out that she's actually going to be stepping in on a more regular basis on Broadway because she's going to be taking over the Sunday Matt nap performances in July and August beginning on July 20th. This will give Audra a little bit more of a break. So Montego having that one week under her belt, what a great way to just kind of throw you into being a more regular and consistent alternate. Obviously, we don't know what happens after August. Maybe she will continue. Maybe Audra will want to just do every show again. Who knows? But I heard a lot of folks really enjoyed Montego's performance and it'll be great for people to have an opportunity to see her more consistently throughout the rest of the summer. And then finally going from people joining shows to somebody leaving a show. Yesterday it was announced that Tony nominee Brody Grant has set his final date to be playing Ponyboy Curtis in Broadway's best musical winning show, the Outsiders. He will continue to play the part through September 21st and then someone else will take over from there. We do not yet know who that will be be, but that's a really solid 18 month run for Brody as the lead of that show, which is obviously a pretty physical show in a lot of ways too for him. So it'll be interesting to see who they have to come in and replace him. But that show is doing, still doing very, very well a year and a half after it opened on Broadway. So good luck to Brody and whoever steps into Ponyboy's shoes. All right, Grace, let's take a break from all of this show and casting news. Don't worry, but there will be more of it. But let's talk about our friends at Surfshark who are sponsoring today's show. I don't know about you, but every time I go online these days, I feel like I'm being watched. It's just that little thing where you've got somebody over your shoulder kind of spying on you even when you're home alone. That is not imaginary. That is not something that's just inside your head. It is true, because whether you're just googling something random about how to fix the gutters at your house, when you go to a completely different website or when you sign on to social media, it always seems like there are gutter related products or handymen ready to clean out your gutters, popping up on ads and in Instagram reels all over the place, all because they know what you Google. There's a reason for this. Because your browser is able to watch and store your digital activity and then it gets farmed out to everybody who wants to have an opportunity to pay for that information. And that's why you need to sign up for today's sponsor Surfshark vpn. Surfshark encrypts everything that you do online. So no super, so no snoopers, trackers or hackers or anybody is able to get all of your information just because they're able to get onto your WI FI network. But in addition to all of that security stuff, Grace, the reason that you love Surfshark VPN so much is a much more fun and entertaining reason.

Grace Aki (8:37)

100%. I think it's so crazy that like there's only so many things that we can actually stream when you are not using a vpn. You know what I mean? Like there's only so many TV shows and movies that are out there and you would think, grace, how could you have seen them all? I have. And that is why I love using Surf Shark vpn because there is an ability for us to actually go into, hey, do you want to watch Love island uk? You can. Do you want to watch all of these other, you know, Japanese Hayao Miyazaki films? You can, and that's why using a VPN is so much more safe and I actually have access to so much more entertainment, whereas I normally would not.

Matt Tamminini (9:10)

So it's time to take control of your online security. Try Surfshark risk free today and enjoy their 30 day money back guarantee. Go to surfshark.com tob for four extra months of Surfshark. That's code tob@surfshark.com the URL and code can be found in our show notes. All right, Grace, let's talk about last week's Broadway grosses. I'm not going to spend a lot of time on these because the 4th of July holiday is always a down week for Broadway. Not only do schedules get changed to accommodate the holidays, and it was on a Friday this year, so that hurts even more than normal. But going in and sitting in the theater is not a traditional Fourth of July summer holiday thing. So the grosses are obviously down. Then you factor in that five shows had closed the previous week and everything just kind of took a tumble. But in General, there were 30 shows on Broadway. On average, they grossed just over $1 million a piece, coming in at $30,529,370. There were 261,793 people in attendance at a Broadway show last week, and the average ticket price was down to $116.62. There were three shows north of $2 million last week, led by Wicked at $2,257,921. Hamilton was at $2.1 million and the Lion King was at 2.05. The rest of the shows north of seven figures in descending order are Sunset Boulevard, Aladdin, maybe Happy Ending, mj Just In Time, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, the Outsiders, Death Becomes her, and Buena Vista Social Club. Unfortunately, we were talking about Montego Glover here recently. For whatever reason, obviously all of the holidays is a big part. Audra being out is another part. But G had its worst week on Broadway, at least in terms of eight shows, as it brought in only $293,903. Hopefully as Word of mouth begins to circulate about how great Montego was that they won't see necessarily as big of a decline during her performances. In total, 23 of Broadway's 30 shows did play to 90% capacity last week. That is obviously a bonus, even if the grosses weren't great. Wicked was at 100%. Hadestown was just over at 100.01%. Then you had Hamilton and the outsider in between 101 and 102. John Proctor is the villain and maybe Happy ending, we're between 102 and 103. And then just in time was at 103.01%. All right, we have some more show and casting stuff that I want to get to Grayson Yesterday, the Public Theater announced the casting for three shows in the 202526 season. I'm going to focus on the big one that'll be happening. It is a new musical adaptation of Thornton Wilder's play the Skin of Our Teeth which was seen on Broadway a couple seasons ago at Lincoln Center. This is called the Seat of Our. It has music and lyrics and an adaptation by Ethan Lipton. It is directed by Lee Silverman and choreographed by Sunny Min Su Kitt and the cast is tremendous. In the show we have Ali Bonino, Damon Duano, Michaela Diamond, Amina Faye, Andy Grottolution, Schuler Hensley, Ruthie Ann Miles, Ruth Sternberg and more. If you want to see all of the ensemble for that show, we will have it in the show notes. It is scheduled to run from October 24th through November 30th. Hopefully that one extends even more into the holiday season. We also have the cast announced for a world premiere play happening in November by Elsie Wendt called Initiative and then the Elevator Repair Services production of Ulysses which is gonna take place in January 2026. And then Grace, we always talk about how much we love A Christmas Carol and that I personally believe that there should be a different Christmas Carol on Broadway every season. Well, we're not getting A Christmas Carol on Broadway this year, at least not as far as we know. But we are getting a former Broadway production of A Christmas Carol in New York because the Old Vic production of A Christmas Carol that has run on Broadway a couple times I believe, which was adapted by Jack Thorne and directed by Matthew Warchis, it is going to be running at PAC NYC. It'll begin performances on November 23rd and run through December 28th. We don't know about casting for this one quite yet but but I'm just very happy that we're going to have an opportunity to see this one back on stage in New York this holiday season. All right, let's stick Off Broadway, Grace and we have two shows that have announced Off Broadway extensions. The first one is over at MCC where Trophy Boys has announced a second extension. The show is now going to play through August 3rd. The show began performances just over a month ago on June 5, so it is doing very well there. And then following that initial sold out six week ticket drop, Masquerade, this immersive spin off of Phantom of the Opera has officially announced that they will do another six week run. That one will take the show through October 19th. Tickets for the newly added performances which start on September 11th will be made available to people who sign up@masqueradenyc.com or are members of Andrew Lloyd Webber's Box 5 Club. Beginning today, July 9th. And then the general on sale date will be July 10th. So that means we are currently scheduled to have this show up and running from July 31 through October 19. It would seem, Grace, to me, to kind of be a failure of marketing and planning if this show was not open on Halloween.

Grace Aki (14:39)

You know, it feels like a must.

Matt Tamminini (14:42)

Doesn't really does it?

Grace Aki (14:44)

Really feels like they gotta do that one.

Matt Tamminini (14:47)

I expect that it is going to continue to extend as people continue to see it and go out in the word of mouth starts to spread. But I will say that there are people who are kind of like, diving into all things Masquerade. And the more we learn about it, the more that it is sounding increasingly like Sleep no More. There was a caveat. I believe it was on Ben Lebowski's Instagram or Twitter TikTok. I only see it on Instagram, but I'm sure it's on. Both were, like, dove into, like, some of the Q and A's and like, I don't know if it was like, some of the documents you had to sign to buy the tickets or whatever, but apparently, like, there's going to be some violence, some displays of sexuality, some nudity in the show. So it sounds a lot like Sleep no More. I do not know the original source material for Phantom of the Opera, the original novel. So, like, I don't know if the nudity and extensive sexuality is in that original source, certainly not in the musical version that we have seen on Broadway in the past. But I do feel like the vibe of this is hewing far more towards Sleep no more than to the Phantom of the Opera that we saw for 35 years on Broadway.

Grace Aki (15:51)

Yeah. You know, the more I'm realizing now that it's not stereophonic that we're seeing. I really thought forever that I was getting my tickets to the Masquerade was very different. So this is news to me.

Matt Tamminini (16:08)

Yeah, very different. Very different. I could. I mean, look, if you want to do an immersive show where they just play that version of Masquerade, I would be there. I would love to live in that recording studio and be around those characters. So I'm definitely here for that. All right, so that is all the news we have for you today, Grace. Where can people get tickets to see your Death becomes her Stage to screen screening next Monday night on July 14th.

Grace Aki (16:35)

You can get those tickets on the Nighthawk Cinema website. They are available. There's a few left, so please snatch them up. So I hope to see you there.

Matt Tamminini (16:44)

And remember, there are two Nighthawk Cinemas in Brooklyn. This is at Prospect park, not Williamsburg. So make sure that you're clicking on the right one. 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 odrayradio. And if you want more BroadwayRadio, go over to patreon.com broadwayradio Grace. Where can people find you?

Grace Aki (17:01)

You can find me at Grace Hockey.

Matt Tamminini (17:02)

All right, everybody, have a wonderful Wednesday. We'll be back to talk to you tomorrow.