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Today on Broadway: Wednesday, March 12, 2025
00:20:44
Atlantic and IATSE Make History, Reviews for Three Major Off-Broadway Shows, Surprise ‘Hamilton’ Reunion 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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- [00:00]
Matt Tamminini
Hey prime members, are you tired of ads interfering with your favorite podcasts? Good news, with Amazon Music, you have access to the largest catalog of ad free top podcasts included with your prime membership. To start listening, download the Amazon Music app for free or go to Amazon.com ADFreePodcasts that's Amazon.com ADFreeP Podcasts to catch up on the latest episodes without the ads. Welcome to Today on Broadway for Wednesday, March 12, 2025. I'm Broadway Radio's Matt Tamminini and I'm.
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Grace Aki
Tell Me on a Sunday podcast, Grace Aki.
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Matt Tamminini
Grace, it is as we are recording, a very big day on Broadway, especially though if your name is Bob Martin, because he has written two shows that are premiering on Broadway not just this season, not just this spring, but tonight. He is the book writer for both Boop and the co book writer for Smash. So anytime get Bob Martin back on Broadway as far as I'm concerned, is a very good thing. So congratulations to him. I know you, you are a fan of his as well, especially from the. From the prom days.
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Grace Aki
From the prom days, yes.
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Matt Tamminini
Gosh. You went to prom with him.
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Grace Aki
I went to. Exactly. I went to physical prom with him. Yes. That's actually a true fact.
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Matt Tamminini
Yeah. But anyway, we're going to dive into what we have today. Not a ton of news, but we are going to start off with something that is not only big for the organizations involved in this news piece, but big for the entire Off Broadway theater community as well. Because on Monday night it was announced through a joint press release that the Atlantic Theater Company and the International alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, or iatse, have reached a tentative agreement to end the strike and work stoppage that has shut down all shows at the Atlantic Theatre Company since the beginning of the year or since early in January. This would be the first ever agreement between IATSE and a not for profit theater company that only produces Off Broadway. They've had other agreements with companies that have both Broadway and Off Broadway houses and stuff like that. But the Atlantic only does stuff at its downtown theater. So this would be a first in terms of the Off Broadway theater community. It of course still needs to be ratified by the workers. So there are no official details as to what is involved in this agreement, but the joint statement did say that it includes, quote, significant compensation increases, including comprehensive benefits that both parties believe reflect the essential contributions of the production crew to Atlantic Theater Company's success. So this is great. If you remember back in January, they actually had two shows running off Broadway at The Atlantic Theatre Company that had to shut down, they were then said to be postponed and then eventually canceled. Those were Aaliyah Smith's Grief Camp and Mona Perno's. I'm assuming you, David Greenspan at this point. Atlantic has not said whether those shows would return or how they're going to pick up with their season, but on their website they do say, quote, we can't wait to see you back at the theater soon. We will share additional information including new performance dates and ticket on sale information shortly. So, Grace, this is obviously something where we have talked a lot about the kind of unionization of the Off Broadway cruise. And this is another big step forward for IATSE to be able to nail down first contract with a solely off Broadway producing, not for profit theater company. What this means for the Atlantic, will they have to raise ticket prices? Will they have to maybe produce fewer shows, maybe more shows? I don't know. But this is great for the union members and hopefully in the long run, good for the theaters and their ticket buyers as well.
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Grace Aki
I feel like we're having these conversations a lot right now in terms of ticket availability and what that means. And I'm just curious to see, you know, we're in an interesting time for live entertainment. You know, I was just talking about like WWE and like Monday Night Raw and like how those still are selling out arenas, but like people feel fluctuations of patronage for live events, especially in the theater and fine arts world. So I'm like, okay, but clearly people are going to stuff soon still. But what does that mean for costs and everything else? So I am curious and I like having this conversation.
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Matt Tamminini
Yeah, that is really the push and pull of unionization. We want all of the workers to be able to get the money and the compensation and the benefits that they deserve. But we also realize that that comes at a cost. These things do not happen in a vacuum. And we also want to be able to enjoy the fruits of their labor at a price that is accessible for all people. So it is complicated and I hope we were able to thread that needle as a community moving forward. All right, Grace, as I said on Tuesday night, as we are recording, there are two new Broadway shows, beginning performances. But because of all of these new things that are happening on Broadway over the next coming weeks, we've really kind of focused on that and not given a ton of attention to the stuff that is happening Off Broadway. So what I want to do here is run through a few quick reviews of some of the biggest Off Broadway shows that have opened in the past two or three days, really dating back to Sunday night. Let's go uptown to downtown. We're going to start first at Lincoln center, where the new adaptation of Henrik Ibsen's Ghosts by Mark O? Rowe officially opened, is directed by Jack O'Brien and has a great cast featuring Ella Beatty, Billy Crudup, Levon Hawke, Hamish Linkletter, Lily Rabe and more. We will start with Jesse Green of the New York Times, who was positive but did not make the show a critics pick. He opens his review talking about the show being not well received initially because it does deal with some things that, oh, how can I say this? That were. I mean, it has to do with venereal disease, incests and euthanasia. So, like, it's pretty, as Jesse Green says here in a second, distasteful and provocative, especially at the time. But his review says, quote, distasteful though that is, it's a good drama. And Ghosts remains a provocative, engrossing work to which O'Brien's production does justice. And here's where he kind of goes on into the bigger picture of what this production means for Lincoln center and the theater community. He says it also does justice to the idea of provocative, engrossing work in the first place. Ghosts is the 14th and presumably final collaboration between O'Brien and Andre Bishop. Lincoln Center Theatre is producing artistic director, who is stepping down at the end of this season after 33 years with the company. Their notable works of Hellman, Stop Shakespeare and others have earned them this warm, valedictory moment, and yet not totally valedictory. As Ghost demonstrates, men's imprints do not fade so easily, and nothing is ever as haunted as a stage. Sarah Holdren of Vulture was mixed with her review saying, quote, o'brien's new attempt on Ibsen's reviled and eventually revered truth bomb doesn't so much answer that question as sub it out for another, less interesting one. What happens if you put a bunch of famous people in the show and for the majority of its 110 minutes play it pretty straight? In a streamlined, surprisingly low key new translation by the Irish playwright Mark O. Roe, this ghost doesn't exactly founder, but it doesn't haunt or horrify either. It feels stuck between times and impulses. 1880s Norway or now, stylized or not, unashamedly tragic or vaguely ironic. Grace, as we talked about, this, is a show that has sold out tremendously quick, based off of the stars that are involved, and they've already had to extend at least once. Who knows whether we will see more of that in the future. But it does seem like there are some good things in there, but maybe not the home run hit that a lot of people could have hoped.
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Grace Aki
Yeah, I know a lot of people were talking about this, especially with how starry the cast was, but this one has kind of slipped through at least, like my mental cracks as of late just because there are so many new things opening. So I hate to hear that it's not getting, you know, the reviews probably that they wanted, but at the same time, like, it's a very starry cast. It's Lincoln Center. It's like all these things. So it's got a lot going for it and I hope I get to see it. I'm very interested in it.
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Matt Tamminini
Yeah, absolutely. All right, so another show moving downtown down from Lincoln center to mcc. Although this is not an MCC production. This is the new play by Natalie Margolin called All Nighter. Directed by Jackie Bradley. It has a host of young up and coming and in some cases already here stars including Katherine Gallagher, Julia Lester, Aliyah, Chanel Scott. The show is playing a strictly limited 12 week engagement. And let's start with a review from the lone woman that I could find that had the opportunity to review it. It was Alison Consendine from New York Theatre Guide. She was positive, saying, quote, natalie Margolin's All Nighter brilliantly captures the frenetic energy of a group of college women sharing space and mining the complexities of friendship all over tubs of hummus and notes for the psychology exam. It may be the best portrayal of college girls on stage ever. Andrew Martini of Theater Lee was also positive, saying, quote, at its best, All Nighter is a touching peon of female friendship, especially at an age when the real world, as the women refer to it, gets closer and closer. It's a frightening time, especially when you're 22 and you're still not sure who you are. Another rave review that I got on Tuesday was friend of the show, Mary Lou Henner. Said she loved it and recommend Mechanic. I see it when I'm in town. So this is one grace that, as we know, has had tons of buzz. So many people were super excited about this one and with all of the stars there, it's had very starry people in attendance as well. So I'm not sure if people can actually get tickets at this point or if it's completely sold out. But the reviews, at least from the minimal ones that I've seen so far, have been pretty good.
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Grace Aki
Yeah, I had the Opportunity to be the plus one to see this show last week. And I felt kind of similarly in terms of like, you know, I love coming of age stories. I love, you know, when people written as youthful, young women especially, and then they're written very authentically. I think that what I found the most interesting was the fact that like we got to, I think the real nitty of what I think the piece is about, about like 45 plus minutes in and it's a 90 minute note intermission. But once we got there, I noticed because the audience, thank goodness, is skewed so much younger. There were moments because we built up so much comedy that I think that some of the drama and the effectiveness of the story was being lost only because people were kind of like laughing through some of the things that dealt with like serious mental illness and alcohol abuse. And so I was like, oh, interesting, because we've kind of set up that this is like your girl's girl, like show that I think we're not. We're not realizing that, like, actually there's some really heavy themes at play in this moment. So I'm hopeful that maybe that's kind of like settled in a little bit. But I think it's really strong and I saw a lot of great opportunity there and some really powerhouse performances. So kudos to them.
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Matt Tamminini
Awesome. All right, the last one, we're going to go from midtown downtown to the Orpheum Theater, where the Jonathan Larson Project is currently playing. It, of course, was conceived by Jennifer Ashley Tepper and is directed by John Simpkins, has a fantastic cast of Adam Chandler, Barrett Taylor, Iman Jones, Lauren Marcus, Andy Mientis and Jason Tam. Jackson McHenry was mixed on the show. Writing for Vulture, he said, quote, the aim in focusing on Larson's offcuts may be to deepen your understanding of the composer. Though Tepper and Simpkins don't veer far out of the realm of fandom, you'll find an insert in your program with the names and short histories of the 18 songs that Tepper and Simpkins have assembled into the Jonathan Larson Project. But the show itself goes by without much of a lesson planned from the stage, flowing between songs without introduction or editorializing. I kept peering down in the dark, trying to work out the origin of each song as it was performed. That structure maintains some momentum, though it puts the show's aims in opposition. Are we here to learn more about Larson or simply to loud him? The latter, mostly. Joey Simmons of Theaterly was positive, saying, quote, the joy of the piece lies in Discovering Larson's most bizarre and ambitious works in progress, the project packs its middle section with surreal, unapologetically political tunes about sexism, wealth hoarding and white male privilege. This portion of the show is demanding, no doubt, and certainly some of Larson's lyrics are heavy handed. You can probably guess the takeaway of White Male World and the Truth Is a Lie before hearing them. But when the tunes are such absolute bangers, so what? Grace, I saw this in 2018 is that when it was. And I completely understand where these, especially Jackson McHenry's review is coming from, where it's like, at that point it was just a concert and I don't think it's changed a whole lot. So there wasn't a whole lot of time spent kind of piecing this stuff together or building any kind of narrative or context for the songs. But as somebody who grew up loving rent and then eventually tick, tick boom, I still just get overjoyed by hearing these songs. And I've listened to them a lot over the years with a cast album, so I'm hoping I have the opportunity to see this downtown as well. All right, let's move on to last week's Broadway grosses. We did have 26 shows on Broadway, down from the 27 the previous week, but grosses did increase 5% up to 28,328,355 bucks. I guess there's probably some folks that are starting spring break, so that could be helping some things overall as we get into March and April. Overall, 236,448 people saw shows on Broadway last week, and the average ticket price ticked up 1% to $119.81. But Grace, one of the things that I predicted for 2025 is that we would see more weeks with Multiple shows over $2 million in the grosses. And we did have that last week. And for the second week in a row, it was not Wicked at the top of the grosses ladder. In fact, it was Othello. That show came in at $2,818,297. Wicked was at 2.44. Hamilton was in third at 2.7, followed by the Lion King at 1.5 and the Outsiders at 1.3. The rest of the shows in the Million Dollar Club in descending order are Gypsy, mj, Aladdin, Death Becomes Her Cabaret, Great Gatsby, and Sunset Boulevard. After last week's grosses dipped quite a bit because it was coming out of some holidays and stuff like that, there are only actually two shows that saw week to week declines and they were pretty minimal. Operation Mincemeat dipped less than $5,000 and Redwood dropped $36,000. Every other show on Broadway saw numbers in the black last week, which is of course a positive thing. In total, 15 of Broadway's 26 shows saw capacities of 90% or better. Othello, Wicked and Operation Mincemeat all played to a complete 100% capacity, while the Outsiders was still on top at just over 101% capacity. And what's interesting about that Othello total grace is that that is the new high watermark for any play in Broadway history. It passed Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, which during like the. The last week of 2023 was at 2.7 million. I have a feeling, Grace, that we're going to have another play up there very soon. Whether it beats Othello or it is neck and neck with Othello. If it's just behind Othello, I don't know. But I think when it comes down to some of these grosses coming up, we're gonna see Wicked, of course above $2 million. But I also think we're gonna see a couple star studded plays jockeying for that top spot too.
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Grace Aki
Yeah, I mean this is, this is a heavy season for star studded place. Like it is. It's. It's kind of unprecedented. I know we talk about them kind of every season, but this feels really lofty. Like the fact that that's a box office record. You're gonna be looking at good night and good luck. You're gonna be looking at Glengarry. You're gonna be like, it's insane. Like I've never seen anything like it where there's like multiple. So I'm curious to see how all of it nets out. But congrats to them. I mean, that's crazy.
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Matt Tamminini
Yeah, I mean there really is no bigger movie star than George Clooney probably. And then if there is, it might be Denzel Washington. So to have them both on Broadway and then throw in Jake Gyllenhaal as well, like those are some pretty heavy hitter names. And then you stack them out with like the folks that you said in Glengarry and everybody else. So it's certainly going to be an interesting season from that respect. One thing that I want to let people know, especially if you are a tourist looking for Broadway souvenirs, the famed merchandise shop One Shubert Alley is going to open up a second location. This one is going to be called 1 Shubert Alley Broadway. It officially opens today at 10am this one will have all of the same offerings that are in the original location in In Shubert Alley, that tiny little place, but it will also have a ton of other things as well. This one will be located just adjacent to the Winter garden theater between 50th and 51st streets on Broadway. So if you are up on that side of Times Square and you need to get some souvenirs, you can definitely check that out. I do that every time I am in town. All right, Grace, I've got a handful of recommendations here. I don't know if you've seen this yet, but the Norwegian production of Wicked, which is not a replica production, so this is not like just the same Broadway production taken over to Norway, but it's a completely standalone production. They have been able to add in the movie version of Popular. So like the ending that Ariana Grande does in Popular is now incorporated into their Norwegian production. And it's not in a language that I understand, but it is very definitively that version. So there's a couple of videos of that. Then we also have a performance by Jasmine Amy Rogers from BOOP called Something to Shout about another one of those recording studio videos. But then the last video that I want to talk about comes from something we talked about, Grace, the 10th anniversary Hamilton series of movies that Lin Manuel Miranda is doing at the United palace in Washington Heights. They did the first one. They were doing Renee Lee Goldsberry's Satisfied documentary. And of course Renee Lee Goldsberry is there to present her documentary Satisfied. She's going to sing Satisfied. Lynn is on stage as well. But when it comes to the part where Elizabeth joins in from the curtain, comes on stage, Philippa sue, of course, the audience went absolutely nuts.
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C
And she.
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Matt Tamminini
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. Follow me on Instagram @bww Matt Grace, where can people find you?
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Grace Aki
You can find me at It's Grace Hockey.
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Matt Tamminini
All right, everybody, have a wonderful Wednesday. We'll be back to talk to you tomorrow.
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C
Is why I introduced him to a Li Mex going Angelica. He was right. He will never be satisfied. Number four, know my sister like I know my own mind. You will never find anyone as trusting or as kind. If I tell her that I love him, she'd be silently resigned he be mine. She would say I'm fine. She'd be lying. But when I fantasize this night. It's Alexander so quickly. At least she's his wife. At least 19 design in my life.