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Today on Broadway: Wednesday, March 19, 2025
00:18:48
Full Reviews for ‘Purpose’ on Broadway, ‘Drag Race’ Aiming for Broadway, Full A-List Performance of Canceled Kennedy. Center Musical ‘Finn’ Since 2016, “Today on Broadway” has been the first and only daily podcast recapping the top theatre headlines ev...
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- [00:02]
Matt Tammini
Welcome to Today on Broadway for Wednesday, March 19, 2025. I'm Broadway Radio's Matt Tammini and I'm.
- [00:07]
Grace Aki
Tell Me on the Sunday podcast Grace.
- [00:08]
Matt Tammini
Ake Grace, Literally, minutes after I published the Today on Broadway on Patreon yesterday, the reviews for Purpose eventually came out. We had hoped that they would be out by 10 o'clock when we went to start recording. They were not in Fact released until 11pm so the Patreon episode was already out. So we are going to start today's episode with all of the reviews for Purpose, which was very, very well reviewed. So we will get to that. But I do want to make sure that everybody knows what is going on later this week. We do have two more shows opening this week. I'm going to try to do my best to figure out when those review embargoes are up so we can plan accordingly. We have Buena Vista Social Club which will be opening up on Wednesday, and then Operation Mincemeat which will be opening up on Thursday. I am going to be heading out to see a production of Guys and Dolls on Thursday night that includes such Broadway names as Dan DeLuca, Kyle Taylor Parker and Jen Cody. So we're have to play that one by ear. So just pay attention to your feeds and we will get all of these reviews to you as quickly as humanly possible. But Grace, let's start over at the Helen Hayes Theater where Purpose did officially open on Monday night. This is the play written by Brandon Jacobs Jenkins and directed by Phylicia Rashad. With a phenomenal cast including the likes of Alana Arenas, Glen Davis, John Michael Hill, latonya Richardson Jackson, Harry Lennox and Kara Young. The show is about an influential family in black American politics, the Jasper Family. Their family includes civil rights leaders, pastors, congressmen, but like all families, there are cracks and secrets just under the surface. When the youngest son, Nazareth, returns home with an uninvited friend in tow, the family is forced into a reckoning with itself, its faith and the leg of black political power and familial duty. Spirited, hilarious and filled with intrigue, Purpose is an epic family drama from one of the country's most celebrated voices. As of recording time, the review aggregator site Did They like it? Has collected 14 reviews. Eleven were positive, three were mixed and none were negative. As always, Grace, we will start over with Jesse Green of the New York Times, who actually was one of the mixed voices on this one. He says, quote, you may have trouble catching your breath from laughing so hard during the first act of Brandon Jacobs Jenkins sophomore Broadway outing Purpose, which opened Monday at the Helen Hayes Theater. Deeply imagined engraved beneath its yucks, it unspools like a brilliant sitcom, then also like a sitcom, it jumps the shark. Ah well, mixed emotions go with the territory. If Purpose is primarily a merciless dissection of hypocrisy in an important religious, political, black American family, it is also a grudging love letter to them in all their God praising, backroom dealing, self promotional glory. The problem is that in the constant switchback of perspectives, the play, directed by Phylicia Rashad, grows too hectic and attenuated to maintain a line of conviction after kind of running through who all of the main characters in the story are. And it gets very complicated and very detailed and wacky in those descriptions. Jesse says, quote, this is barely a taste of the setup for the play. One of its infelicities is that it requires so much backstory to get started. Perhaps half of Naz is the younger son, Nazareth. His dialogue is narration spoken directly to the audience, unnecessarily siphoning drama from the action. If Jacobs Jenkins wit and Hill's charm alleviate the problem somewhat, Rashad's staging emphasizes it as the lights bump down awkwardly to indicate private speech and then back up afterward, freezing the momentum. The actors reliably restore it. And in any case, there is pleasure to be had in watching Jacobs Jenkins assemble his kindling stick by stick before setting it aflame. This eventually happens around the dinner table, that catnip location for playwrights because it forces everyone into prolonged proximity. But perennial headache for directors. Most of the criticism in Jesse Green's review is left at the feet of director Phylicia Rashad, obviously one of the iconic actors of the American stage and screen who has had some success directing. But this is not one where, at least from the paper of record, she is getting a lot of credit. Most of that goes to the playwright and the stars. Going through some of the other reviews, Brittany Samuel of Broadway News was positive, saying, quote, playwright Brandon Jacobs Jenkins's latest is a feast of the good stuff, crackling dialogue, powerhouse ensemble acting and weighty themes delivered with biting naturalism. Adam of TimeOut New York gave the show five out of five stars, saying, quote, but above all, of course, the show works because of Jacobs Jenkins writing, which is probing without losing its humor and bracingly honest without being cruel. Aramidi Tinubu, writing for Variety, was positive, saying, quote, a breathtaking production that beautifully blends drama and comedy. It is a searing tale that unveils the disconnect between how people see themselves and who they truly are. Jackson McHenry was mixed writing for Vulture, saying, quote, much of the nearly mathematical pleasure of watching purpose lies in watching a top tier craftsman set up and then launch one long domino chain of familial discord. And then we'll wrap it up. Grace, with Alyssa Gardner writing for the New York sun, who said, quote, with his latest effort, Purpose, the playwright does more than maintain his momentum. He secures his place as Broadway's most incisive and scathingly entertaining chronicler of family and social dysfunction, an inheritor to American greats, stretching from Eugene O'Neill to Tracy Letts, but with a voice and perspective that are distinctly of this moment. So, Grace, this is clearly a show with those reviews that is going to put itself towards the front of the best play race. You know, I think we have already kind of talked about Omar being in there, and obviously all of these extensions and bringing back the original stars will help it. Both things like the Hills of California and English already closed. It'll be interesting to see where this positions itself, but obviously tons of great reviews. I'm looking forward to hopefully seeing it when I'm in town later this month and into April. But Brandon, and then you throw in Carrie Young, and like, I. I was already going to love it. So I'm excited that these reviews were, for the most part, very, very positive.
- [06:23]
Grace Aki
Yeah, I hear you. And I think that a lot of people are very excited to champion Brandon's work. And I think that just like some of the cast involvement with the Steppenwolf of it all, I really love the article that came out about the cast member who was obviously a big part of the creative direction of that theater company, talking about, you know, ushering in this piece. And I think that anytime we have Carrie Young on Broadway, we are more fortunate as a society. So I like that. And I also like the conceit of more kind of like, family drama. I feel like we've had a lot of really good family family dramas this season. I'm thinking of, like, Cult of Love. This one, there's a lot of really good pieces out there that I think are speaking to, like, the political climate that we're currently in, but also, like, recently. So, yeah, just congrats on their opening night. I'm glad that we finally have some really substantial positive reviews for this work.
- [07:17]
Matt Tammini
All right, let's dive into last week's Broadway grosses, and man, oh, man. One, we're starting to see spring breaks happen. But two, we also saw five new shows come to Broadway. So we went from 26 shows the previous week to 31 shows last week. That came with it, a 32% grosses increase. Again, the prices are gonna get raised because of spring break, but they brought in a total of $37,459,896. Attendance increased by over 41,000 people to come in at 277,556 and the average ticket price jump 13% to $134.96. And as I predicted at the end of last year, Grace, we are now seeing multiple shows north of $2 million and two others very, very close. Othello led all shows last week with $2,824,493. Followed by Wicked in second place at 2.49 million. But here's the thing, Grace. Good Night and Good luck was in third place at $2,358,888. And it only did five performances. Now of course, first preview, they can make those a little bit more expensive. More people are really excited. But if you extrapolate that over an eight show week, that comes to 3.77 million. As we said, George Clooney, as big of a movie star as there is in the world. Denzel is obviously in that category too. But Denzel has done a lot of Broadway. George Clooney has never done Broadway. So this is one that I would imagine will keep ticking up that ladder. But again, that was number three. Hamilton also north of $2 million at 2,009,043 bucks. The Lion King was at 1.99. Glengarry Glen Ross in only seven shows did 1.9. If it gets to eight and maintains that that will be north of $2 million as well. So a lot of shows flirting with the $2 million mark. The rest of the shows north of seven figures in descending order are the Outsiders, Aladdin, the Great Gatsby, mj, Cabaret, Gypsy, Death Becomes her and Juliet, Sunset Boulevard, Hell's Kitchen and Cursed Child. In fact, except for Gypsy and Purpose saw week to week increases. Now the reason Gypsy didn't was because they only did seven shows last week. So of course they're going to see a decline from the previous week. And then Purpose, we know they comped a bunch of critics and stuff coming in for opening and they changed their playing schedule as well because they had a Monday opening night. So that makes sense. For all of that, I do want to point out, Grace, three other shows that are in previews that did not get full weeks. The Picture of Dorian Gray did just under $849,000 in six shows. Over eight shows, that is $1.13 million. Smash did five shows and came in at 715,000. Over eight shows, that's 1.15 million. And then, boop. Also did five shows at 403,000, which was at 646,000. So for some of these shows, very good starts. We will see if they're able to keep this momentum moving forward. But some very, very good black numbers in there, which is always very exciting. In total, 25 of Broadway's 31 shows played to 90% capacity or more. Here's the shows above 100%. Dorian Gray, Othello, Operation Mincemeat. Completely sold out. 100%. Above 100% were maybe happy ending. And Juliet, Hadestown. Good night and good luck. Glengarry Glen Ross and Hamilton. And then Hamilton was at 100.95%. A whole percentage point and a half almost was The Outsiders at 102.31%. So lots of really good stuff. Grace, I know this is a time for you people that are really focused on selling tickets to Broadway shows, that productions need to kind of start getting off on the right foot because they want to build up as much of that money now. This is a time to really start to fill the coffers for, you know, prolonging to run the run and extending things for as long as humanly possible.
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Grace Aki
Yeah, it's so true. Like, we. We really are living week to week, even though nobody wants to, like, fully say that. I mean, the dynamics change so much. To your point of. Some weeks are, you know, press, polls and. And press and critic and influencer, like, comps, because you're. You're building that word of mouth, and that might alter, you know, your overall gross expenditure and all those things. So I appreciate that while they fluctuate, it's not always indicative of, like, the performance of the entire campaign of a show. Like, for one week, it could. It could literally vacillate completely. But the week by week picture is important. So I appreciate that a lot.
- [11:56]
Matt Tammini
All right, we've got a few kind of, like, show news things that we're going to talk about. And I did not realize, maybe because I haven't been to Las Vegas in a couple years, but over the last couple days, I think over the weekend, RuPaul's Drag Race Live celebrated its 1,000th show in Las Vegas. I did not realize that was happening. But as part of the celebration the producers of the show, which are the same producers who produced the TV show, talked about it, talked about how much it fits perfectly in Las Vegas. And it is such a great city to have that kind of spectacle and the sequence and the sparkle and all of that stuff. But they also talked about the fact that they would like to bring it to Broadway. I don't exactly know what this is, but they say they try to recreate the feel of the TV show. So I'm sure there's a lot of lip syncing going on, a lot of high fashion stuff like that. But they got their eye on Broadway and with all the Broadway related performances that I know are a part of Drag Race every year, and there's regularly theater people who appear on the show. Grace, I feel like it could make sense. I don't know that there's a lot of things like this that have appeared on Broadway, but I don't know that there's a lot of things like this that have ever really existed at all. So I'd be interested to see what happens with this and if they're able to find a house, maybe filling in a slot like we've talked about before in between shows, or maybe it's something that can run forever, who knows? You watch Drag Race. What do you think about something like this taking up a spot on Broadway?
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Grace Aki
Yeah, I think it's great. Listen, I loved Drag the Musical also. These two things are not totally related, but I think with the excitement and the promotion of Drag Race, RuPaul's Drag Race, the TV show, you've got a lot of Drag Race contestants that have not only worked previously on Broadway, but currently work on Broadway. I'm thinking of our amazing cover as the emcee. Marcia, Marcia, Marcia Marty, who's excellent. But yeah, no, I think that it would be very successful. I think the framing of it, because there's such a vibrant drag scene already in New York City that people flock to at, you know, certain bars or brunches and things like that. Like, what would the conceit be? Is it similar to like the. The Dancing with the Stars tours that happen? Remember the Glee tours? Like, is it like that where a television series, like, has, you know, these 20 songs that they do, or is it like its own immersive show? Like, who knows? But I think that there's definitely a space for that. And I think that it would be.
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Matt Tammini
Very exciting to do another show that is very exciting for many different reasons, is Prima Facie, which we've talked about quite a bit when it was up for the Tony Awards a couple seasons ago. Well, the original star, Jodie Comer, is going to take that show on the Road in 2026 in the UK and Ireland. It is going to tour to eight different venues across Dublin, Edinburgh, Cardiff, York, Bath, Canterbury, Birmingham and Liverpool. Grace, as we talked about at the time, I only saw the National Theater live pro tape of this. I never saw her. I wasn't able to get in to see the show. Like, I'm legitimate. When this came up, I was like, okay, I've got to go see it. Like, I don't know if that's actually going to happen depending on when these dates are, but I feel like that's a performance that, as incredible as it was, watching it on screen would be even more amazing in person.
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Grace Aki
It's one of the most unbelievable performances I've ever seen in my life. And I not only love the show, but I love Jody and, like, getting to see that firsthand was amazing. I love there is a capture of it through the National. Like, you can stream that, but you should see it in person. Like, even if you're streaming it, like, I think you would want to see it in person if you can handle it. I know it's a tough material, but it's amazing. And the fact that she is doing that, there's a part of me that's like, could she still do the film? Does Cynthia have to do the film? I was going to say, remember, because, I mean, listen, Cynthia obviously incredible, but I. She's just so compelling in this role and she owns it. And like, I'm hopeful that there's still a space for that.
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Matt Tammini
Yeah. As we've talked about in the past, Cynthia Erivo was tapped to do the film version of this, adding in the element not only of the misogyny and sexual assault that is in the play as it's written for the stage, but you factor in the racial dynamics of having a black actress in that role. Role certainly changes things. And the playwright Susie Miller talked about that when it was originally announced she is doing the adaptation for the screen. So it is one of the most compelling things I've ever seen. And I'm legitimately thinking about going over to the UK in early 2026. Performances will begin on January 23rd. All right, Grace. I have two recommendations. The first one comes from the rehearsal room ahead of the New York City Center Encores production of A Love Life. Kate Baldwin and Brian Stokes Mitchell do a number of songs. Kate first sings Women's Club Blues and then the two of them sing. I remember it well. So check out that video.
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Grace Aki
And our traditional positions of fashion. And the time has come to redirect our passion. Yes.
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Matt Tammini
And it's time to resurrection. And then the other one is from Stars in the House. On Monday night, they had their fifth anniversary celebration, and it was a staged concert reading of the musical Finn with, I mean, so many freaking stars. Andrew Ranos, Kelly O'Hara, Leia Salonga, Bonnie Milligan, Jesse Mueller, Nicki M. James, Jose Lana, Michael Urie, Charlotte Dambois, Nina Webb, Peppermint Adam Pascal, Brenda Braxton, Zachary, Noah Peiser, and more. You can watch the whole thing on YouTube now. So I have a link to that and it is a really special thing. And obviously stars in the House also always has a charitable component. So if you are so inclined to help out the entertainment community fund, please do that as well. 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. You can follow me on Instagram at bwwmattgrace. Where can people find you?
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Grace Aki
You can find me at it's Grace Aki or trying to take a nap.
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Matt Tammini
Good luck with that. All right, everybody, have a wonderful Wednesday. We'll be back to talk to you tomorrow. Women should be free to go and have their.