Matt Tamneni (0:01)

Welcome to Today on Broadway for Wednesday, May 14, 2025. I'm Broadway Radio's Matt Tamneni. As you very likely know, Yesterday Grace made her Off Broadway debut with her one woman show To Free a Mockingbird playing at the Soho Playhouse. She has another performance tonight as I'm recording Tuesday, May 13, so I'm going to give her the day off and I'm going to run you through all of the news today by my lonesome. And we're going to start over in the West End as Cynthia Erivo is going to be returning to the in a new production of Dracula. Now in this show she will play 23 different characters. It is a one woman, quote, theatrical extravaganza and it is getting ready to come to the West End from this won't be a surprise Kip Williams, who is the creator of the Picture of Dorian Gray that is currently running on Broadway. This originated at the Sydney Theater Company in Australia as did Dorian Gray. So you can imagine a very similar take on the material from what you are currently seeing on Broadway by Sarah Snook. The show is going to play 16 weeks at the Noel Coward Theater from February 4th through May 31st. Interesting timing of course, because she's going to be very busy promoting Wicked for good in the fall of this year, but because it is a 16 week run, this doesn't immediately make it easy for her to transfer that show to Broadway this season. However, I would imagine, just like Dorian Gray, that this show will eventually come to Broadway and that would probably put it then in the spring of 2027 depending on what else Cynthia Erivo has. But it very well could be the fall of 2026. We don't really know, although if we follow the pattern of what happened with Dorian Gray, it would be a spring opening as was done with Dorian Gray. Kip Williams production will be what he calls a cine theater where actors interact with both live and pre recorded video feeds. So if you thought that Dorian Gray was a little distancing and a little cold because it wasn't a traditional theater piece, chances are you will feel the same way about this. But nonetheless, Cynth Erivo is a star of the highest order both on stage and screen at this point and with a Tony Award under her belt, this one will be ripe for Broadway when it eventually, I'm assuming, makes its way to New York. Speaking of things making their way to New York, yesterday a new social media feed popped up. It is on Instagram at least, probably other places as well. Spellingbnyc hmm, interesting. There is a little video that they posted. It's of a rainy TKTS booth. It has a little bee buzzing around it and it's just captioned when you start to hear the buzz on the streets. But when you look at the actual caption in Instagram rather than the one on the video, it says we hear the word we breathe. We wait. Of course, those are lyrics from the 25th annual Platinum County Spelling Bee. If you click on the link spelling bee nyc.com it will take you to a web that has a little bit more information, a little bit more clearly spelled. It says let's be friends. And in the little box where you can put your email address to like sign up for their mailing list, it.schwartzengruer@spellingbee nyc.com of course, one of the characters Logan Schwartz and Grubinier from the show. So clearly not hiding that this is the 25th annual platinum coming Spelling Bee. It is a website from Serino Coin, which is one of the largest press and marketing and advertising agencies working on Broadway. So there is no doubt that this show is a 25th annual Putnam County Spelling Bee coming to New York City. The question is, though, whether or not it actually is coming to Broadway or whether it'll be an off Broadway show. For me, I love spelling bee, but it's an off Broadway show. It should be an off Broadway show. It obviously, of course, had a Broadway run many years ago, but similar to what I said about the last five years, you get really one shot if you do it on Broadway and if it's not perfect, if it doesn't run properly, if it's not the hit that you hope, it really kind of makes it impossible to bring it back in any other incarnation for quite a while. So I think, though, if you go the the little shop method with spelling bee, you can have fun. People come in and out of the cast, especially as as Vice Principal Panch or somebody else coming in and out of the cast. And then you can have some great guest spellers as well. To me, this screams something off Broadway somewhere close to the theater district. I really hope it's not New World Stages, although I guess that probably would be okay too. But I just know those things are so. That place is so expensive. It's. It's not the same feel as you get with Little Shop over at the west side Theater. So it looks like Spelling bee is coming back. Of course, we most recently had the 25th annual Putnam County Spelling be at the Kennedy center before all of the craziness happened there as part of the Broadway Center Stage series there. That production had a delightful cast that I would love to see either in whole or at least in part come to Broadway that includes included Felipe Arroyo as Chip Tolentino, Leona Rae Concepcion as Marcy Park, Beanie Feldstein as Logan Schwartz and Grubinier. Noah Galvin as Leif Conybert, Alex Joseph Grayson as Mitch Mahoney, Taran Killam as Vice principal Panch, Kevin McHale as William Barfi or Bar Fay with the accent au Bonnie Milligan as Ronalisa Peretti and Nina White as Oliver Ostrovsky. This is directed and choreographed by Danny Medford, so we will see if this is what ends up happening if this is the one that comes to New York City, whether it'll be on Broadway or Off Broadway. Either way I think this is very exciting and I hope if they do it well that it becomes the type of hit that Little Shop of Horrors is. Alright, let's get into last week's Broadway grosses and it is always interesting around this time of year to see what is moving, what is doing well, what long running shows. Non shows from this season are actually still bringing in numbers. In total last week the grosses inched up just a little bit over the previous week by about $450,000 to come in at 43,501,430 bucks. The attendance also creeped up to $334,126 and the average ticket price was 130 bucks 19 cents on top of the grosses ladder. While it did not gross $4 million as it did the previous week. Good night and good luck with was the leader with $3,812,165. That comes into an average ticket price of $304.71 and despite as high as that was, that was not the highest on Broadway. That honor went to Othello which came in at $387.03 for its average ticket price. It brought in a total of $3,229,396. Glengarry Glen Ross was in third place at 2.4 million, Wicked was at 2.1 and the Lion King was at 1.8. The rest of the shows north of seven figures in descending order are Hamilton Death Becomes Her MJ Dorian Gray which did it in only six performances. The show grossed $1.2 million over six performances. This was because Sarah Snook already had a six show week plan. There was no illnesses, no cancer performances. This was already on the books. Then we wrapped up with Gypsy just in Time, Buena Vista, Social Club, Moulin Rouge, Sunset Boulevard, the Outsiders, Hell's Garden, Kitchen, Aladdin, oh Mary, and maybe Happy Ending. So of the shows not from this season that are in there, obviously long running hits like Wicked and the Lion King and Hamilton are towards the top. But then MJ doing very well, Moulin Rouge doing very well. Outsiders, Hell's Kitchen, Aladdin, all above seven figures at this time of year. As Grace has said, May is is tough for a lot of shows that aren't getting the Tony excitement and bump, so that is very good to see from them. Some of the other shows to keep an eye on are Real Women have Curves, which did have a modest $68,000 bump to come in at $385,806. That was at the bottom of the list though. Next up was Dead Outlaw which also saw a little bit of an increase at 23K to $507,756. Floyd Collins was third again Subscription House a little bit different at just under 512,000. Then we had boop, which also had a little bit of an increase following Tony nominations to come in at $514,329. And then we had purpose at 522,691 bucks. Purpose of course is a limited run. Floyd cause is a limited run. So the ones you really want to keep an eye on here are Boop, Dead Outlaw and Real Women have Curves. I don't know that they are going to announce closing now, although I have heard rumors that at least two of those three had considered closing immediately after the Tony nominations. But if they've already waited it out this long long, there doesn't seem to necessarily be much benefit unless they just can't take the hemorrhaging of money to close now. They might as well try to get some sort of bump from the Tonys. At least Dead Outlaw we know for sure will be performing as a Best Musical nominee. I would hope that Boop and Real Woman have Curves can find a way to make it into the Tony telecast in some form or another. Who knows, they kind of change those rules every year. But I feel like Jasmine Amy Rogers deserves to perform at the Tonys and I would love to see Real Women have Curves, which I think was probably pretty close to getting a Best Musical nomination. That and just in time. But we will see what happens with all of this as it shakes out. One thing I do also want to note is that Glengarry Glen Ross announced its recruitment in just nine weeks over at the Palace Theater. All right, one of the things that Grace always talks about at this time of year, especially because the Spring Road Conference is currently happening in New York City, is that shows are going to try to maximize their Tony potential by announcing tours and Operation Mincemeat did just that. But they did it a little differently than a lot of the other shows that we've talked about already. Maybe happy ending. Brandon Social Club Operation Mincemeat announced that it is going on a world tour. They will launch in 2026 and they will visit the US, the UK, Australia, Canada, China, Mexico and New Zealand. It was announced on United nations which was yesterday and the show will kick off in Manchester, England, England on February 16th. Then it'll kick off a 40 week tour in the UK before heading out to other places across the world. Moving Off Broadway Yesterday the Public Theater announced its complete lineup of shows for the 20252026 season and it will be highlighted by a very exciting musical. This is called the Seat of Our Pants, which we previously talked about. This is a musical adaptation from Nathan Lipton of the iconic Thornton Wilder play the Skin of Our Teeth, which played off Broadway at Lincoln center just a few seasons ago. This one will begin its run on October 23rd and is currently scheduled to play through November 30th and it will feature the likes of Ruthie Ann Miles, Damon Duano, Amina Fey, Andy Gratolution, Bill Buell, Gina Quintos, Allison Ann Kelly, Nat Lopez and David Ryan Smith. Lee Silverman will direct and Sunny Min Su Kit will choreograph. Also in the season we will have a new play by John Leguizamo called the Other American that'll run from September 11th through October 12th. Leguizamo will star as Nelson Castro, a Colombian American laundromat owner in Queens grappling with a failing business and buried secrets. It'll be directed by Ruben Santiago Hudson and had previously played at the Arena Stage. Also coming to the public will be a new play from Jordan E. Cooper called oh Happy day from October 20 through 26. It's a reimagining of the Noah's Ark story set in Mississippi. And we will also have an adaptation of Ulysses from the Elevator Repair Service as well as a number of other new world premiere plays. So if you want the full lineup, head over to the Show Notes now heading back out to St. Louis. This is becoming a weekly thing. The Muni has announced its cast for the upcoming production of Come From Away, which I'm a little mad that I'm gonna have already have plans. I'm not gonna be able to see this one. But Come From Away will run from June 26 through July 2, and it will feature Heidi Blickenstaff, John Bolton, Ashley Brown, Andrea Burns, Trey De Luna, Alan H. Green, Adam Heller, Abigail Isom, Jacob Keith Watson, Tamika Lawrence, Jason Tam and Zoe Wander Har. Just an absolutely stacked cast. I'm going to be in Las Vegas crossing something off my my bucket list for the first part of that, but I might have to change my plans and go from Vegas into St. Louis to check this one out because that cast is stupendous. Now moving a little bit further afield than St Louis, we're going to head over to the UK because yesterday it was announced that a musical adaptation of 50 First Dates will play London's other palace beginning in September. It is currently scheduled to run for two months, September 14th through November 16th. And this one is a musical of the obviously iconic Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore film by David Rossmer and Steve Rosen. Folks that have been here on Broadway radio before, they wrote the Other Josh Cohen, one of the most delightful musicals you will ever see. And that show is going to be directed by Casey Nicholaw and will feature Georgina Castle as Lucy, the Drew Barrymore part, and Josh St. Clair as Henry, the Adam Sandler part. Georgina Castle most recently worked with Casey Nicholaw as Regina George in In Mean Girls in London. And then a recommendation for you. It is going to be available today over at PBS's digital platform. Their new digital series, Great Performances Stage Bound will premiere with an episode following Jasmine Amy Rogers as she prepares to make her Broadway debut in Boop the Musical. They have camera crews following her from rehearsals to opening night and much more. Each episode of Stage Brown will offer a look behind the scenes of the real lives of theater stars. Additional episodes will be announced at a later date, but you can check out this episode beginning at noon today at pbs.org gperf@ the PBS app and on Great performances, Facebook and YouTube pages. 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 Roderadio. And make sure you get down to the Soho Playhouse to check out to Free a Mockingbird before next week. All right, everybody, have a wonderful Wednesday. We'll be back to talk to you tomorrow.