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MickeyJoTheatre
a HUGE Broadway casting update | Maybe Happy Ending, Death Becomes Her, Titaníque, Hadestown & more
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Who's ready for a buh buh buh Big B B B Broadway casting update? It's you. I'm hoping the answer is you. Oh my God. Hey, welcome back to my theatre themed YouTube channel. Or hello to those of you listening to this on podcast platforms. My name is Micky Jo and I am obsessed with all things theatre as a critic and content creator here on social media and bring you a slightly different theatre news recap because it's not connected to one particularly huge story, but it's going to cover a lot of ground in terms of recently announced casting updates. Individuals who have left shows, people who are joining shows, people who are rumored to be attached to shows, people who might be returning to shows that they previously joined and then left. Lots to say about the way that casting is working at the moment on Broadway amidst this unusually quiet season for new musicals. And the shows that we're going to be talking about today predominantly are Death Becomes Her. We're going to talk about about the casting happening with that show's leading ladies. We're going to talk about the entirety of the Operation Mincemeat cast being set to depart the production with a completely new all American cast coming in. What does this mean for the show? We're going to talk about the recently announced cast members of Titanique, though we still don't know the entire full new cast, and we're going to speculate about who might be joining them on the Ship of Dreams this spring. We're going to talk about what else we're going to talk about. Oh, maybe Happy Ending Hot off the presses. Maybe Happy Ending just gave us an update as to the future of their robots through the next few months, as well as a handful of passing observations that we can make about other shows, including Just In Time and Wicked. Of course, as I'm sharing my thoughts, insights and observations with you, I would love to hear yours in the comments section down below. If you have heard differently to what I have heard, please share it with the class. Or feel free to share your thoughts and expectations about all of the confirmed casting that we will be discussing today. In the meantime, if you haven't already subscribed right here on YouTube, what are you doing with your life? Go ahead and hit that subscribe button. I can't believe I just said that out loud. Oh what have I become? Oh, and I completely forgot to work this in, naturally. But I have a substack newsletter now, the link to which is going to be in the description of this video, which essentially gives you a weekly update on everything that I have shared here and across the Internet. Because there are some reviews that only go up as short form on certain platforms, it's basically just a great way of staying up to date with all of my theater related content. It's going to arrive weekly in your email inbox for free, complete with a little introduction and some closing remarks each week from me about the week that I've just had and everything else that I'm looking forward to. So if you want to know which shows I'm seeing next, that's going to be the place to find out. Head to the description and sign up for my substack. While you're there, turn on notifications so that YouTube lets you know Every time I share a new theater update. We're talking news, reviews, vlogs, interviews, West End and Broadway. Or if it is easier for you simply to listen to my loud, loud enthusiasm, go ahead and follow me on your favorite podcast platform. In the meantime, let's talk about Broadway casting. Okay, so normally when I would do a sort of a list based thing like this, we would end with the miscellaneous category. This time we're going to hit miscellaneous up top. We're going to try and cover as many of these shows as possible. Let's do it. Start the Clock. So recently announced the two new witches who will be joining Broadway's Wicked. They are current Elphaba Stand by Keri Renee Fuller, who will be taking on the broomstick of the Green Girl full time, as well as the wonderful and genuinely lovely Emma Flynn, who starred as Cher Horowitz in the West End production of Clueless early last year. And the west loss is New York's gain as Emma has flown back over the Atlantic, presumably not by bubble, to make her Broadway debut as Glinda the Good. And just to pause all of the industry chat and have something of a human moment, Emma is one of the loveliest and most talented rising stars I have had the fortune of encountering in the last few years, and I can think of few individuals who deserve a huge opportunity like this quite as much as she does. I am so beyond thrilled for her and I can say conclusively she is going to be outstanding. I am also gay enough that I have already heard Kerri Renee Fuller singing various things on the Internet. I have heard her memory. That sounds weird in any other context. I've heard your memory. But this I think is going to be a Wicked pairing for the ages. And a bit of me is sad that Lencia, who's casting in the role as the first principal black actress to play Elphaba on Broadway, was utterly groundbreaking and glass ceiling shattering is already coming to an end. This does seem to be the way that Wicked on Broadway is operating these days. It seems as though they don't want any individuals in these roles to become bigger than the show and in terms of its brand, what Wicked on Broadway is doing is working right now and has been for some time. And it seems as though from an outside perspective, their approach in casting is to have these two leads on a strictly 12 month contract. And honestly, I did not have seeing Wicked on Broadway on my bingo card this year. We've just had two films, there's been a lot of Wicked. But I am not about to miss Emma Flynn flying onto that stage in a bubble. I'm gonna cry. Carrying on from upstairs at the Gershwin Theatre to downstairs at the Circle in the Square. What's gonna happen with Just In Time when Jonathan Groff leaves the show? If you don't know, and this is something of a spoile Just In Time. If you don't want to know anything about this material, you're going to want to skip ahead a little bit here. But the show is kind of written around the idea of this being Jonathan Groff playing Bobby Darren, he speaks about himself out of character. It's instantly fourth wall breaking. He introduces himself to the audience. He makes jokes about how much he spits on stage and his own sort of commitment issues throughout his life. Romantically, it's very much written to be him in the role. So any replacement actor in that show is presumably going to have to have a certain amount of the introductory material reworked for them. And I have heard, as we may all have done, multiple rumors at this point. Actors on Broadway have told me that they heard that a certain singing personality known for that particular style of music, and I feel like I can tell you who it is, because, you know, if it's not one of them, it's the other one, and it's not the one who did. On a clear day, you can see forever whose name has escaped me at this particular moment. Who was he? Who was this man? Sorry? To this man. No, not the original Broadway production. Oh, I'm gonna be here all day. Harry Connick Jr. That's the one. Not Harry Connick Jr. That's not who I've heard for. Just in time. But people have been saying Buble. And, you know, while Michael Buble would absolutely sound fantastic and it would sure sell a lot of tickets, that thing would market itself. He's not really known, unless I'm mistaken, as something of an actor. And it does go there in terms of the emotional range of the role. There are also dance requ. Elements. It's deceptively difficult. Groff makes it look easy because he is the incredibly talented and charming Jonathan Groff. I think they're deceptively difficult shoes to step into. I've also heard the same kind of Broadway names that get thrown around for roles like these when we're talking about leading men, particularly song and dance men, or one of them, at least. There has been chatter about Jeremy Jordan doing this. I don't know that he would when he's got such an easy gig. And I say easy gig, it's still a demanding role. But with the Great Gatsby, which is sort of, I think, probably the slightly better fit for him, has also been talk about Matthew Morrison perhaps perpetrating a Broadway comeback. Can you say finding Neverland? Because both of them can only. I'm wondering if Matthew Morrison is actually going to be wearing a tuxedo in a different show on Broadway over the next few months, but we'll get to that. What else has happened recently? The fear of 13 has just been announced to be heading to Broadway, and the only sort of exciting Casting news attached to this, as well as Adrien Brody reprising his Olivier Award nominated performance from the London run at the Donmar Warehouse, is that he will be joined on Broadway by Tessa Thompson. And with that announcement, completing the Broadway season. Unless something closes incredibly last minute and something else opens in that theater incredibly last minute. One of the few new musicals this season still running is Two Strangers Carry a Cake Across New York, who have recently acquired, which makes it sound like a business deal. Two new standbys, two new covers. Hopefully that is some kind of a statement about how the show is doing right now in terms of its box office and its projected longevity. You know, in such a quiet season for new musicals, there are only going to be six of them in total this year at the Tony Awards who were even eligible. Compared with the proverbial wildebeest stampede that we had last year, it feels like Two Strangers is in a great position to be a front runner if it can stay open for long enough. Their battle this year is going to be one of endurance, it seems. Now, from a prospective Tony award winner for 2026 to the Tony Award winning best new musical of 2025, maybe Happy Ending. My favorite musical right now on Broadway. Hell, my favorite show right Broadway. Currently playing at the Belasco Theatre, it continues to star Darren Criss and Helen J. Shen in the roles they originated as part of the show's original Broadway cast as Oliver and Claire. Now, the show sent out a press release today with updated information about casting over the next few months and a confirmation of Helen J. Shen's final performance date as well as Darren Criss's a little later in the year. Don't panic if you want to see either or both of them, you still have some time, especially for Darren. So Helen will be departing the production in just over a month on Sunday, February, February 15th. That will be their final performance in the role of Claire, with it thereafter being played by two of the current standbys who are each getting extended principal runs individually. So Hannah Kevitt will be playing Claire From Tuesday, February 17 through Thursday, April 2, about a month and a half. Followed next by another of the current standbys, Claire Kwan. Claire, as Claire will be playing the role from April 3rd through Sunday, May 17th. So they've essentially divided the, I guess, 10 to 12 weeks that they have there. Interesting. The culmination of that period is also the final performance of Darren Criss in the role of Oliver. And some of you may be inferring from that that that is when the show is scheduled to End only they stipulate immediately afterwards that current original cast members and 2026 Grammy Award nominees. Let's remind people about that every opportunity we get. Desdaron and Marcus Choi, both fantastic in the show, continue to perform in the production at the Belasco Theatre and a little further down. They explicitly say a forthcoming casting announcement for the next helper bots, Oliver and Claire, and will be made at a later date. So do not fear, the show is planning to continue beyond May 17, but it does suggest that this might be, for now at least, Darren Criss's final time in the iconic blue trousers. And I say this because he had already technically departed the show for an extended period. Though as I understood it at the time, the plan was always that he was going to come back, but he'd opened it on Broadway. He'd also been a producer, he'd gone through the whole circus of the Tony Awards. He had won the Tony, he took time off. He also has young children. He shouted out his wife and his Tony Awards speech for taking care of those young children. He took a little bit of time away from the show so that he could go and have time with his family, then came back to it. And during that time, as many of you will I'm sure remember, the role of Oliver was played by the fantastically talented Andrew Barth Feldman. A casting decision which proved controversial because the Korean set show had up until that point only publicly cast Asian performers in those roles, even playing robots. This was further complicated by the fact that Andrew's casting was in part justified by the fact that he, he was and continues to be in a real life relationship with Helen J. Shen. So you were getting the chance to see two actors falling in love on stage knowing that they were also in love in real life. Very nice. Only there was a significant response to that casting, Andrew's talent notwithstanding, and I'm sure that if they hadn't already, producers are going to be taking their next step in terms of principal casting very, very seriously and treading very carefully, which is probably one of the reasons why they are having the standby performers or Claire, the current standby performers, each get a principal run in the role. It's also just a given fact that Darren Criss, not only as the Tony Award winner in the show, but also as the bigger sort of celebrity known name beforehand, having done various TV series, is going to be the harder one to replace. It's important that they find a way to, however, because it's only really when a show can get past the excitement of its original cast that it can go on to become a long running hit like Hadestown has managed this now it's managed move away from the love for the original stars. Wicked obviously managed to do that as well. It doesn't mean that the original casts weren't iconic and beloved, but the show needs to be able to find a way to survive without them. Also, I say Darren is harder to replace. That only really applied when Helen was remaining in the show and they were trying to find somebody who would be a draw as Oliver. But when you have a completely clean slate, and I've said this before, I think there are more viable options for performers with some celebrity recognition who you could bring in as Claire. This could be a great opportunity for a Broadway return for the bonafide musical theater star Stephanie Hsu. The singer Loewe has also expressed interest in playing this role in this show. That could be a great opportunity for them. I really hope that maybe Happy Ending is able to navigate this chapter. But of course with the statements that were made around the time of the last recasting, it's going to be really interesting to see if they do maintain Asian performers in the role or if with a completely blank slate on both robots they go in a different direction. That's going to be an interesting one to watch. Carrying on, let's talk about another of last season's new musicals still playing down at the Golden Theatre, Operation Mincemeat. Yes, The World War II set little musical that could that made its way from off West End fringe theaters in London to the West End, became an Olivier Award winning new musical and then flew its way over the Atlantic. The show currently still has the same five person cast who have been playing these roles for some time now who opened the West End production, three of whom are among the show's team of four co writers and another of whom, Jack Malone, also won a Tony Award last year for his supporting performance as Hester Leggett and other characters. And as part of a splashy feature in the New York Times earlier this month it was announced that that original British company of Operation Mincemeat would all play their final performances on the same date on February 22, which is something of a rarity it seems these days on Broadway for everyone to have like a cast change and leave on the same day. So that's obviously going to be a very special, very emotional performance. You have to realize though, they will have been doing it for just under a year on Broadway. They've been doing this show together for I think the best part of a decade. And fascinatingly though we don't yet know who, it has been confirmed that they will be replaced by an all American cast from February 24th, which has actually a few different implications for the show itself. For one thing, it's going to make it a little bit more financially sustainable, that is to say, if the box office continues at the same rate. And that's because while the British performers are here playing the roles, which I do maintain was the best possible decision for this show on Broadway, especially, obviously with everything that happened with Jack Malone and the Tony win, as well as the entire marketing narrative of the show, three of them wrote it, it's the same cast, but while they're here playing those roles, as a result, the production's running costs are slightly more expensive and those will decrease when there are local American actors in the roles. And so that would seem to be a very good thing for the show. I have also heard, and I love Oper Mincemeat, I'm a huge fan of the show. It had, while it was over here playing at various different theatres on its sort of very slow but deliberate route to the West End, some of the most universally positive praise and word of mouth I had ever heard. Everyone loved this show over here since it arrived on Broadway. I've heard still an awful lot of positivity about it. It is still very enjoyed by audiences. That New York Times article was about the devoted fans that it has attained in New York, just like it did in London. But there are some schools of thought that the show, which is very fast paced, doesn't have the best sound design in the world and relies on a lot of accent. Humor with various regional British dialects is perhaps easier for American audiences to understand when it is portrayed by American performers, which I can sort of get. And in my experience, Americans have a really high tolerance threshold for badly done British accents, just like British audiences have a very high tolerance threshold for badly done American accents. And I think when you're dealing with a show with quick, witty humor and humor in lyrics, then clarity is so, so important. So if bringing in American performers who are maybe a little easier to follow for American audiences helps people enjoy the show a little bit more and it's cheaper, then it seems like a win win, but only if they continue to sell as many tickets. Which brings us to the question, and I would love to hear people's thoughts in the comments about this, how many of the tickets that Operation Mincemeat is selling on Broadway right now, now are as a result of the current casting, to what extent is that narrative of like, oh, it's these British performers who brought their show over, some of them co wrote it. Is that still selling a lot of tickets or are people buying tickets to this quirky show that they've heard is original and funny and It's World War II set and there's nothing else kind of like it at the moment. It has that unique thing because it outlived the likes of Dead Outlaw. I actually think one of the more persuasive factors might still be Jack Malone's Tony Award win. Because a lot of the buzz, especially around the time of the Tonys and last spring that we were hearing was just like, oh, you've got to go and see this guy sing this song. You've just got to go and see this show to hear this moment. And as we've seen time and time again, replacing any Tony Award winner in an ongoing show is challenging because people want to go and see that performance by that person that was talked about that won that award. So when it comes to replacing the entire company, that I think may be one of the most important casting decision decisions. But I'm actually very excited about it. And though it will represent an end of an era to have the performers stepping away from these roles, like with any show whose material I enjoy, like six, like Hadestown, I think it only makes me more excited about going back to see that show because I can see new performers bring their own interpretations to it. And I would be so intrigued to see a cast of five American musical theater actors doing Operation Mincemeat. That's fascinating to me. And since I have only had a couple of very tentative names, I will let you speculate about which American performers you would like to see in Operation Mintz. Me meet in the comments section down below. I briefly read a thing, by the way, the other day when someone said like, oh, I guess because they're saying all American actors, it's going to be American accents now. No, it's obviously not just to immediately preempt that one. We don't even need to have a conversation about the implications of that because it is conclusively not what's happening. Guess what? They already have American understudies who are doing British accents in the show because of course they are. Anyway, let's carry on and walk ourselves up a couple blocks to talk about death. Instacart helps you get what you need fast. 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Becomes her. So another of last season's new musicals, the Very Purple, the Very Camp Death Becomes her at the Luntfontanne Theatre has recently waved goodbye to one of its original stars, Broadway icon Tony Award winner and original Madeline Ashton. Megan Hilty has recently departed the production. And by recently I mean like literally in the last few days. Tonight, in fact, as I sit here on a Tuesday, might be the first performance of Betsy Wolf in the role. Or was there a little bit of a gap with a standby going on before Betsy was scheduled to start? In any case, Betsy Wolf beginning very, very soon as Madeline Ashton Repl replacing Megan Hilty alongside continuing original cast member Jennifer Simard. And there are a few interesting details about this, with much of the speculation, I think, being invited by the fact that these are such great roles for actresses right now on Broadway, for musical theater actresses in a certain casting bracket, in a certain age range who maybe don't always have great, you know, hilarious big diva roles like this come around all too often. Often. And because of the success of I was going to say shows like Wicked, but I explicitly mean Wicked. We have a lot of Broadway stars and Broadway names in those brackets right now. People like Stephanie J. Block. Like a lot of names have been thrown around who could potentially play Helen and Meline in Death becomes her. If they want to keep that show open for a long time, they got a lot of options. Only they are not easy roles to play or to sing. And it's not really a surprise that Megan Hilty has left the production earlier than Jen Samard. Megan has young children. I believe she had also taken a little bit of time away from the show last year as a result of, I think a neck injury or a vocal injury because of stuff that she was doing in the production. It being a really challenging part. That being said, it wouldn't necessarily surprise me if she were to return to it at some point. Same thing with Darren Criss in maybe Happy Ending. Not just because they are popular Broadway stars, but because this is something that we seem to see happening more and more recently. And when I said this on TikTok the other day, people pointed out a bunch of historic examples, examples of people going back into roles that they had played years later. My point was that recently we're seeing it happen more and more and quite casually. Jeremy Jordan heading back to the Great Gatsby is one example of this. Aaron Tveit heading back fairly frequently to Moulin Rouge. Darren going back to maybe Happy Ending after his time away from the show. And I have two different ideas about this because this seems to be common among Broadway stars who really impact and affect the box office office whose absences or departures from the production represent a decline in the box office. Individuals who sell tickets because they are big Broadway names, but because they also have some level of TV recognition as well. And they are also huge talents with deservedly big fan bases. And I feel like we have now a plethora of Broadway stars who can really sell tickets, who can really deliver at the box office in a way that we haven't for the better part of a decade, perhaps even more than a decade. And there have been individuals, but certainly in like the early 2000 and tens, it felt like there were all of these, like actual Broadway stars. And now they seem to be back again. Not only that, in the post Covid landscape, and certainly we saw this in the recent Equity negotiations, the work life balance seems to be something that people are increasingly willing to really commit to and, you know, step away from those shows and take that time off that they need before going back into something. So I spoke about just in time earlier, if, if Groff does depart the show, wouldn't surprise me if he were to go back in at a later date if it continues to run. Same thing with Megan Hilty potentially in Death becomes her. Jennifer Simard, meanwhile, I think, is going to stay in that show as long as she can because she has been waiting her entire career for a role like this on Broadway. It is so perfect for her. There are so few people who could portray this role as brilliantly as she does, who could sing that score like she does. She is such a specific and extraordinary talent. I don't think she's stepping away from that role if she can help it. What's curious, though, is that Betsy Wolf as Madeline already has a finite end date. She is only scheduled, I believe, to be in the show For a couple of months. Someone the other day said to me that this was because that was to coincide with the end date of all of the original Broadway cast and that there would be a full cast change. And it's possible that that's the reason why. It's also possible that the Off Broadway show that Betsy was starring in, Joy last year, year maybe coming back at some point. I think it's looking pretty clear it's not going to have time to open on Broadway, but it could do another summer Off Broadway run. Would that really be enough to leave Death Becomes her for though? I don't know. Do you really want to leave a show like that for the mops? How enticing are these mops? And literally that's all I know about Joy. If you say to me Joy, I hear woods, that's, that's where my brain goes. I hope though, that Death Becomes her stays open for a really long time. And like Wicked, continues to give us pairs of fantastic musical theatre actresses because there are so many talents who would be fantastic in both of these roles. Finally, then, staying in the realm of campy divas, let's head down to the St James Theatre and one of this season's incoming new musicals set to dock there very shortly is Titanique. So in one of the more surprising announcements of this increasingly bizarre Broadway season, it was revealed that Off Broadway Broadway cult hit Titanique would be making its way at long last to Broadway. And this was not something that people were necessarily anticipating, but perhaps they should have been, after all of the international success and growing prestige it had found. They won an Olivier Award, for crying out loud. The show continues to run in London's West End. They played Canada and Australia. There was a regional production in Chicago. All of which began to sort of shift the perception of Titanique from the this sort of queer Off Broadway basement show to something that actually had commercial viability and legs, icebergs be damned. And it was announced fairly early on that one of the show's co creators, Marla Mindel, would be reprising her originating performance as Celine Dion, which is great news for her and the show. Again, we have that mincemeat narrative of her being attached to it once more. She's also fantastic in the role. She won an award for playing Seline Off Broadway. She could legitimately be a contender for the Tony this year year. But after considerable speculation, it was recently revealed who would be joining her upon the ship of dreams, another of the show's original stars and co creators, Constantine Rasooli, as expected, will be playing the role of Jack. But there is another cast member who is going to be wearing multiple hats. Literally, he like changes hats during the show. That is Frankie Grande returning to Broadway. Yes. He's been in two Broadway shows previously, I believe, in the role of Victor Garbus. Luigi. This, unlike an iceberg on a moonless night, was actually pretty easy to see coming because Frankie has for some time been a co producer on the show as well and is compared with a lot of the other actors who have played this role, I guess something of a name. It's also been played by RuPaul's Drag Race alumni Rose and Willam. Deborah Cox, vocalist and established musical theatre performer at this point will be playing the role of Molly Brown. That all by myself is about to sound fantastic. Can we get a mashup between that and nobody's supposed to be here because I would enjoy it very much. Just a couple bars. Just give me a couple bars. Also, lots of pressure on whoever is giving us the Tina Turner iceberg vocals when Deborah Cox is standing right there on stage and in the role of Ruth. If you're thinking who is Ruth? That's Rose's mother. It's Kate Winslet's mother. That would be Jim Parsons returning once more to Broadway where he has achieved considerable acclaim over the last few years. This can be a show stealing role. Could this be the one that gets like a featured Tony nomination because Jim Parsons is doing it and I've actually seen Jim Parsons on Broadway before four in Mother Play, giving a very hard hitting, emotional acting performance. This is going to be nothing like that. This is going to be, I think, a lot of fun for him. Returning to the comedy that he is known for to most audiences for his role as Sheldon Cooper on the Big Bang Theory. But also something that is very unapologetically queer and sort of smutty and devious in many ways. It sort of feels like a warm up for playing a role like Mary Todd Lincoln in oh Mary. Could that be something Jim Parsons goes on to do next if it happens? You heard it here first and I feel like that's already enough star power to begin selling tickets at the box office. But the question mark is who is playing the other roles in the show, Particularly who is playing Rose? Because many talented actresses played this role off Broadway and you would assume if it was going to be one of them that they would have been able to be announced by now. Are they still getting details sorted? Are they having to depart another production and they haven't been announced to be leaving that just yet or are they courting bigger celebrity names? These are the interesting questions because I think you could bring in a bigger name for Rose. You could bring in someone she doesn't have to have the same kind of like really skilled comedy chops necessarily. I've heard a lot of talk of Ariana Grande because of the Frankie connection and because that would obviously sell a lot of tickets to the show. I think she's probably smarter than to want Titanique to be her big stage return post Wicked because she wouldn't even be the leading lady of that show. If I'm Ariana Grande and I'm going back to Brawl Broadway, it's going to be in something where I am the star. There have been plenty of rumors swirling for this particular show at one point, and this seems now, I mean, this clearly now has been debunked. Matthew Morrison's name was thrown out there as someone who might be playing Jack. I wonder if he actually is attached to the show and a mistake was made somewhere. And even though the emerging rumor was that he might be playing Jack, the role he was actually being considered for was Cal, which would be a much better fit for him and which I think would actually be a pretty smart casting decision. So when I said earlier maybe it's a different tuxedo wearing role he would be returning to Broadway in order to play. That's the one I was thinking about. Oh, I just remembered the other name that I've heard, Anna Kendrick. People were saying maybe Anna Kendrick would be playing Rose and if they can get Anna Kendrick for titanique at the St. James. I sort of don't know how many of the projects she's involved in right now. She also, like Ariana Grande, was on Broadway as a child actor character. If they can get her, she'd be a great fit because she's very funny and very talented and I think a decent draw. This kind of scatter fire of all of these kind of like maybe A, but definitely at least B list celebrities might do well for the show as long as through all of this casting it's able to retain its queer identity. I think that's really important and something they definitely found in the Off Broadway casting when they were bringing in people like Leah Delaria and the drag race queens and everyone else who was coming into that production. My concern when it went to Broadway was that we would get a slightly more heterosexual version of that in order to kind of give it a broader appeal. And I'm hoping that they managed to sidestep that Jim Parsons is a great solution because I think you can maintain the inherent queer energy while also catering to a wider American fan base because of the Big Bang Theory.
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And that would have been the end of it were it not for casting News that came through today from the Great Gatsby and Hadestown on Broadway. Let's start with Gatsby. So I have to confess, I did know that even Obizada was set to return to the show. The show as Daisy Buchanan, following in the footsteps perhaps of leading man Jeremy Jordan, who had already gone back to the show as well. And further making my point about this trend of people going back into shows that they had left and kind of just doing these little stints, hopping in and out of them. And I had also heard the rumors that her real life husband, Reeve Carney, who she has performed alongside, performing alongside right now in Cabaret in the West End, but of course previously in Hadestown on either side of the Atlantic. Atlantic would be joining her this time around as Jay Gatsby. Which is the very reason why I asked them about it when I spoke to the two of them in Reeves dressing room at the KitKat Club 34 days ago and they lied to my face. I mean, they didn't lie. Eva was like, yeah, that would be great. And then they brilliantly steered the conversation through the Great Gatsby into something else so they didn't have to directly talk about it. But absolutely, it would have already been indistinct discussions at that point. I think it's very exciting and it's nice because we had another Eva and Reeve moment over here that they're going to get another one in New York. Broadway audiences haven't had the chance to see these two together since Eva left Hadestown. It's been a while, and there's something very special about seeing them on stage together. I'm also very curious about Reeves singing the Gatsby material. That's going to sound really interesting. Now, the exact dates are worth noting because Eva is going back first. She's returning to the show from February 5, 2026, whereupon she will perform alongside Jeremy Jordan once more for about five weeks before Ryan McCarten, who was the first replacement for him, returns yet again to star as jay Gatsby between March 8th and 29th, with Reeve Carney then taking over from March 30th. So if you see the show three times this year, you could see Eva alongside three different Gatsby's. I'll let you decide which is the greatest. I'm joking. They're all great. Truly, though, these bankable Broadway stars going back into these shows after taking a little time off, or in Eva's case, taking absolutely time off and just hopping from one contract to the next. Quickly. Then, let's talk about Hadestown, who have announced an entire new quintet of principal Broadway stars. I like that Hadestown. Seem to be doing this now. They did this with their last cast change, where they bring in an entire group who have rehearsed together. It leads to, I think, exceptional chemistry. And when I saw the show back in November, individually, all the performances were fantastic. But the dynamics between each of them on stage, particularly between Kurt Elling as Hermes and Jack Wolfe as Orpheus, this sort of parental, fatherly thing that was going on, which I have never seen before, was just guttingly heartbreaking. Anyway, the new cast members will be Joshua Colley as Orpheus. Now, I recognized the name Joshua Colley. I was like, I don't recognize the face too much. Where do I know Joshua Colley from? He was a child actor on Broadway who had the. This sensational voice and this remarkable tone for a young performer. He performed in like, I think it was like Easter Bonnets or like miscast galas and things. He did a lot of performances around Broadway. He was a Gavroche. I think he did another show as well. But there's a great clip online of him singing Valjean in the confrontation of him and a couple other young performers doing the Schuyler Sisters with him as Angelica. Angelica. And then I thought, you know, it's only a matter of time before he comes back as a grown up performer and now he is. He's going to be Orpheus. Gary Dawdan is going to be Hades. I gather that he's known for television. I don't know who that is. J. Harrison G. Going into the show as Hermes, Tony Award winner and Grammy Award winner J. Harrison G. That's very exciting. Hermes being the role where we've seen the most sort of gender expansive casting ideas. So that's very fun. It sort of allows performers to find their own very unique path through that material. Gabby Marino, who is a Grammy Award winner, joining the show as Persephone. They often find their Persephone in the music world more so than in the theater world. But Eurydice is going to be portrayed by Jordan Tyson, who was the youngest of the three original allies in the Notebook. I think she's a huge star. She was next seen on Broadway in Gypsy opposite Joy woods once more as Louise. It's gonna feel like a really youthful Orpheus and Euridice because both of them have they read so young and they sound so young. They have such an innocence in their tone, which is the same thing that's kind of happening with Morgan and Jack in the current cast. And yeah, it makes for a really emotional interpretation of the show. So unfortunately everyone has to go back and see Hadestown again. Again and again. As Lin Manuel Miranda commented today on one of these posts, I have other new shows I need to see. I have shows I need to write. Final go see Hadestown again. And with rumors occasionally resurfacing about Hadestown closing at the very desirable Walter Kerr to make way for a new show. And at this point I'm asking what new show? I'm just glad to see a show like Hadestown really turn into a successful long runner and continue to go from strength to strength with this recasting. Long live had Hadestown. At which point I think I actually am done with this Broadway casting update. Roll the finale. For now. That brings me to the end of this roundup of recent Broadway casting news and speculation. A couple of interesting trends there to remark on and plenty for you to weigh in on down in the comments section. I would love to hear your thoughts about all of these. Any speculation that you might want to share in any casting that you would like to manifest. Hit me with it in the comments. I can't wait to hear what you think. In the meantime, thank you so much for listening to this Broadway news update. There will be more coming very soon as soon as there is substantial Broadway news for us to talk about. Until then, I will be sharing plenty of other stagey updates right here. If you don't want to miss any of them, make sure you're subscribed with the notifications, turned on or following me on podcast platforms. And as always, I hope that everyone is staying safe and that you have a stagey day. For ten more seconds. I'm Mickey Jo Theatre. Oh my Go. Thanks for watching. Have a stagey day. Subscribe.
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