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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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