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[0:00] Jeff Malone: Welcome to Half Hour with Jeff and Richie, the podcast where we explore the latest shows we see, sharing our insights and opinions on the performances, storylines, and everything in between.

[0:09] Richie Grasso: In today's episode, we're discussing the new Broadway play, EUREKA DAY, currently playing at the Manhattan Theater Club at the Samuel J. Friedman Theater in New York City on Broadway.

[0:18] Jeff Malone: Whether you cannot catch the show in person or you want to expand your thoughts after seeing it, this episode is for you.

[0:23] Richie Grasso: And as always, we want to inform you that this episode will contain spoilers.

[0:27] Jeff Malone: So if you're ready to dive into this production, stick around with us.

[0:30] Jeff Malone: I'm Jeff.

[0:31] Richie Grasso: And I'm Richie, and we're thrilled to be your hosts for today's episode.

[0:34] Jeff Malone: But before we start the conversation about EUREKA DAY, here are a few words from our advertisers.

[0:43] Richie Grasso: Half hour.

[0:48] Jeff Malone: Welcome everyone to a new episode of Half Hour with Jeff and Richie.

[0:51] Richie Grasso: Today we're discussing the Broadway production of EUREKA DAY.

[0:54] Jeff Malone: EUREKA DAY is a comedy-drama set in a progressive private school in Berkeley, California.

[0:59] Richie Grasso: The play explores how the school's community grapples with a mumps outbreak, sparking a heated debate on vaccination, personal beliefs, and collective responsibility.

[1:08] Jeff Malone: So in today's episode, we are discussing this new Broadway play, EUREKA DAY.

[1:12] Richie Grasso: And as always, we're gonna hit you with our hot take.

[1:15] Jeff Malone: So my hot take on this play is that it has funny moments. It's super present to many things we're dealing with today, and it was kind of an eye-opening experience for me overall that I thoroughly enjoyed.

[1:30] Richie Grasso: I agree. My hot take was I enjoyed this. It's very well written. It's crafted well on stage with some wonderful actors, and I feel like this is an important time to be talking about this specific topic of schools and vaccinations and things and bringing that to the stage. I really enjoyed it.

[1:46] Jeff Malone: Yeah, let's dive into this.

[1:48] Richie Grasso: Let's do it. So when we talk about overall thoughts and plot here and concept, it's fascinating, Jeff, that we had done some research that this play was written before the COVID-19 pandemic and actually takes place before that pandemic as well.

[2:01] Jeff Malone: Um, major spoiler alert here. The last line of the play is, "Oh, and we're entering the 2019-2020 school year," and they fixed their problems until we know what happened in March of 2020.

[2:13] Richie Grasso: So fascinating to see this. You know what? One thing is interesting is I've always been really impressed when you take something really mainstream and you just shift the lens a little. For example, here's the Wizard of Oz, here's Wicked, here's the Hillary Trump election, but here's a play called Hillary and Clinton about Hillary losing to Barack Obama, not Donald Trump. And let's see that story, right?

[2:36] Jeff Malone: So when you see, let's take the COVID-19 pandemic, how easy would it be? Like, let's try to play about that. Nope. Let's just look to what maybe a school would have been dealing with about a different outbreak right before that.

[2:51] Richie Grasso: And why people's—it's just fascinating to me from a—well, one, the play being written before the COVID-19 pandemic is interesting enough, but that's because I think, you know, there was—if we remember correctly, before COVID-19, there were a lot of anti-vaxxer situations happening that we were hearing about, like something like, "Oh, a kid got polio" or "a kid got mumps," and we're all like, "What? We never hear that. What are you talking about?" And now it's seeming like it's becoming more of a present issue that we're dealing with.

[3:31] Jeff Malone: So, you know, it's interesting because I've seen some people talk about the actual premise of this show being like, it's fine, it's satire, you know, does it really tackle the issue in a great way? I don't know, you know, I look at it from a very different lens here because I look at this topic and I'm saying I love seeing present kind of topics happening on the stage during this time. I don't think everything needs to be an old history lesson or old play on Broadway. When you bring these newer works and it hits home, I think it really gets people to start thinking about like, "Oh, this is what's happening in the world. How do we handle this?" Like, it just opens your eyes a bit more.

[4:14] Richie Grasso: And not to mention we're dealing with this, it's almost dramedy-esque, where this comedic and dramatic and comedic, and we're kind of going back and forth on that whole tug, which is nice because if it was only comedic or only dramatic, I think we would have left there feeling a different way. And there was this wonderful ebb and flow of comedy and drama throughout the piece, kind of reflecting how this whole situation is traumatic and comedic at the same time. We're sitting here talking about important issues regarding children and vaccination and health and safety, but we're doing it in like—not like some public school setting—in a private elite school area where there's these parents on this board making these decisions that's the best for their children, and yeah, it's just—it was just a great premise of a show.

[5:02] Jeff Malone: But I also feel like the setup is super important with this show because the way it's written, it's written that it—I believe it's the school board, right?

[5:11] Richie Grasso: Yeah, it's like the board of directors for this school. They're not teachers, right?

[5:16] Jeff Malone: No, and I mean in a private school setting, I mean, public schools have boards of education as well, but in this private school setting, it's a board of directors who are essentially reviewing the applications of the students, budgeting the school district. They're parents of the kids, but they're in the board of directors to make the decisions for that school.

[5:33] Richie Grasso: Right. That's why, like, in the beginning, I thought they were teachers, and then you kind of slowly—once the play starts unraveling, you realize, "Oh no, they're not teachers, these are actual parents of the kids in this school," so they're definitely sitting on the board in some way.

[5:49] Jeff Malone: It's interesting how they also start the play more about like bringing diversity and things like that into the school, especially like on the committee, and then it slowly starts shifting into this whole idea of like everyone's actual thoughts on having a child vaccinated or not.

[6:07] Richie Grasso: Um, so I thought it was smart to set this up with—you never see the children in this play. It's only written as the board of directors.

[6:17] Jeff Malone: Um, and that they are making all of the decisions for this school. And I think so many times people forget that boards, whether you sit on a school board or you sit on a property board or anything like that, those are the people that are making the decisions for your collective.

[6:37] Richie Grasso: So watching that, it's kind of that eye-opening thing where you're saying, like, "Oh, these are the actual conversations that people really are having." And it comes down to those words we said earlier, collective, and what you just said, collective responsibility. At what point is a board responsible for the safety and well-being of students, and then at what point is the board not, right?

[6:57] Jeff Malone: And I think that's what's so interesting here is how different perspectives. And then we brought in—and it was very lightly sprinkled in—there was age diversity representation talked about here. There was race diversity representation, there was gender, there was just elements sprinkled in about who's older in this board, who's younger, who's been here for 20 years, who's brand new, who's female, who's male.

[7:22] Richie Grasso: Then there was this also this underlying affair of sorts. I don't know if I would call it an affair because I think one of them was having a relationship with the other, and that had to be kept secret, and there was that whole underlying thing. But then one of the children was really sick, and there was that underlying—it was just—there was just wonderful ebbs and flows of different themes for a 90-minute piece or a hundred-minute piece, whatever that was.

[7:44] Jeff Malone: It dealt with a lot, Richie, but I didn't feel like I was leaving there like, "Oh my gosh, pick a theme and stick with it."

[7:50] Richie Grasso: Oh, there was no.

[7:51] Jeff Malone: No, because I think it didn't feel like that. It felt like you're slightly talking about multiple themes here.

[7:56] Richie Grasso: It definitely had multiple themes. I think they all were wrapped, luckily. Um, I think it was really more about bringing hot button issues into this piece, you know, who in the second scene of this play were having a major thing with technology and a board and parents of a school that are able to watch the board have a conversation, but they're all having their own side conversation and not even talking about what's actually happening at that meeting.

[8:30] Jeff Malone: They're having their own thing, so it's like it also brings on this topic of do we listen to each other? Is it just our own opinions? Who validates our opinions? And that's a big thing.

[8:42] Richie Grasso: That's why I think when you move into some of these other topics of like what these other characters are having, you know, you have Jessica Hecht's's character who is probably the biggest anti-vaxxer of them all because she had something happen to one of her kids that ultimately passed away. You know, then you have the two other characters that are having an affair, but they're both in—one's in an open relationship. Like that's a hot topic that most people probably wouldn't agree with.

[9:10] Jeff Malone: So I think that's written into the play for a reason because you're probably looking at that saying, "Like, oh, I don't agree with them him being in an open relationship. I don't agree with her because she's also having the affair." So I don't validate their opinions anymore. Because that's how I think people think in this country. As soon as you think, "Oh, I don't agree with one thing that somebody does," then I'm not going to agree with anything that they decide anymore.

[9:37] Richie Grasso: And that's why I think there were different themes scattered throughout here. Like, what if we bring this in? Does everyone agree or disagree? Does that alter or affect the decisions being made in this room?

[9:46] Jeff Malone: And we're gonna talk about this room.

[9:49] Richie Grasso: Oh, do you see that segue just there? We're gonna talk about this room in a second, as well as some of the other design and actor performances and direction. I really want to get into some of this.

[9:58] Jeff Malone: So let's go there now. But before we do, here's a few messages from those that make the show possible.

[10:05] Richie Grasso: Okay, so I will not—I'm talking about the room because this set is wonderful.

[10:09] Jeff Malone: Yeah, this is one of the better sets I've seen. We're talking about basically a mostly stationary set in a library of a children's school.

[10:17] Richie Grasso: And if you're watching, Jeff, as the scenes are unraveling, I'm watching where they're sitting, and I'm like, "Oh, this wonderful juxtaposition about talking about racial issues and vaccinations and literal life and death scenarios and you have people having relationships with each other." And we're in this like really sterile—no pun intended, no pun intended with the word sterile there, I guess—but this sterile, like G-rated, clean, colorful ABC's, one, two, three's room where who sits in that room most of the time? Children.

[10:49] Jeff Malone: Yeah.

[10:50] Richie Grasso: But I always think it's so interesting when, like, you know, when you have like parent-teacher conferences and parents come in and sit in the little chairs or like open house or school open house nights, right? Or when a school board will have a meeting in a library in the cafeteria, and like everything is like smaller size for the children, and you're in this colorful room. These decisions are being made about the life and death scenario of these children, and they're in that room later on in that day or the next day learning about animals and rainbows and colors and food and countries.

[11:08] Jeff Malone: But then if you see, if you really look in the set, the set design is by Todd Rosenthal. If you look through his wonderful design, you see these progressive—I think Ruth Bader Ginsburg posters up in the—I think Michelle Obama, right? There's these wonderful newer names and phases up there. It's not—listen, will most libraries be putting up their Abraham Lincoln, right? And George Washington, which is great too. But like, they're putting these more modern people, so it shows that this school is very progressive in what they're teaching the children, and yet they can't figure out how to keep them safe per se.

[11:55] Richie Grasso: But I think they're learning about these other worldly things in that room, in that same room.

[12:00] Jeff Malone: Well, what I think he did with the scenic design really—it is a children's library. There's multiple things you can see, how to get into the library, how to get out of the library. You know, there's projections in the back to show what time that this group is meeting, whether it's morning or evening, it's all different times, which I thought was actually smart.

[12:25] Richie Grasso: But in the actual design of what's in the library, I think it's important to note that you're looking at a school that's almost too liberal in a way. You know, we're bringing in so many things that many people would call woke in quotes because they're saying, "Okay, my kid gets to pick what their pronouns are. They get to learn about the racial history in this," and when you hear so many different schools in America right now that are banning books, saying you can't say the word gay, you can't do this, you can't do that, this school is the complete opposite.

[13:06] Jeff Malone: It's so far on the left side of it.

[13:09] Richie Grasso: But then you kind of have this idea here where you say, "What is too far?" You know, and I think that's where this play really sits with you. It's like, where is it too far with that?

[13:21] Jeff Malone: It almost doesn't make sense anymore.

[13:24] Richie Grasso: And I think one scene that we must talk about because this is the buzzy scene is this scene of the Zoom call, right?

[13:32] Jeff Malone: Or whatever virtual video.

[13:33] Richie Grasso: They were having a meeting, everyone was at home on Zoom, and it was like a throwback to all the Zooms we did in 2020, where they are showing you're watching the messaging of the text unravel in the screen above them while the actors are trying to speak and carry a message.

[13:50] Jeff Malone: And I think the point was it didn't really quite matter what the actors were saying on stage because they had to say something while they were trying to keep this meeting from unraveling while the parents are talking.

[14:00] Jeff Malone: And there was this wonderful, wonderful. The playwright wrote these non-existent characters in what they were saying on the screen, anything from really serious stuff, like threatening things, to like the thumbs up girl that just kept giving the thumbs up every 10 minutes. Just to insert their opinion into the that's comedic relief to a T. That's exactly what a playwright should be doing to put comedic relief into something like it. Because that is what would really be happening. I'm sorry, but I would think that this playwright sat on one of those calls at one point and saw how people talk. Can is my mic on? Can you hear me? What are we talking about? The way people drastically change the topic out of nowhere. And then they're talking about something else that has nothing to do with what's being talked about in the video. It was, and people around us were hysterical laughing. It was just what a moment in the middle of the show.

[14:50] Richie Grasso: Oh, totally. It definitely is the buzzy scene. Everyone keeps talking about this. It's almost like that scene that everyone's gonna be like, you need to see that scene. It's just like it's just like one of those moments. But while you're sitting there, you kind of look at this and you say, Wait, do I actually need to be hearing what they're saying on the stage? Or am I just supposed to be reading? Because I kept going back and forth between saying, like, oh no, wait, I want to know what's still happening in the play. Meanwhile, this Zoom conversation is the play. I definitely think those characters were just ad-libbing what they were doing in that boardroom to make it seem, but that was just to kind of show like no one was actually listening to what they were talking about.

Because down the road that can mean like, you know, this board is going to make a decision on the mumps outbreak that has happened within the school, and you have a very big divide already between the parents in this Zoom call that are saying, like, no, this is the reason why I send my kid here. They can, you know, do whatever they want. I don't want to have to have a mandate of vaccinating my child to go to the school. I pay for my kid to go to this school.

[16:00] Jeff Malone: Right. And then others are like, wait, I literally send my kid to school with anti-vaxxers. Like, no. Right. What do you mean? Like it it's it was a funny moment because you I think we look at it and we laugh because we say, Oh no, this is so true. Like, there are really people like this. And it had to also set up the next kind of moments with you know the actors here and what their characters are going to do in the future. And I think we should talk about some of these actors here. You know, Jessica Hecht's's back at this you know Manhattan Theatre Club performance here. We saw her in Summer 1976. She's great. She was nominated for that, and now she's doing this role, which she's great. She's really great.

She's fascinating to watch on a stage. I think she's one of our strongest actors of our time. She is adding nuances, like the things she was doing, patting her chest, and the things that she was just adding as this performer, her vocal inflection, her facial, you she's thinking through line delivery.

[17:01] Richie Grasso: Yeah. She's very, very, very she's the best part of this show, I think. I mean, I truly do. Other than the playwriting, I think she is a standout. I could hope she would get a Tony nomination for this because she's really very impressive. And I'm fascinated by her as an actress. She plays a tough character because it's not a likable character. You know, the person behind me, I heard the whole time being like, What? Like they were like angry at her. You know, there's racist moments, there's classist moments, there's just I think I'm better than you moments. And you feel for her a few times, which I actually found odd. I don't know if you felt for her character at all during the show. And it almost has that moment with you where you're like, oh no, like I understand what she's saying.

And then like you go back and you're like, no, I don't. Like it no, no. And that's where I think the good playwriting comes in. Because I'm like, oh, wait, this guy, uh this playwright is really making me feel like bad for someone who I shouldn't normally feel bad for.

[18:02] Jeff Malone: It's interesting because then you at the end of the day, even Amber Gray's character, she was wonderful in this too. And I loved Amber Gray. I think what's interesting is at the end of the day, everybody's intention of being in that room is there to help not just their child but to help this community. And at the end of the day, they all have different ways of wanting to do that. They're not all seeing eye to eye on that. But they're okay. I'm gonna counter that with you. Unless you think not everyone's there for the same reason, that's part of this too. I think everyone in that room is there for the same reason except Jessica Hecht's's character because she is self-serving. And I think once we can decide that that she's a self-serving character in this whole thing, she only cares about her and her kids.

She didn't care about any other kids because if her kid got sick, she didn't care if other kids got sick. Because and and there was hints of it when she's like, Look, look at this roll of books. I donated all these books. We I buy the book, read it to my child, and we'll donate to the school. There was like a pay-to-play kind of sort of energy there for without paying the money, without paying the finances.

[19:06] Richie Grasso: So you also have to remember that, and it's great that you brought it up because um what's the character's name? That Thomas Middle um oh, um, he was waiting at Eli. Eli is going uh Eli's kid gets the most sick. His kid goes into the hospital, and he probably has the most flip of a switch moment within the show. He also gets the other um Miko, I think her name is Mika Farager to flip the switch as well on Jessica Hecht's's character. Yep. And I and he is going to donate money. So they but he's only going to donate money now if the school changes their policy on vaccinations because his kid got so sick. So it's a if it happens to you kind of mo. Yeah, yeah. Which we're dealing with in society right now as a whole is like, oh, if it only affects me, and if it doesn't affect me, right?

There's a lot of that going on. But the contradiction in this though is he was gonna donate money, which he does donate money. Jessica Hecht's looked at it as like, okay, so we're just taking financial favors now. But the whole time she's like, and look, here are the books. So it's still a donation, whether the way you want to look at it or not is is the other thing, you know.

[20:24] Jeff Malone: I do want to go into some direction choices here and talk about our overall experience of the show. So let's go into that before we do that. Let's take a quick break and go to listening to some messages from our sponsors.

[20:35] Richie Grasso: Okay, so I want we didn't get a chance to talk about direction. Anna D. Shapiro directs this. We know she's got Tony Award-winning work from August: Osage County. She directed The Minutes a few years ago, which I loved. And I think what's interesting about her director choices here is in The Minutes, it's a board meeting, they're mostly seated at tables, but we have things happening downstage. There was that whole like blood scene at the end of The Minutes, right? There was the rain coming in. There were moments of direction that I was impressed with. For me, I don't think Anna D. Shapiro really hit the mark with the direction of this in EUREKA DAY. I do find I did find that the direction of EUREKA DAY was the weakest link of this.

I think it was actors bringing in their A game, it was designers, and it was a playwright. And to me, I'm gonna say this, and I say this on the podcast a lot. Why do we have to set every single scene center stage, downstage, front and center? Every single scene. Yes, I understand the hospital door came in and we had that hospital scene downstage, right? But I'm looking at this beautiful set with bookshelves. And even when Jessica Hecht's goes over to the bookshelves, can we touch the books? Can we take the books out? Can we look? Like they were looking through what the kids are learning. They're scattered around the room. It just we didn't use the set as a direction. And we everything was even the Zoom call were center stage.

Why couldn't the be it being projected and they all go down left and gather in a clump? Why did everything need to be so it just seems still a choice? It could be a choice, and if it was a choice, that's fine. I don't know if I agreed with that choice because I found like everything was very stiff in the in the movement of this.

[22:09] Jeff Malone: You wanna know why I feel like it could be a choice? I'll justify this one directorial choice in that way. Is that it proves the point that the people in those rooms don't actually care about what is happening around them?

[22:25] Richie Grasso: Right. So she brings it front and center to show the self-centeredness that those people actually have for themselves and their own intentions and don't even engage with the actual things that those kids are learning. I mean, if that is actually what's happening, I think it's smarter than we think because I'd see that all of those people preach what's around that room, but they don't care about that room.

[22:50] Jeff Malone: And I totally get that. I'm also just looking at it from an aesthetic perspective. I'm not saying we need moving scenery and light changes and all this bells and whistles. I'm not saying that at all. I'm just saying at times some of this scenes seemed to sit and get heavy and not move. And for a 90-minute play, it did feel a little longer than that at times because they were just up, we're back in the school again. Let's all sit the actor center stage again. It just seemed a little stiffer than some other things I've seen Anna do. But I was thinking it was the strongest part of this piece. But I would say if it's done with an intention and it's making you mad like this, then I think it's done well.

[23:29] Richie Grasso: Yeah, I that's a choice too, to think that I'm I'm just looking at this from a theater perspective. It could be because I did think that there was some great movement between the monologues that some of these characters were having towards each other. I thought um whether Jessica Hecht's is doing the stuff that she's doing on that stage on her own, or she she was directed to move around that stage in some ways. I thought, you know, towards the end, that's where I had the most feeling for her. And when just but but but to me, it's like pull Jessica Hecht's downstage and have her like be at a bookshelf for a minute and look at the books and kind of ponder in her own world. Instead, she's sitting center stage and the lights change, and there she is center stage again. It just seems so rudiment for me.

[24:15] Jeff Malone: For me, great. So yeah, and now let's kind of move into the Tony portion of this. Do you think this show? I mean, I think this could definitely get a best play nomination with the reviews are not out yet for this show. As of the time of the street, recording this, so we'll see. Um what the you know the reviews say, but I think it could get, I definitely think Jessica Hecht's. I even think maybe Amber Gray could get nominated. Uh scenic design, definitely. There, there's some great things happening on this stage. You know, Manhattan Theatre Club for me really does kind of stand out sometimes in the work that they're bringing. It's usually relevant and I love that kind of work being on the stage.

[24:56] Richie Grasso: Totally. What do you think? They definitely bring a nice season of shows. I like their space. I think that this was a really I didn't know what to expect because I knew nothing about this. So it was really nice to I know I think of Leah London run uh before I came here. So yes, agree with all those choices. I think Jessica Hecht's could totally get a nomination and best play, Amber Gray. Yeah, it's scenic design for sure. Um I I I I would totally agree with one of that. And if if projection is involved in that, then the projection of that Zoom call into the design elements was a very, you know, to have for a stage manager call those cues and put those specific blurbs up at the right time is an art to get the timing of that correct. And I think that was probably needed in a lot of rehearsal, you know.

[25:36] Jeff Malone: Totally. Um so I think that was great. Yeah, it brings in the kind of experience at the show, you know, the audience that we were with, they were roaring laughing at a lot of the stuff that's going on. And I really asked the question to myself, do you think they're roaring laughing because they think that this is so bizarre that this is happening in this day, or that it was just funny, you know?

[25:56] Richie Grasso: I think it's a mix of that. I think it's an audience, you know, there was audience of all ages sitting around us, and everyone can kind of say, Yeah, we dealt with this, or we are dealing with this. And that's why it's interesting. You would almost want to see a sequel play. Like, how does that exact group of people handle the COVID pandemic? Yeah, you know, and uh totally it would be interesting to talk to the playwright about, you know, what made him write this. And did he have it was he on a school board or did he have an experience where because this is his Broadway debut, which I think is fascinating right out the gate that this is his first big probably show. So good for him, you know. But I yes, I agree. Manhattan Theatre Club's doing great things at all times um at most times and I I I think we've been enjoying a lot of what they do.

[26:34] Jeff Malone: Yeah it's amazing so oh my gosh we're almost out of time let's wrap up our discussion here what are your final thoughts on EUREKA DAY on Broadway final thoughts are this is definitely a highlight of the plays for me this year. So check it out I think you know it's a relevant topic that I think many people would love to kind of discuss more. So I highly recommend it.

[26:57] Richie Grasso: Totally and it's a think piece and we left that theater talking the whole way to the train about it. Yeah just like what we what was got what was that show trying to tell us and I thought that was very impressive. So yes go check this out if you can I believe it's only running a few more months uh because I think they have another show coming in in the spring. Uh so check this out if you can I think it was really really wonderful.

[27:15] Jeff Malone: Great. Yeah. Well that does wrap up our discussion for this episode. We hope you enjoyed our deep dive into EUREKA DAY on Broadway. We're gonna share the link with ticket information here in our description. And remember we want to hear from you continue the conversation with us on Instagram at Half Hour Podcast and let us know your thoughts on EUREKA DAY. If you enjoyed our show please leave us a review as well your feedback helps us bring more theater to you and remember you can listen to past episodes and stay tuned for upcoming ones as well. Until next time I'm Jeff and I'm Richie saying ta ta for now.