This transcript was automatically generated and might contain errors.

[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.

[0:10] Richie Grasso: In today's episode, we're discussing the new Broadway musical TAMMY FAYE, currently playing at the Palace Theatre in New York City, but not for long.

[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, and as always, we want to inform you that this episode will contain spoilers.

[0:28] Richie Grasso: 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 this episode.

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

[0:43] Jeff Malone: Half hour.

[1:13] Richie Grasso: Reprising her celebrated West End performance, the Divine Cast is led by two-time Olivier Award winner Katie Brayben's, two-time Tony Award winner Christian Borle, and two-time Tony Award winner Michael Severus.

[1:26] Richie Grasso: So in today's episode, we are discussing the Broadway musical TAMMY FAYE.

[1:30] Richie Grasso: So as always, we're going to hit you with our hot take. And Richie, you go first.

[1:35] Richie Grasso: Okay. TAMMY FAYE, I think, is a show that we should have liked and that should have worked, and had the recipe for that. And I think an ill timing of being brought to the stage in an incorrect theater with a plot and score that don't jive well with each other, and that seems to miss the tone. It's just one too many no's for me, even though there were a few moments of light, mainly being Katie Brayben's and her phenomenal performance.

[2:10] Jeff Malone: Yeah, my hot take on TAMMY FAYE is that this is basically this season's Diana. It's a well-intended but ultimately flawed musical that never quite found its footing. And definitely this cast is giving their all, but the show really struggled to justify its existence on Broadway in 2024.

[2:31] Richie Grasso: Yeah, let's dive into that a little bit.

[2:33] Richie Grasso: All right. So when you look at this, you know, concept, we have an infatuation with TAMMY Faye Baker. I don't know where that infatuation came from because it clearly people were infatuated with her in the 80s, and then not really the last 20 years that I know of. Although there was a few, you know, we had the Jessica Chastain film, we've had documentaries, we've talked about this woman. A Broadway musical was inevitable, I think, but I think this was just, oh, everyone's gonna go see the TAMMY Faye Baker musical, right? And I'm like, not right. I don't think this is rightly timed.

[3:13] Richie Grasso: Yeah, I think this should have come 20 years ago, or maybe could have come 20 years from now. Who knows? But right now in 2024, in the world of ever-changing religion and the way religion is portrayed and consumed in America and society, I don't know if this is really what everyone wanted. Clearly, unfortunately, not because it's closing as a recording, as we just found out, this is closing December 8th. It has very, very, very bad ticket sales. And we were in a matinee on a weekend where most of the house was empty.

[3:46] Richie Grasso: Like I said earlier, I don't think this was the correct theater for this. And so, in general, the concept should work. I just don't think the timing of this works.

[3:56] Richie Grasso: I want to dig into the concept a little bit here because we're balancing and treading the waters of satire and sympathy for this woman. And I think that's where we really have to start here. So when we break both of those down, they were really kind of getting satire right in act one. I actually was buying it, you know. I was like, all right, are we making fun of this? Maybe this could be a little bit more elevated, Cam. You know, why are we making fun of this? It's at first as well, you know. There's a musical a few blocks away that kind of mocks religion that's doing it really well in satire, right? When we have The Book of Mormon that's doing this, but now we have TAMMY FAYE over here that kind of really didn't know how to land that from a concept standpoint.

[4:50] Richie Grasso: Because at the same time, when you look at sympathy here, they're trying to pull the sympathy card on this woman. And I don't really know if that's what people want to see with her because I don't really know if she was a good person. But then she really fades into the background here where the men take over so much of the plot. And if the point was like, well, the men were making all the decisions at the time, I don't know then why we were only getting a sides from her as like major ballad belter moments, and we weren't getting the greatest scripted scenes for her. We weren't really getting the heartstrings that we think I think we needed. And yes, Jeff, to your point, do we feel bad for her?

Do we not? Because she got very wealthy from this and enjoyed that. Do we look at this and say, oh, let's make satire on televangelical life of the late 70s and into the 80s? Do we like you when I'm watching her sing these songs? I feel for her because I feel for that actress pouring her heart out singing the songs. But I don't know if that's the same thing as feeling for the actual TAMMY Faye Baker. Let alone I think that we just have a tone, the tone is all over the place.

[6:02] Richie Grasso: I'm sorry. If I said this to you when we left the theater, I can usually tell you the tone of Phantom of the Opera, the tone of Rent, the tone of Spring Awakening, the tone of The Color Purple, the tone of Anything Goes. Like I just named very different shows, and I can usually tell you the tone of the piece. I don't know what the tone of TAMMY FAYE is. I don't know if I'm supposed to feel bad, I'm supposed to laugh hysterically and make fun of this whole thing. I don't know. It's such a jumbled mix of emotional baggage.

[6:34] Richie Grasso: Well, that's why I think to touch on that, that's why I really think when they're going down the satire lane, it's when it was actually working. You know, when we're watching when we're in act one, I kind of was like, I listen, did we read the reviews when this came out and then we went to see it? Yes. And I was kind of sitting there and I was kind of waiting for this to be a really bad, bad production. And I've seen way things that are worse on the Broadway stage than this. So, do I think the reviewers were a little hard on it? Sure. But from the concept, as you kind of mull on it a little bit longer, it's right. When we get into act two, I'm kind of like, all right, they're lost here now because they're creating a narrative for this woman.

So you kind of are like, wait, why are we doing this? Is the show about forgiveness? Does she need forgiveness for the things that she's done? How can she not really have known what was happening? You know, many people would probably be like, no, she's almost like a con artist like everyone else in that industry. Because let's call religion an industry at some times, because it is, you know, they were taking money from people, making promises, building an empire around it. And then, like, what ended happening? It all fell, you know.

[7:49] Richie Grasso: So not to mention, I do feel like this is Elton John just cashing it in. This is not his best score. There are a couple great songs. I do think her act one finale was my favorite moment. There's a couple good moments musically, but I think this was like Elton John wrote three songs, and the other 12 were written as the ghostwriter. Like that's what it felt like. It felt like I don't know if that's true or not, so don't quote me on that. But I felt like he wrote a couple songs, then passed it on and put his name on it. It just didn't seem like there was substance here, it didn't seem like there was this was genuine. When you've seen Elton John doing The Lion King and Aida and Billy Elliot and some big shows, this does not match the integrity of those pieces.

[8:36] Jeff Malone: Yeah, no, it doesn't, not at all. And you know, another thing really is I find it interesting when things happen in the West End because sometimes it's so successful, and maybe it's just like not having the disconnect from American culture. But then when you try to bring something that is American culture to Broadway, it doesn't really do well. You know, one thing we were talking about that I saw a long time ago was Dirty Dancing in the West End. And I said, oh no, that should never come to Broadway because it's a mess. And we now know that there's another production of Dirty Dancing in the works. But like I would say, why would the West End ever try to do something like Dirty Dancing and then bring it to Broadway?

So now I'm kind of looking at something like TAMMY FAYE, and I'm saying, okay, why would they do TAMMY FAYE? Which it got good reviews in the West End, and it was well received in the West End. And now we're moving here to Broadway, and it was like totally ripped apart.

[9:37] Richie Grasso: And so I want to go into that because there were some casting changes as well. And I think we should get into some of this actor performances, design, and directions.

[9:44] Jeff Malone: Let's go ahead and do that.

[9:45] Richie Grasso: Great segue.

[9:46] Jeff Malone: Yes. But before we do, here's a few messages from those that make the show possible.

[9:51] Jeff Malone: Okay, and we're back.

[9:53] Richie Grasso: So Katie Brayben does this in London, wins an Olivier Award for it, comes here and now does it for two months and might not even get a Tony nomination. Like, I mean, I would think they would still honor her maybe with a nomination, but who knows? Because the Tonys are, we'll discuss this when we get to Tony talk because I have some thoughts. Like Katie Brayben to me is carrying the show. She is brilliant. I am feeling everything I'm feeling when I'm hearing her sing. And I think she's the best part.

[10:24] Richie Grasso: Um, but I do think we have, I do think we have a note on this though. And this is what many of the reviewers said about her performance as well. The way that it's directed, though, this woman is supposed to be big. She's supposed to be over the top. You're supposed to say, okay, she's selling me this story.

[10:41] Jeff Malone: And yes, as much as I believe Katie Brayben's's performance here, I also found that she does feel small on that stage. She does fall into the background at some certain points. And like that's nothing to do with her performance. It kind of has to do with how she was directed in the performance and how this stage and this set really felt way too big for this show.

[11:06] Richie Grasso: Yeah, because it was very hollow feeling. And you're in this huge Palace Theatre. And was cool. The windows coming up and down with them in the boxes was cool in the beginning, and it kind of got old towards the end.

[11:19] Jeff Malone: Yeah, it was like it was like one of those things that it's like, okay, it just keeps happening over and over again, and we're just bringing that set piece to the front and to the back, and we're bringing that weird, like Halo-ish type thing down and up anytime Michael Severus was performing a song, but it was like, why?

[11:40] Richie Grasso: Speaking of him, you know, he's great. It's really nice to hear him sing live. I think he's very talented. I thought he had a pretty horrible song to sing. I thought that was one of the worst songs on the show, actually. But I thought he was very good. Um, I will also say this must have been very different with Andrew Rannells.

[11:58] Jeff Malone: Yeah.

[11:59] Richie Grasso: Andrew Rannells did this in London, was supposed to do it here. He was kind of unofficially announced and then totally backed out. And the rumor was he wasn't getting paid enough. Christian Borle goes into the role. We love Christian Borle, but I don't know if that's the same performance that Andrew was.

[12:16] Jeff Malone: Yeah, you kind of really didn't feel that connection between Christian and Katie on the stage.

[12:21] Richie Grasso: Yeah, yeah. And you know, a few like minor critiques with this is we jumped really quickly into them having their TV network PTL. And I think that jumping that fast kind of takes you out of the moment. You know, we kind of didn't know, other than the fact that they went up and talked to a major producer, how they kind of got there, other than that one little scene in the beginning with the puppets.

[12:58] Jeff Malone: Yeah, or even yeah. I think we did jump a lot. We had so much time in the news in the TV studios, which I actually liked the like fighting and then the intro music into the and we're back. I kind of liked those mini segues. I thought that kind of moved pretty fast. Um, but there was a lot, I just don't understand why so many scenes were front and center the whole time. Pull some focus down and put some people downstage left or downstage right.

[13:26] Richie Grasso: I think some of the sometimes lazy directors, I'm not saying Rupert Goold is a lazy director, he's directed some great things, but to me, this is another cash-it-in moment. Just put everyone front and center the whole time, and everything will be front and center the whole show. My memory of this show is everything being front and center. It's boring after a while.

[13:43] Jeff Malone: Yeah. Like that. Even the rising on the cubes, and then the or there was no right. But in the beginning, what's interesting though is like in the beginning, you know, I really loved the costumes. They were great. And there was some really great wigs up on that.

[13:58] Richie Grasso: Yeah, there were. You would believe that some of those women that it's their actual hair.

[14:02] Jeff Malone: Yeah. But the set design, I was completely intrigued by it in the beginning. And it just like the show started just going down. I'm like, oh, okay, we're really not getting anything else. Which is shocking because it's Bunny Christie's set designer who did this Company revival when that set was so integral to that story. And I thought that that was wonderful in Company.

[14:28] Richie Grasso: I don't know. Maybe she took some of her box moments from that revival and just brought them over to TAMMY.

[14:34] Jeff Malone: Well, listen, the Hollywood Squares meets the Brady Bunch, that is such smart design because that was so popular of the time. But it didn't need to be used for two and a half hours. We could have brought some other scenery, you know. Um, not to mention, yes, costumes, wigs, all of that is great. Casting was really nice. Uh, like I said, with Katie, um, Christian and different with Andrew Michael Severus, great. The ensemble's working hard.

[14:59] Richie Grasso: Um, but if you look if you talk about another interesting thing here, going back to the score, I don't want to keep harping on Elton John's score, but when we talked a little about like, is this satire or is it not? I mean, if I read you some of the names of some of these songs, he's inside me. Yeah, like, like, are we supposed to be making fun? I think we are like like they're making fun of it on stage. We're all sitting in there in the audience, like, oh that's the name of this song.

[15:28] Jeff Malone: It's evangelical, but it's also hot. I don't know, like some of the songs to me, like seemed like um don't let there be light is one of the songs, right? Like, see you in heaven. There's so they're so like biblical-esque. I get that, but I don't know. The score to me just didn't do what it was supposed to do, and I didn't know if we were supposed to be like making fun of this or like actually feeling for them is really what it comes to.

[15:55] Richie Grasso: Right. And when you have an audience that's sitting there, they're watching production numbers, like he's Inside Me and Heritage USA. I think you're supposed to be laughing and saying, like, oh wow, these people were really wild and bizarre. But I think no one's really laughing, like you said earlier, because of the climate that we are in politically and how religion is getting brought back into this country, especially. And when you look at something like this, you're saying, oh, okay, it's all happening again, probably in a different way.

[16:25] Jeff Malone: And we're not talking about televangelists, but religion in general, which is what they were doing here, they were bringing religion to the masses. They were bringing it to their homes. It was on television. And I think right now, like, I don't know, especially in the Broadway community, we're probably saying, um, no, no.

[16:45] Richie Grasso: Well, it's listen, it's not just the Broadway industry saying no, tourists are not saying yes to this. Nobody's going to see this right now. And I feel bad for the many, many people who are now gonna be out of work right at the holiday season, because this is not going till January 4th. Like many things that close at this time of year would push through to January 4th. It's not even gonna make it to early mid-December.

[17:07] Jeff Malone: So it's not being taken by audiences. It got bad reviews. Um, it's not filling the house. Uh, and there's a lot of people putting a lot of time into this. And so it's actually one of the first huge flops of the season.

[17:20] Richie Grasso: Yeah, nothing of this season is really flopped as hard as this.

[17:24] Jeff Malone: Yeah, this is this is always the interesting time because this, you know, late October to through November, and even some now we're going into December. Um you you kind of have your previews and you get your good um review. And now this is supposed to lead into people buying tickets at the holiday season for shows they want to see when they come to visit New York.

[17:49] Richie Grasso: At the same time, you're dealing with a bunch of shows that are still open from last season, because that is still happening when you have The Outsiders and you have Hell's Kitchen and you have SUFs and you have The Notebook and you have Water for Elephants that are all still open from last season. I know The Notebook and Water for Elephants are closing and whatnot, but you have to figure out where your market is and who's gonna buy the tickets to your show, right?

[18:15] Jeff Malone: Especially since when I bring this up to people, people say to me, they made that into a musical. Oh, who wrote the music to that? Oh, Timmy Faye Big Tammy Faye Baker? Like people like that, these are the reactions from people.

[18:27] Richie Grasso: I would hope that Elton John is not cashing this in with the score for Devil Wears Prada, which is literally starting right now in London. I hope not, you know. But the biggest thing, I how can one really figure out what the demand is for this show? Because it did well in the West End. Let's not forget about that. People really liked it.

[18:51] Jeff Malone: And uh, let's bring up another topic here of Sunset Boulevard as well. West End as well, comes here, gets mixed reviews, but it's still doing well because it's cast right with Nicole Scherzinger.

[19:02] Richie Grasso: Right. And it's selling the thing because it has the demand. That demand for Sunset to come here was created last year when it was playing in the West End. People were literally leaving New York to go to London and see it. They were not leaving New York to go to London and see TAMMY FAYE. So, I mean, there's your answer.

[19:21] Jeff Malone: Yeah.

[19:22] Richie Grasso: Yeah. Well, I do want to kind of transition a little bit into our experience of the show, some Tony talk and some other just fun facts about the show as well. So let's kind of go over there now. But first, here's a few messages from our sponsors.

[19:34] Jeff Malone: Okay. So talking about the experience of the show. At one point, Jeff, I think I leaned over to you about 10 minutes in and I said, I feel like I'm in this hollow empty hall. It was the sound design was so echoey. And I looked around and I saw all the empty seats, and I said, This Palace Theatre, you have to have a lot of people in the building for the sound echo to work properly.

[19:57] Richie Grasso: And it just felt like this mega sound pump of the show that bounced off the walls and had this echoey tin can vibe to it. I can only imagine what Ben Platt sounded like in the Palace.

[20:08] Jeff Malone: Oh my gosh.

[20:10] Richie Grasso: But maybe there were more people there. I don't know.

[20:12] Jeff Malone: I don't think you gotta put the right show in the Palace Theatre because it's so big.

[20:18] Richie Grasso: Or you have to be the right performer to sell it out.

[20:20] Jeff Malone: Yeah. Um, but no, I agree with you. And this is like, you know, there's a few Broadway houses that I think this falls with, you know, you have to have the right show in there because it's if it's empty, it's gonna feel empty. And that's really what happened with TAMMY FAYE.

[20:36] Richie Grasso: I'm sitting there and no one's laughing. I feel like I'm looking at the cast members look up and they're like seeing that like the theater is empty, and this show probably should not have gone into this theater.

[20:50] Jeff Malone: Now, let me say something. If it even if it was in another theater, I don't think it would be doing well either. But this Palace is a beast of a theater, and we kind of talked about this a little bit. Like booking Ben Platt in there, and now TAMMY FAYE going in here, it just seems odd. Like, I think the Palace needed this grandiose, like welcome back. You know, we covered it. She probably needed a really big splashy revival.

[21:21] Jeff Malone: Like, oh, the beauty and the beast were viable. Like, could you imagine Beauty and the Beast that kind of changed Broadway forever? Where it was at the Palace? Like, why would that not open it? Like, where was the marketing on that? You know, I know we deal with Tom Schumacher kind of putting the brakes on things, but still, that should be what opened the Palace. But also, like Sunset with Nicole could have opened the Palace. You know, it's that's the kind of right stage for that. Not that the St. James isn't, but it I mean, that could have been the place that it went. Right. And then not only that, but you have I just even in these big production numbers, like bah-da-da-da-b. And then like it just seemed the audience didn't seem to really be like giving in this in our experience there.

I just very odd energy levels. Um, and when you talk about Tony Awards, listen, I don't think this is gonna get any nominations, but I still do have hope that Katie Brayben's will do two things. Well, she will get a Tony nomination at the least for this, even though it's a very competitive leading female year. And number two, that we see her on Broadway again soon because this was her Broadway debut. That woman is very good at what she does, and we I would love, love, love to see her back on a Broadway stage.

[22:44] Richie Grasso: Yeah, I would hope that something like this doesn't break her. She definitely deserves to be on Broadway. She needs the right role to get her on Broadway. Um, yeah, in terms of Tony talk, I really don't know what this is gonna get. I think the way that the Broadway reviewers, well, the way that the just the media in general reviewed this show, I'm sure most of the Broadway um Tony voters are gonna feel the same way. There is just so many new musicals this year, and I don't even think we have them all yet.

[23:19] Jeff Malone: No, because you now something's gonna go into the Palace. Oh, something's definitely going into the Palace. Or maybe it's maybe two things. Maybe a quick winter run and then a spring run. I don't know. Who knows? I mean, it'll be very interesting to see that. Um yeah, something will definitely be in that theater. Um, and what I find interesting though is I don't know what you know, what kind of is like bubbling under that could go in there. Because I think anything that's semi-announced, like even if you think of like a gun and powder or like a dead outlaw or something like that, none of those could play the Palace. But I think the ragtime revival if that's rumored to come from City Center could go there. I think.

[24:02] Richie Grasso: Yeah.

[24:03] Jeff Malone: Or it needs to be something like I don't know, the needs of the beast. Or like the Hugh Jackman music man, like something at that the Bet Midler, Hello Dolly, something at that caliber. I think a big, big, gorgeous, flashy revival of Mame. Give me Mame. I'm waiting for my Mame card.

[24:20] Richie Grasso: I still don't think Mame is selling out.

[24:23] Jeff Malone: Um I know, I know. I don't think Mame is selling out. Well, a few fun facts about TAMMY FAYE. Andrew Rannells, as we said earlier, who played Jim Baker in the London production was originally slated through reprise's role on Broadway. However, he left the production due to a failed contract negotiations. Christian Borle tipped in last minute. That's very interesting to me. Because I wonder if Andrew saw something else that we don't know happening. Maybe he kind of saw into the future a little bit the American. Maybe he read a revised script from London to Broadway and said, you know what? This is not what was going on in London. I need a lot more money to do this, or I'm not gonna do it. Maybe.

Or maybe he just didn't think it was gonna be well received by the American audience. I mean, I don't know. The show did have its world premiere in El Media Theater in London in October 2022. It got very positive reviews. And the production was financed with a budget of up to $25 million, making it one of the more expensive contemporary Broadway musicals. I mean, clearly, this was a very expensive show.

[25:21] Richie Grasso: Oh, yeah.

[25:21] Jeff Malone: From what you're seeing up the stage. Oh, yeah. And it's interesting to see like now they're gonna lose so much money on.

[25:27] Richie Grasso: Yeah.

[25:29] Jeff Malone: Um, also, despite the high profile creative team and positive London reception, we did say earlier this Broadway production is closing early on December 8th, 2024, after only 29 regular performances. Which that puts it deeply in a flop category, correct? I mean, if a show plays less than 100 performances, I mean less than 50 performances, this is 29. I mean, actually, if you hit 100 performances, that's kind of cool for a show. But 29 performances. Oh my gosh.

[26:02] Richie Grasso: Yeah.

[26:02] Jeff Malone: That's that's not good. It's it's kind of sad because they must have known their advanced ticket sales were bad for it. Because we started hearing the chatter about this, that this was closing way before it even opened. And that's just like, oof, it's rough. Another thing I want to kind of bring up here, too. With this, is when we talk about shows that constantly go through change and are successful somewhere and then go through change. I a show, of course, should be living and breathing, don't get me wrong. But it just kind of to me, Jeff, you kind of wrap this up here, it does go back to tone.

[26:46] Richie Grasso: Yeah.

[26:46] Jeff Malone: And what is your message and your tone? And I don't think it needs to be perfect, but I think it needs to resonate. And if I mention, if I name a show to you right now, a successful show anyway, you could instantly tell me the tone of that piece.

[27:02] Richie Grasso: Yeah.

[27:02] Jeff Malone: And I think that it's all about the vibe, the energy, the message, the meaning, the heart, the tone. It's hard for me to find almost any of those words I just said in this piece. But it was engaging. And I did enjoy a few moments. I've seen much worse things, of course. And it's just tough because I did want to like it more. I wanted, I liked Katie in this role. I understood this crazy woman's life is of course tailored for the musical theater stage. And it just was a ball that was dropped one too many times.

[27:38] Richie Grasso: Yeah.

[27:39] Jeff Malone: It's a shame. It's a shame at that price tag.

[27:42] Richie Grasso: It's a shame at that price tag.

[27:48] Jeff Malone: Well, what be super interesting, I think, is do you think this becomes a high school musical? You know, I thought about that. I said, do regionals or community theaters or high school theaters do this? It's got such ensemble feels to it. I don't know if a Christian school would be doing it, but I don't know. Who knows? Maybe or uh, but our community theater could. It's a vehicle for a leading female. So leading female, but there's so many bit parts in it. You know, you have all of these boy characters as well that can easily be interchangeable. Um, and you have an ensemble. There's multiple ensemble numbers that they're constantly moving. So I kind of say, does this kind of get like the high school stamp?

[28:36] Jeff Malone: Well, you wonder if like when you look at something like Adam's Family, that was not the most successful thing on Broadway, but it's the number one high school show done in America, you know. Uh or like oh my gosh, so many shows that are always done. Like Heathers never made it to Broadway, but people do Heathers all the time, like, right? So uh Hunchback in Notre Dame never made it to Broadway, but people want to keep doing Hunchback. So yeah, well, like from the high schools, you know.

[29:01] Richie Grasso: I I I look at that and I say, Oh, okay. And it's right, you say like Adam's Family wasn't that successful, but it is so done. Always it's the I think it is the number one high school show every year in America. That in life's I I feel like there's another show, like Mama Mia.

[29:18] Jeff Malone: Mama Mia, and also that's a legal yeah. Also, there was another one. Oh, there's a few. I don't remember. We're so off topic. Anyway, final thought final thoughts on TAMMY FAYE on Broadway Jeff Co. Listen, I'll say it again. I didn't hate the show. I was entertained by the show. Um, it definitely has many issues with it, and it's closing December 8th. So if you do want to see it and be one of the very few people to say, I saw TAMMY FAYE, go check it out. If it's a cheap ticket and you kind of want to just be entertained and you got nothing to do on the next couple weeks, go. Like, I I'm not, but but there's so many other things to see, and it's not like everyone's got a million nights free and a million dollars to go see all these shows, unfortunately.

[30:03] Richie Grasso: So they're probably talk about cheap tickets though.

[30:06] Jeff Malone: Producers, if you're listening to this podcast episode, you need to lower those prices because no one's going to pay a hundred dollars to see a show that's closing on December 8th. So if you want butts in the seat, lower it, get as many people in there to see the show as possible. Do let that on let that ensemble actually perform per people. And come on, do a $40 rush with like unlimited amount of rush. Like just if if people go to Rush, yeah, just fill it up and make 40, 50 bucks off a seat. You'll make some money still. You're gonna lose money if anything. You can sell concessions and um merch. I it intrigued me to want to learn more about the actual TAMMY FAYE. I hope I see Katie Brayben's at some point in the future, and uh a show that I enjoyed a couple moments here and there, but kind of a miss for me overall.

And I wish everybody involved the most success. It's not cool to get a closing notice this late close towards the holidays and then not even play through the holidays. So hopefully everyone finds some peace with this as best they can and wishing everyone well in the production.

[31:08] Richie Grasso: Oh, major thing that I saw today when I was doing some research, and I'm gonna bring this up real quick. She had a second husband.

[31:17] Jeff Malone: Would have never known that from this. Like would have never known. How did we just then skip over the next part of her life? Anyway, uh there was my final statement. And that tells you we didn't really quite learn everything.

[31:32] Richie Grasso: Yeah.

[31:32] Jeff Malone: Well, that does wrap up our discussion of the episode. We hope you enjoyed our deep dive into TAMMY FAYE. We will share the link with the ticket information 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 TAMMY FAYE. If you enjoyed our show, please leave us a review. Your feedback helps us bring more theater to you. And remember, you can listen to past episodes and stay tuned for our upcoming ones as well. Until next time, I'm Jeff.

[31:56] Richie Grasso: And I'm Richie saying ta-ta for now.

[31:59] Jeff Malone: Bye.