This transcript was automatically generated and might contain errors.

[0:08] Jeff Malone: Welcome to Half Hour with Jeff and Richie, a Broadway podcast.

[0:11] Richie Grasso: I'm Jeff.

[0:12] Richie Grasso: And I'm Richie.

[0:13] Jeff Malone: And today we have a very special guest joining us for an exciting discussion about the upcoming winter 2024 Broadway season. Please welcome American Theater Personality Journalist, host, and editor in chief of Broadway.com, Paul Wontorek.

[0:27] Paul Wontorek: Thank you.

[0:27] Paul Wontorek: A personality.

[0:28] Paul Wontorek: I like being a personality.

[0:30] Jeff Malone: I appreciate that.

[0:31] Richie Grasso: Of course.

[0:32] Jeff Malone: Yes, Paul, we're so thrilled to have you here. And before we get started, we thought it would be great to give you the floor and first tell our listeners a little bit more about yourself and how you ultimately got involved in theater and Broadway.com.

[0:46] Paul Wontorek: Oh man, it's been a journey. I'm getting older. So the, you know, the older you get, the longer the journey is. But quite basically, you know, I grew up in Connecticut. So I traveled to Broadway often on the Metro North train from New Haven. Saw a lot of shows when I was a teenager. Um I started writing about Broadway at in like the high school newspaper. And then I came to New York City to go to Fordham University when I was 18. And the minute I got to New York, it wasn't about which school I went to, it was about being in New York City and being near Broadway. So the second I got to New York, I started uh interning at a magazine called Theater Week. And that was in 1991. And I've basically been writing professionally about Broadway since then.

Um I started at Broadway.com in the year 2000. I was hired on Valentine's Day 2000. It was my one romance for much of my life. Happy to say there are other Valentines now, but uh, or just one. But uh yeah, that it it was right when Broadway.com started. Um, a really lovely couple from Florida owned the URL and knew they had to make a website and didn't really know what to put on it. So I was able to build up an editorial from from scratch, basically, and it's now been 24 years uh of that, which is is crazy.

[2:11] Richie Grasso: Wow, that's amazing. I love hearing people's journeys because I feel like everyone has a different story, and so there's no like cookie cutter way of in any department of this industry getting involved, right? So I think that's that's a great story. So thank you. Um so for the all of all of you listening today, we brought Paul in because we like to kind of talk, not just me and Jeff, but also have someone else come in from their experience and talk a little bit about the upcoming season. So, as many people know, the Tony season goes June to June, kind of like a school year. Uh, and so we had our whole fall, and now we have the big season coming up. We have like a million shows coming between now and like April, whatever the cutoff date at the end of April is.

So we'll do another episode about like the late March into June. But today we're talking about a bunch of shows that are opening, whether they're starting previews or they're opening from early January to about mid-March. So when we tried to divide this in half, it was around mid-March was like the come up for air breathing moment because I feel like there's just so much coming, which is very custom for this time here time of year.

[3:11] Paul Wontorek: I get that.

[3:12] Richie Grasso: So just so you all know, we're gonna talk about the following shows in no particular order, but the order I have here is Prayer for the French Republic, Days of Wine and Roses, Doubt, The Notebook, Water for Elephants, An Enemy of the People, My Son's a Queer, The Who's Tommy, and The Outsiders. So those are all the most wildly different plots and quite sort of stories to tell. Um, which is awesome. That's why we love Robbie. So we're gonna just gonna kick it off, Paul. We're gonna start with what out of all those shows are you the most excited to see or interview people for, or just talk about in general.

[3:48] Paul Wontorek: Well, first of all, I just want to say it's a really exciting season, and what I keep telling everybody, especially look, we all love a good race for best musical. That's that that's always that's always the hot moment of the Tony of Tony Knight. And this year, I find it fascinating because I'm looking at all of all of these shows, there's no clear front runner. I feel like most years you kind of go in and you're like, well, that's sort of the big show and all the rest. We'll see whatever whatever ones get the slots. And I feel like this year is anyone's game. Um, so it's exciting. It's exciting as a journalist. Um, I've seen a bunch of these shows already. I try to see shows out of town before they get to Broadway.

I haven't seen all of them. Um, but my my gut thing I want to say is The Notebook because I have not seen The Notebook. I saw a very early version of it when they did it at Vassar College, like the first version of it, but I have not seen it actually up on its feet, and I feel like it really has it to me. I just feel like it has a real shot of being something uh really special and something special for audiences too. It's always a blend of what will connect with audiences and what do I think will make me cry? Uh I love to cry. Look, if you make me if a show makes me cry, uh I'm in love with it forever. Honestly, and I could be, and I am speaking about the original production of Parade, I could be bored for two and a half hours, but then if you make me cry at the end, I I tell everyone I loved it.

So if you remove me. So I I kind of and and honestly, like I also saw Water for Elephants, I got teary. I saw The Outsiders, I got teary. So I feel like there might be a lot of crying this year. Um but it's exciting. The musicals are exciting, don't you guys think?

[5:36] Jeff Malone: Totally exciting. I feel like we've already had some cool stuff open and play. And they're all so different. I what I what I most admire is how the landscape of score is changing so much. I mean, obviously, we know through Broadway history that it's always been rooted in like jazz, right? Or like upbeat, like campy, or then it kind of but between rock, folk, jazz, old school. I mean, like Adam's score for Days of Wine and Roses, how different is that from like The Outsiders, which would be different from the revival, The Who's Tommy, like all so different. And so you're gonna get a completely different like ear experience at all these shows too. I think which is cool.

[6:11] Paul Wontorek: Well, there is everyone's there's a there's a rock pop lean happening, and and there's a lot of musicians being brought into the Broadway fold who don't write classic Broadway scores. So I think that that's exciting, and I love to to see scores um like with those those shows. There's a lot of them, and it's a lot of like musicians, literally musicians, and they they come to Broadway and they learn how to write a score. What makes me a little sad is that I see something like Harmony, and what I keep hearing everyone say about Harmony is uh the score's no good. The score, and I think Harmony has such a classic Broadway score. I understand people either loving or not liking Harmony, I get it, but I think it's like I don't want to lose sight of that as well. You know what I mean? I it it's it's a fine line between something that's ready for the radio and something's a classic Broadway score. So it's it's interesting.

[7:11] Richie Grasso: That's a good way to put that about Harmony. I think we liked a lot of the music in Harmony.

[7:16] Paul Wontorek: Yeah, I heard you I heard you guys talking about Harmony. I mean, yeah, and yeah, and I remember actually that might have actually sort of sparked me a little bit when I heard your conversation about it, because I just think that it's a it's a it's an art. I have a whole wall of like cast albums because I love Broadway cast albums, and um, you know, the the work that's happening with Jamestown Revival and The Outsiders, um, even Ingrid Michelson in The Notebook and and the Pig Pen guys for Water for Elephants, very different scores, and a lot of critics go into those shows and they don't know what to make of them. They don't know what to make of. I feel like there's a lot of people just sort of not really sure what a Broadway score is right now, and that might be great.

[7:58] Richie Grasso: And and yeah, just that is true because like with The Notebook, which is on my list of like probably what I'm most anticipated and like excited to see because all of the Chicago people we talked to were like, you need to see it, it's so good. And I'm like, okay, great. Well, I'm so happy it's coming, but you know, we know it's Ingrid Michelson, so like what is it gonna sound like? And I see a lot of people with their feedback and they're saying, like, oh well, the one song that we're hearing, I can't even put it into how it's gonna make sense in the show. And I'm like, but if you really listen to it, it does have great potential in telling the story if you know The Notebook.

[8:33] Paul Wontorek: So it's like Do you know one of my pet peeves right now is that they always release these videos of these songs early on, right? They always like here's Ingrid Michelson singing something, here's a song from Water for Elephants. I have no interest in listening to a song out of context. I literally it means nothing to me. And I watched these videos and I'm like, okay, that was pretty, whatever. Does it work in the show or not? Like, I don't care. Like, like just let me see the show. It's like a weird thing. But every day, all the shows release these videos. And I literally tell this to Richie all the time. I'm like, please don't play me anything. It's going to ruin it for me. And I and mean while I've listened to Ingrid's the one song from The Notebook that's come out.

I've listened to that 87 times. That's not like the opposite of it. So different. But I but I totally get it. Like pulling, it's not fair to pull these songs out of context and then and then people come into media share and say, oh, this doesn't look good, or oh, this looks great, but you're basing it off of something this big in for three minutes. I mean, there's a whole artistic lens that we need to look at this from when you're sitting live in a theater. And so yeah, I think it's interesting.

[9:40] Richie Grasso: And and and the scores kind of also lead me a little bit to casting in general, too. And I always feel like we have stunt casting, we have no names that become stars. There's always a little bit of everything. What are some people that you're most excited to see hit the stage in some of these shows in the next few months?

[9:58] Paul Wontorek: We'll be right back.

[10:02] Jeff Malone: Welcome back.

[10:04] Paul Wontorek: Well, I mean, you're talking about the the winter shows. I mean, first of all, Water for Elephants is also interesting because they actually replaced a bunch of the leads from the Atlanta run, which is very which is very unusual nowadays. Um, and I saw it in Atlanta and the cast was was great down there, but now they have Grant Justin, who I'm really curious about, uh making his sort of big I don't think he was on Broadway. I think he was in the tour of West Side Story.

[10:30] Jeff Malone: Okay, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[10:31] Paul Wontorek: But you know, he's the Flash, so that that's and and everything we put up about him on Broadway.com is like blowing up. So there's a lot of interest in him. So it'll be really interesting to see if he ends up being sort of a a crossover person to bring people into Broadway. I think a lot of the producing decisions with Water for Elephants are really smart with the graphics and the way that they're promoting that show. Um so I'm really curious about him. Um Mary Ann Plunkett is in The Notebook.

[11:00] Richie Grasso: Yes, yes, but I was just saying this to Jeff, like, yeah, I can't wait for her.

[11:05] Paul Wontorek: Yeah, I mean, I saw her in like Me and My Girl when I was a teenager. Uh I I and and uh and and the gentleman Dorian Harewood, who plays the older, you know, there's three pairs of actors playing the couple. They're the older couple, they have very rich parts. He was also big on Broadway, like in the 70s and 80s. So I I love when people sort of come back. Um the whole cast of The Outsiders is exciting. I'm curious about Rob Madge. I don't know much about them.

[11:30] Richie Grasso: I yeah, you know, very curious about My Son's a Queer, but what can you do?

[11:35] Paul Wontorek: You can't forget the subtitle by the way.

[11:37] Richie Grasso: Right, right, right.

[11:38] Paul Wontorek: Um, I know that the whole world is excited about Jeremy Strong, but I'm not personally very like I'm not, you know, I'm not standing in line. I mean, but uh you know, Ibsen and Ibsen play. I mean, you know, I'm sure he's gonna be great, but he's a handful, isn't he? When you read interviews with him.

[11:54] Richie Grasso: Yeah, yeah.

[11:57] Paul Wontorek: And I'm like, okay, and that's like, yeah, like you have this old play, and you're like, I mean, I I think that play's been on probably a few times. I may have seen it, I think Manan Theatre Club did it maybe 15 years ago. I think I saw it. I saw it. And I remember saying, Oh, this is a kind of great play, which is t I always feel like it's timely. Yeah, unfortunately, you know, so I feel like um because of the plot. Well, Amy Herzog is writing the adaptation, so it might be a fresh take on it. So I'd be curious to see that.

[12:22] Richie Grasso: And and I'm over here, like uh Tyne Daly all the way.

[12:25] Paul Wontorek: Well, I was gonna say that the cast of Doubt, all four of those roles. I know like they they all got Tony nominations originally, they all got Oscar nominations. Like all four of those roles are juicy. So that's that's definitely exciting.

[12:41] Richie Grasso: So and to and to add to some of these names too, I think I'm very excited for Joy Woods in The Notebook because I love her, and I think this is like her moment. I also think um Kelly and Brian in Days of Wine and Roses. I know you just interviewed her.

[12:53] Paul Wontorek: So good.

[12:54] Richie Grasso: So good. I weren't we haven't seen it yet, but I'm I love though the movie is tragic. It's like and I we just saw the movie recently. I'm like, oh my god. And so like now these two stars. I mean I I found it I I haven't seen that on Broadway yet, but I saw it at the Atlantic Theater, and I found it really like challenging to watch. Like I really like they really and it's like the movie, like they really captured that. It made me really uncomfortable. And they're but they're both like you know, career high performances, like so you you when you look at like Tony Award races, which that's all I do, right? I'm like, oh my god, like even they they both have a shot too, even in this mix of like all there's thirteen new musicals right now, you guys.

[13:38] Paul Wontorek: That's crazy.

[13:38] Richie Grasso: Yeah, it is crazy. There's so many new musicals, and it's also funny because talking about like the landscape, I'm always like, because Lincoln Center usually does that big splashy like golden age revival, and they're doing the Uncle Vanya.

[13:49] Paul Wontorek: No, that's not till later, but I'm like, oh, a lot of the reviv revivals in general are like I'm seeing trends, and you're talking about trends, I'm seeing trends of like not the oldest show in history being revived. We're seeing like The Wiz and The Who's Tommy and some of these shows that are like even Merrily, right? That are like from like not that long ago. So the revival trend has changed so much too, other than like when we had Camelot last year, or we're getting Cabaret this spring, that's uh an old show too. But I'm noticing shifts in what is old for a revival too.

[14:21] Paul Wontorek: Right, you know, yeah.

[14:22] Richie Grasso: So that's very um I I had one last thing for stunt casting, and I know this is off topic because it's not a new show, but what do you think of the Sutton Foster Aaron Tveit uh stunt casting for Sweeney Todd since it's happening during this time?

[14:36] Paul Wontorek: Oh it's um it's Aaron Tveit. I don't want anyone to come after you.

[14:40] Richie Grasso: They will.

[14:48] Paul Wontorek: Oh, I didn't even know that it's, uh, I'm excited. I mean, look, it's, I'm excited to see it. Look, I love both of them. I've known them both forever. I've seen them do so many different things through the years. Uh, it's not like my favorite production of Sweeney Todd. So I'm excited to like see it again with different blood in there. And like I'm, yeah, I'm really excited to see them soon, right? A couple weeks. Soon, and also, and then speaking of Satan 2, not this is more off-Broadway this winter, but this Once Upon a Mattress at City Center is like star-studded, and yeah, you don't ever hear that show being done in it later. By the way, I'm really excited about Jelly's Last Jam, which is the next musical they're doing.

That's a really underappreciated musical from the 90s that really deserves another look. So I'm excited about that. And City Center always does, I always am impressed with their line. I think Titanic, I know that's not till later, but um, I mean, and I love, love, love that show too. So City Center always gets some good things.

[15:48] Paul Wontorek: Um, talking about trends and themes. What are we feeling about in terms of just maybe some highlights of underrepresented voices for us with respect to this inclusivity social issues when we see these shows and we see what they're doing with some of them? What do we think about some of those things?

[16:09] Paul Wontorek: Well, I mean, casting has, uh, you know, casting is sort of, I think Broadway has always done a good job of being very diverse in the people on stage. Um, and I think that it's just become more of the baseline of how we see these shows. So, like, you know, when you look at a show like The Outsiders, which is about a very specific social group in Oklahoma in the 60s of these basically, you know, poor white guys in the 60s, but we're seeing um diverse representation in the storytelling behind the stage and on stage. And I feel like that's kind of always happened, but um, and I think Broadway audiences have always been really open for it and here for it. But we're not seeing much this spring. Um, you know, beyond Rob Madge, My Son's a Queer. What's the subtitle?

[17:10] Paul Wontorek: Oh, um, um, I already put it out. Or what can you do? But what can you do? Um, I'm literally writing it down right now. I mean, that, uh, you know, that title, that 10 minutes, that title actually, it just seems so like basic, doesn't it? It seems so like 101. But then you have to remember, like, okay, it's Broadway. It's still a big, it's still a big outlet to have a one-person queer show out there. So obviously that's great representation. You know, for we're, I'm not seeing on this specific batch much more representation in terms of like, you know, unique voices or unique stories from other cultures. I mean, if you look at this specific batch, um, but I think that Broadway, you know, I like I said, I think Broadway has done, you know, when those conversations were all starting in 2020, I remember thinking, well, Broadway isn't necessarily the first place we all have to uh fix.

[18:12] Paul Wontorek: Um, you know what I mean? That the stories are out there and the creative teams have definitely become more diverse in the last few years. And that's basically what the number one complaint was that the produce from the producing side and but and the creative side and even stage managers and dressers and faces backstage, and I know that a lot of work has happened in the industry to do that, but that's not necessarily obvious to people sitting in the seats watching their shows.

[18:39] Richie Grasso: Yeah.

[18:40] Paul Wontorek: So we always like to talk about the creative teams too.

[18:43] Richie Grasso: Yeah.

[18:43] Paul Wontorek: We're like discussing a show. Because we can talk about it on a surface level, but there's so much more that goes into a show that I think people forget about. And I think speaking of like the creative teams, I'm someone who I open that playbill and I look at the creative teams, and when I see, and this is, I'm not putting down anybody who has worked their whole career in this industry and continues to get work and especially continues to get Tony Awards and Tony nominations in their design. But when I see a season and I see like that one set designer designed six sets, or that one lighting designer direct lit five of the eight shows in one month. I mean, sometimes it's like that high. Like they're busy, they're making money, that's great. But also, but also like there is room for other people.

[19:26] Paul Wontorek: So some of these things they've been opening, and like, I don't know this section. I don't know, I don't know this costume designer. This is great, and I'm leaning up with them, and then their bios are like crazy great. And then I see what they're putting on the stage, and I'm like, let's make room for more at the table.

[19:38] Richie Grasso: Well, and I, and it's actually, I think if you look at The Notebook, The Notebook is really interesting because obviously it's these characters, Allie and Noah, and it's Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams in the movie, right? But the way that they've chosen to tell that story, and by the way, they were telling it this way before 2020, because I saw a reading of it before 2020, and it's three different pairs of couples, and the race changes through, it's not about the race of the character. Um, so I think that's, that's an exciting um moment for audiences to embrace things like that. You have to give credit to the um, the sort of rainbow experience of that, and then and then even on the creative side, you know, Michael Grief had been involved with it for a very long time, and now Shelley Williams is a co-director, and then she also has The Wiz, which is fabulous. I've already seen it twice.

[20:27] Paul Wontorek: Oh, she's having a, she's having a big moment. Um, so, so there is, there's been a lot of uh attention paid to these conversations and to actually making moves on Broadway.

[20:40] Richie Grasso: Totally, totally, totally.

[20:43] Paul Wontorek: We'll be right back.

[20:48] Richie Grasso: Let's jump back into things. And then when we also another trend becomes the movie to musical when you have Days of Wine and Roses, when you have The Outsiders, even things that have already opened like Back to the Future and some of these things. I feel like when we talk about trends, we're all, I always say to Jeff that we're always gonna. I personally think we're always gonna have something. I feel like every year it's a Sondheim or Lerner and Loewe or Rodgers and Hammerstein show, every or Kurt Weill. Like you're always gonna have one of those. You're always gonna have a movie and a musical. You're always gonna have this like edgy, dark new thing. Like, and I feel like it every year is a little bit of like a okay, we'll see what comes this year.

I can't, it's hard to predict, and it and it's also hard to look at this list and say that'll close early, that'll last 10 years, that'll have different cast by June. I don't know. It's, it's so like I don't really know this year, you know.

[21:39] Richie Grasso: And we're always gonna have a new Cabaret. Add that to your list.

[21:44] Paul Wontorek: Oh, yes.

[21:45] Richie Grasso: Yes, we will.

[21:46] Paul Wontorek: And I always say Cabaret and Fiddler. I'm waiting when's the next Fiddler on the Roof. Any minute, any minute.

[21:54] Richie Grasso: I love that. I love it. I love it.

[21:56] Paul Wontorek: Uh, for, uh, is there anything off-Broadway that is interesting to you this kind of season that's coming?

[22:04] Richie Grasso: Um, yes, The Connectors, that's what it's called. Jason Robert Brown, uh, music Jonathan Mark Sherman wrote it with him that has a great cast. I'm excited about that. It's sort of set in the world of journalism. Um, Mary, Cola Scholas. Uh, he's, uh, he says it's the story of Mary Todd Lincoln through the lens of an idiot being him.

[22:26] Paul Wontorek: Um, that sounds ridiculous. Um, then the musical that's been kicking around for a while that I wanted to bring up is Teeth.

[22:35] Richie Grasso: Yes.

[22:36] Paul Wontorek: Oh, yeah, based on the movie about the woman whose vagina grows teeth. Uh, that is a musical now. And it's been, they've been working on it for a while, and Michael R. Jackson is involved with it. And so that's finally happening at Playwrights Horizon. So yeah, I mean, there's interesting things happening.

[22:55] Richie Grasso: Yeah, when we were looking through all the off-Broadway stuff, do you know, did you know that this was like saying? This team? Right. And I'm like, whoa, this sounds crazy. And I can't wait to see something how they're gonna do it like that on stage. Because even like just like horror and like gore and stuff doesn't always translate well to the stage as we've seen in the past.

[23:19] Paul Wontorek: So excited for it.

[23:20] Richie Grasso: Well, everyone's always looking for the next Little Shop of Horrors, right?

[23:20] Paul Wontorek: Right, right, right.

[23:24] Richie Grasso: And I also, I mean, other than we already talked earlier about this whole City Center season, I kind of count that as off-Broadway, and I feel like that's all really great stuff. But also, like this is gonna sound so random, but that this Mark Summers slime show.

[23:36] Paul Wontorek: Yeah, yeah, that's been around.

[23:39] Richie Grasso: Yeah.

[23:39] Paul Wontorek: I I'm excited about that because I'm with such a like Nickelodeon kid. So like to see that and now to see him come and be live and like do that, I'm like, okay. And Alex Brightman wrote it.

[23:51] Richie Grasso: Yeah, yeah.

[23:52] Paul Wontorek: And so I'm like, it's like he's in it, it's like half autobiography, but it looks like it's also half-game show. So I feel like that's kind of cool. And um, I don't know, we'll see. You know, the world's sleep is always this cool stuff there.

[24:03] Richie Grasso: So um, well, we are getting ready to kind of wrap up here in these last couple minutes. I just want to kind of wrap all of what we've talked about for the winter. A lot of people always say, Oh, after Christmas, but before April, Broadway is dead, and it's like so hard to have this had this 20-something minute conversation and now realize dead what like we haven't even talked about some things, yeah.

[24:24] Paul Wontorek: I know, and then spring coming. So let's like just what are your final thoughts on the next three months? How does that impact April, May, June? What are your kind of thoughts in general?

[24:33] Paul Wontorek: Oh my god, I think that this, like I said, this is a hot season. I can't wait to see how this all plays out. Because I feel like some shows are just sort of like coming in a little earlier. There used to be this logic that you had to open right in April, right before, you know, that became a thing after the whole famous Nine versus Dreamgirls year. That became the thing to open late. And I feel like people are starting to go back on that a little bit. And at the end of the day, when it comes to like the Tony Awards, I think Merrily We Roll Along is gonna be sort of the default choice in many categories because it's a hit. People love it. And so all of these shows in a lot of ways have to top Merrily Roll Along. Not for Best Musical, obviously, but all the acting categories and director and you know, I feel like there's gonna be a lot of energy towards Merrily.

[25:20] Richie Grasso: Um, and you know, we didn't even talk about plays, but there have been a lot of great plays this year as well.

[25:25] Paul Wontorek: Totally, totally.

[25:26] Richie Grasso: And I feel like, um, I still can't, early Pearly, yeah.

[25:31] Paul Wontorek: Oh my god, amazing.

[25:32] Richie Grasso: Right.

[25:33] Paul Wontorek: That's going so strong. I think and then even some of the stuff like the revival plays like Doubt, but we just saw for Prayer for the French Republic last week and loved that. And so there's some really cool stuff in the play world too. And then Uncle Vanya, like I said earlier, come to retelling of that.

[25:47] Richie Grasso: So Kara Young's probably gonna win a Tony, right?

[25:50] Paul Wontorek: Kara Young for currently so good. Definitely, yeah, yeah.

[25:55] Richie Grasso: Well, what's interesting though is when we look at it from everything that's open kind of in this Broadway season, though, from like summer to fall, not much really lasted. And now we have all of these shows opening up, you know, right towards the end of March, and then we're gonna have what is it, eight more shows opening on the episode.

[26:13] Paul Wontorek: In April, and and and I was gonna say what's also, yeah, like what's gonna happen there.

[26:19] Richie Grasso: Right.

[26:20] Paul Wontorek: And and what's also interesting is what a lot of like so like when a couple weeks ago it was announced that like Nicole Scherzinger's coming with Sunset next year. I have a lot of family and friends that are that are like, are you gonna get tickets? Let's go, let's go. I'm like, well, that's like, that's like so down the road. And I'm like, I have like 40 shows to see before. But like, sure. And so everyone's like, but I want to see that. So everyone's already like next year, like there are rumors that it might slip in before the Tonys.

[26:48] Paul Wontorek: Uh mm-hmm.

[26:49] Richie Grasso: If you heard it here, if some if if something else closes, but I don't know that that's a smart idea. There's too much competition.

[26:56] Paul Wontorek: She deserves her, she deserves her own Tony award, apart from all these other divas.

[27:01] Richie Grasso: Oh yeah, right.

[27:02] Paul Wontorek: But when we're already hearing the rumors for next season, she's already gonna be going up against others.

[27:07] Richie Grasso: Yeah.

[27:08] Paul Wontorek: I know, I know.

[27:09] Richie Grasso: That's the whole thing.

[27:10] Paul Wontorek: That's the whole thing.

[27:11] Richie Grasso: I know, I know.

[27:12] Paul Wontorek: Um, and you know what? We also, we shouldn't forget Once Upon a One More Time might just sweep the Tony Awards. You never know.

[27:20] Richie Grasso: Never, never, and I actually liked that. I thought it was fun, but I mean, listen, um, no, actually what I really thought was gonna do better that was Here Lies Love, and I'm shocked that it's like gone.

[27:31] Paul Wontorek: I know.

[27:31] Richie Grasso: I know like that was what I was, you know, picking for the head of the Tonys, and now I'm like, okay, maybe not.

[27:38] Paul Wontorek: Yeah.

[27:39] Richie Grasso: It's gonna be interesting to see what gets those four or five Best Musical slots this year.

[27:43] Paul Wontorek: It's gonna be really interesting.

[27:44] Richie Grasso: And there's, and there's always snubs, but there's gonna be something about snubs this year that are even like the Spamlot revival, I keep forgetting we didn't even talk about that. Like that's a whole thing, and that's pushing through the winter. Because I was always like I was looking at some of the grosses and some things, like, well, that might close too, and that might like there's things like now we're halfway through January and things are kind of just pushing through.

[28:02] Paul Wontorek: So maybe people are really trying to hold out until Tonys and stay open, you know.

[28:06] Richie Grasso: So yeah.

[28:07] Paul Wontorek: Um, this was amazing, Paul. We have to wrap up, but I we need to have you back at some point to keep talking about all the wonderful things. You guys do, you guys do great work. So keep up the good work. I love it. I love your positive voices and your energy.

[28:21] Richie Grasso: Thank you.

[28:22] Paul Wontorek: We greatly appreciate that. Where can people find you on social media and follow you and your work and what you're doing?

[28:27] Paul Wontorek: Just Paul Wontorek, spell out my name, W-O-N-T-O-R-E-K. I try to keep active.

[28:31] Richie Grasso: I love it.

[28:34] Paul Wontorek: Love it. And you're gonna be so busy now with all these shows coming. And then I'm on a TV show called The Broadway Show. It's hosted by Tamsen Fadal. It's on every, it's on in 140 markets every year. I mean every week. And in New York City, it's on Pix 11 every Sunday. So, and that's all on social as well. So, and I'm at Broadway.com. Still, always love it.

[28:53] Richie Grasso: We're gonna share all these details about Paul in the description as well. So you can follow along with Paul at Broadway.com. And we hope you enjoyed our conversation. So thanks so much for joining us today, Paul. We appreciate it.

[29:09] Paul Wontorek: Thanks, guys.

[29:10] Richie Grasso: Thank you to all the listeners. If you have suggestions for future episodes, we'd love to hear from you. And you can connect with us on Instagram and TikTok at half hour podcast.

[29:18] Richie Grasso: So getting ready to sign off for now. I'm Richie saying ta ta.

[29:22] Jeff Malone: And I'm Jeff.

[29:23] Richie Grasso: Bye.

[29:24] Jeff Malone: Bye.