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.

[0:08] Richie Grasso: In today's episode, we're bringing you a new theater chat episode, an episode where we recap current topics happening in the theater industry.

[0:14] Jeff Malone: So join us as we dive into these hot topics.

[0:16] Richie Grasso: And don't forget to share your thoughts with us.

[0:18] Jeff Malone: I'm Jeff.

[0:19] Richie Grasso: And I'm Richie, and we're thrilled to be your host for this episode.

[0:21] Jeff Malone: But before we get started, let's take a quick moment to hear from our sponsors.

[0:25] Richie Grasso: So welcome everyone to a new episode of Theatre Chat. And let's start things off with the Broadway news of the week.

[0:31] Jeff Malone: So Mark Strong and Lesley Manville to star in Olivier Award winning Oedipus on Broadway this fall. This is some breaking news of very recently.

[0:38] Richie Grasso: Mark Strong playing Oedipus and Lesley Manville as Yocasta, adapted and directed by Robert Icke.

[0:45] Jeff Malone: The acclaimed West End revival of Oedipus arrives on Broadway for a 14-week limited run at Studio 54 beginning October 30th.

[0:52] Richie Grasso: Set on a tense election night, Robert Icke's modern adaptation reimagines the classic Greek tragedy as political drama, where a predicted landslide victory unravels into shocking revelations and personal catastrophe.

[1:05] Jeff Malone: Mark Strong and Lesley Manville reprise their Olivier Award-winning roles as Oedipus and Yocasta in this gripping award-winning production.

[1:11] Richie Grasso: So excited.

[1:12] Jeff Malone: Totally.

[1:13] Richie Grasso: Oedipus is a great show. I love that it's been adapted new with these two strong performers.

[1:19] Jeff Malone: It did really well in London. You know, a lot of times if things work in London, they do do a Broadway transfer, that has been the trending thing.

[1:25] Richie Grasso: And a lot of times Broadway transfers to London too. It's just how it works.

[1:28] Jeff Malone: So this makes sense because it won a lot of awards. It did really well.

[1:31] Richie Grasso: Studio 54, the Call Me Izzy, Jean Smart play will be closed by then.

[1:36] Jeff Malone: Uh, it seems like Roundabout's kind of renting out that space more than why not just using their for their own seasons.

[1:43] Richie Grasso: Right.

[1:43] Jeff Malone: Why not? I mean, that show's gonna go in there, and then Rocky Horror will go in right after.

[1:48] Richie Grasso: So for the spring. I mean, I think it's great. I'm excited to see this one.

[1:52] Jeff Malone: I know it's getting a lot of buzz already. I mean, 14 weeks is quick.

[1:55] Richie Grasso: Yeah. It's gonna be a hot ticket.

[1:58] Jeff Malone: Exactly. Uh, Jeff Ross brings this hilarious one-man show, Take a Banana for the Ride to Broadway this summer.

[2:04] Richie Grasso: Um, this is a solo show, and it's directed by Stephen Kessler.

[2:09] Jeff Malone: Um, Emmy-nominated comedian and roastmaster general Jeff Ross takes the stage at the Nederlander Theater from August 5th to September 29th with his new one-man show, Take a Banana for the Ride.

[2:19] Richie Grasso: In this uncensored and heartfelt performance, Ross shares his journey from childhood inspiration to becoming America's top celebrity roaster.

[2:27] Jeff Malone: Audiences can expect an evening packed with sharp jokes, uplifting stories, original songs, and even live roasting of brave volunteers, all designed to shake the audience out of tough times and deliver a cathartic, laughter-filled night out.

[2:41] Richie Grasso: So, this is exciting. You know, you always get these filler things when there's a lot of empty theaters.

[2:46] Jeff Malone: If the funding is there to put a one-man show on, it's a little cheaper to do something like that.

[2:49] Richie Grasso: And it's funny because you, when this was announced, they were like, you were like, What is this? And I was like, Oh, he's the roast guy.

[2:56] Jeff Malone: So, uh, you know, anytime like Joan Rivers was roasted, or um who else? Like Donald Trump, I think. Even like all of these people I'm watching, and I know who he is.

[3:06] Richie Grasso: So the fact that they're gonna be doing a live roast on the stage, I think it's gonna be funny.

[3:10] Jeff Malone: Yeah, and I don't know him, and it'll be interesting. And I also kind of like this title, Take a Banana for the Ride. I just don't know what that means.

[3:15] Richie Grasso: So we're gonna find out.

[3:17] Jeff Malone: Yeah, good stuff. So, Chess, the Broadway revival has found its home.

[3:21] Richie Grasso: This upcoming Broadway revival of Chess has found its home and has set its dates.

[3:25] Jeff Malone: The production will begin previews October 15th at the newly vacated Imperial Theater.

[3:29] Richie Grasso: That's where Smash just closed. Uh, with an opening night set for November 16th.

[3:34] Jeff Malone: The Imperial was also the home of the original production of Chess in 1988.

[3:38] Richie Grasso: So that's exciting. Did you know that?

[3:39] Jeff Malone: I did not know that. I think that's very cool because I also think there was some renovations that were gonna maybe gonna happen there.

[3:46] Richie Grasso: So maybe this summer they'll get ready for that for the fall run of it. It's a big house.

[3:50] Jeff Malone: I think with the star names, it's gonna sell great.

[3:53] Richie Grasso: Um, and it's a fun big show. I think it's gonna be great.

[3:56] Jeff Malone: Yeah, a lot of people were rumoring what theater that that was actually gonna go into.

[4:00] Richie Grasso: So the fact that it's going into the Imperial, everyone was like, oh, well, they have said they're doing renovations. Is it gonna happen? Is it not gonna happen?

[4:07] Jeff Malone: And hey, maybe we're gonna go in and we're gonna see some renovated Imperial stuff.

[4:12] Richie Grasso: And also three other shows have announced closing dates recently. We've had a lot of closings ever since the Tony Awards.

[4:18] Jeff Malone: Dead Outlaw will play its final show Sunday, June 29th.

[4:21] Richie Grasso: Real Women Have Curves will play its final show also on June 29th, and Cabaret will have its closing October 19th, with uh Billy Porter and Marshaw Wallace will be the final Sally in Cabaret, which I'd love to get back to and see about at some point.

[4:36] Jeff Malone: Yeah, I think we definitely need to get back to see that.

[4:39] Richie Grasso: Both in that because I've seen clips from their performances in the West End right now, and now that they're gonna come and do this, I definitely want to see it.

[4:47] Jeff Malone: Totally.

[4:48] Richie Grasso: Um, Jinkx Monsoon will be taking over in O'Mary, playing Mary Todd Lincoln.

[4:55] Jeff Malone: Um, that is super exciting. Monsoon's limited engagement will run August 4th through September 27th after Tituss Burgess.

[5:03] Richie Grasso: And um, this show also was extended till January 4th, 2026 at the Lyceum.

[5:08] Jeff Malone: So there's still someone else after Jinkx that's gonna go in around the fall or holidays to do it.

[5:13] Richie Grasso: Yeah.

[5:13] Jeff Malone: So that'll be interesting. Could it be Cole? Could it be someone else that we haven't even thought of yet? It'll be interesting.

[5:17] Richie Grasso: I think that something about six weeks is kind of nice. It's still hard to get a ticket, but I feel like a lot of people may not want to do it for more than six or seven weeks or so.

[5:26] Jeff Malone: So I feel like that's a good, like, you know, Jinkx is gonna come right off of Pirates, which has been a few months.

[5:31] Richie Grasso: Right.

[5:31] Jeff Malone: So then to go right into this, I'm sure Jinkx is like, okay, I'll do this. And then like at the end of September, like, I want a little bit of a break.

[5:37] Richie Grasso: Yeah, I look at this and I'm saying they are having a little bit of a Little Shop moment. They also are doing like what Hedwig was doing. They're really stunt casting this with names that people want to go and see the show.

[5:50] Jeff Malone: Totally.

[5:51] Richie Grasso: Um, I'm starting to wonder if people are going to pre-buy tickets to the show once they know that a new block is announced, just in case, because who you don't know who it's going to be that they're gonna play.

[6:05] Jeff Malone: You almost wonder, could you, yeah, but people buy tickets and then if they sell them if they don't want to go, or they just still go and get it? Because I do know people that bought tickets and they were like, Oh, I'm so happy that I have my tickets already for Jinkx because they didn't know at the time.

[6:17] Richie Grasso: Yeah, yeah, yeah. No interesting stuff. Cool.

[6:19] Jeff Malone: Well, we're gonna take a really quick commercial break here when we get back. Let's keep discussing more things, including some Broadway grosses for the week ending June 22nd.

[6:25] Richie Grasso: So we'll be right back after a word from our sponsors.

[6:28] Jeff Malone: All right, and we're back. Let's get into the Broadway grosses roundup for week ending June 22nd.

[6:33] Richie Grasso: These just came out as we're recording this.

[6:36] Jeff Malone: So yeah, a top selling show, the highest grossing show for the week was Wicked, bringing in 2.4 million dollars.

[6:43] Richie Grasso: Uh, right behind that, Glenn Gary Glenn Ross. We're estimating these numbers, of course. 2.2 million for Glenn Gary.

[6:48] Jeff Malone: I'm rounding them. Uh, Hamilton, 2.1 million, The Lion King, 2.1 million, and Sunset Boulevard, 1.8 million.

[6:55] Richie Grasso: Huge numbers for these five shows. And the average ticket price across all shows, $131.23.

[7:01] Jeff Malone: And now this is a different top five as of recent now because we do not have Goodnight and Good Luck anymore.

[7:01] Richie Grasso: We do not have Othello in here anymore. So we have some of these other shows getting added in here.

[7:11] Jeff Malone: Uh, the lowest performing shows this week were Stephen Sondheim's Old Friends with only just over 300,000.

[7:17] Richie Grasso: Dead Outlaw, 475,000. Real Women Have Curves, 508,000. Pirates, 569,000. And Boop, just over 600,000.

[7:27] Jeff Malone: Now Boop is kind of making its way up.

[7:29] Richie Grasso: Yeah, they're the only show that you just read that doesn't have an announced closing. And Stephen Sondheim's Old Friends, I think Bernadette Peters was out for a lot of the shows this week, which could have been a reason why they slumped down.

[7:38] Jeff Malone: They have one more week left. Ted Outlaw, Real Women have one week left. All those Pirates has a couple weeks left.

[7:44] Richie Grasso: Um, Boop hasn't is still considered open-ended, I think. I think it's running, maybe it'll run most of the summer.

[7:49] Jeff Malone: So well, that does wrap up our theater chat episode. We'd love to bring you these short quick episodes of just some fun headlines for the week.

[7:56] Richie Grasso: Uh remember, we want to hear from you. Continue the conversation with us on Instagram at Half Hour Podcast and drop us a comment on Spotify and let us know your thoughts on the topics this week.

[8:05] Jeff Malone: And if you enjoyed our show, please leave us a review. Your feedback helps us bring more theater to you.

[8:08] Richie Grasso: And remember, you can listen to past episodes and stay tuned for the many upcoming ones as well.

[8:12] Jeff Malone: Until next time, I'm Jeff.

[8:13] Richie Grasso: And I'm Richie saying ta ta for now.

[8:15] Jeff Malone: Bye.