This Week on Broadway for February 16, 2025: The Antiquities @ Playwrights Horizons

BROADWAYRADIO

02/16/25

This Week on Broadway for February 16, 2025: The Antiquities @ Playwrights Horizons

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Peter Filichia, James Marino, and Jan Simpson talk about The Antiquities @ Playwrights Horizons, Still @ The Sheen Center, Pan Asian Repertory Theatre production of My Man Kono @ Art-NY, Maiden Mother Crone @ The Flea, My First Ex Husband @ MMAC Theater, and Henry IV @ Theatre for a New Audience

The Antiquities photo by Emilio Madrid

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Panel:

Peter Filichia | [email protected] | Facebook
PETER FILICHIA is a playwright, journalist, and historian with a number of books. Peter’s new day-by-day wall calendar – A SHOW TUNE FOR TODAY – 366 Songs to Brighten Your Year – has been released! Peter also has columns at Masterworks Broadway, Broadway Select, and many other places.

Today is Linda’s Birthday!
A SHOW TUNE FOR TODAY: Mrs Henderson Presents: 1. Everybody Loves The Windmill

Michael Portantiere | [email protected] | Facebook
MICHAEL PORTANTIERE is a theater reviewer and essayist. He is the founder and editor of CastAlbumReviews.com. He is also a theatrical photographer whose photos have appeared in The New York Times and other major publications. You can see his photography work at FollowSpotPhoto.com.

James Marino | [email protected] | Facebook
BroadwayStars

Jan Simpson | [email protected] | Facebook | Twitter
Broadway & Me
Jan Simpson is a theater journalist who writes the blog Broadway& Me and hosts the BroadwayRadio podcasts Stagecraft and All The Drama. She has thrice (that is three times!) served as a Pulitzer Prize juror.

Note: This week we had listeners join us while recording. These listeners are Patreon members who support BroadwayRadio. If you would like to join us in the future, become a supporter at Patreon.com/BroadwayRadio.

Pre:
Peter is re-reading and annotating “The Season” and around April 1 it will be sold as a fundraiser for The Theater World Awards. The Theater World Awards will be held June 2 @ Circle in the Square

Peter has just surpassed seeing 13,000 shows!

Go see Adam Lambert in Cabaret before he leaves March 29, 2025

Michael is on a cruise today and next week! He will return in two weeks.

Reviews:

Cast: Cindy Cheung, Marchánt Davis, Layan Elwazani, Andrew Garman, Aria Shahghasemi, Kristen Sieh, Ryan Spahn, Julius Rinzel, and Amelia Workman

The creative team includes Paul Steinberg (Scenic Designer), Brenda Abbandandolo (Costume Designer), Tyler Micoleau (Lighting Designer), Christopher Darbassie (Sound Designer), Leah Loukas (Wig and Hair Designer), Sarah Lunnie (Dramaturg), Ann James (Intimacy Coordinator and Sensitivity Specialist), and Matt Carlin (Props Designer). Erin Gioia Albrecht is the Production Stage Manager.

PF + JS: The Antiquities @ Playwrights Horizons, through March 2, 2025 (extended)
The Antiquities, written by Jordan Harrison and co-directed by David Cromer and Caitlin Sullivan
Lead support for The Antiquities was provided by Vienn and Salman Al-Rashid.
The Antiquities is a recipient of the Laurents/Hatcher Citation of Excellence. Production supported in part by The Laurents/Hatcher Foundation.
The Antiquities has received generous support from the Blanche and Irving Laurie Foundation, the Laura Pels International Foundation for Theater, and the National Endowment for the Arts
The Antiquities received generous support from Wessex Grove.

Paul Steinberg: Scenic Designer

PF: Still @ The Loreto Theater at The Sheen Center for Thought And Culture, through March 23, 2025
Starring Melissa Gilbert and Mark Moses, Still is a funny yet heart-wrenching story for anyone who has ever wondered “what if?”. Thirty years ago, Helen and Mark broke up, but they never completely forgot one another. Now, they are getting a second chance at first love. Single, and frustrated with dating apps, they are ready to try again. But Mark has an agenda and Helen has a secret that could derail his plans.

PF + JS: Pan Asian Repertory Theatre production of My Man Kono @ Art-NY, through March 9, 2025
For their 48th season, the Pan Asian Repertory Theatre proudly announces the cast for the world premiere of MY MAN KONO. This highly anticipated production, written by Philip W. Chung, and directed by Jeff Liu, will run from February 6 – March 9, 2025, at the Art-NY Mezzanine Theatre, located at 502 West 53rd Street. The show explores the life and struggles of Toraichi Kono, a Japanese émigré navigating the complexities of the American Dream during the silent film era. The narrative takes a poignant turn as Kono, once closely associated with the legendary Charlie Chaplin, finds himself ensnared in the anti-Japanese hysteria that erupted with the onset of World War II.

The National Endowment for the Arts has awarded a prestigious grant to MY MAN KONO. Tisa Chang, Founding Artistic Director, says ” MMK seeks justice to honor the life of Toraichi KONO born in 1895 – who in pursuit of the American Dream and became a target of anti-Asian hate reverberating today.”

The cast features Brian Lee Huynh as Toraichi Kono and Kiyo Takami as Isami Kono. Along with Emma Kikue as Paulette Goddard, Conlan Ledwith as Charlie Chaplin, Robert Meskin as Wayne Collins, James Patrick Nelson as FBI Agent R. Horn, Cody LeRoy Wilson as Alva Blake, and Jae Woo as Itaru Tachibana. This diverse cast brings depth and authenticity to the characters, enhancing the emotional resonance of the production.

PF: Maiden Mother Crone @ The Flea, through February 23, 2025
Two Plays. Two Voices. One Unforgettable Evening.

Step into a world where unspoken truths meet unapologetic courage. Sugarcoated by Jen Ponton and The Longer My Mother is Dead the More I Like Her by Deborah Unger offer a powerful evening of theater that speaks to the heart of what it means to reclaim your voice, your truth, and your power.

In Sugarcoated, Jen Ponton takes you on an intimate, immersive journey through the sweet facade women are forced to wear, only to reveal the raw, untamed humanity beneath. With sharp humor and aching vulnerability, this is a story of trauma, survival, and the liberation that comes when you finally spit out the sugar.

Deborah Unger’s The Longer My Mother is Dead the More I Like Her dives into the bittersweet complexities of a mother-daughter relationship that doesn’t end with death. With wit and poignancy, Unger wrestles with the echoes of a mother’s voice—sometimes hectoring, sometimes haunting—as she reclaims her sense of self in the aftermath of a lifetime battle for love and understanding.

Both plays ask the question: How do you find your voice when the world—and even the people closest to you—demand you silence it? Together, these stories peel back layers of sweetness and suppression to reveal the raw power of women who refuse to shrink.

PF + JS: My First Ex Husband @ MMAC Theater somewhere on West 60th Street
My First Ex-Husband, comedian Joy Behar’s Vagina Monologues-style show featuring a rotating cast of actresses reading stories about divorce that just opened at the new Manhattan Movement & Arts Center on West 60th Street

JS: Henry IV @ Theatre for a New Audience’s Polonsky Center in Brooklyn, Dakin Matthews’ adaptation of both parts of Shakespeare history play which is scheduled to run thru March 2 at

Henry IV @ Vivian Beaumont Theater (Nov 20, 2003 – Jan 18, 2004)

Discussion:

The Last Five Years video Adrienne Warren and Nick Jonas

THE LAST FIVE YEARS follows two New Yorkers, rising author Jamie (Grammy Award® and Golden Globe nominee Nick Jonas) and aspiring actress Cathy (Tony Award® winner Adrienne Warren), as they fall in and out of love over the course of five years.

Jason Robert Brown’s Parade coming to The Kennedy Center Aug. 19 – Sep. 7, 2025

Next Week:

Jena Tesse Fox joins us!

Peter’s Brainteaser:

What song in ANYONE CAN WHISTLE mentions a phrase that’s also the name of a card in a very famous board game?

And what’s the phrase?

Michael’s Musical Moments

Michael’s Musical Moments will return in two weeks!

Music Opener & Closer:

Mrs Henderson Presents: 1. Everybody Loves The Windmill
Mrs Henderson Presents (Original Cast Album)