This Week on Broadway for March 9, 2025: Deep Blue Sound

BROADWAYRADIO

03/9/25

James Marino,Michael Portantiere,Peter Filichia

This Week on Broadway for March 9, 2025: Deep Blue Sound

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Peter Filichia, James Marino, and Michael Portantiere talk about Clubbed Thumb’s Deep Blue Sound @ The Public, Conversations with Mother @ Theater 555, The Irrepressible Magic of the Tropics @ Intar, Out of the Box Theatrics production of As Time Goes By @ Theatre 154, After Endgame: A Comedy Show About Chess @ Soho Playhouse, and I’ll Be Here Tomorrow: The Optimism of Jerry Herman @ 54 Below

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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 desk 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.

Show Tune for Today is: A Little M-M-M @ MJL Wild Party

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.

Let’s Do The Time Warp Again!

Kelli O’Hara, Rocky Horror, Rose Byrne, More Part of Roundabout’s 2025-2026 Broadway Season By Margaret Hall
Programming for Roundabout’s Off-Broadway season will include Rajiv Joseph’s Archduke and Alex Lin’s Chinese Republicans.

Michael had a reunion with one of his foster dogs, Tulsa / Juno.

James Marino | [email protected] | Facebook
BroadwayStars

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Pre:

All the Drama: 2020 Pulitzer winner “A Strange Loop” Released

Stagecraft: Bess Wohl about her new play “Liberation” Released

Reviews:

PF: Clubbed Thumb’s Deep Blue Sound @ The Public Theater’s Shiva Theater, through April 5, 2025
By Abe Koogler
Directed by Arin Arbus

After last spring’s sold-out run of GRIEF HOTEL, the beloved downtown theater company Clubbed Thumb is back with their Obie Award-winning DEEP BLUE SOUND for a limited engagement.

On an island in the Pacific Northwest, the community gathers to address the disappearance of the local orca pod. Friendships fray, tumors grow, new love blooms, wood is chopped, poems are written. The seasons change. Will the whales ever return?

Written by Abe Koogler (Kill Floor, Staff Meal) and directed by Arin Arbus (Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune), DEEP BLUE SOUND will once again feature Tony Award winner Maryann Plunkett, who won an Obie Award for “her transformative, fearless, empathetic turn” in this “devastatingly beautiful play” (2023 Obie Committee). The cast also features Arnie Burton, Crystal Finn, Jan Leslie Harding, Mia Katigbak, Ryan King, Armando Riesco, Miriam Silverman, and Carmen Zilles.

Clubbed Thumb website

MP: Conversations with Mother @ Theater 555, through May 11, 2025

PF: The Irrepressible Magic of the Tropics @ Intar, through March 16, 2025
Welcome to the Buenos Cruces, a town in a magical forest in the heart of Latin America —and the latest manufacturing location for Cantilever Inc., a multinational corporation that specializes in everything from sandals to cigarettes. But as his family settles into their new lives in the jungle, Cantilever Vice President, John C. Dulk is mysteriously absent, leaving his wife, Julie, to navigate the challenges of keeping their family, and the factory afloat in this strange and surreal setting.

A wildly theatrical send up of magical realism, The Irrepressible Magic of the Tropics is at once a farcical romp through Latin American history and literature and a critical exploration of capitalism, colonialism and US-led economic imperialism.

International Arts Relations (INTAR Theatre) announced today that Artistic Director Lou Moreno has decided to step down from the position at the end of June 2025 after 15 years. Producing Director, and former associate artistic director, Nidia Medina will succeed him in the role.

MP: Out of the Box Theatrics production of As Time Goes By @ Theatre 154, through March 23, 2025
Written by Danny Brown
Directed by Noah Eisenberg

After their Grindr hook-up is snowed in, Adam and David are forced to do the unimaginable: learn each other’s names. Trapped in a post-coital snow globe, they exchange quips and digs in a misguided attempt to connect. As they confront their insecurities and shared identity as gay Jewish men, they begin to expose their tightest-held secrets. Will they part ways unscathed, or does sharing yourself with an unexpected stranger mean more than you bargained for?

PF: After Endgame: A Comedy Show About Chess @ Soho Playhouse, through March 8, 2025
Can chess be funny? Expert chess teacher and Award Winning comedian Kevin James Doyle says yes. A chess lesson and a life lesson, Doyle takes the audience on a journey across the world as he is flown to Singapore at the behest of a mysterious investor, Doyle found himself imparting chess wisdom to the world’s wealthiest individuals. Whether you’re a novice, a grandmaster or just finished The Queen’s Gambit, Doyle will teach you about chess, life, and have you laughing the whole time.

MP: I’ll Be Here Tomorrow: The Optimism of Jerry Herman @ 54 Below
with Gerard Alessandrini, Nick Brogan, LaDonna Burns, Mary Callanan, Eric Michael Gillett, Ryan J. Haddad, Christiane Noll, Kurt Peterson, Lee Roy Reams, Robbie Rozelle, Richard Skipper, Rebecca Spigelman, and Mark Waldrop (++ Kurt Owen Kemper)

Charles Kirsch, Host
Canaan J. Harris, Music Director

PF: Wounded @ Soho Playhouse, through March 16, 2025
A nobody who believes he’s somebody. A frustrated mother and daughter. An ex-con looking to move on. Welcome to Wounded. Carrol could’ve been somebody, after all he had a book made into a movie, but his unhealed past got in the way. Katie had a devoted husband and a bright and beautiful little girl until, in a split second, everything changed. In spite of graduating with honors from Baylor, Robert stumbled down the road to addiction and eventually prison. In this darkest of comedies, a trio of lost souls cross in a take-no-prisoners battle of psychological warfare.

News:

Swept Away Concert coming

After Selling Out in 3 Hours, Swept Away Reunion Concert Adds 2nd Late Show By Logan Culwell-Block
The Avett Brothers musical played a brief Broadway run last year.

Tickets to the concert!

Tony Janicki: James, Michael, and Peter: Have you heard that Chicago’s Victory Gardens Theatre is going to reopen in April, at least tentatively?

HENRY JOHNSON
April 9 – May 4
CHICAGO Premiere
Written by David Mamet
Directed by Edward Torres

Starring
Thomas Gibson ● Keith Kupferer (4/9 – 4/27) ● Al’ Jaleel McGhee ● Daniil Krimer

Executive Producer: Dennis Začek
In Association with Relentless Theatre Group

HENERY JOHNSON
Henry Johnson is a gripping play by David Mamet that delves into the themes of manipulation and ethical ambiguity. The story follows Henry Johnson, a middle-aged man, as he navigates a series of encounters, both in the corporate world and in prison. Quickly the question becomes, what is the price of compassion?

Next Week:

Peter’s Brainteaser:

He sang one number in a famous movie musical.

Consider the word “number” a clue, too to answering this question.

That said, the first of his three marriages gave him a father-in-law with the same first name of the character that he’d played in the film. Not only that, his mother-in-law had the same first name as his girlfriend in the film.

Who is he, what’s the film, what’s the number, and what are the names of the characters and in-laws?

Michael’s Musical Moments

Happy Birthday Nathan Lane!

Music Opener:

OPENER: “Comedy Tonight,” from ….FORUM