» This Week on Broadway for September 28, 2025: The Hills of California @ Huntington Theatre Company BroadwayRadio

BROADWAYRADIO

09/28/25

James Marino,Michael Portantiere,Peter Filichia

This Week on Broadway for September 28, 2025: The Hills of California @ Huntington Theatre Company

Subscribe: RSS

Peter Filichia, James Marino, and Michael Portantiere talk about The Hills of California @ Huntington Theatre Company, Art @ Music Box Theatre, Slanted Floors @ 1006 Manhattan Ave in Brooklyn, The Sound of Music Movie 60th Anniversary (Fathom Events), Color Theories By Julio Torres @ Performance Space New York, Phoenix Productions Fiddler on the Roof @ Count Basie Center for the Arts, and Turandot @ Metropolitan Opera.

Meghan Carey, Kate Fitzgerald, Alison Jean White, Chloé Kolbenhyer, Nicole Mulready (on floor); photo by Liza Voll (The Hills of California @ Huntington Theatre Company)

“This Week on Broadway” has been coming to you every week since 2009. It is the longest-running running Broadway and theatrical podcast with hundreds of shows giving thousands of reviews and interviews.

Subscribe to BroadwayRadio in Apple Podcasts by CLICKING HERE.

Support BroadwayRadio on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/broadwayradio

Patreon listeners get This Week on Broadway first, on Sunday afternoon before it is released to the general public on Sunday evening.

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 – is available at finer retailers! Peter also has columns at Masterworks Broadway, Broadway Select, and many other places.

Showtune for Today: “Look What Happened to Mabel” from Mack & Mabel

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

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:

Reviews:

Kate Fitzgerald, Alison Jean White; photo by Liza Voll

PF: The Hills of California @ Huntington Theatre Company (Boston), through October 12, 2025
Directed by Huntington Artistic Director Loretta Greco
In association with Berkeley Repertory Theatre

MP + JM: Art @ Music Box Theatre, through December 21, 2025

ART, starring Bobby Cannavale, James Corden and Neil Patrick Harris, is written by Yasmina Reza and translated by Christopher Hampton. Directed by Scott Ellis, the design team includes David Rockwell (Set Design), Linda Cho (Costume Design), Jen Schriever (Lighting Design), Mikaal Sulaiman (Sound Design) and Kid Harpoon (Original Music).

PF: Slanted Floors @ 1006 Manhattan Ave in Brooklyn (Peter took the G Train!)

Beltran, Chaler-Berat to star in uber-intimate ‘Slanted Floors’ in Brooklyn

MP: The Sound of Music Movie 60th Anniversary Fathom Events (also touring in North America through August 2026)

PF: Color Theories By Julio Torres @ Performance Space New York (old PS 122), through October 5, 2025

MP: Phoenix Productions Fiddler on the Roof @ Count Basie Center for the Arts (Red Bank, NJ)

MP: Arena Stage Damn Yankees moving?

Leslie Odom Jr.

Is Groff returning to Hamilton

MP: Coming — Chez Joey (Pal Joey rewrite) @ Arena Stage January 30 – March 15, 2026

The year is 1940-something, and Chicago’s night scene is sizzling. Enter Joey Evans. A slick-talking, velvet-voiced songster with dreams bigger than the bandstand. But in a city where the right connections mean everything, he is caught between a bright-eyed chorus girl and a wealthy widow who can bankroll his big break—for a price. As the lights dim and the music swells, Joey’s got a choice to make: play it straight or risk it all for the spotlight. This classic Rodgers and Hart score, including “Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered,” “What Is a Man?,” and “I Could Write a Book,” now includes “This Can’t Be Love” and “The Lady Is a Tramp,” among others. Co-directed by Tony Award-winning choreographer Savion Glover and actor, director, and producer Tony Goldwyn, the stakes are high, the music is hot, and the game of romance and ambition never sounded so good.

Support for Chez Joey is provided by Catherine and Chris Guttman-McCabe.

MP: Turandot @ Metropolitan Opera
World premiere: Teatro alla Scala, Milan, 1926. Puccini’s final opera is an epic fairy tale set in a China of legend, loosely based on a play by 18th-century Italian dramatist Carlo Gozzi. Featuring a most unusual score with an astounding and innovative use of chorus and orchestra, it is still recognizably Puccini, bursting with instantly appealing melody. The unenviable task of completing the opera’s final scene upon Puccini’s sudden death was left to the composer Franco Alfano. Conductor Arturo Toscanini oversaw Alfano’s contribution and led the world premiere.

“One of the most lavish and intricate [productions] in the company’s repertoire” (The New York Times), Franco Zeffirelli’s glittering take on Puccini’s final masterpiece returns to the stage with three extraordinary casts bringing the rousing score to life. Sopranos Angela Meade, Anna Pirozzi, and Liudmyla Monastyrska star in the title role of the vengeful princess, whose frozen heart is thawed by the courageous prince Calàf, portrayed by tenors Michael Fabiano, Brian Jagde, and Roberto Alagna.

News:

The Broadway Musical Is in Trouble By Michael Paulson (The New York Times)
With the cost of staging song-and-dance spectacles skyrocketing and audiences drawn to older hits, none of the musicals that opened last season have made a profit. Fewer are planned this season.

New Role for Jesse Green
Jesse, a sharp and elegant writer, will write features and news as a Culture correspondent.

Next Week:

Peter’s Brainteaser:

Two of his works made it to Broadway in the 1980s.

One was a revival of his play, one was his new musical.

Both titles had two words in them; the first word of each show was identical. Each of the second word of the title started with the same two letters.

What are the two shows, and who wrote them?

Michael’s Musical Moments

Music Opener: “The Sound of Music,” film version