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Jena Tesse Fox, Peter Filichia, James Marino, and Michael Portantiere talk about Ragtime @ LCT’s Vivian Beaumont Theater, Not Ready for Primetime @ Newman Mills Theater at MCC, Kiss of the Spider Woman (movie), Oh Happy Day @ The Public Theater, Theatre for a New Audience’s production of Playing Shylock, Heaux Church @ Ars Nova, NY Pops From Stage to Screen, Daniel Reichard – Hello, Neighbor! @ Laurie Beechman, and The NYC Cabaret Convention Night Two Revels in the Music of Jule Styne
Playwright and actor Jordan E. Cooper in rehearsal for the New York premiere production of OH HAPPY DAY!, directed by Stevie Walker-Webb. Photo credit: Joan Marcus
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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 – is available at finer retailers! Peter also has columns at Masterworks Broadway, Broadway Select, and many other places.
Showtune for Today: The Two of Us from Look, Ma, I’m Dancin’!
Jena Tesse Fox | Twitter | Instagram
JENA TESSE FOX has written about theater for many publications, including Playbill Magazine, BroadwayWorld, Time Out New York and HowlRound. She is a member of The League of Professional Theatre Women and the Drama Desk, and is a contributor to BroadwayRadio
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:
PF + JM: Ragtime @ LCT’s Vivian Beaumont Theater, through January 4, 2026
Brandon Uranowitz and Shaina Taub were out on Sunday, Oct 19, 2026
(Michael reviewed Ragtime last week and we had a longer discussion. Click here to listen.)
MP + PF: Not Ready for Primetime @ Newman Mills Theater at MCC Theater Space, through November 30, 2025
In 1975, late-night TV was a wasteland of bad programming and even worse ratings. So nobody paid much attention when a new show debuted with a cast of virtual nobodies.
Not Ready for Prime Time is not affiliated with NBC or SNL.
Not Ready for Prime Time is not a production of MCC Theater.
JTF: Kiss of the Spider Woman (movie)
Franco’s reign in Spain should see out the forties
So you’ve just acquired an ally who
Looks as secure in his job as you
Latrice Pace, Sheléa Melody McDonald, and Latrice Pace (The Divines) in rehearsal for the New York premiere production of OH HAPPY DAY!, written by Jordan E. Cooper and directed by Stevie Walker-Webb. Photo credit: Joan Marcus
PF: Oh Happy Day @ The Public Theater, Martinson Hall, through November 09, 2025
By Jordan E. Cooper
Original Songs by Donald Lawrence
Directed by Stevie Walker-Webb
Presented in Association with Baltimore Center Stage
An impending flood is the least of the Johnson family’s troubles in this outrageous reimagining of Noah’s Ark from Tony Award-nominated writer and director duo Jordan E. Cooper and Stevie Walker-Webb. OH HAPPY DAY! begins in Laurel, MS, at a birthday BBQ for Lewis, the patriarch of the family. Shortly after his estranged son Keyshawn (played by Cooper) makes a surprise appearance, absurdity ensues on a day that will change their world forever. Grammy Award-winning gospel artist Donald Lawrence writes original songs for this biting new play about confronting the divine.
PF + MP: Theatre for a New Audience’s production of Playing Shylock @ Polonsky Shakespeare Center (Brooklyn), through December 7, 2025
Saul Rubinek, Playing Shylock Production Photo. Photo by Dahlia Katz
PF: Heaux Church @ Ars Nova, through November 8, 2025
An unabashed celebration of self-love, HEAUX CHURCH combines spirited storytelling, divine music, and all things heaux-ly to heal the parts of ourselves that shame tries to erase. Each night, former pastor’s kid Brandon Kyle Goodman leads the congregation in a rousing service on the birds, the bees and the booty, inviting us to connect and to unleash our inner heaux. It’s the sex talk you never got, but always deserved. Can we get a heaux-llelujah?!
Ars Nova, “a company known for pop-culture-savvy experimentation, with a hipness that sets it apart” (New York Times), under the leadership of Co-Artistic Directors Andrew Neisler and Anna Morton Stacey and Managing Director Mac Ingram, is pleased to kick-off its 2025-2026 season with the world premiere of HEAUX CHURCH, presented in association with Lena Waithe. Written and performed by Brandon Kyle Goodman (Netflix’s Big Mouth & Human Resources; iHeart’s Tell Me Something Messy), featuring DJ Ari Grooves and Greg Corbino, and directed by Lisa Owaki Bierman, HEAUX CHURCH marks Goodman’s Off-Broadway debut and runs October 8–November 8, 2025, at Ars Nova (511 W 54th Street) with a press opening on Sunday, October 19. Tickets are now on sale at www.arsnovanyc.com.
MP: NY Pops From Stage to Screen, October 24, 2025
Carnegie Hall, Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage
Steven Reineke, Music Director and Conductor
Hugh Panaro, Guest Artist
Elizabeth Stanley, Guest Artist
MP: Daniel Reichard – Hello, Neighbor! @ Laurie Beechman
Daniel Reichard Sings for the Child in All of Us
MP: The NYC Cabaret Convention Night Two Revels in the Music of Jule Styne
News:
June Lockhart, Beloved Television Mother, Dies at 100
She exuded earnest maternal wisdom and wistful contentment as a farm wife on “Lassie” and, later, as an interplanetary castaway on “Lost in Space.”
Next Week:
Peter’s Brainteaser:
He was a Tony-winning performer in the early ‘50s.
One of his most famous songs was also the title of a Tony-losing musical in the first fifth of this 21st century.
Who is he, and what is the title of the song and the musical?
Michael’s Musical Moments
THE SOUND OF MUSIC
Music Opener: Prelude and “The Sound of Music” from film version with Julie Andrews
Music Closer: “The Sound of Music,” OBC with Mary Martin
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