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Peter Filichia, James Marino, Michael Portantiere, and Jan Simpson review High Spirits @ City Center Encores!, Making a Show of Myself @ Irish Rep, I Wish My Life Were Like A Musical @ Soho Playhouse, The Unknown @ Studio Seaview, Kramer/Fauci @ NYU Skirball, The Tragedy of Coriolanus @ Theatre for a New Audience (TFANA), The Monsters @ Manhattan Theatre Club (MTC), and The Other Place @ The Shed. We also talk about the passing of our friend, Harry Haun.
Encores! High Spirits Photo by 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: 9 to 12 from Rap Master Ronnie
Michael Portantiere | [email protected] | Facebook
MICHAEL PORTANTIERE is a theater reviewer and interviewer. The founder and editor of CastAlbumReviews.com. He is also a theatrical photographer whose photos have appeared in The New York Times and other publications, and he writes reviews of cabaret shows for NiteLifeExchange.com. Additionally, Michael is known as a producer and director of shows at 54 Below, the Laurie Beechman Theatre, and other venues.
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 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.
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Pre:
All the Drama: “The Gin Game”, 1978 Winner, Pulitzer Prize for Drama
Last Week on Broadway: Monday, Feb. 9, 2026
Grosses Report: Feb. 11, 2026; Esparza, Woods back on Broadway in ‘Galileo’
Reviews:
Encores! High Spirits Photo by Joan Marcus
PF + MP: High Spirits @ City Center Encores! February 4 – 15, 2026
Real-life husband and wife Phillipa Soo (Hamilton) and Steven Pasquale (The Bridges of Madison County) play on-stage spouses Ruth and Charles in this madcap musical comedy full of haunted hijinks. What happens when eccentric medium Madame Arcati, played by Tony winner Andrea Martin (The Gilded Age, Pippin), accidentally summons Elvira, the ghost of Charles’s ex-wife, played by Tony winner Katrina Lenk (Company)? You get a hilarious, eight-time Tony nominated musical directed by Jessica Stone (Kimberly Akimbo).
Based on Noël Coward’s beloved play, Blithe Spirit, this musical combines his classic dry, witty humor with a delightfully brassy and whimsical score by Hugh Martin (Meet Me in St. Louis) and Timothy Gray (Love from Judy). The cinematic score will be brought back to life by the 29-piece Encores! Orchestra for one of the first times since its 1964 Broadway run. One look into the crystal ball predicts you won’t want to miss this rarely revived improbable farce!
Concert Adaptation by Billy Rosenfield
Choreographer Ellenore Scott
Music Director Mary-Mitchell Campbell
Director Jessica Stone
JS: Making a Show of Myself @ Irish Rep, through March 1, 2026
Written and performed by Mary Kate O Flanagan
Directed by Will O’Connell
PF: I Wish My Life Were Like A Musical @ Soho Playhouse, through February 28, 2026
JS + PF: The Unknown @ Studio Seaview, through April 12, 2026
Starring: Sean Hayes
Written by: David Cale
Directed by: Leigh Silverman
Sean Hayes in The Unknown @ Studio Seaview
MP: Kramer/Fauci @ NYU Skirball, through February 21, 2026
Moderator: Greig Sargeant
Dr. Anthony Fauci: Will Brill
Larry Kramer: Thomas Jay Ryan
Naples, Florida/Baton Rouge, Louisiana/Prescott, Arizona/Houston, Texas/Park City, Illinois/San Jose, California/Elizabeth City, North Carolina/Fairfax, Virginia/Tulsa, Oklahoma/Bisbee, Arizona/Lexington Park, Maryland: Jennifer Seastone
Scenic Design: Jim Findlay, Josh Higgason, Amy Rubin
Lighting Design: Scott Zielinski
Sound Design: Tei Blow
Costume Design: Terese Wadden
Movement Director: Beth Gill
Assistant Director: Michael Rogerson
Assistant Lighting Designer: Yung-Hung Sung
Produced by Shannon Sindelar & Oliver Roth
Production Manager: Jonathan Cottle
Production Stage Manager: Alina Novotny
Assistant Stage Manager: Rachel Rice
With permission from C-SPAN
Larry Kramer Text By Permission of the Estate of Larry Kramer
This work was developed with support from Mercury Store and Marzanne Claiborne.
JS: The Tragedy of Coriolanus @ Theatre for a New Audience (TFANA), Polonsky Shakespeare Center, through March 1, 2026
By William Shakespeare
Directed by Ash K. Tata
Creative Team
Scenic Designer: Afsoon Pajoufar
Costume Designer: Avery Reed
Lighting Designer: Masha Tsimring
Sound Designer: Brandon Bulls
Composer: David T. Little
Projection Design: Lisa Renkel and POSSIBLE
Fight Choreographer: J. David Brimmer
Movement Director: Dan Safer
Intimacy Coordinator: Dan O’Driscoll
Voice Director: Andrew Wade
Hair & Makeup Designer: Janera Rose
Properties Supervisor: Sean Frank
Casting Director: Jack Doulin
Production Dramaturg: Jonathan Kalb
Production Stage Manager: Charlie Lovejoy
PF: The Monsters @ Manhattan Theatre Club (MTC), through March 22, 2026
Okieriete Onaodowan as BIG in The Monsters, written and directed by Ngozi Anyanwu
THE MONSTERS features Okieriete ‘Oak’ Onaodowan as BIG, and Lucille Lortel Award-winner Aigner Mizzelle as LIL.
For a long time, LIL has been obsessed with fighting, and one fighter in particular: her older brother BIG, an aging but successful figure in the local Mixed Martial Arts circuit. But she’s been doing it all from afar… until one day when she decides to show up on his doorstep. Written and directed by Ngozi Anyanwu (Good Grief, The Homecoming Queen, The Last of the Love Letters), this premiere is a sibling love story about reunions, resentment, reconnection, and wrestling with demons.
The creative team for THE MOSNTERS is Rickey Tripp (Choreography), Andrew Boyce (Scenic Design), Mika Eubanks (Costume Design), Cha See (Lighting Design), Mikaal Sulaiman (Original Music & Sound Design), Gerry Rodriguez (Fight Director), Sijara Eubanks (MMA Consultant), The Telsey Office/Destiny Lilly, CSA(Casting) Caparelliotis Casting (Additional Casting) and Alyssa K. Howard (Production Stage Manager).
Aigner Mizzelle as LIL, with Okieriete Onaodowan as BIG in The Monsters, written and directed by Ngozi Anyanwu © T. Charles Erickson
JS: The Other Place @ The Shed, through March 1, 2026
News:
Harry Haun, Veteran Journalist Who Chronicled Broadway and Film for More Than 5 Decades, Dies at 85 by Blake Ross
The longtime writer had bylines in New York Daily News, The Observer, and Playbill, amongst others.
Lamb of God, Monday, March 30 at 7:30 PM @ Met Opera House
Lamb of God, the acclaimed concert work by Rob Gardner, makes its New York City premiere for a one-night-only concert. Conducted by the composer, this historic performance will feature full symphony orchestra, celebrated soloists—including Tony Award winner Jessie Mueller and Tony nominee Joy Woods—and the joint forces of the renowned BYU Singers and BYU Concert Choir. Epic in scale yet intimate in spirit, the final days of Jesus’ life unfold in music through the eyes of those who walked beside him—including Peter, Mary the Mother, John, Thomas, Martha, Judas, and Mary Magdalene.
Museum of Broadway: So In Love with Broadway
Great Performances: Suffs
Premiere: May 8, 2026
Created by Tony Award winner Shaina Taub, this musical recorded from Broadway tells the story of the American suffragist movement and the remarkable friendships, heartbreak, and action that brought women together—or, in some cases, tore them apart.
Future Episodes:
Next week: Georgia Stitt!
Peter’s Brainteaser:
One of Elvis Presley’s early movies that was tangentially based on a Broadway comedy had him singing a melody that would show up in a Broadway musical only a matter of months later.
It then had new lyrics by a lyricist who many years earlier had written an Oscar-winning song that we can all sing word-for-word.
He gave it a completely different title and lyric. The composer didn’t mind.
What’s the Broadway musical? What’s the name of the song? Who is the lyricist? What was his Oscar-winning song? Who’s the composer? What’s the Presley film, the comedy that inspired it, and the title of the song that was used in the film?
Michael’s Musical Moments
THE JULIE ANDREWS SHOW, NBC-TV (1965)
Music Opener:
“On a Wonderful Day Like Today” from THE ROAR OF THE GREASEPAINT, THE SMELL OF THE CROWD
Music Closer:
“Auld Lang Syne”
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