Class Notes: Jon Norman Schenider in “Henry VI”
Jul 08, 2026
Show notes
Listen: Lauren Class Schneider talks with Jon Norman Schneider who plays Henry in “Henry VI” in National Asian American Theatre Company’s production at The Public Theater.
Production photos by HanJie Chow Photo 1 – [Mia Katigbak and Jon Norman Schneider] Photo 2- [Jon Norman Schneider]
“Class Notes” actively covers New York’s current theater season on, off, and off-off Broadway.
For a transcript of this episode, please email transcripts@broadwayradio.com and include the episode name.
Last Week on Broadway: Monday, July 6, 2026
Jul 06, 2026
Show notes
Every week, Matt Tamanini will bring you the biggest news from across the theatrical landscape and will prepare you for what’s ahead over the next seven days.
Any and all feedback is appreciated: Matt Tamanini:matt@broadwayradio.com | @BroadwayRadio
For a transcript of this episode, please email transcripts@broadwayradio.com and include the episode name.
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10) Alex Newell to join ‘Spelling Bee’ Off-Broadway https://shubert.nyc/press/alex-newell-joins-the-company-of-the-25th-annual-putnam-county-spelling-bee/
This Week on Broadway for July 5, 2026: Are You Now or Have You Ever Been, An American Docudrama @ New York City Center
Jul 05, 2026
Show notes
Peter Filichia, James Marino, and Michael Portantiere review Are You Now or Have You Ever Been, An American Docudrama @ New York City Center, That Math Show @ Theater 555. We then talk about Michael’s production of 1776 at College of S.I. Center for the Arts and Ghostlight Players, as well as shows that represent America as we just passed our 250th Birthday.
“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.
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 | peter@broadwayradio.com | 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!
Showtune for Today: Best Day Ever from Spongebob Squarepants
Michael Portantiere | michael@broadwayradio.com | Facebook MICHAEL PORTANTIERE has been a theater journalist for more than 50 years. 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.
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.
“Cool, Considerate Men” as performed earlier this week in the CSI Center for the Arts/Ghostlight Players production of 1776, featuring in the front row BJ High (far left), Michael Portantiere (second from left), and Craig Kwasnicki (center)
“Cool, Considerate Men” as performed in the Wagner College Theatre production of 1776 that was presented in 1976 to celebrate the bicentennial of the United States of America, featuring Michael Portantiere (third from left) and Ed Callahan (fourth from right.)
The Most American Episode of the Daily, Ever. – The New York Times Helen Shaw, chief theater critic, on “The Century Cycle” by August Wilson Elisabeth Vincentelli, culture reporter, on demolition derbies Joshua Barone, culture editor, on “Rodeo,” composed by Aaron Copland Gia Kourlas, dance critic, on “Stars and Stripes” by George Balanchine and “Appalachian Spring” by Martha Graham
Peter and Michael, what are your most American shows? (Other than 1776!)
Peter: Rags @ Mark Hellinger Theatre (Aug 21, 1986 – Aug 23, 1986), Assassins
TONY JANICKI to Host and panelists (11:23 AM) TAKE ME ALONG is a very American show THE MUSIC MAN is another very American show Leigh Korn to Everyone (11:26 AM) I would argue Caroline or Change is one of the richest examinations of race, class, and social change in America. Robb Johnston to Everyone (11:26 AM) maybe mention Hamilton so as to not be scoffed at by the youngin’s
Coming up: The Scarlet Pimpernel in Concert @ 54 Below, Jul 12 & 14, 2026 Ben Jones (award-winning singer/actor) as Sir Percy/Pimpernel William Michals (The Scarlet Pimpernel, Disney’s Beauty and the Beast, South Pacific) as Chauvelin Jill Paice (Curtains, 39 Steps, An American in Paris, Gone with the Wind on the West End) as Marguerite
World Cup: quite a lot of acting going on there. Expect Tony nominations.
Taylor Swift wedding at MSG; will she come to Broadway?
Juliet Green to Everyone (10:40 AM) Kelli and Sutton are appearing together with the SF Symphony soon, if you need a reason to come out to the West Coast…
News:
Future Episodes:
Peter’s Brainteaser:
This performer won two competitive Oscars and appeared in just as many Broadway plays.
The performer’s last name is also the last name of characters in a Rodgers and Hammerstein musical.
As for this performer’s first name, it’s the same as the middle name – the middle name – of a character in a musical who was played by a performer who won a 21st century Tony for it.
Who’s the star? What were the Broadway shows? What films resulted in Oscar wins? What was the name of the family in the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical? As for the other musical, what was the it, who was the performer who won the Tony for it, and what was the character’s middle name?
Michael’s Musical Moments
1776 (College of S.I. Center for the Arts and Ghostlight Players)
…and anywhere that you can listen to finer podcasts.
BroadwayRadio Special: Jan Simpson’s 2026 Summer Reading List and Interview with Author Daniel Okrent
Jul 04, 2026
Show notes
In this special July 4, 2026 episode, James Marino and Jan Simpson talk with Daniel Okrent, author of the book, “STEPHEN SONDHEIM: Art Isn’t Easy” This book is part of Jan Simpson’s 2026 Summer Reading list.
Jan Simpson | jan@broadwayandme.com | 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 twice served as a Pulitzer Prize juror.
Stephen Sondheim (1930–2021) was a towering figure in American musical theater. Celebrated for such iconic Broadway shows as Company, Sweeney Todd, and Into the Woods, his accolades include eight Tony Awards, multiple Grammy Awards, an Academy Award, and a Pulitzer Prize. In this intimate biography, Daniel Okrent follows Sondheim through the tumult of his upbringing and his parents’ divorce, his life-changing relationship with Oscar Hammerstein II and subsequent immersion in musical theater, and his rise to fame as both a lyricist and composer.
Okrent shines new light on Sondheim’s complicated emotional life, wavering self-confidence, and alcoholism, drawing on the artist’s intimate correspondence with such notable figures as Hal Prince, Leonard Bernstein, and Arthur Laurents; exclusive interviews with his close friends and collaborators, including James Lapine and John Weidman; and Sondheim’s own oral history, which remained closed until his death. He also reveals a previously unknown (and crucial) aspect of the infamous letter from Sondheim’s mother that made him believe she regretted his birth. As Okrent explores the ways Sondheim’s music and lyrics express the inner man, he shows us a life that was defined by two parallel arcs: the movement from alienation to connection, and from ambivalence to resolution.
Daniel Okrent had careers as a book and magazine editor and was the first public editor of the New York Times. He is the prize-winning author of six books, including The Guarded Gate: Bigotry, Eugenics, and the Law That Kept Two Generations of Jews, Italians, and Other European Immigrants Out of America, and Last Call: The Rise and Fall of Prohibition. He lives in New York City and on Cape Cod.
Music:
Sweeney Todd By the Sea
Finishing the Hat – Mandy Patinkin (Sondheim’s 80th)
This interview was recorded on June 25, 2026
Class Notes: Sally Shaw in “GIRL, INTERRUPTED”
Jul 01, 2026
Show notes
Listen: Lauren Class Schneider talks with Sally Shaw, who plays Polly in “GIRL,INTERRUPTED” at the Public Theater.
Production photos by Joan Marcus
Photo 1 – [Sally Shaw]
Photo 2- [Sally Shaw, Juliana Canfield, King Princess, & Mia Pak]
“Class Notes” actively covers New York’s current theater season on, off, and off-off Broadway.
For a transcript of this episode, please email transcripts@broadwayradio.com and include the episode name.
This Week on Broadway for June 28, 2026: The Loved Ones @ Irish Rep
Jun 28, 2026
Show notes
Peter Filichia, James Marino, and Michael Portantiere talk about The Loved Ones @ Irish Rep, La Cage Aux Folles @ City Center Encores!, Madame X – The Musical! by Gerard Alessandrini and Robert Hetzel @ 54 Below, West Side Story @ Paper Mill, The Last Out Gate @ The Chain Theatre, and Misterman by Enda Walsh (Origin Irish Theatre Festival) @ Theatre Row.
“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.
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 | peter@broadwayradio.com | 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!
Showtune for Today: Third Finale from The Threepenny Opera: 1976 Revival Cast Album
Michael Portantiere | michael@broadwayradio.com | Facebook MICHAEL PORTANTIERE has been a theater journalist for more than 50 years. 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.
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.
Grant Dine is from Columbus, Ohio and is currently studying Biochemistry at St. John’s University. His recent credits include Ben and Dante in Someone Else, a world premiere production at Teatro Latea, Percy Jackson in The Lightning Thief, and Johnny Cade in The Outsiders. Grant is expanding his craft onto the screen, where he appears as the lead in the short films Behind!, Growing Apart, and The Will. He would like to thank his parents, brothers, and friends for their unwavering support!
This performer’s Broadway debut was in a Rodgers and Hammerstein musical.
Ten years later, this performer had the title role in a film based on a Tony-nominated musical. And yet, despite having the lead, this performer didn’t sing a note.
Who’s the performer? What was the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical? What was the film?
…and anywhere that you can listen to finer podcasts.
Class Notes: Eljon Wardally and “Blooming in Dry Season”
Jun 22, 2026
Show notes
Listen: Lauren Class Schneider talks with Eljon Wardally, playwright of “Blooming in Dry Season” at The WP Theater
Melanie Matthews as Rose, Brian Richardson as Fitz. Photo by Claude Stephen Hurst.Photo of Eljon Wardally by Ashleigh Staton.Brian Richardson, Nikyla Boxley, photo by Hollis King.
Headshot and Production photos by C. Stephen Hurst
Photo 1 – [Melanie Matthews & Brian Richardson]
Photo 2- [Brian Richardson & Nikyla Boxley]
“Class Notes” actively covers New York’s current theater season on, off, and off-off Broadway.
For a transcript of this episode, please email transcripts@broadwayradio.com and include the episode name.
Last Week on Broadway: Monday, June 22, 2026
Jun 22, 2026
Show notes
‘Paddington’ officially coming to Broadway, CJack to return to ‘Hamilton,’ Sherie Rene Scott to join ‘Rocky Horror’
Every week, Matt Tamanini will bring you the biggest news from across the theatrical landscape and will prepare you for what’s ahead over the next seven days.
Any and all feedback is appreciated: Matt Tamanini:matt@broadwayradio.com | @BroadwayRadio
For a transcript of this episode, please email transcripts@broadwayradio.com and include the episode name.
This Week on Broadway for June 21, 2026: La Cage Aux Folles @ City Center Encores!
Jun 21, 2026
Show notes
Peter Filichia, James Marino, and Michael Portantiere talk about La Cage Aux Folles @ City Center Encores!, West Side Story @ Paper Mill, National Orchestral Institute Philharmonic @ Carnegie Hall, HENRY VI: A Trilogy in Two Parts @ The Public Theater, The 15th Annual Off-Broadway Alliance Awards, and Camping @ HERE.
“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.
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 | peter@broadwayradio.com | 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!
Showtune for Today: That’s Your Funeral from Oliver!
“Happy Birthday to You and to You” (“Side Show” Original Cast Recording) (Peter Filichia and Jason Robert Brown’s birthdays were yesterday — June 20)
Michael Portantiere | michael@broadwayradio.com | Facebook MICHAEL PORTANTIERE has been a theater journalist for more than 50 years. 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.
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.
The 2026 Jimmy Awards will stream for free online beginning at 7:30pm (Eastern) on Monday, June 22. Streaming links and information will be available at jimmyawards.com prior to the ceremony.
MP: National Orchestral Institute Philharmonic @ Carnegie Hall, Wednesday, June 17, 2026 Led by Carnegie Hall Perspectives Artist Marin Alsop, the NOI Philharmonic makes its Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage debut in a program that weaves together multiple perspectives on the American experience. The evening includes selections from Bernstein’s West Side Story and On the Town, alongside Gabriela Ortiz’s lively, percussive Antrópolis and Kevin Puts’s concerto Contact, a work that highlights the need for human connection. The orchestra is joined on Contact by the genre-crossing trio Time for Three.
PF: Camping @ HERE, through July 11, 2026 “This is a love story. It’s hands that smell of Dolce and Gabbana Light Blue after days spent clutching fistfuls of her hair. It’s the rain hitting the earth in a way that reminds you of blood, that makes you think the world’s holding a knife to your underwear. It’s the spins. It’s running out of air because you gulped too much of it while you were sobbing. It’s waking up hot and sticky. It’s desperately falling in love with your best friend inside a camping tent while everything outside rages.
In Victoria Lynne Barclay’s Camping, Brit and Ari collide over and over again, reaching for each other across the fractures that are born of time and distance. Three decades. One tent. A million things left unsaid.”
…and anywhere that you can listen to finer podcasts.
Special Episode: Grace Yurchuk on the power, resonance of the all-woman ‘Caesar: The Musical’
Jun 19, 2026
Show notes
On today’s episode, Matt Tamanini is in conversation with composer and performer Grace Yurchuk. For the past few years, Grace has been working on a musical version of the assassination of Julius Caesar and sharing the journey on social media.
To date, that process has culminated in the release of a six-song EP, which is available to purchase or stream wherever you get your music. In their conversation, Matt and Grace discuss the origins of the musical, why it felt important to tell this millennia-old story with an all-woman cast, the future of the show, and much more.
‘Caesar: The Musical’ is out now wherever you listen to music from Center Stage Records, and it was produced by our friend, Robbie Rozelle.
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