Live From The Hotel Edison Times Square Chronicles Presents, is filmed from the Hotel Edison and is a podcast extension of T2C. We are back after a small hiatus.

Today owner Suzanna Bowling talks with Tony-nominated lyricist and book writer Bill Russell on his new book Still, Bill, Elegies for Angels, Punks and Raging Queens and Side Show, which was nominated for the Tony Award as Best Musical. Russell’s first produced musical was Fortune, which ran Off-Broadway at the Actors’ Plahouse. The musical director and arranger was Janet Hood; the two went on to write several musicals together. Russell then wrote the book and lyrics for the song cycle Elegies for Angels, Punks and Raging Queens, with music by Janet Hood, which originally ran Off-Off-Broadway in 1990 and in the West End in 1993 and a benefit concert in 2001.

I am so grateful to Bill Russell for his conversation and his joy of life.

Broadway is heading into fall with stars returning, new productions arriving and one beloved musical preparing to step back up to the plate. Neil Patrick Harris and Julianne Hough are leading a newly reimagined Damn Yankees to Broadway next spring, while Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Ed Harris and Allison Janney begin performances in Other Desert Cities. Ashley Park has finished Emily in Paris and is itching for a return to the boards, Xolo Maridueña is heading into Buena Vista Social Club, and Adrienne Warren and Jessica Vosk will lead an impressive company in Lynn Nottage and John Legend’s Imitation of Life. And because apparently neither wind nor rain nor a Nor’easter can keep Broadway bargain hunters away, the Broadway Flea Market still managed to raise nearly $1.5 million.

Julianne Hough, Austin Scott, Neil Patrick Harris by Emilio Madrid

After years away from Broadway, the seven-time Tony Award-winning musical Damn Yankees will return next spring in a new production directed and choreographed by Sergio Trujillo, with Neil Patrick Harris as Applegate, Julianne Hough as Lola and Austin Scott as Young Joe.

Austin Scott, Julianne Hough, Neil Patrick Harris by Emilio Madrid

Harris, a Tony winner and five-time Emmy winner, seems particularly delicious casting for the devilishly persuasive Applegate, while Emmy winner Hough will make her Broadway musical debut as Lola. The reimagined adaptation features a book by Will Power and Pulitzer Prize and Tony winner Doug Wright, additional lyrics by Lynn Ahrens and orchestrations by Doug Besterman.

Julianne Hough by Emilio Madrid

Based on Douglass Wallop’s novel The Year the Yankees Lost the Pennant, the musical follows devoted baseball fan Joe Boyd, who longs to see his beloved team achieve glory and discovers that wishes can become considerably more complicated when a charming stranger arrives offering exactly what he wants—for a price.

Austin Scott, Julianne Hough by Emilio Madrid

The original Damn Yankees opened on Broadway in 1955 and won seven Tony Awards, including Best Musical, giving the theatre such standards as “Whatever Lola Wants,” “Heart” and “Two Lost Souls.” This new version arrives with considerable momentum after a sold-out Arena Stage engagement that received 13 Helen Hayes Award nominations and won eight, including Outstanding Musical.

Austin Scott, Julianne Hough by Emilio Madrid

Broadway previews begin March 24, 2027, with opening night set for April 20.

Meanwhile, Jon Robin Baitz’s Other Desert Cities begins Broadway performances September 29 at the Hudson Theatre, with an opening set for October 18 and a limited engagement through January 17, 2027.

And what a family has been assembled. Julia Louis-Dreyfus plays Polly opposite Ed Harris as Lyman, with Allison Janney as Silda, Joe Keery as Trip and Lily Rabe as Brooke. John Benjamin Hickey directs.

Baitz’s play centers on a family gathering that becomes something considerably more combustible when daughter Brooke arrives with a memoir exposing a painful chapter of family history. With Louis-Dreyfus, Harris, Janney and Rabe occupying the same stage, the family fireworks alone make this one of the fall’s most intriguing straight-play propositions.

The production features scenic design by Scott Pask, costumes by Tom Broecker, lighting by Natasha Katz, sound design and original music by Mikaal Sulaiman, and hair and wig design by Robert Pickens.

Ashley Park

Ashley Park has wrapped filming on the sixth and final season of Emily in Paris, and apparently Parisian couture and international television success haven’t cured her of wanting to get back onto a Broadway stage.

Park’s Broadway roots run deep, with credits including Mean Girls, The King and I, Sunday in the Park with George and Mamma Mia!, and it has been far too long since New York audiences have had her back where musical-theatre audiences first fell in love with her. No Broadway return has been announced yet, but if she’s longing for the boards, Broadway would undoubtedly be happy to have her.

It takes considerably more than miserable weather to separate Broadway people from theatrical memorabilia.

Despite a Nor’easter, the Broadway Flea Market & Grand Auction raised nearly $1.5 million, with its live auction alone bringing in a record-breaking $562,300.

The day’s biggest live-auction prize was a London theatre adventure featuring three pairs of West End tickets and round-trip United business-class flights, which sold for $30,000. A meet-and-greet with the cast of The Lost Boys brought $22,000, while the opportunity to shadow a Wicked stage manager fetched $20,000. Nick Nicholson and Bryan Batt kept the bidding moving.

The 156 silent-auction lots added another $206,450, and Broadway fans proved once again that a piece of a beloved production can inspire serious bidding. Ricky Rojas’ acoustic guitar, signed by Rojas, Danny Burstein, Aaron Tveit and fellow Moulin Rouge! The Musical company members, sold for $15,500, while Satine’s swing brought $9,000.

Recently closed Chess also inspired some spirited competition. The production’s knight set piece, signed by Nicholas Christopher, Lea Michele, Bryce Pinkham and Aaron Tveit, sold for $6,300, while a cast-signed opening-night Playbill went for $6,200. Todd Buonopane, Michael Goddard and Kimberly Marable hosted the silent auction with auctioneer Dan Perry.

The numbers are impressive, but the real story remains what the Flea has always represented: Broadway taking care of its own, with fans happily turning theatrical obsession into something genuinely useful.

Xolo Maridueña

Cobra Kai star Xolo Maridueña is making his Broadway debut in Buena Vista Social Club at the Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre.

Maridueña begins performances November 17 for a limited engagement running through January 3, 2027. The actor, also known for starring in DC’s Blue Beetle, now adds Broadway to a résumé that has moved remarkably quickly between television and film.

And Buena Vista Social Club, with its intoxicating blend of storytelling, musicianship and movement, is quite a way to make an entrance.

One of the season’s most intriguing new musicals is also taking shape downtown. Principal casting has been announced for the world premiere of Imitation of Life, the new musical from Lynn Nottage and John Legend, directed by Whitney White and premiering this fall at The Shed’s Griffin Theater in a co-production with National Black Theatre.

Joining previously announced Tony winner Adrienne Warren as Delilah is Jessica Vosk as Bea, with Michael Luwoye as Elroy, Charlie Thurston as Archie, Aleyse Shannon as Adult Peola, Scarlett London Diviney as Young Peola and Lily Gilliam as Young Jessie.

That combination alone demands attention. Nottage is one of our most formidable dramatists, Legend brings an entirely different musical vocabulary to the theatre, White has established herself as a director unafraid of complicated material, and Warren is a performer capable of turning emotional intensity into something almost visceral.

Add Vosk and Luwoye, and Imitation of Life isn’t quietly arriving this fall.

It is arriving with expectations.

Spring Awakening Ken Fallin

There is something almost unbearably poignant about the timing.

On September 16, Seaview announced the young actors who will inherit Spring Awakening, the revolutionary musical Duncan Sheik created with Steven Sater. One day later, Sheik died in Manhattan at the age of 56. His family announced his death Friday, saying that he died Thursday night surrounded by love.

Duncan Sheik

So a production that was already about introducing one of the defining musicals of this century to another generation suddenly becomes something more: a continuation of the artistic life of the man who gave it its extraordinary sound.

Sheik had already lived one successful musical life before Broadway claimed him. His 1996 song “Barely Breathing” became one of those records inseparable from its decade, remaining on the Billboard Hot 100 for 55 weeks and earning him a Grammy nomination. But the introspective singer-songwriter never seemed particularly interested in spending the rest of his career repeating the thing that had made him famous.

Broadway gave him somewhere far more interesting to go. With Sater, Sheik took Frank Wedekind’s once-banned 1891 play about adolescents trapped between sexuality, ignorance, repression and authority and gave those young people a contemporary musical language. Spring Awakening didn’t merely put rock music into a period story. Its great theatrical trick was allowing the music to become the interior world its characters could not otherwise express.

When Spring Awakening opened at Broadway’s Eugene O’Neill Theatre in 2006, it introduced Broadway audiences to a remarkable young company that included Jonathan Groff, Lea Michele, John Gallagher Jr. and Skylar Astin. The production won eight Tony Awards, including Best Musical. Sheik received Tonys for Best Original Score, shared with Sater, and Best Orchestrations, and the cast recording later received the Grammy for Best Musical Show Album. More importantly, it changed the sound of Broadway.

The Civilians, Duncan Sheik and Kyle Jarrow

Sheik understood that contemporary music didn’t need to dress itself up as traditional musical theatre before being allowed through the stage door. His music could remain intimate, restless, erotic, angry, melancholy and startlingly modern while serving a story written more than a century earlier. The result was not simply a successful rock musical. It was a score that made an entire generation of young audiences feel that Broadway might actually be speaking their musical language.

Now Spring Awakening is about to speak to another one. Beginning November 27, the musical returns to New York for a limited 12-week Off-Broadway engagement at Studio Seaview, officially opening December 17. Tony Award winner Danya Taymor directs, with choreography by Celia Rowlson-Hall, making her theatrical debut, and music supervision by Or Matias.This isn’t a production built around established stars. It is deliberately handing the material to young performers who may become tomorrow’s. The newly announced principal company features Jack Bateman as Georg, Jada Simone Clark as Thea, Leif Coomer as Ernst, Ryo Kamibayashi as Moritz, Ashlyn Maddox as Wendla, Nando Morland as Otto, Antonio Porciello as Hanschen, Khadija Sankoh as Martha, Grace Slear as Anna, Tyler Jordan Wesley as Melchior and Amalia Yoo as Ilse.

Duncan Sheik

There is something particularly appropriate about Bateman and Porciello reaching the production through its open casting call, where 2,532 performers were seen. Twenty years ago, Spring Awakening helped introduce Broadway to actors whose names would become enormously familiar. This production is once again looking toward the unknown.

The revival intends to return the musical to the rawness of Wedekind’s original play, placing its young people in an intimate space where desire, fear, repression and discovery cannot easily be escaped. That intimacy feels particularly right for Sheik’s music. These songs were never really about spectacle. Their power came from hearing everything these characters were forbidden to say suddenly explode into sound.

MCC theater presents ‘Alice By Heart’ book by Steven Sater with Jessie Nelson, music by Duncan Sheik, lyrics by Steven Sater, choreographed by Rick and Jeff Kuperman, directed by Jessie Nelson starring, in alphabetical order, Mia DiLena, Zachary Downer, Noah Galvin, Molly Gordon (Alice), Ari Groover, Michael Hartung, Zachary Infante, Andrew Kober, Grace McLean, Andrew Mueller, Nkeki Obi-Melekwe, Catherine Ricafort, Colton Ryan, Heath Saunders, Wesley Taylor and Natalie Walker

Sheik’s theatrical life extended far beyond Spring Awakening. He wrote music and lyrics for American Psycho, collaborated again with Sater on Alice by Heart, and composed for The Secret Life of Bees and Whisper House. He remained an unusual Broadway figure: cerebral, musically sophisticated and never particularly interested in sounding like everyone else.

Remarkably, Spring Awakening isn’t the only Duncan Sheik musical moving forward without him.

On Monday, September 21—just four days after his death—the cast and creative team of the new Off-Broadway musical Memoirs of Amorous Gentlemen are scheduled to meet the press in New York and perform one of its songs publicly. Sheik wrote the music, with a book by Leah Nanako Winkler.

Sophie Ann Caruso, Duncan Sheik, Jamie deRoy photo Stephen Sorokiff

The musical stars Sophia Anne Caruso, who made an indelible impression as Lydia in Beetlejuice, as Colette; Cory Jeacoma (Beautiful) as Léon; Nkeki Obi-Melekwe (Tina) as Nana; and Drama Desk Award nominee Jenny Powers (Little Women) as Madame. Tony, Olivier and Emmy Award winner Rob Ashford directs and choreographs, with Or Matias serving as music supervisor.

That gathering was planned as an introduction to a new Duncan Sheik musical. Instead, it will inevitably become something else as well: one of the first occasions on which theatre artists will perform new Sheik music after his death.

The timing is almost impossible to ignore. On September 16, New York learned who would inherit Spring Awakening. On September 17, Sheik died. On September 21, performers are scheduled to sing from a musical he never lived to see fully arrive.

That is not simply legacy. That is work interrupted in motion.

Sheik’s theatrical career extended well beyond Spring Awakening. He wrote music and lyrics for American Psycho, collaborated again with Steven Sater on Alice by Heart, and composed Whisper House and music for The Secret Life of Bees. But Memoirs of Amorous Gentlemen now occupies a different place in that body of work. It isn’t something being rediscovered from his past. It is part of the future he was still creating.

His colleagues and performers began paying tribute almost immediately. Michele, Astin and members of the Spring Awakening family remembered not simply the composer whose work helped establish their careers, but a generous musician and mentor who had been there when many of them were themselves young artists trying to discover who they were. Which makes what happens at Studio Seaview this November especially moving.

Duncan Sheik could easily have remained the handsome singer-songwriter forever introduced as the man who recorded “Barely Breathing.” Instead, he followed that success somewhere much stranger and more consequential. He found Wedekind, found Sater, found the theatre and helped create a musical that altered Broadway’s vocabulary.

Twenty years later, another generation has just been handed those songs. At the same time, another company is preparing to introduce music he had only just finished creating. Sheik will not be there for either.

But on Monday, someone will sing one of his newest songs. In November, another young actor will begin singing one of the songs that made him part of Broadway history.

Duncan Sheik is gone at 56. His music, remarkably, was already on its way to the next stage.

There are Broadway events, and then there are Broadway rituals. The Broadway Flea Market & Grand Auction belongs firmly in the second category. On Sunday, September 27, the Theatre District once again turns itself inside out as casts, crews, producers, fans and collectors take over West 44th and West 45th Streets, Shubert Alley and Times Square for one of the industry’s most beloved annual traditions. This year carries an extra bit of history: the event celebrates its 40th anniversary.

What began four decades ago with two tables set up by members of A Chorus Line outside their stage door has grown into a full-scale Broadway bazaar, with more than 60 tables selling memorabilia, costumes, props, signed Playbills and the kind of wonderfully strange theatrical ephemera that becomes irresistible the moment someone tells you it was actually used backstage.

This year’s event runs from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m., with the silent auction in Shubert Alley and the live Grand Auction beginning at 5 p.m. in the Times Square pedestrian plaza between 45th and 46th Streets. For those who do not want to wait until September 27, online pre-bidding is already open on more than 150 auction lots and continues through 2 p.m. on Friday, September 25, with additional items being added along the way.

These are not your average charity-auction offerings.

Among the experiences currently available is the opportunity to make a one-night-only walk-on appearance in & Juliet. Fans can bid for meet-and-greets with Rachel Zegler after Evita, Tom Felton after Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, or cast members from The Lost Boys and The Rocky Horror Show. Other experiences include shadowing a stage manager at Paranormal Activity or The Lion King, conducting a portion of the exit music at Wicked, sitting in the orchestra pit at Hamilton or The Lion King, and even dancing with Jeremy Jordan in Just in Time.

For the collector who wants something tangible, there are stage-used props, set pieces and costumes, including Jonathan Groff’s signed fedora and bow tie from Just in Time, Patrick Ball’s signed Birkenstocks from Becky Shaw, oversized chess pieces from Chess and pieces associated with Moulin Rouge!. Earlier announced lots have included signed props from George Clooney and Leslie Odom Jr., along with stage-worn heels signed by Audra McDonald.

The tables themselves are half the fun. Productions scheduled to participate this year include & Juliet, Aladdin, Hadestown, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, Just in Time, The Lion King, Little Shop of Horrors, The Lost Boys, Maybe Happy Ending, Oh, Mary!, Operation Mincemeat, The Outsiders, Schmigadoon!, Six, Stranger Things: The First Shadow, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, Two Strangers (Carry a Cake Across New York) and Wicked.

There will also be a Curtain Call table devoted to productions that have recently closed, including Death Becomes Her, Dog Day Afternoon and Titaníque. Theatre organizations including the Broadway League, the Dramatists Guild, Playbill, the Metropolitan Opera, the Shubert Organization and the Entertainment Community Fund will also have a presence.

The fan-favorite Autograph Table and Photo Booth will return as well, with participating stars to be announced closer to the event. Located on the deck of Junior’s in Shubert Alley, it has become one of the day’s most popular stops, giving fans the chance to meet Broadway performers while raising money for Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS.

Beneath all the fun is the reason the day matters.

Last year’s Broadway Flea Market & Grand Auction raised a record $1,633,803. Across its previous 39 editions, the event has raised more than $21 million for Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS, supporting services including medication, meals, counseling, housing assistance and other critical resources for people living with HIV/AIDS and other serious illnesses.

There is something wonderfully appropriate about Broadway raising money this way. Theatre is filled with things that would look meaningless almost anywhere else: an old prop, a worn shoe, a page of sheet music, a costume piece, a signed scrap of scenery. Put it into the hands of someone who saw the show, loved the performer or remembers exactly where they were when they first heard the song, and suddenly it becomes treasure.

That is what the Broadway Flea Market has understood for 40 years.

On September 27, the Theatre District becomes one enormous backstage closet, reunion, marketplace and fundraiser.

Somewhere in Shubert Alley, the thing you never knew you desperately needed is almost certainly waiting for you.

Over the years, T2C had the pleasure of covering Bob Mackie on several occasions, giving us our own glimpses—and photographs—of the man behind all that extraordinary glamour.

Bob Mackie, Marilyn Maye

There are costume designers who dress performers, and then there was Bob Mackie, who understood that sometimes a costume could become as famous as the person wearing it. Mackie, the legendary designer whose feathers, beads, rhinestones, sequins and wicked sense of theatricality helped define American glamour for more than half a century, died September 14 in Palm Springs, California. He was 87. His death from pneumonia was confirmed by his longtime design director, Joe McFate.

Bob Mackie and Marilyn Maye Photo By Genevieve Rafter Keddy

Cher may have been his most enduring canvas, but Mackie’s extraordinary list of women included Carol Burnett, Dolly Parton, Diana Ross, Tina Turner, Barbra Streisand, Bernadette Peters, Liza Minnelli, Mitzi Gaynor, Bette Midler and Ann-Margret. He understood something essential about stars: you weren’t simply dressing a body. You were helping create the image the audience would remember. For Dolly, that included the glorious butterfly gown she wore for the 1979 television special Dolly & Carol in Nashville, another perfect marriage of Mackie’s extravagance and a performer whose personality could actually carry it.

Bob Mackie and Cher

And remember we did.

Mackie created Cher’s daring, feathered sheer ensemble for the 1974 Met Gala and the enormous feathered headdress and midriff-baring black ensemble she wore to the 1986 Academy Awards—looks that helped change what a woman could wear on a red carpet. Decades before today’s stars routinely arrived at premieres dressed to become the next morning’s photograph, Mackie and Cher understood fashion as an event.

The Costumes by Bob Mackie

But Mackie could be every bit as brilliant when the point was laughter rather than seduction. His work throughout the 11-year run of The Carol Burnett Show demonstrated an entirely different side of his genius. His most famous comic creation remains the green velvet curtain dress Burnett wore as Starlett O’Hara in the legendary Gone With the Wind parody “Went with the Wind!”—complete with the curtain rod still running through the shoulders. The joke worked because Mackie didn’t design something merely ridiculous. He made it ridiculous and fabulous.

His relationship with Broadway stretched across nearly five decades. Mackie’s Broadway costume credits began with the 1971 revival of On the Town, followed by Lorelei in 1974, where he designed Carol Channing’s costumes, Debbie in 1976, Platinum in 1978, The Best Little Whorehouse Goes Public in 1994 and Moon Over Buffalo in 1995. He designed Carol Burnett’s costumes for the 1999 Broadway production of Stephen Sondheim’s Putting It Together and Liza Minnelli for Minnelli on Minnelli that same season. In 2009, he designed Bernadette Peters’ gowns for her special Broadway concert benefiting Broadway Barks and Broadway Cares.

The Cher Show photo by Joan Marcus

Then came The Cher Show. Opening at the Neil Simon Theatre on December 3, 2018, the musical told Cher’s life through three actresses portraying the star at different stages of her career. There was really only one person who could design the costumes. Mackie had not simply dressed Cher during that history. He was part of the history.

Bob Mackie:,Diana Ross. Original Design for a Mattel Doll. Fashion. Motown Superstar. Diva. 1990s, ca.1990s

In one of Broadway’s more delicious pieces of theatrical symmetry, Bob Mackie became a character in The Cher Show while simultaneously designing the clothes surrounding that character. Michael Berresse portrayed him onstage, while the real Mackie recreated some of the extraordinary looks that had helped construct Cher’s public image over the preceding half-century. The production contained hundreds of costumes, including painstaking recreations of some of Cher’s most recognizable Mackie creations.

Bob Mackie during the 2019 Drama Desk Awards at Steinway Hall on June 2, 2019 in New York City.

In 2019, Broadway finally gave him the prize that had somehow eluded him. Bob Mackie won the Tony Award for Best Costume Design of a Musical for The Cher Show. He also won the Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Awards for the production. Remarkably, despite a Broadway career dating to 1971, The Cher Show brought him his first Tony nomination—and his first win.

Bob Mackie during The 69th Annual Outer Critics Circle Awards Dinner at Sardi’s on May 23, 2019 in New York City.

There is something particularly satisfying about that award. Mackie had spent his career creating clothes for people who walked onto stages to receive trophies. This time, he was the one walking up to collect one.

Bob Mackie attends The 69th Annual Outer Critics Circle Awards Dinner at Sardi’s on May 23, 2019 in New York City.

Broadway was only one part of an enormous career. Mackie won nine Emmy Awards, received three Academy Award nominations and was inducted into the Television Academy Hall of Fame in 2002. His film work included Oscar-nominated designs for Lady Sings the Blues, Funny Lady and Staying Alive. In 2019, the Council of Fashion Designers of America honored him with its Geoffrey Beene Lifetime Achievement Award.

Bob Mackie and Ken Page

His influence never became trapped in the era that made him famous. Generations of younger performers and designers continued rediscovering Mackie’s work, and his designs have been worn or referenced by contemporary stars including Miley Cyrus, Taylor Swift and Zendaya. What once scandalized red carpets eventually became the vocabulary of the red carpet itself.

Bob Mackie

That may be Mackie’s greatest legacy. He understood that glamour did not have to apologize for itself.

Bob Mackie

He was not afraid of too many feathers, too many beads, too much sparkle or a woman walking into a room fully aware that every eye was about to turn toward her. Yet beneath all that extravagance was extraordinary technical discipline. Those costumes had to move. They had to survive dancing, quick changes, television schedules and eight-performance Broadway weeks. Fantasy only looks effortless when someone has done an enormous amount of work.

Mackie’s life also contained profound personal loss. His only son, Robin, died in 1993 from an AIDS-related illness, and his longtime partner and fellow costume designer Ray Aghayan died in 2011. Mackie is survived by his former wife, Lulu Porter, his granddaughter Alyssa Townsend and great-granddaughters Kyla and Keira Townsend.

Bob Mackie spent his life making entrances possible.

Cher walking onto a stage seemingly wearing little more than strategically placed beads and absolute confidence. Carol Burnett descending a staircase with a curtain rod across her shoulders. Diana Ross shimmering beneath stage lights. Bernadette Peters wrapped in a gown that seemed designed specifically for the color of her hair. Broadway exploding into a parade of Cher’s life in The Cher Show.

Those images remain because Mackie understood that costume design isn’t decoration. At its best, it tells us who someone is before that person has said a word.

Bob Mackie made clothes that spoke. Most of them said essentially the same thing: Look at her. And we did.