by Zach Raffio. @zachraffio. NEW YORK, NY. — Oh, you just saw Robert Icke’s political thriller reimagining of Oedipus ? Yeah, I can tell, based on the way you’re pronouncing — or shall we say, MIS-pronouncing — the play name. Sorry, I don’t mean to condescend, I just think you should know: it’s not “EE-DEH-PISS,” it’s pronounced “GOD-OH.” It’s an easy mistake! Lots of academics don’t teach it right, and if you’ve only ever heard something pronounced one way, of course you’ll

by Matt Keeley. @reallymattkeeley. PALO ALTO, CA - Backstage at the Palo Alto Playhouse, confused cast members were left with an indeterminate amount of time to prepare for the top of show when complacent stage manager Robert Gilman called for places whenever. “We were just chatting in our dressing room, still mid-hair and makeup, when we heard him announce places in, you know, whenever feels right,” said puzzled ensemble member Stephanie Schwartz, mentally calculating if she

by Dylan Bivings. @dmacbivings. NEW YORK, NY. - After years of speculation, we here at The Broadway Beat have secured a breaking exclusive at Gregory’s Coffee where professional barista, Payton Greene, has broken down the most burning question to ever rack the minds of musical theatre: How do you measure year in cups of coffee? “A lot of people think the Gregorian calendar stems from Pope Gregory XIII,” said Payton, effortlessly stirring Anthony Rapp’s likeness into her latte

by Sarah Lasko. NEW YORK, NY. — In a shocking turn of events, it was discovered that Jeremy Jordan is currently still stuck to a concrete slab inside Lincoln Center’s Vivian Beaumont Theater in Manhattan.  “We were in the middle of watching Act One of Ragtime  when I first noticed,” explained long-time LincTix subscription holder, Edith Pfenway, after assuring us that she was definitely still young enough to qualify for LincTix. “I assumed from the overalls he wore that he wa

Nathan Lane By Btvway - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=86673859 Laurie Metcalf By John Harrison, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=8248264 We hear it time and time again: Broadway is out of fresh ideas, and would rather platform the same old, often heavily white casts, creatives and stories. Well, it works both ways buster - you gotta come out for the shows that do look to break this norm! Which is why I’m i

by James La Bella. @James.La.Bella. Original Bug photo by Lily Cummings. NEW YORK, NY - Local Manhattan resident Richard “Dick” Smarge has been leading a small but vocal campaign against the quote “deeply unimaginative” revival of Tracy Letts’ Bug currently running Broadway, claiming he can get the same or better in his own East Village walk-up.  “ Bug is back at my place too. You see me braggin’ about it?” Snapped Dick, double-handin’ cigarettes and dollar slices like a p

by HaleyJane Rose. @haleyisfamous. ANN ARBOR, Mi — Self-proclaimed best friends and Musical Theatre BFA recipients Theresa Marino and Rachel Lavigne announced via a celebratory Instagram post today that they are “soo Glinda and Elphaba-coded,” despite having never said a kind word about each other when the other is not present. “She’s the Glinda to my Elphaba,” exclaimed Marino before dropping to a whisper. “And that’s not just because she can’t belt as high as I can, I would

by Zach Raffio. @zachraffio. CROTON-ON-HUDSON, NY - It’s Thanksgiving Day, and local father Mitchell Reclom just finished stating out loud that “if you think about it, the time between dinner and dessert is kinda like an intermission,” in a well-meaning attempt to connect with his BFA candidate son. “It’s like, you know, we just experienced something great, and now we’re gonna take a break, and then have more great. Just like the theatre,” said Reclom, who listened to every c

by Matt Keeley. @reallymattkeeley. GLENCOE, Il - Ensuring that he felt optimally prepared for his upcoming callback, local nonunion actor Timothy Hutchins dedicated two full hours to dicking around on his phone to prepare for the waiting room. “Most of my other friends and colleagues in the industry know that it’s the preparation that makes a huge difference at callbacks,” explained Hutchins, intently scrolling through his fourteenth page of Backstage’s Callback Corner forum.

by Ben Schrager. Instagram: @ben.schrager. Bluesky: @ benschrager.bsky.social . HOLLYWOOD, CA. – Shattering records for movie musicals and coming in at $152 million, this weekend’s box office champion is none other than the bewitchingly popular film making the rest of the competition green with envy–wait, it’s Avenue Q: For Now?  What? When–when did they make a sequel? Huh. “Oh, that’s nice,” said Robert Lopez while trying not to trip on one of his three Tony awards that was