THEATER: All The Moving Parts

As the leaves turn, the theatrical season blooms: Patrick Pacheco sits down with our experts—Ruthie Fierberg (Broadway News), Adam Feldman (Time Out New York), and Jan Simpson (Broadway Radio’s All the Drama)—to discuss the 2025 fall season of Broadway and Off-Broadway musicals.
In Part One of our two-part Fall Preview, the conversation spans from Kristin Chenoweth’s long-awaited Broadway return in Stephen Schwartz’s “Queen of Versailles” to the starry revival of “Ragtime” at Lincoln Center. Check out who our panel cites as the breakout stars on Broadway and Off while spotlighting the productions which will define this exciting season.
This fall, Broadway welcomes three revivals, but only two new musicals—shifting some of the spotlight to Off-Broadway, where fresh voices and worthy revivals are taking center stage.
Featured discussions include:
BROADWAY
🎭 “The Queen of Versailles” — Kristin Chenoweth headlines this new musical based on the hit documentary, written by Stephen Schwartz and Lindsey Ferrentino. Directed by Michael Arden (“Maybe A Happy Ending”), it follows Jackie Siegel’s rise, fall, and relentless pursuit of her American dream in a glittering portrait of ambition and excess.
🎭 “Two Strangers (Carry a Cake Across New York)” — A romantic two-hander about connection and timing, this British import stars Sam Tutty (“Dear Evan Hansen”) and Christiani Pitts (King Kong). The show captures the magic of a single day in the city where everything—and everyone—collides.
🎭 “Ragtime” — A sweeping new production of the Tony-winning classic opens at Lincoln Center’s Vivian Beaumont Theater, directed by Lear deBessonet. Starring Joshua Henry, Caissie Levy, and Brandon Uranowitz, this revival revisits America’s struggle with race, class, and identity with electrifying urgency.
🎭 “Chess” — The cult favorite returns to Broadway in a bold new staging by Michael Mayer, featuring a pop-rock score by ABBA legends Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus. Starring Aaron Tveit (“Moulin Rouge!”), Lea Michele (“Funny Girl”), and Nicholas Christopher (Hamilton), this Cold War-era love triangle gets an edgy, high-stakes new look.
🎭 “Beetlejuice” — Broadway’s favorite undead troublemaker is back for the third time, haunting the Marquis Theatre with his trademark irreverence. The show boasts new cast members, and even bigger special effects.
OFF-BROADWAY
🎭 “Saturday Church” — A gospel-infused coming-of-age musical blending faith, ballroom, and found family. Tony winners Jay Harrison Ghee (“Some Like It Hot”) and Joaquina Kalukango (“Paradise Square”) star, alongside Bryson Powell from NBC’s “The Voice.”
🎭 “Romy & Michele, The Musical” — The film cult comedy finally gets a shot at the stage. Starring Laura Bell Bundy (“Legally Blonde”) and Kara Lindsay (“Wicked”), this new version brings the beloved best friends back together in a fizzy, feel-good musical about reinvention and friendship.
🎭 “Bat Boy” — The darkly comic cult classic returns Off-Broadway with Taylor Trensch (“Dear Evan Hansen”) as the half-boy, half-bat discovered in a West Virginia cave. A gleefully twisted satire about love, fear, and small-town hysteria.
🎭 “The Baker’s Wife” — The long-awaited revival of the Stephen Schwartz ill-fated musical stars Academy Award winner and Tony nominee Ariana DeBose as Geneviève. For fans, all eyes (and ears) are on “Meadowlark,” the soaring ballad that remains one of Schwartz’s most beloved showstoppers.
🎭 “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee” — William Finn’s modern classic about competitive kids and over-caffeinated parents returns with a new cast led by Tony Award nominee Jasmine Amy Rogers (Boop!). Proof that the agony—and triumph—of adolescence never go out of style.
Please join us for Part Two of our fall preview—next time, we turn to the plays.

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Tape Date: 09/19/2025. First Air Date: 10/10/2025

On THEATER: All the Moving Parts, host Patrick Pacheco looks beyond the spotlight at the passionate and unheralded creative talents that are critical to the theatrical experience. From costumer designers to dramaturges and everything in between, Patrick looks at all the moving parts of a Broadway production.

Watch more at: https://tv.cuny.edu/show/theaterallthemovingparts/
THEATER: All the Moving Parts playlist https://bit.ly/2N5eNLs​
Subscribe to the CUNY TV channel: https://bit.ly/2GmGb13

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Tony Award winner Ali Stroker—the first wheelchair user to win Broadway’s top honor—joins Patrick Pacheco to share her journey as performer, author, advocate, and new mom. From “Spring Awakening” to “Oklahoma!”, from reality TV to a one-woman cabaret, Ali reflects on breaking barriers and building legacy.

This episode also introduces Torchbearers: “Theater Luminaries” — a new series within Theater: All The Moving Parts, celebrating artists who are lighting the path toward Broadway’s future. Ali Stroker launches the series as our first Torchbearer—an artist whose breakthroughs define Broadway’s next chapter.

🎭 In this episode:

🎭 On turning limitations into opportunities — “I live by this motto of turning your limitations into opportunities. That’s been really successful in my life.”

🎭 On empowerment — “Everyone was looking at me, but it was because I was the star… it felt like I could hold an audience in the palm of my hand and entertain them.”

🎭 On navigating barriers — “They said, listen, Ali, we’re not sure if this is going to work out because we’re not comfortable with you taking dance class. That was the beginning of my education in what it was going to be like in this industry.”

🎭 On redefining entrances — “I no longer wanted to be carried onto stages. I wanted to enter in my power, in my body, in my skin.”

🎭 On hope and legacy — “Audrey has so much hope for her future, and I think that is… it’s a way that I would describe myself as a dreamer and someone who has hope in everything, in other people, in my own life, in my son’s life, for my community, for the disabled community.”

🎭 On advocacy — Honored with TDF’s inaugural Christina Trivigno Advocate Award for her impact on accessibility and inclusion.

🎭 Special performance — Ali performs “Somewhere That’s Green” from “Little Shop of Horrors,” a song that has taken on new meaning in her life.

🎭 On history-making moments — Becoming the first actor in a wheelchair on Broadway (“Spring Awakening”) and the first to win a Tony Award (“Oklahoma!”).

✨ New episodes of Theater: All The Moving Parts air every 2nd & 4th Friday at 8:30 PM ET on CUNY TV & YouTube.

📱 Follow: @theatermovingparts

#AliStroker #Broadway #Torchbearers #PatrickPacheco #TheaterAllTheMovingParts #Oklahoma #SpringAwakening #LittleShopOfHorrors #CUNYTV

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Tape Date: 08/22/2025 First Air Date: 09/26/2025

On THEATER: All the Moving Parts, host Patrick Pacheco looks beyond the spotlight at the passionate and unheralded creative talents that are critical to the theatrical experience. From costumer designers to dramaturges and everything in between, Patrick looks at all the moving parts of a Broadway production.

Watch more at: https://tv.cuny.edu/show/theaterallth...
THEATER: All the Moving Parts playlist https://bit.ly/2N5eNLs​
Subscribe to the CUNY TV channel: https://bit.ly/2GmGb13

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Combine a rewrite of "Romeo and Juliet" with the songs of the top hitmaker Max Martin and what do you get: "& Juliet" on Broadway! Host Patrick Pacheco talks with the cast of the show and then with Bill Sherman, the musical supervisor. In this clip actor Betsy Wolfe, who plays Ann Hathaway, Shakespeare's wife in the musical, talks about the songs of Max Martin.

Watch the full episode at https://tv.cuny.edu/show/theaterallthemovingparts/PR2011745

On THEATER: All the Moving Parts, host Patrick Pacheco looks beyond the spotlight at the passionate and unheralded creative talents that are critical to the theatrical experience. From costumer designers to dramaturges and everything in between, Patrick looks at all the moving parts of a Broadway production.

Watch more at: https://tv.cuny.edu/homepage/show/theaterallthemovingparts/

THEATER: All the Moving Parts playlist https://bit.ly/2N5eNLs​

Subscribe to the CUNY TV channel: https://bit.ly/2GmGb13
Follow CUNY TV:
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YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/cunytv75
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/cunytv/
Find more from CUNY TV at https://tv.cuny.edu

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In this episode of “THEATER: All the Moving Parts,” host Patrick Pacheco welcomes master lighting designer and 6-time Tony Award winner Natasha Katz. For the
2022 Tony Nominations, she received a nomination for Lighting Design for a Musical for "MJ, the Musical", which received 10 nominations. In this clip, she talks about how she designed the lighting for the Michael Jackson character in "MJ, the Musical".

Watch the full episode: https://tv.cuny.edu/show/theaterallthemovingparts/PR2010837

On THEATER: All the Moving Parts, host Patrick Pacheco looks beyond the spotlight at the passionate and unheralded creative talents that are critical to the theatrical experience. From costumer designers to dramaturges and everything in between, Patrick looks at all the moving parts of a Broadway production.

Watch more at: https://tv.cuny.edu/show/theaterallthemovingparts/

THEATER: All the Moving Parts playlist https://bit.ly/2N5eNLs

Subscribe to the CUNY TV channel: https://bit.ly/2GmGb13
Follow CUNY TV:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CUNYTV
Twitter: https://twitter.com/cunytv
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cuny_tv/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/cunytv75
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/cunytv/
Find more from CUNY TV at https://tv.cuny.edu

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