When Lightning Strikes!: Recent Episodes
Broadway Podcast Network
Broadway’s top talents reveal their lightning bolt moments that set them on the course of their dreams. When Lightning Strikes! Is hosted by Forbes.com and Parade.com contributor Jeryl Brunner.“The two most important days in your life are the day you are born and the day you find out why.” - Mark TwainWe’ve all had it. Eureka! Your proverbial lightbulb goes off. The heavens open. The seas part. That wondrous, heart thumping, tingly, glorious mic drop moment when you realized what you were meant to do. No matter what it took. Lightning has struck! And from then on nothing is ever, ever the same. Host Jeryl Brunner presents candid, sometimes soul-baring, often funny chats with actors, writers, producers, directors and creatives as they lay down their THIS IS IT! discoveries about why they do what they do and what led them into theater.Learn more about Jeryl at @jeryl_brunner or www.jerylbrunner.com"When Lightning Strikes" theme song by Tom McGovern, talent booking by Anna Strout.Part of the Broadway Podcast Network
Valisia LeKae stars as LaVern Baker in Rock & Roll Man. The hit musical is playing at New World Stages. Valisia was nominated for Tony and Grammy Awards playing Diana Ross in Motown: The Musical. Some of her other Broadway and off-Broadway credits include Three Penny Opera, 110 in the Shade, Ragtime, Book of Mormon, Superhero and Almost Heaven: The John Denver Musical. On TV Valisia has been seen in The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, FBI: Most Wanted, The Blacklist, and Blue Bloods. On March 15 Valisia will be making her Carnegie Hall debut in the show Hittsville: Celebrating Motown with the New York Pops.
This episode was recorded August 10, 2023 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Marilee Talkington stars as Morgan Le Fey in the musical Camelot now playing at Lincoln Center Theater. A prolific actress on stage and screen, some of her other theater credits include A Nervous Smile, The Middle Ages, The Last Day and her solo show, Truce. She has acted in film and on TV in The Home, Extrapolations, SEE, FBI: Most Wanted, NCIS, New Amsterdam and Law & Order SVU. Marilee, who is legally blind, founded Access Acting Academy which offers actor training for blind and low vision adults and children. On July 26 1990 the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) was signed into law and commemorate that date, July is Disability Pride Month. In the court of Camelot at Lincoln Center Theater CT Marilee is one of two disabled actors in the company. Anthony Michael Lopez, a congenital above-knee amputee, plays one of the main Knights, Sir Dinidan. Both these roles were not written to be played by disabled actors. In this episode Marilee reflects on her struggles and triumphs. This episode was recorded on July 17, 2023 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Alex Edelman is a comedian and writer whose Orthodox Jewish upbringing has informed his critically and commercially acclaimed work for the stage and screen. He is known for both his TV writing and his solo stage shows, all three of which have been award-winning, sell-out hits in London’s West End and the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. His current solo show, Just For Us, is now playing at the Hudson Theatre on Broadway through August 19, 2023. Visit https://www.justforusshow.com/. This episode was recorded on December 21, 2021. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Joel Thurm is known as one of Hollywood's most accomplished casting directors. He played a key role casting some of the most important shows and films including Cheers, Hill Street Blues, Taxi, Grease, Airplane!, and The Rocky Horror Picture Show. He has worked with celebrities ranging from Judy Garland, Pearl Bailey, and Ethel Merman to Ted Danson and John Travolta. His new book is Sex, Drugs And Pilot Season: Confessions Of A Casting Director. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Arian Moayed was nominated for a Tony Award for his dazzling performance playing Torvald in A Doll's House opposite Jessica Chastain. An Emmy and Tony nominated actor, writer and director, in 2002, he co-founded Waterwell, (www.waterwell.org) a risk-taking and civic-minded non-profit theater company. Some of Arian's other theater credits include The Humans, Guards at the Taj and Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo. His TV and film credits include playing Stewy in the HBO hit Succession, Love Life, Spider-Man: No Way Home, Inventing Anna, Ms. Marvel and most recently, A24's You Hurt My Feelings. This episode was recorded June 15, 2023. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Martyna Majok was recently nominated for a Tony award for her riveting, profound and funny play "Cost of Living." The play delves into the lengths we go to care for others and what it means to fight for ourselves. Presented by Manhattan Theatre Club, "Cost of Living" was nominated for five Tony Awards and has already won a 2018 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Martyna's work, which also includes the plays "Sanctuary City," "Queens" and "Ironbound," has been performed in theaters around the world. Martyna is currently writing a musical adaptation of "The Great Gatsby," with music by Florence Welch and Thomas Bartlett. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Melissa Etheridge is a ferociously talented rock music icon. This Grammy and Oscar-winning singer, songwriter and guitarist is known for her deeply passionate, raw and honest lyrics and smoky, distinctive voice. With a career that has spanned more than three decades, this month she is debuting her new solo show, My Window - A Journey Through Life, which combines great music and storytelling. The intimate show at New World Stages, brings us from her childhood in Kansas to becoming a golden voiced rock music force. The show will run for just 12 performances. For tickets visit, www.MelissaEtheridge.com/MyWindow Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Katy Sullivan is reprising her role as Ani in Martyna Majok's Pulitzer Prize-winning play, 'Cost of Living,' which opened on Broadway October 3rd. Just a few of her other acting credits includes 'Dexter: New Blood,' 'My Name is Earl' and 'Last Man Standing.' A double below the knee bilateral amputee and four-time U.S. Paralympian champion, Katy is the first female amputee and only the second amputee actor ever to appear in a Broadway production. Manhattan Theatre Club's 'Cost of Living' is playing at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Carl Moellenberg has produced more than 70 shows worldwide and won 13 Tony awards. Just a few of his Broadway credits includes Spring Awakening, Hair, Death of a Salesman, Pippin, All the Way, Dear Evan Hansen, Angels in America, The Band's Visit, Oklahoma, Hadestown, The Minutes, Company and many more. His memoir, Broadway and Spirituality as a Path to Survival, debuts on October 1. carlmoellenberg.com/memoir Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Eugene Pack is an Emmy nominated writer and winner of the Drama Desk award for creating the hit international comedy Celebrity Autobiography. The beloved show where stars act out other celebrity memoirs live on stage, has run on on and off Broadway. Eugene’s short original comedies are now featured on a unique podcast, called The Pack Podcast, https://www.thepackpodcast.org Just a few of the stars who have performed on the podcast have included Sarah Jessica Parker, Blair Underwood, Matthew Broderick, Stockard Channing, Marisa Tomei Annette Bening, Brian Stokes Mitchell,Martin short. Renée Fleming, Dick Cavett and many more. “A compelling work of art” says Variety about the plays which is listened to in 100 countries. The Pack Podcast also raises money for The Entertainment Community Fund, https://entertainmentcommunity.org (Formerly called, The Actors Fund). As acting legend Eva Marie Saint who has performed in three of his plays says “Eugene’s work is so honest. I’ve lived long enough to know what’s honest and what isn’t and Eugene’s plays are." This episode was recorded on January 21, 2022 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Sharon Wheatley is an original cast member in the the hit Broadway musical, "Come From Away." She has the distinction of being the only actress to appear in "Cats," "Les Miserables" and :The Phantom of the Opera" on Broadway. When the pandemic shut down "Come From Away," Wheatley and her family hit the road in 30-foot RV. A gifted writer, she chronicles her adventures in her riveting new book, "Drive: Stories from Somewhere in the Middle of Nowhere." Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Miriam Pultro is an actor, singer, composer, lyricist musician, director, filmmaker and theater artist who wrote and stars in Glass Town which played at the Tank in New York City. The rock musical spotlights the Brontë-siblings as rock band. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Actor-musicians Van Hughes and Nick Blaemire wrote and are performing in “Space Dogs” at MCC theater. The new musical tells the heartbreaking, mind-blowing true story of the first living beings to go into outer space, even before humans. The musical centers on a stray dog named Laika and the top-secret Russian scientist who sent this pup and other dogs to space during the Cold War. “Space Dogs” is now playing at MCC until March 20th.
Nick and I talked about birthing “Space Dogs” from Van’s Bushwick basement studio, what it was like to play Jonathan Larson in the off Broadway musical “Tick, Tick… Boom!” and more.
Learn more about Space Dogs at https://mcctheater.org/tix/space-dogs/.
This episode was recorded on March 8, 2022. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Clare Barron is a prolific writer who has written the plays “Baby Screams Miracle,” “Dirty Crusty,” “I’ll Never Love Again,” “You Got Older” and the Pulitzer-nominated “Dance Nation." Her gripping play “Shhhh,” which has been called “illuminating” and "raw" recently had a very successful run at the Atlantic Theater Company. Not only did Clare write Shhhh she also directed and starred in the play. Clare is working on an adaptation of Anton Chekhov’s “Three Sisters” for New York Theatre Workshop’s (NYTW) 2022/2023 season. Directed by Sam Gold the cast includes Greta Gerwig, Oscar Isaac, Steve Buscemi, Quincy Tyler Bernstine, Emily Davis, Chris Messina, Lola Kirke, John Christopher Jones, Michael Benjamin Hernandez, Anthony Michael Lopez, Matthew Maher, Chris Messina, Aaron Clifton Moten, Ben Sinclair and Virginia Wing. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Jeannette Bayardelle is a Grammy-nominated performer who has traveled to more than 50 countries to share her exceptional gifts. Most recently she starred on Broadway as Mrs. Nielsen in Girl From The North Country featuring the songs of Bob Dylan. Her additional credits include Hair, The Color Purple, Rock of Ages, Deaf West’s Big River and she wrote the book, music, lyrics and stared in her own musical Shida. Jeannette created the online class, Broadway To Wall Street - https://broadwaytowallstreet.com/. The course is a fun introduction to the stock market and includes music and animation. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Alex Edelman is a comedian and writer whose Orthodox Jewish upbringing has informed his critically and commercially acclaimed work for the stage and screen. He is known for both his TV writing and his solo stage shows, all three of which have been award-winning, sell-out hits in London’s West End and the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. His current solo show, Just For Us, is playing at the Cherry Lane Theatre in New York City from January 24th to February 19, 2022. Visit, https://www.justforusshow.com/. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
When Lightning Strikes! goes to the opening Night and Broadway premiere of Alice Childress’ play Trouble in Mind. Directed by Charles Randolph-Wright, the cast includes LaChanze, Michael Zegen, Chuck Cooper, Danielle Campbell, Jessica Frances Dukes, Brandon Micheal Hall, Simon Jones, Alex Mickiewicz and Don Stephenson. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Jacquelene Acevedo is a Grammy award winning percussionist and dancer who stars in David Byrne's American Utopia currently on Broadway at the St James Theatre. She has recorded or toured with Jeremy Pelt, Alicia Hall Moran and her mentor/father, Memo Acevedo. Jacquelene also recorded on the In The Heights movie soundtrack. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Martyna Majok is a playwright who won the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for Cost of Living. Her newest play, Sanctuary City from New York Theatre Workshop is now playing at The Lucille Lortel Theatre. Her plays, including Queens and Ironbound, have been performed throughout the United States and abroad. She studied playwriting at the Yale School of Drama and Juilliard School. She is currently writing two musical librettos and developing an original series and film for HBO. Martyna is also adapting The Great Gatsby for the Broadway stage with Florence Welch and Thomas Bartlett writing music. This episode was recorded on September 24, 2021. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Pamela Moller Kareman is the executive director of the Neighborhood Playhouse School of Theatre. Just a few of their alumni includes Tony Randall, Mary Steenburgen, Robert Duvall, Jasmine Cephas Jones, Gregory Peck, Christopher Lloyd, Chris Noth, Dylan McDermott, Allison Janney and Joanne Woodward. For more than two decades Pamela has taught the Meisner Technique in New York and she continues to nurture new generations of actors. The school just reopened their famed red doors for in-person classes in September. This episode was recorded September 15, 2021. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
When Lightning Strikes goes to the premiere of the new documentary, The Show Must Go On. For the first time since the March 2020 shut down, an audience filled the Majestic Theatre that is home to Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Phantom of The Opera. Co-directed and produced by Dori Berinstein and Sammi Cannold, The Show Must Go On is an inspiring film about how two productions in South Korea kept theater alive in the midst of the pandemic. The premiere was held on August 9, 2021 and benefitted The Actors Fund. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Russell Granet is the president and CEO of New 42, New 42 is a nonprofit organization behind the New Victory Theater, the New 42nd Street Studios and the Duke on 42nd Street. Their mission is to make performing arts a vital part of everyone’s life from the earliest years onward. Celebrated for providing accessibility and inclusion in the performing arts, New 42 is recognized as one of the largest providers of youth employment of cultural organizations in New York City. Their New Victory Theater presents international productions and serves more than 40,000 children in New York City with free arts education. New 42 Studios, an architectural icon, is one of Broadway’s great rehearsal incubators. This episode was recorded July 22, 2021. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Dan O’Brien is a playwright and poet whose work has been produced off-Broadway at Primary Stages, throughout the United States and in the United Kingdom. Some of his plays include The House in Scarsdale: A Memoir for the Stage and The Body of an American. O'Brien has been awarded the Guggenheim Fellowship in Drama, the Horton Foote Prize, the Edward M. Kennedy Prize and two PEN America Awards. Most recently, he published a collection of essays in his book, A Story that Happens...On Playwriting, Childhood, & Other Traumas. O'Brien reflects on theater, family, what it takes to be an artist in a fractured world and keeping hope alive. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Mandy Gonzalez is an Obie and Drama Desk-winning singer, actress and author. She is so ferociously talented and has such a fierce belt that she was nicknamed “The Beast.” Mandy stars on Broadway in Hamilton as Angelica Schuyler and also originated the role of Nina Rosario in the Tony–winning Broadway musical In The Heights. Mandy played Elphaba in the Broadway production of Wicked and is also a Warner Music artist and released her chart-topping debut album, “Fearless.” She can also be seen as Lucy Knox in Madam Secretary. Mandy is the proud founder of #FearlessSquad, a social media movement for inclusiveness and positivity which connects millions of people around the world. She just released her first children's book, Fearless about twelve-year-old Monica Garcia who travels to New York City with her grandmother to pursue her Broadway dream. For more visit https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Fearless/Mandy-Gonzalez/Fearless-Series/9781534468955 This episode was recorded on April 29, 2021 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
James Calleri, Erica Jensen and Paul Davis make up the casting team Calleri Jensen Davis. The winners of 15 Artios Awards, they have a vast repertoire casting for Broadway, Off-Broadway, major motion pictures and television series. Among the agency’s upcoming theatrical projects are the Broadway productions of “For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/When the Rainbow is Enuf,” “Thoughts of a Colored Man,” and “Blue.” They also cast the television hit “Dickinson” on AppleTV+. The trio recently won another Artios Award for Excellence in Casting for the “Pride Plays” which played Off-Broadway last season. This past February the agency went from being Calleri Casting to Calleri Jensen Davis to better reflect the equal partnership that has been central to the company’s success over these past 15 years. They have reaffirmed their commitment to equity, diversity and inclusion to ensure equal access to opportunity for all performers. This episode was recorded March 18th, before the team won their 15th Artios Award for "Pride Plays." Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Mark Armstrong is the Artistic Director of The 24 Hour Plays which brings together creative communities to produce plays and musicals that are written, rehearsed, and performed in 24 hours. Highlights from his tenure include annual productions of The 24 Hour Plays on Broadway, the Broadway and Los Angeles debuts of The 24 Hour Musicals, the growth of The 24 Hour Plays Nationals, (a free professional intensive for young theatermakers), and The 24 Hour Plays: Viral Monologues. A socially-distanced sensation, The 24 Hour Plays: Viral Monologues has brought more than 400 free new theater pieces to millions of viewers since onset of the pandemic in March 2020. As a director, Mark has worked with countless playwrights including Dan O’Brien, Emily Mann, Christopher Shinn and many more. Learn more at www.24hourplays.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Christina Papagjika is a Tony and Olivier Award-winning producer who creates film, television and theater. Just a few of her productions includes the six-time Tony Award-winning Best Musical "Kinky Boots" and the film, "Lee Daniels' The Butler" starring Forest Whitaker, Oprah Winfrey, and Jane Fonda. Her movie, "Six Minutes to Midnight,” with Judi Dench and Eddie Izzard, will debut worldwide on March 26. She is also producing the film “Worth” with Michael Keaton, Stanley Tucci, and Laura Benanti. "Worth" had its premiere at the Sundance Film Festival and was acquired by Netflix and Barack and Michelle Obama's Higher Ground Productions. Worth will be released this September. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Meet two forces from the Bay Area Children’s Theatre: Nina Meehan, the theater’s founder and CEO. And artistic director, Khalia Davis. Bay Area Children’s Theatre is one of the leading theaters for young audiences in California. Since its inception in 2004, this theater has served more than 750,000 children and adults in the Bay Area and beyond with their musicals and Academy program. They have produced over 37 new musicals for young audiences including an adaptation of Chelsea Clinton's book "She Persisted." This month as part of their new Sunday Spotlight series they are sharing the performance of Khalia’s adaptation of A Kids Book About Racism by Jelani Memory. The show, A Kids Play About Racism, uses the power of theatrical storytelling to give children the tools to participate in the conversation with grown-ups.Part of the theater’s mission is to help create conversation and inspire positive social change. To quote from A Kids Book About Racism, “Racism is one of the worst kinds of mean someone can be. Because racism thinks someone being different is bad. BUT being different is actually good. Like REALLY, REALLY, REALLY, REALLY REALLY, REALLY, REALLY GOOD. 1000 percent good.” The play will be available all day on February 20th and 21st, and February 26th and 27th. To RSVP to see the show visit https://www.bactheatre.org/#/outreach-program. (CAN YOU HYPERLINK THE WEBSITE? THANKS!) The premiere of their Sunday Spotlight series with Khalia Davis will run as an interactive companion piece to the play. On Sunday, February 28th, 10:30 am PST/1:30pm EST, Davis will reunite with the cast as they tackle some difficult topics, share their experiences working on the show, answer questions from young people, and lead everyone in some critical thinking and interactive storytelling activities related to the show. To RSVP for this Sunday Spotlight series go here. CAN YOU PLEASE HYPERLINK THIS? https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSef0rVuUHpR0YyYmDLu3YFDH6WgU39XwXB2VWqqbV8V7ILbtg/viewform) Future Sunday Spotlights will include a focus on Women’s History Month in March, Autism Awareness Month in April and Mental Health Awareness Month in May. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
A Tony and Grammy Award-winning force, John Lloyd Young played Frankie Valli in the Original Broadway Cast of Jersey Boys. He also starred as Valli in Clint Eastwood's Warner Bros. movie adaptation of the show. Young is the only American actor to have received four major awards for a Broadway musical: the Tony, Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle and Theatre World Award.He has performed concerts at The White House, Carnegie Hall and all around the world. On February 12 John Lloyd Young will performing at The Space Las Vegas in John Lloyd Young’s Vegas Valentine. His intimate show will be streamed live as he sings beloved Jersey Boys favorites along with luscious and romantic classic tunes. Visit, https://www.johnlloydyoung.com/live for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Frank DiLella is the host of “On Stage” on Spectrum News NY1. He won a Best News Magazine Emmy Award for his special on the musical “Come From Away.” Frank has interviewed everyone including James Earl Jones, Vanessa Redgrave, Bono, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Jane Fonda, Lady Gaga, Andrew Lloyd Webber and on and on and on. Most recently Frank played himself as a theater reporter in the Netflix film “The Prom” getting his close-up opposite Meryl Streep. This episode was recorded on January 4, 2021. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Jonah Platt is a prolific performer and creator who has appeared on stages around the country. On Broadway he played Fiyero in Wicked. He did Hair at the Hollywood Bowl and was also in Floyd Collins, BARE, A Walk on the Moon and Found. Platt is also co-writing the music and lyrics to the musical The Giver with Andrew Resnick with a book by Martin Zimmerman. The musical is based on the wildly popular novel by Lois Lowry. Go on his instagram and watch him sing “Wish,” one of the songs originally in the show as part of Lincoln Center’s #HumanityInConcert series. On television, Platt’s TV credits includes Jesus Christ Superstar Live, the Netflix animated series, Trolls: The Beat Goes On, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Parenthood and The Office. This episode was recorded on May 26. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
David Lindsay-Abaire is a Pulitzer Prize winning playwright, screenwriter, lyricist and librettist. He won the Pulitzer Prize for his devastatingly beautiful play Rabbit Hole. As the Hollywood Reporter said about his play Good People: “It is that rare play that is both timeless and completely keyed into a specific moment in American life…Bringing the same clear-eyed emotional observation that distinguished his Pulitzer winner, Rabbit Hole, David Lindsay-Abaire has crafted another penetrating drama about deeply relatable issues.” Some of his other plays include Fuddy Meers, Kimberly Akimbo, Wonder of the World, A Devil Inside and Ripcord. David wrote the book for the musical High Fidelity and the book and lyrics for Shrek the Musical. And if that’s not enough, he is also a very prolific screenwriter. Some of his film credits include Robots, Inkheart, Rise of the Guardians, Poltergeist, The Family Fang and the film versions of Rabbit Hole and Shrek The Musical. Most recently he has written a plethora of monologues for The 24 Hour Plays: Viral Monologues writing pieces for Rachel Dratch, Marcia Gay Harden, J. Smith Cameron, Johanna Day, Cynthia Nixon, Aymee Garcia, Michael Urie, David Hyde Pierce, Marylouise Burke, T.R. Knight and Jake Gyllenhaal. He will also be writing a play for the 20th Annual The 24 Hour Plays Broadway Gala. The virtual performance will stream LIVE on Tuesday, December 1st at 8:00 PM. Learn more at http://www.24hourplays.com/broadway David’s home is called “the most impressive halloween house in Brooklyn.” Just Google him and the word “halloween.” This episode was recorded November 2, 2020. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
By the time she was a student at Bennington College, Elizabeth Swados was already a force, considered an exceptional talent as a writer, composer and director. In 1978 when she was in her twenties her musical Runaways, about teenage runaways began at the Public Theater, moved to Broadway and earned her four Tony nominations. Swados had a gift for introducing new forms to the mainstream. She wrote in a variety of musical genres including world, folk, rap and experimental music. She delved into topics not usually seen in musical theater like racism, murder and mental illness. In 2016, Swados passed away after battling esophageal cancer. This past May, “The Liz Swados Project,” a tribute album devoted to Swados and her legacy debuted on Ghostlight Records. The album includes 20 songs from Swados work and is performed by some of the theater's most inspiring artists working today. To stream or download the album, or order the CD, visit ghostlightrecords.lnk.to/lizswadosproject. On Tuesday, November 24 at 8pm, Ghostlight Records and Joe’s Pub will present a free virtual celebration of “The Liz Swados Project.” The event will feature several artists who appear on the album who will perform and personal insights into Swados’ work. Learn more here, https://publictheater.org/productions/joes-pub/2020/j/the-liz-swados-project---joes-pub-live Guests Roz Lichter, is one of the executive producers on the album and was also Liz’s longtime partner. Also with us is singer, composer and musician Shaina Taub, who was a student of Swados at New York University and then a collaborator. Taub also performs on “The Liz Swados Project.” Produced in part by the Broadway Podcast Network. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
For more than three decades Christine Ebersole has dazzled on stage, screen, in television series, concert appearances, recordings and on and on. A two-time Tony winning actress, her eclectic career includes everything from joining the cast of Saturday Night Live to being in the films The Wolf Of Wall Street, Amadeus and Tootsie to starring on Broadway playing Dorothy Brock in 42nd Street, captivating audiences in the dual role of ”Little” Edie Beale/Edith Bouvier Beale in Grey Gardens and playing Elizabeth Arden in War Paint. Ebersole is currently starring as Bob’s mom Dottie in the CBS hit comedy, Bob Hearts Abishola. The second season premieres November 16, 2020. This episode was recorded September 21, 2020. Produced in part by the Broadway Podcast Network. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Rolling Stone magazine calls Krista Detor’s soul-nourishing music "A small miracle.” A singer/song-writer, her solo albums have reached national and international prominence on the Euro-Americana and Folk and Independent Music charts. She was one of the few artists to perform in the Emmy nominated TV concert Wilderness Plots for PBS where she wrote and sang songs inspired by the book Wilderness Plots by American College of Arts & Letters inductee Scott Russell Sanders. Krista has performed extensively throughout the United States and Europe. She has been commissioned to write musical theater and choir pieces around the world from the Indiana Arts Commission to the U.S. Department of State in New Delhi. Krista and her partner, David Weber created the non-profit theater residency The Hundredth Hill Artist Residency in Bloomington, Indiana. From August to October The Hundredth Hill hosted an emerging theater residency, housed New York University graduates who created two new theater pieces, which are being safely staged outside on the majestic property. For more information visit https://www.thehundredthhill.org. Produced in part by the Broadway Podcast Network. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
There are musicians, composers, arrangers, orchestrators and then there is James Sampliner. He is a pianist, composer, arranger, orchestrator, conductor, music producer, percussionist and music copyist. Much beloved by the New York theater community, James has collaborated with Audra McDonald, Billy Porter, Leslie Odom Jr., Patina Miller, Chuck Cooper, Shoshana Bean, Annaleigh Ashford, Norm Lewis, Sara Ramirez, Lillias White, Mandy Gonzalez, Rob McClure, Tracie Thoms, Eden Espinosa, James Naughton, Debra Monk, Tituss Burgess, Will Swenson, Bebe Neuwirth, Jason Robert Brown, Susan Stroman, Hal Prince and many others. Most recently he co-produced, arranged and music directed the album “Along the Way” with Bobby Conte Thornton. This episode was recorded on June 2, 2020. Produced in part by the Broadway Podcast Network. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
In his thirty year career Patrick Boll has performed on Broadway, off Broadway and around the country. For nearly three years he starred as Bill Austin in Mamma Mia! on Broadway. Patrick was also in the Coen Brothers film Burn After Reading with George Clooney and Brad Pitt and How to be Single with Dakota Johnson and Rebel Wilson. A few of his TV credits include FBI, Gossip Girl, Law and Order and their many spin-offs. Patrick has taught acting at Universities and conservatories like Playwrights Horizons at New York University, Western Michigan University and the New York Conservatory for Dramatic Arts. Patrick is also an author. His first book, Product: You - The Workbook and Guide To An Actor's Life, is all about what it takes to be an actor. This episode was recorded on June 5, 2020. Produced in part by the Broadway Podcast Network. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
As New York Times theater critic Ben Brantley wrote, Marin Ireland is “one of New York theater’s most inspired and entertaining interpreters of people programmed to self-destruct.” Just a few of her theater credits include Happy Talk, Blue Ridge, Summer and Smoke, Ironbound, On the Exhale, Kill Floor, Marie Antoinette, The Big Knife, Three Sisters, Miss. Julie, A Lie of the Mind, Reasons to Be Pretty, Far Away and Nocturne. On TV, Ireland starred in the series Sneaky Pete and the Umbrella Academy. She was also in Mildred Pierce, Homeland, The Divide, Girls and on and on and on. Next up Ireland stars in The Dark and the Wicked, The Empty Man and the highly anticipated TV series based on the comic, Y: The Last Man. This episode was recorded on June 17, 2020. Produced in part by the Broadway Podcast Network. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Astrid Van Wieren is an original cast member of the the hit Broadway musical, Come From Away. She has been in the show since it opened in 2017. Van Wieren also co-wrote, co-produced and stars in the indie feature film, The River You Step In. Her other credits include This Wide Night, Belles Soeurs, The Musical, The Colony of Unrequited Dreams, Myth of The Ostrich, The Way Back to Thursday and Baal. This episode was recorded in May, 2020, when the world was in a much different place. Produced in part by the Broadway Podcast Network. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Charlotte Moore and Ciarán O’Reilly founded Irish Repertory Theatre in 1988. Ever since they have been passionately devoted to bringing Irish and Irish-American works to the stage. The Irish Rep presents everything from classics to contemporary works as they nurture new generations of Irish and Irish-American playwrights. Now in its 31st season, Moore serves as Artistic Director and O'Reilly is Producing director. They have won the Drama Desk Award, Outer Critics Circle Award, the Lucille Lortel Award and the Jujamcyn Theatres Award for their excellence. In 2019, Moore and O’Reilly were both inducted into the Irish America Hall of Fame and received Ireland’s Presidential Distinguished Service Award for the Irish Abroad. Irish Repertory Theatre has presented over 190 productions and worked with more than 500 company members. The theater now has entire online component and thriving online summer season. Love Noël: The Songs And Letters of Noël Coward, starring Steve Ross and KT Sullivan and directed by Charlotte Moore, will be online from August 11 to August 15. For more details visit, https://irishrep.org/show/irish-rep-online-2020/love-noel-2/ This episode was recorded May 19, 2020. Produced in part by the Broadway Podcast Network. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Michael Zegen stars as Joel Maisel in the beloved Amazon hit series, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. His vast theater resume includes Bad Jews, The Spoils, A View From The Bridge and most recently Bob and Carol and Ted and Alice with The New Group. On Television he had a recurring role as Benny Siege' on HBO's Boardwalk Empire and has also been in The Walking Dead, Girls, How To Make It In America, Happyish and Rescue Me. His film credits includes Frances Ha, Brooklyn, Adventureland, Taking Woodstock and the film adaptation of Anton Chekhov's The Seagull. Earlier this year, he wrapped production on the independent feature The Stand-In. This episode was recorded May 19, 2020. Produced in part by the Broadway Podcast Network. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Tedra Millan appeared on Broadway in Present Laughter. Her Off-Broadway credits include: Happy Talk,The Wolves, On the Shore of the Wide World, Nassim. On television you can see her in Fosse/Verdon, Tales of the City, Almost Family, Katy Keene and The Goldbergs. She is directing the upcoming short film, We Can Voyage There, written by David Lerner Schwartz. This episode was recorded May 11, 2020. Produced in part by the Broadway Podcast Network. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Katie Brayben won a Olivier Award playing Carole King in the West End premiere of Beautiful. Just a few of her theater credits include Girl from the North Country, Honour, A Walk on The Moon, The Spoils, My Mother Said I Never Should, King Charles III and American Psycho. On television she has appeared in Luther, The Alienist, Doctor Who, King Charles III and Vera, You can see her in the riveting film, A Serial Killer’s Guide To Life which is now streaming online. This episode was recorded May 18, 2020. Produced in part by the Broadway Podcast Network. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Aneesa Folds shares how she went from being a student at the Freestyle Love Supreme Academy to starring on Broadway a few months later in Freestyle Love Supreme. Her other theater credits includes Sistas The Musical, Seussical, Freaky Friday and Ragtime. She has performed at North Shore Music Theatre, Goodspeed Opera House, Arrow Rock Lyceum. Aneesa also appears in the new documentary, We Are Freestyle Love Supreme, which premiered July 17th on Hulu. Produced in part by the Broadway Podcast Network. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Jonathan Marc Sherman has been a professional playwright since he was a teenager. At 18 his play, Women and Wallace, was part of the Young Playwrights Festival and directed by James LaPine and then Don Scardino. The play was made for television audiences for PBS-TV's American Playhouse with a cast that included Josh Hamilton, Debra Monk and Cynthia Nixon. Sherman has been writing ever since. (He also has a long list of acting credits which started when he played the Artful Dodger at the Pittsburgh Civic Light Opera). Most recently Sherman wrote the book for The New Group’s production of Bob and Carol Ted and Alice with music and lyrics by Duncan Sheik. Sherman co-founded Malaparte theater company with Josh Hamilton and Ethan Hawke. His work has been presented at The Public Theater, Playwrights Horizons, Williamstown and around the world from Australia to Istanbul to Japan. He has written several pieces for 24 Hour Plays, Viral Monologues including The Conversationalist, the musical Fear of Frying, and Painting
This conversation was recorded May 15, 2020. Produced in part by the Broadway Podcast Network. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Asmeret Ghebremichael is a force on Broadway, off Broadway and the West End. A Drama Desk winner, she has been working on Broadway for twenty years. Just some of her credits include The Book of Mormon, Elf, In The Heights, Legally Blonde, Spamalot, Wicked, Dream Girls on the West End. She was nominated for both the Lucille Lortel and Chita Rivera Awards for playing Nikkie in Sweet Charity and was in The Wiz Live! on NBC. Watch her in the web series Submissions Only or on the BBC television show Get Even. Asmeret recently wrote a powerful opinion piece for Broadway News called “I’m tired of being the token Black friend.” https://broadwaynews.com/2020/06/04/opinion-im-tired-of-being-the-token-black-friend/ Produced in part by the Broadway Podcast Network. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
There are singers and then there is Anika Larsen. Known for her ferocious belt, she made her Broadway debut in Rent and was nominated for a Tony award playing prolific songwriter Cynthia Weil in Beautiful: The Carole King Musical. Her other theater credits include Avenue Q, All Shook up, Xanadu and Closer Than Ever. Larsen’s autobiographical musical Shafrika, the White Girl, is based on her own experiences growing up one of ten siblings in a family where six children were adopted from all over the world. She is currently artistic director of Plays in the House Teen Edition. The play reading series benefits organizations which brings theater to underserved youth. It is part of Stars in the House, created by Seth Rudetsky and James Wesley. Larsen will next star in the Broadway bound Almost Famous. Based on the Cameron Crowe film, the musical is directed by Jeremy Herrin. Crowe wrote the book and lyrics, Tom Kitt composed original music. Larsen is Elaine Miller, the conflicted mom, who Frances McDormand played in the film. Larsen does volunteer virtual Q&As inspiring students from around the world from Amarillo to the Netherlands to Iowa City. With her husband, professional trumpet player Freddie Maxwell, she also created socially distant porch concerts which she performs for her community in the suburbs outside New York City. “Art will not be stopped. It can’t be,” says Larsen. “A government can try to oppress it. Or a pandemic can try and shut it down. But artists are going to make their art. Whether it’s floating out their windows or coming out of the woodwork. We can’t stop doing the thing we do.” Produced in part by the Broadway Podcast Network. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Tiler Peck was dancing before she could walk. By the time she was four-years-old she had a talent for remembering three minute dance solos. “I was dancing all the time,” says Peck who has been a principal dancer with the New York City Ballet for over a decade. "My mother put me in soccer and I would leap and dance down the field.” Working professionally since she was a child, Peck made her Broadway debut when she was 11 in Susan Stroman's revival of The Music Man. Currently living in her family's home in Bakersfield, California, she is hosting daily ballet classes on her @tilerpeck Instagram. Peck also has a new children’s book, Katarina Ballerina, (Simon & Schuster), which she cowrote with Kyle Harris (The Inheritance). In the book Katarina has a love for dance but her feet turn in and her curly hair doesn’t always fit into a sleek bun. Katarina isn’t perfect, but at every turn, people tell her she is beautiful. “Katarina has one thing that you can't teach. She has a light within her that makes people want to watch her dance,” says Peck. “While technique can be taught, love and passion can’t. The message is for kids to own their unique gifts. That makes you stand out.” Produced in part by the Broadway Podcast Network. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Annie Golden got her start in the 1970s as the lead singer of the CBGB headlining band, The Shirts. In the 1970s director Milos Forman “discovered” Annie Golden singing at CBGBs with her band The Shirts. He cast her in his 1979 film adaptation of Hair. She has been working and thriving ever since. Click here to see Annie Golden shared her "work station" which contains her "fancy schmancy" microphone to record the new Bleeding Love podcast. You may know Golden from playing Norma Romano in Orange Is the New Black. You may know her from countless roles on and off Broadway. Her vast credits include Hair, Leader of the Pack, Ah, Wilderness!, On the Town, The Full Monty, Xanadu, Violet, Assassins and Broadway Bounty Hunter. You may know her playing Jeannie Ryan from Milos Forman’s film adaptation of Hair. You may know her from Desperately Seeking Susan, Baby Boom, Longtime Companion, Strictly Business, Prelude to a Kiss, 12 Monkeys or I Love You Phillip Morris. Golden currently co-stars in the new Broadway Podcast Network series, Bleeding Love. The Post-Apocalyptic musical takes place in a world where it’s too dangerous to go outside. Golden stars with Rebecca Naomi Jones, Marc Kudisch, Sarah Stiles, Taylor Trensch and Tony Vincent Be More Chill composer Joe Iconis even wrote the musical Broadway Bounty Hunter as a love letter to Golden. (The original cast recording was just released last month, https://ghostlightrecords.lnk.to/broadwaybountyhunter). “She has been my muse,” says Iconis. “The thing that has always comes through is her authenticity. She is such a real New Yorker and so authentically herself. And I love that she has had such a wild life.”
Produced in part by the Broadway Podcast Network. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices