The Ensemblist

Few musicals have captured the hearts of audiences quite like Disney's ALADDIN. But did you know the beloved stage adaptation of the classic animation almost never came to be? This podcast pulls back the curtain on the untold story of ALADDIN's journey from conception to Broadway triumph. Join 11-time Emmy Award winning entertainment journalist for NY1 and NY1OnStage host Frank DiLella on an in-de...

Join us for an extraordinary deep dive inside the most transformative decade on Broadway through gripping behind-the-scenes accounts of shows such as Sunset Boulevard, Rent, Angels in America, Chicago, The Lion King, and The Producers - shows that changed the history of the American theater. Host Michael Riedel, author of the best-selling book Singular Sensation: The Triumph of Broadway, has creat...

Making one’s Broadway debut is a momentous occasion for every actor lucky enough to do so. Sometimes it happens years into a long run on a seemingly ordinary Tuesday, and other times, it happens on opening night of a highly anticipated Broadway juggernaut. On this episode of My First Time, we invited Carleigh Bettiol into our virtual studio to chat about making her Broadway debut in the original c...

No bones about it, Shoshana Bean is a force. She’s a Recording artist, having released four studio albums. She’s mastered the art of YouTube, creating and participating in striking collaborations that feature her powerful voice. A Broadway girl by heart, she’s received acclaim for her portrayal of Jenna in the Sara Bareilles musical Waitress. But before Waitress, before Beaches, before Wicked, Sho...

What do you get when you cross Dracula with a podcast? Bite-sized episodes that will have you howling with laughter! Welcome to the official companion podcast for off-Broadway’s Dracula A Comedy of Terrors, now playing at New World Stages. Hosted by blood curdling Broadway veteran Andrew Keenan-Bolger, this podcast takes you inside the show’s (teeny tiny backstage) world with interviews and games...

Usually, our “My First Time” episodes feature Broadway stars looking back at the very first time they stepped on a Broadway stage. But on this episode we are going to hear about a series of firsts from one of the biggest hearts on Broadway, Marisha Wallace.  Since making her national tour debut in 2012 with The Book of Mormon, her career has been filled with firsts in quick succession: her Broadwa...

Nobody has climbed the Broadway ladder with as comprehensively as Desi Oakley. Fresh off a run as Jenna in the national tour of Waitress, when we spoke she was starring in Chicago on Broadway as the iconic role of Roxie Hart. But that stardom comes on the heels of experience, after standing by for the role of Eva Peron on the national tour of Evita, as well as swinging two Broadway musicals: Annie...

Todrick Hall is a trailblazer in the world of video. His work has always sought to entertain and engage, uniting his love of music, theatre and Disney with unparalleled production quality. Blasting open the possibilities of online video, he’s also created studio albums, live touring productions and award-winning music videos. But Todrick’s first love was Broadway, as is obvious from the number of...

Michael Berresse made his Broadway debut in the 1990 revival of Fiddler on the Roof. Since then, he's performed in multiple Broadway companies, directed a Broadway musical - even performed on Broadway as the director of a Broadway musical. He currently plays Bob Mackie and Robert Altman in The Cher Show. Here's our conversation... Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hi, listeners! Enjoy this throwback to 2019 and the very first guest from our My First Time miniseries. Our first guest for this miniseries was Ben Crawford. In April 2018, he started creeping ‘round the Majestic Theatre as the title character in The Phantom of the Opera. But before headlining this show, before Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Big Fish and Shrek, he was a replacement in the f...

She’s defied gravity as an Elphaba standby, “werked!” as Angelica Schuyler, and controlled minds as Allison Hargreeves on Netflix’s The Umbrella Academy. But before taking on these roles, Emmy Raver-Lampman had the unique experience of performing in the ensemble of the 2010 national tour of Hair, which ending up playing a Broadway theatre the following summer. Emmy joined me in the studio to chat...

Ashley Park's portrayal of the hilarious but lovable Gretchen Wieners in Mean Girls earned Park nominations for seven separate theatre awards last season. But as I found out when I sat down to speak with her, those are qualities that she also portrayed in her first Broadway outing five years earlier, is an ensemble member in Mamma Mia! during the show's 12th year on Broadway. Here’s a conversation...

Over the next five weeks, you’ll hear one at a time from the complete ensemble of the newest Tony Award winner for Best Musical, Hadestown, about the characters they’ve created and the careers that got them there. Afra Hines joined the company of Hadestown fresh off of her performance in the ensemble of Summer: The Donna Summer Musical where she also received the Legacy Robe. She was previously in...

Over the next five weeks, you’ll hear one at a time from the complete ensemble of the newest Tony Award winner for Best Musical, Hadestown, about the characters they’ve created and the careers that got them there. Timothy Hughes made his Broadway debut in the 2012 production of Chaplin. However, he is probably best known for his role of Strong Man in the film The Greatest Showman and creating the...

Over the next five weeks, you’ll hear one at a time from the complete ensemble of the newest Tony Award winner for Best Musical about the characters they’ve created and the careers that got them there.  Ahmad Simmons has performed in three original Broadway companies in the last four years: Cats, Carousel and now Hadestown. In addition to performing choreography by Andy Blankenbuehler and Justin P...

Over the next five weeks, you’ll hear one at a time from the complete ensemble of the newest Tony Award winner for Best Musical, Hadestown, about the characters they’ve created and the careers that got them there. John Krause made his Broadway debut as a replacement in the company of Fun Home. He’s toured in American Idiot and Wicked, as well as playing Drew in the Las Vegas sit-down production of...

Over the next five weeks, you’ll hear one at a time from the complete ensemble of the newest Tony Award winner for Best Musical, Hadestown, about the characters they’ve created and the careers that got them there. Kimberly Marable recently completed a five-year residency in the ensemble of The Lion King on Broadway. Beforehand, she had made her Broadway debut as a replacement in Sister Act. In add...

In honor of Black History Month, we're revisiting our July 2019 interviews with the original ensemble of the Tony Award-winning musical, Hadestown. Host Justin Mock looks back at The Ensemblist's interviews with three of the original company members: Afra Hines, Kimberly Marable and Ahmad Simmons. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Replacing an original company member in a Broadway show is a feat for any performer. But being the first person to replace in a show comes a set of joys and challenges all their own - ones that only get magnified when the show is a huge success like last season’s Tony Award-winning musical, Hadestown. Anthony Chatmon II was deemed that honor when he joined the company earlier this fall, replacing...

“Hell on Earth” premiered on April 2, 2012 (Happy...April Fools?). It was written by Scott Burkhardt and directed by Paul McGuigan. The episode was viewed by 6.03 million viewers, which is again down, this time by .11 million. Oof. Featured Songs? Again, no Bombshell music, unless you count the snippet of the “Arthur Miller Medley” that Brian d’Arcy James sang at the piano, but we did get an origi...

“The Coup” premiered on March 26, 2012. It was directed by Paris Barclay, and written by show creator Theresa Rebeck. This is the first episode Ms. Rebeck has been credited with writing since episode 3. Upon premiere, the episode was viewed by 6.14 million, which is down .42 million from the week before. It just keeps going down… This is the first episode where there is zero music by Marc Shaiman...

“The Workshop” premiered on March 19, 2012. It was written by Jason Grote, and directed by Mimi Leder. The episode premiered to 6.56 million viewers, down about half a mil from the previous week. Being the workshop presentation, we basically saw excerpts of all the original music from Bombshell by Shaiman and Whitman that we have seen thus far, but we also saw a new original song called “On Lexing...

“Chemistry” premiered on March 12, 2012. The episode was written by Jacquelyn Reingold, and was directed by Dan Attias. It premiered live to an audience of 7.04 million viewers. The featured songs in this episode included two covers — Shake it Out by Florence & The Machine and Who You Are by Jessie J — and one original song by Shaiman and Whitman called “History is Made at Night.” Oh yeah, and Kar...

“Let’s Be Bad” premiered on March 5th, 2012. It was written by Julie Rottenberg and Elisa Zuritsky, and directed by Jamie Babbit. As performers in the Bombshell workshop are warming up for the start of a rehearsal day, Derek uses Karen to work on a new sequence for the bridge sequence. Ivy walks in and clearly startled asks “am I late?” Eileen is anxious about the script developments, interrupting...

“The Cost of Art” premiered on February 27, 2012, and was the first episode in the series NOT written and directed by show creator Theresa Rebeck and Michael Mayer. The episode was written by David Marshall Grant, and directed by Michael Morris. At premiere, the episode was viewed live by 6.6 million, but including DVR recording, was viewed by a total of 9.05 million viewers.   There was a lot of...