Broadway Press Day with Ruthie Fierberg

Actor Kara Young has been nominated for four Tony Awards in four consecutive years — and is the first Black actor (and only  the second overall ) to do so. Young currently appears in Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’ Pulitzer Prize-winning play “Purpose” as Aziza. Here, Young tells host Ruthie Fierberg, executive editor of   Broadway News, about her history-making moment, the essence of her character and th...

Cartoon character Betty Boop is known quite literally for her image. Costume designer  Gregg Barnes  used the illustration for the foundation of the look for “Boop! The Musical!”’s titular character to create multiple styles for her. In addition to Betty herself, Barnes created two distinct worlds in which the musical lives: a black-and-white cartoon land and multicolored New York City. The worlds...

Marco Pennette has spent much of his career as a television writer, so he knows how to write “down to the second,” as he put it. Those skills served him as he adapted the movie “Death Becomes Her” into a stage musical. Pennette packs a wallop in his Tony Award-nominated book for the musical, making room for the story the movie-lovers know, new twists, additional character development and joke afte...

During the curtain call of “The Hills of California,” numerous audience members could be caught looking around for a “missing” actor. But there was no one missing. Actor Laura Donnelly played the dual roles of Veronica/Joan. But her complete embodiment of the two characters led many to believe that two different actors had played them. Donnelly is nominated for a 2025 Tony Award for her performanc...

Marsha Ginsberg is a longtime scenic designer in the theater and opera worlds. She has such experience, in fact, that she is an associate arts professor at New York University in Abu Dhabi. But, until this season, Ginsberg had not designed on Broadway. That changed with “English”; and Ginsberg earned her first Tony Award nomination for her design of Sanaz Toossi’s play. Here, Ginsberg details why...

Looking at James Monroe Iglehart, one wouldn’t exactly characterize him as a doppleganger for famed singer and trumpeter Louis Armstrong. And yet, when Iglehart took the stage as Armstrong in “A Wonderful World: The Louis Armstrong Musical,” the actor transformed and became Armstrong’s spitting image. Now nominated for a Tony Award for his portrayal of Armstrong, Iglehart talks to host Ruthie Fier...

“Maybe Happy Ending” has been nominated for 10 Tony Awards, including Best Musical, Best Book of a Musical for Will Aronson and Hue Park, Best Original Score Written for the Theater for Aronson (music and lyrics) and Park (lyrics) and Best Orchestrations for Aronson. “Maybe Happy Ending” imagines a future in which humans rely on human-like robots called helperbots. Two helperbots, Oliver and Clair...

Broadway’s “Death Becomes Her” is the musical adaptation of Robert Zemeckis’ film, which starred Meryl Streep and Goldie Hawn. But when Universal Theatrical Group (UTG), the Universal Pictures division that develops the studio’s titles for Broadway, considered adapting “Death Becomes Her,” they wanted the stage musical to distinguish itself from its source. Lowe Cunningham is vice president of pro...

When Marjan Neshat and her “English” co-star Tala Ashe were nominated for Tony Awards as best featured actors in a play, they became the first two performers of known Middle Eastern, North African and South Asian descent to have been included in this category in Tonys history. The recognition also marks Neshat’s first nod, having made her Broadway debut with the play. Here, Neshat shares about ori...

Glenn Davis is the co-artistic director of the Steppenwolf Theatre Company in Chicago. As co-artistic director, Davis supervised the development of Branden Jacobs-Jenkins drama “Purpose.” As a member of the Steppenwolf ensemble, Davis participated in its development as an actor. Now, Davis stars as Junior in the Broadway production of the Pulitzer Prize-winning play, earning a Tony Award nominatio...

Jak Malone made his debut this season as part of the ensemble company of “Operation Mincemeat.” The musical tells the story of the real-life MI5 military mission that took place during World War II. Written by sketch comedy troupe SpitLip, “Operation Mincemeat” is structured so that every actor plays multiple roles in the musical. That goes for Malone, who tugs at heartstrings as the modest Hester...

After wowing audiences in Broadway’s “The Notebook” last season, Joy Woods is turning heads as Louise in the current revival of “Gypsy,” earning her first Tony Award nomination. In this episode of “5 minutes with a Tony nominee,” Woods shares her early reaction to being cast in the role, her relationship with her onstage mother (actor Audra McDonald) and more. Want to be the first to hear these ch...

When designing the costume for “Maybe Happy Ending,” Clint Ramos needed to create the world of Seoul, South Korea, circa 2064. For this story about humans and their human-like helperbots, Ramos needed to design with creativity and precision. In this latest episode, Ramos walks Broadway News’ executive editor Ruthie Fierberg through the details of his costume design for the musical, which has earne...

Singer-songwriter Bobby Darin called himself a nightclub animal. So it makes sense that the new Darin bio-musical, “Just in Time,” is staged on a nightclub set complete with big band musicians. It was up to orchestrators Andrew Resnick and Michael Thurber, now nominated for a Tony Award for  Best Orchestrations  for the production, to use those instrumentalists for optimum impact. In this chat, Re...

Brooks Ashmanskas made his Broadway debut in the 1995 revival of “How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying.” Since then, Ashmanskas has been part of the initial companies of 15 more musicals, including this season’s “Smash.” Ashmanskas has earned his third Tony Award nomination for playing the role of Nigel in the new Broadway musical. In this chat with host Ruthie Fierberg, executive edit...

Playwright Jonathan Spector penned “Eureka Day” as a commission for the Aurora Theatre in Berkeley, California. When the play moved to Broadway, critics and audiences praised “Eureka Day,” which has now been nominated for a Tony Award for Best Revival of a Play. Here, Spector tells host Ruthie Fierberg, executive editor of Broadway News , about shaping his onstage characters, his Zoom characters a...

Francis Jue is a longtime Broadway actor. If you saw the original Broadway productions of “M. Butterly” or “Thoroughly Modern Millie,” you've seen him on the Main Stem. He’s also brought his acting chops to television, as Minister Chen on “Madam Secretary,” and Off-Broadway, as in “Soft Power.” A mainstay of the New York theater scene, Jue earned his first Tony Award nod for playing the role o...

In this episode, Manhattan Theatre Club’s (MTC) leaders, Lynne Meadow, Chris Jennings and Nicki Hunter, discuss the nonprofit’s Broadway programming strategy. This year, MTC has been nominated for two 2025 Tony Awards. “The Hills of California,” which was produced in association with MTC, is nominated for Best Play; “Eureka Day,” which MTC produced by special arrangement with Sonia Friedman Produc...

Conrad Ricamora earned his first Tony Award nomination for playing Abraham Lincoln in Cole Escola’s comedy, “Oh, Mary!” Ricamora is also known as Oliver on television’s “How to Get Away with Murder” and Ninoy Aquino in “Here Lies Love” Off-Broadway, a role he reprised 10 years later in the Broadway production. He also starred as Lun Tha in the 2015 revival of “The King and I” and David Henry Hwang...

Composer-lyricists Julia Mattison and Noel Carey dissect the emotional tones and sonic influences in their hilarious score. The music of the 10-time Tony Award-nominated Broadway musical “Death Becomes Her” ranges from haunting and spooky to bright and big band. The lyrics range from hilarious to hysterical. Here, the pair analyzes their own songs and recalls as much as they can from their writing...

Saheem Ali made his Broadway directorial debut in 2023 with the raucous adaptation of Shakespeare’s “Hamlet,” “Fat Ham,” for which he earned a Tony Award nomination. This season, Ali has presented Broadway audiences with something entirely different: a jukebox musical using the songs of the internationally renowned band Buena Vista Social Club. And, he’s earned his second Tony Award nomination for...

The new Broadway musical “Maybe Happy Ending” has earned 10 Tony Award nominations — tying for the most-nominated show with “Buena Vista Social Club” and “Death Becomes Her.” Experienced producers Hunter Arnold and Jeffrey Richards spoke to Broadway News about their strategy for launching “Maybe Happy Ending” that has allowed it to thrive. And, Richards is also nominated as the producer of “Our To...

As the producer and director of the acclaimed revival of Broadway’s “Sunset Boulevard,” Jamie Lloyd unites every element — from staging to design to the look of an ad — around a singular vision. The production is nominated for seven Tony Awards, including Best Direction of a Musical and Best Revival of a Musical. In this talk with Ruthie Fierberg, executive editor of Broadway News , Lloyd fleshes...

Jeb Brown is a veteran Broadway performer, now with 10 credits under his belt. But  “Dead Outlaw”  marks the actor’s first Tony Award nomination. Brown originated the role of the Bandleader/Walter Jarrett in the Off-Broadway production of the musical and now reprises his performance. Listening to Brown speak, he has a voice that makes you want to lean in — quite useful when playing the narrator of...

Having started his Broadway career as a dancer (replacing in the original “A Chorus Line”), Jerry Mitchell first showed the Main Stem his own moves with his choreography of 1999’s “You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown.” Since then, Mitchell has created iconic movement for such shows as “Hairspray,” for which he was nominated for a Tony, and “Kinky Boots,” for which he won.  Prior to this season, Mitch...