Marks & Vincentelli: A Theatre Podcast

Jeffrey Seller has produced quite a few of musicals, including two mega-hits that were both hugely influential and hugely successful at the box office: “Rent” and “Hamilton.” Naturally, we had to ask him: What makes a good producer? Seller dropped by the podcast to talk about his new memoir, “Theater Kid,” in which he takes us from his childhood near Detroit to his early years in New York, when he...

“Maybe Happy Ending ’ is the Broadway hit that nobody really saw coming. On this episode we welcome its stars, Helen J Shen and Darren Criss, who was just nominated for a Tony Award in this role. Darren and Helen portray a pair of HelperBots who have been cast out by their owners and end up living in a robot retirement community. What happens to them is, well, the stuff of the classic story of boy...

Kate Valk joined the Wooster Group in 1979 and never looked back. We think she’s one of America’s greatest actresses, but because she’s spent her entire career with the experimental New York company, even hardcore theatergoers may not have seen her work on stage or onscreen. Fellow Woosters like Willem Dafoe (former) or Scott Shepherd (current) are easy to find because they work pretty much everyw...

If you saw the Broadway productions of “She Loves Me” (for which he won a Tony), "Hairspray," "Legally Blonde," "Lucky Guy" or "Kinky Boots," you saw sets by this episode’s guest, David Rockwell. Rockwell is back on Broadway with designs for two shows this spring: “Pirates! The Penzance Musical” and “Boop!” We spoke with him to discuss at what stage he engages a project, the challenges he might en...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit marksvincentelli.substack.com Since taking over the role of the Emcee in Rebecca Frecknall’s Broadway revival of “Cabaret” in September, Adam Lambert has made his mark on one of musical theater’s most iconic roles. We were impressed when we revisited the show recently, because it has finally found its footing. Lambert and Auli’i Cravalh...

On this episode, Elisabeth and Peter interview Brian Doerries, founding artistic director of Theater of War Productions . The group is made up of dozens of well-known actors, including the likes of Frances McDormand, Bill Murray, Jeffrey Wright and Elizabeth Marvel — and Peter has been known to join it, too. Theater of War travels the country and the globe with readings of plays that inspire and p...

Peter and Elisabeth have been doing podcasts together for years now, but this was the first time a guest turned the tables and asked them what their three favorite musicals are! But don’t listen to this episode just for that. Listen to it because the guest is Stephanie Styles , a young musical-theater performer who’s going places — although right now she’s parked in the Encores! production of “Uri...

You may have read Elisabeth’s article about the Off Strip theater scene in Las Vegas — and if you haven’t, here is a gift link . To give listeners the lay of the land in Sin City (or rather Sin County, to be exact), we welcomed Daz Weller, artistic director of the Vegas Theater Company , who talked to us about what it’s like to do small plays and musicals in a city best known for pop residencies a...

Over the past decade, Marjan Neshat has become a welcome presence on the Off Broadway scene, and it’s rewarding to see her finally make her Broadway debut. And she’s in a mighty fine play, too: “English,” which Peter and Elisabeth loved when they saw it at the Atlantic Theater in 2022. Sanaz Toossi’s play, which won the 2023 Pulitzer Prize in drama , is about a small group of Iranians of various a...

Elisabeth put her foot in her mouth again: she said that Melissa Errico was “lovely” — as it turns out, that’s an adjective that has often been used to describe our latest guest. But Melissa is lovely, dammit! For (we think) our first holiday episode, we were delighted to welcome one of New York’s finest songbirds. She talked to us about her new show with Billy Stritch at 54 Below, “ ’ Twas the Ni...

The author-director of such works as “The Apple Family Plays,” “The Gabriels” and even the book for the musical adaptation of James Joyce’s “The Dead,” Richard Nelson is one of America’s finest theatermakers. He is also the modern American playwright whose work travels best, and he has been produced all over the world. No place has been as fraught as Kyiv, however, where Nelson went this past spri...

For this episode, we landed a real power player in our virtual studio: Lear deBessonet, the incoming artistic director at Lincoln Center Theater — one of the powerhouse nonprofits in New York City, with a budget of $40 million and a staff of 55. DeBessonet made her mark as one of the defining spirits behind the Public Theater’s Public Works initiative — her emphasis on theater’s communal aspects i...

After hearing that the 50-year-old institution California Shakespeare Theater, aka Cal Shakes , was closing down, we thought we’d ask a specialist in troubled institutions for his take on what the heck is going on in the industry. Enter Michael M. Kaiser, who ran the Kennedy Arts Center from 2001 to 2014 and currently heads the DeVos Institute of Arts Management at the University of Maryland. Mich...

It is our great pleasure to welcome the indomitable Elizabeth Marvel to the podcast. She has been a formidable presence on New York stages since the late 1990s and shows no sign of slowing down. She came on to talk about “The Ford/Hill Project,” which she was instrumental in initiating — Peter wrote about it for The Washington Post back in September ( gift link ). Naturally, we talked about a lot...

Elisabeth was otherwise engaged for this episode, so Peter talked to Jay Wegman, the executive editor of New York University’s Skirball Performing Arts Center, on his own. Wegman took over at Skirball in 2016, after almost 11 years at the Abrons Ars Center. Skirball has emerged as a major presenter of cutting-edge fare from the U.S. and abroad: This season includes works by Milo Rau, the Civilians...

When Kara Young won a Tony for “Purlie Victorious” a few months ago, it wasn’t a surprise to us. We’ve long known she’s one of the best stage actors you can dream of seeing in New York — Elisabeth first noticed Kara in “Syncing Ink” at the Flea Theater back in 2017 and since then she’s kept the actress on her radar, with a profile for the New York Times in 2020 . Now she has three Broadway shows u...

Our guest on this podcast is the playwright Branden Jacobs-Jenkins . A few months ago his play “Appropriate” won the Tony for best revival (star Sarah Paulson won for best actress), and it’s only the latest in a growing exemplary body of work that also includes “An Octoroon” and the Pulitzer finalists “Gloria” and “Everybody.” Woolly Mammoth’s production of “The Comeuppance” is running until Oct....

One of the biggest stage hits of the year in New York City has been “Cats: The Jellicle Ball,” which reimagines Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical as a ballroom competition. And there are no cats! In this episode, we talked to the show’s directors, Bill Rauch (who is also the artistic director of the Perelman Performing Arts Center, which originated the production) and Zhailon Livingston about what “Ca...

We’re longtime fans of Conrad Ricamora, going all the way back to “Here Lies Love” at the Public, and we could not be any more pleased to have him on the podcast. He is currently playing Mary’s husband in Cole Escola’s hit Broadway comedy “Oh, Mary!” And the show truly is a hit: We recorded the episode right before the announcement of an extension through Nov. 10. Not only that, but “Oh, Mary!” re...

Peter’s recent piece in Arts & Leisure section about five remarkable women who worked together at Off Broadway’s Public Theater a decade ago, and all have gone on to leadership roles at other major institutions. Click here for a gift article! And look, here’s another gift article : Elisabeth’s piece about the tears threatening to flood Broadway stages. Thanks to Christian Huygen for our theme musi...

In the Broadway musical based on “The Notebook,” three couples play Noah and Allie at various stages. No slight to the other two pairings, but for many audience members the emotional favorites are Dorian Harewood and Maryann Plunkett, Older Noah and Older Allie, as they are credited — and both have been nominated for a Tony Award. Maryann is a regular presence on stage: She was in every installmen...

It’s another crowded week in our virtual studio as once again we welcome three guests at once — and we can handle them! It’s always interesting to check in with a play months into its run, and after a transfer to Broadway: How has the show evolved? What’s happening with the staging and the cast? Playwright David Adjmi dropped by Marks & Vincentelli in January to talk about the genesis of Stereopho...

We were psyched to talk to one of our favorite artists, Judy Kuhn, about her performance in the Michael Friedman and Daniel Goldstein musical “Unknown Soldier” at Arena Stage, and about some of her earlier turns — you probably remember her as the mother in “Fun Home,” Fosca in the 2013 revival of “Passion,” Cosette then Fantine in different productions of “Les Misérables,” Florence in “Chess.” The...

In this new episode, we go where we have not gone before: three guests at once! We are in agreement on this one: “Dead Outlaw” is one of the best new musicals of the year. The production is running only until April 14, at the Minetta Lane Theater, but it will live forever as a recording by Audible, which is producing it. To talk about this strange — but true! — tale of an outlaw manqué whose mummi...

The stars of Broadway’s “Days of Wine and Roses” are our guests for a conversation about their collaboration on this new musical about the wrenching paradox of love in midst of addiction, with a score by Adam Guettel and book by Craig Lucas. Thanks to Christian Huygen for our theme music. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes...