The Ensemblist

That’s right - host Jackson Cline heads Off-Broadway for today’s episode! When he was doing my initial research for this series, many of the examples of queer representation that I found interesting happened to be produced off-Broadway. However, due to timing, he sadly made the choice to cut all of that from our history episode. He thought it’d be fun to dig deeper into those shows while in quaran...

“Tech” premiered on April 30th, 2012. It was written by Jason Grote & Lakshmi Sundaram, and directed by Roxann Dawson. Sadly, viewership dipped back down even despite the surge from the previous week, amounting to a mere 5.34 million. Songs this week mainly featured non-Smash properties: we got an opening montage set to Cole Porter’s “Another Op’nin’, Another Show” sung by Christian Borle, and a c...

As the Coronavirus pandemic has raged across the country, national tours have been some of the first productions to fall victim. One of those is the national tour of Miss Saigon which unexpectedly closed, cancelling almost four months of upcoming performances. Company member Adam Roberts spoke to us about how he heard the news and what he's doing since he found himself unexpectedly unemployed. Her...

Earlier this year, I had the opportunity to bring together five of the most experienced and storied ensemble actors working on Broadway today before a live audience at BroadwayCon. We talked about the shows they originated and the characters they’ve created, but also the disappointments they’ve felt when a show closed. While actors Tracee Beazer, Afra Hines, Kelvin Moon Loh, Barrett Martin and Bre...

Since South Pacific, we’ve had two more musicals win the Pulitzer Prize: How To Succeed in Business Without Really Trying and Fiorello!. But in 1975, a new musical came on the scene that would truly change musicals for the next fifty years. A Chorus Line. Without question, this show changed how ensembles were written, cast and perceived by audiences. Opening on Broadway in 1975 after a sold-out ru...

South Pacific changed how ensembles were used even further, by individualizing each character, even those in the ensemble. There were certainly been musicals in those 18 years with ensemble step out features, as anyone who has played Gertie Cummings in Oklahoma! or Mrs. Schuyler Adams in Annie Get Your Gun could tell you. However, most of the chorus tracks were still relegated to the titles of “En...

Roundabout Theatre Company's Caroline, or Change was the second Broadway musical to announce postponement in the wake of the Coronavirus pandemic. I was curious what it would feel like to be in the middle of a creative process, only to be stopped suddenly and placed on hold for the foreseeable future. Nasia Thomas is the dance captain and plays Radio 1 in this Broadway revival of Caroline, or Chan...

“Publicity” premiered on April 23rd, 2012. It marks the return of our original team from the pilot and first few episodes of the series: Theresa Rebeck and Michael Mayer, who respectively wrote and directed this episode. The viewership was up this episode! Yay! Premiering to 6.01 million viewers, about sixty thousand more than last week!! Gotta be that Bollywood promo, right? There were three feat...

Here at The Ensemblist, we have always striven to celebrate the hard work and passion of Broadway ensemblists. And in our second full season, which first aired in 2016, our co-creator Nikka Graff Lanzarone and I took a journey through Broadway’s past to learn about its future. We explored how the ensemblist experience has changed and been changed by some of the theatre’s most influential shows, wr...

As the Coronavirus pandemic as raged across the country, national tours have been some of the first productions to fall victim. One of those is the national tour of Once on This Island which unexpectedly closed this week, cancelling almost five months of upcoming performances. Company member Tatiana Loftin spoke to us about how she heard the news and what she's doing now. Here's our conversation.....

The Coronavirus Pandemic is taking a serious toll on the theatre industry. However, there are glimmers of hope where people are still connecting creatively online. One of those opportunities is thanks to Jeanna de Waal, currently starring as Diana in Diana: A True Musical Story. She is also the co-founder of Broadway Weekends a "theatre camp for adults" that has started teaching free online classe...

There are only a handful of moments where you can feel your life change. The moment you say “I do,” the birth of a child. But performers can add another to that list: the moment you find out you’ll be making your Broadway debut. In an instant, you feel your life has change as a door you’ve always wanted to walk through finally opens. There’s nothing more heartwarming than hearing these stories. So...

This week, we are pivoting our stories about the Coronavirus from how it caused theatre productions to shut down to what performing artists are doing with this time. Today, we speak to Joe Rosko, founder of Built for the Stage, an online training program that helps actors achieve their fitness goals. We spoke about how to stay mentally and physically fit during this time of isolation. Here's our c...

“The Movie Star” premiered on April 16, 2012. It was written by Julie Rottenberg and Elisa Zuritsky, and directed by Tricia Brock. Again, shout-out to an all-female team! The episode was viewed by 5.95 million viewers. Down again, man. This episode had three featured songs total, though one could argue that that spoken-word version of “Let Me Be Your Star” should count for half! Wow. The other two...

As the coronavirus pandemic continues to grow, we are speaking with performing arts around the country about how the shutdown of theatre performances continues to affect their lives and work. Today, we speak with Tara Tagliaferro, who was performing in the Maltz Jupiter Theatre production of How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying when the show was postponed. She shared how the theatre ha...

As the coronavirus pandemic continues to grow, we are speaking with performing arts around the country about how the shutdown of theatre performances continues to affect their lives and work. Today, we speak with Jane Bunting, who was in Dallas performing with the national tour of Come From Away until performances were cancelled on Thursday. Here's our conversation... Learn more about your ad choi...

This week, I wanted to share with you an extra-special conversation from my friends over at The Spark File podcast. Now, if you haven’t heard of The Spark File podcast, I want you to open up your podcast app and and subscribe to them right now. The Spark File is hosted by Susan Blackwell and Laura Camien - two bad ass bitches with gobs of experience in the theatre space who are obsessed with spark...

As the coronavirus pandemic continues to grow, we are speaking with performing arts around the country about how the shutdown of theatre performances continues to affect their lives and work. Today, we speak with John Tupy, who spoke to us from Palm Desert, CA where he was supposed to performing with the national tour of Chicago until performances were cancelled Thursday morning. Here's our conver...

As the coronavirus pandemic continues to grow, we are speaking with performing arts around the country about how the shutdown of theatre performances continues to affect their lives and work. Today, we speak with Christopher Henry Young, who is currently in San Francisco performing in the "And Peggy" company of Hamilton, about how COVID-19 has affected the state of live performance in the Bay Area...

Yesterday afternoon, Broadway theatres will went dark by order of Governor Andrew Cuomo. Performances will resume the week of April 13. The announcement comes as venues and performing arts organizations around New York City and the country have announced closures of their own amid rising concerns about the global coronavirus pandemic. Early morning, I spoke to Jessica Rush from the cast of Broadwa...

Earlier this week, the Broadway League released a statement advising against stage door activities and increasing sanitation efforts in response to the coronavirus outbreak. But I’ve been wondering how COVID-19 has been affecting life backstage at Broadway theatres for folks like today’s guest: Adam Jepsen. Adam is currently one of two actors playing Sven the reindeer in Broadway’s Frozen. Prior t...

As the COVID-19 pandemic spreads across the country, it’s creating concern for many of us in the theatre industry. For those of us who make our living by occupying the same space as others to share stories in real time, the coronavirus is posing a real threat to our lives and work. Just yesterday, Jay Inslee, the governor of Washington state, officially banned gatherings of more than 250 people. O...

Today’s guest knows a thing or three about covering roles of Broadway. Those three specific things are Otho, Adam and Beetlejuice - all roles he covers in his duties as a swing at the Winter Garden Theatre. Beetlejuice isn’t his first foray into covering leading roles either; He’s been a standby on The Book of Mormon, School of Rock, and understudied Michael Urie in last season’s Torch Song. I wan...

“Understudy” premiered on April 9th, 2012. It was written by Jerome Hairston, and directed by Adam Dernstein. The viewership dipped yet again from the previous week, premiering to an audience of 5.99 million viewers. Songs this week featured one cover of Kelly Clarkson’s “Breakaway” and two original songs by Marc Shaiman and Scott Whitman: a sort of reprise of Marilyn’s very first song in the seri...

Understudies are required to replicate another actors’ performance, knowing exactly where they move and how they move there. They must have the bravado to lead a show, but also the humbleness to know they are merely standing in for another artist. Understudies are asked to jump onto the moving train that is a Broadway musical and make sure it doesn’t come to a screeching halt.  What can make the c...