The Ensemblist

Welcome to a new mini-series from The Ensemblist where I sit down with folks on the other side of the casting table to ask them what they’re really looking for in a Broadway ensemble. As performers, we hear time and again that the folks casting shows want auditioners to succeed. But what does that success actually look like?  Spencer Liff began his Broadway career as a dancer, performing in the or...

The Band’s Visit is one of those Broadway musicals that does not have an ensemble, per se, but in which every actor is working together to present a cohesive point of view. Yes, there are leading roles and supporting roles, but more than in most musicals the entire company of actors, musicians, and actor/musicians create a mood, a feeling and a sense of place. And so we honor their remarkable run...

For seven years and 2,507 public performances, Kinky Boots has been raising up audiences at the Al Hirschfeld Theatre on Broadway. For those of us at Ensemblist HQ, the show has a special place in ours hearts because of the ways it showcases its ensembles actors onstage, and has treated so many of them like honored family offstage.  Of the 61 actors who have played ensemble roles in the Broadway p...

Today we share with you three great stories from three great women, all of whom have understudied leading roles on Broadway and tour. Over the last year, each of these performers shared their stories of going on as understudies with The Ensemblist on our blog. And today we share these stories again with you, read by the actors who wrote them.  First up is a story from Christine Cornish Smith. Less...

For more than 16 years, the Gershwin Theatre has been home to the most Ozmapolitan of musicals, Wicked. And over the years, the show has been home to literally hundreds of ensemblists, not only on Broadway but on two national tours and in regional sitdown productions across the country. Today, we are sharing some of our favorite stories about Wicked from our blog, read by the actors who wrote them...

For almost a decade, The Book of Mormon has been delighting and shocking audiences at Broadway’s Eugene O’Neill Theatre. As both Ugandans and Mormon missionaries, the show’s ensemble works together to make a very funny show even funnier. Today we share stories from three of the ensemblists who have graced the production over its tenure.  Our first story comes from Tommar Wilson, who joined the Chi...

Today on the podcast, we speak to Chris Medlin about his journey from Broadway to Netflix and back again. An original cast member of Mean Girls, he took a four-month leave from the show last fall to film the role of Isaac in the new Netflix series Sweet Magnolias. Currently in the cast of Diana: A True Musical Story, he spoke to us over the phone about how his experiences on Broadway influenced hi...

“Who’s Got the Pain” premiered on April 16th, 2019. Like the pilot, it was written by Steven Levenson, and directed by Tommy Kail. As always, the numbers featured in the episodes were choreographed by Bob Fosse himself, but were reconstructed by members of his artistic progeny: Dana Moore recreated the choreography to “Who’s Got the Pain” and “Whatever Lola Wants,” and Lloyd Culbreath recreated th...

One thing that has become clear about the Coronavirus pandemic is that it's not a sprint, but a marathon. We will be in this holding pattern for weeks in not months where live performance can not happen in ways we are used to. And so I've been particularly intrigued by artists that are finding new ways to share live performance during this time. Broadway veteran Robi Hager (Dr. Zhivago, Bye Bye Bi...

One thing that has become clear about the Coronavirus pandemic is that it's not a sprint, but a marathon. We will be in this holding pattern for weeks in not months where live performance can not happen in ways we are used to. And so I've been particularly intrigued by artists that are finding new ways to connect with each other during this time. Ben Cook (Mean Girls, Tuck Everlasting) along with...

One of the most defining factors of ensemble characters is how undefined these characters are on the page. Often, the actors playing these roles are up to their own devices to decide who they are and how they fit into the world of the play. So how do you bring truth to a character who is intentionally surface-level? That's the question I posed to Jon Hoche, who created the role of Chief Justice in...

Starring Micheal Urie, Christian Borle, Mary Testa, Lillias White, James Monroe Iglehart, Ann Harada, and tons more of your favorite theatrical geniuses, TWITS is the newest radio play comedy from the Broadway Podcast Network. Visit bpn.fm/twits for more info, or listen and subscribe wherever you are listening to this podcast now! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today on the pod, we share part of a conversation with Octet’s Margo Seibert. In this conversation, our sister podcast Page to Stage talks to Margo about her work in the Drama Desk Award winning ensemble of Octet.  Hosted by Mary Dina and Brian Sedida, Page to Stage features excellent conversations with theatre makers. We are big fans of this up-and-coming podcast and are so grateful to them for l...

With the Broadway League declaring theatre shutdown through at least June 7, this theatrical season has effectively come to an end. So we wanted to take stalk of the abbreviated theatre season and talk about our favorite ensemble performances on and off-Broadway. Joining us is David Gordon, Senior Features Writer for Theatremania.com and President of the Outer Critics Circle. Learn more about your...

This month, we are collaborating with Broadway performers Jack Sippel and Brendan Stimson and their new podcast: Again From The Top. In this new podcast, these two Broadway dance captains and creative best friends offer goofy banter and behind the scenes stories featuring special guests who have created some of Broadway’s biggest hits. Listen as they uncover how professionals discovered their uniq...

The latest True Crime / Broadway crossover podcast from Broadway Podcast Network: THIS IS REALITY. A completely true story, still unfolding. How and why did a 25-year-old with a Pikachu bedspread become the #1 terrorist in the United States? In 2017, REALITY WINNER, a highly decorated former Air Force linguist was charged with leaking proof of Russian interference in the 2016 election to the media...

Come From Away is one of the best examples of ensemble storytelling to hit the Broadway stage this century. Having played more than 1,200 performances at the time Broadway shutdown, the show is a tour de force for a dozen onstage performers to guide audiences through a small town’s response to having a very big role on September 11th. After crisscrossing the country in a series of pre-Broadway try...

Helen Hayes panelist Matthew Kacergis is a DC based arts administrator and arts advocate. He has a long history of performing at regional theaters across the country, and now works as a Project Associate at the DeVos Institute of Arts Management. We talked about the Helen Hayes Awards, the categories they use to celebrate ensemble work and what kind of performances typically get celebrated in thos...

Eva Price is a Tony Award-winning producer for her work spearheading the recent Broadway revival of Rodgers + Hammerstein’s Oklahoma! Originally conceived for a cast of principals and chorus, this revival directed by Daniel Fish did away with the show’s traditional chorus and made an ensemble of twelve leading characters. Eva is also one of the lead producers of Jagged Little Pill, a musical with...

After speaking to producer Eva Price about the commercial Broadway theatre, awards for performances are the kind of thing that can make or break a show’s life. So if awards ultimately behoove the theatrical landscape, why not have more of them? Well, that’s exactly what happened in 2020 when a new awards ceremony was added to the New York theatre industry: the Antonyo Awards.  The Antonyo Awards w...

So where do we go from here? When host Mo Brady started this mini-series eight episodes ago, he was positive that there was a way to recognize theatre ensembles. He was so sure of it that he figured the best and most equitable way to do so was to ask the Tony Awards to add a new competitive category for Best Ensemble. At the time, he assumed that recognizing ensemble performances was a no-brainer...

Today, we celebrate the Broadway sensation Ain’t Too Proud: The Life and Times of the Temptations. The shows follows the Temptations journey from the streets of Detroit to the Rock n Roll hall of fame. In order to the five actors playing the Temps themselves, the 16 onstage cast members play a myriad of real life personalities, including Berry Gordy, Johnnie Mae, Smokey Robinson and more.  Prior t...

Today we talk to Soft Power's Billy Bustamante about his favorite musical, the 1990 classic Once On This Island. Somehow, the alchemy that is a musical can help us feel seen, heard and valued. So we here at The Ensemblist are talking to some of our favorite musical theatre performers about their favorite musicals. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today’s episode guest has indeed run the gamut, A to Z. E. Clayton Cornelious has graced the boards of Broadway an unbelievable eight times during the twenty years since his debut. The show then was Disney’s The Lion King, and today this Broadway ensemblist is bringing to life the electrifying story of The Temptations in Ain’t Too Proud.  Throughout the years his career has span the gamut, perform...

Somehow, the alchemy that is a musical can help us feel seen, heard and valued. So we here at The Ensemblist are talking to some of our favorite musical theatre performers about their favorite musicals. We couldn't think of a better person to launch this mini-series with than our co-creator Nikka Graff Lanzarone. She joined me over the phone from her home in Brooklyn to talk about her favorite mus...