The Fabulous Invalid

This week’s show is a special tribute to the life and legacy of Bernard Gersten (1923-2020), a trailblazing producer and non-profit administrator responsible for the success of the Public Theater and Lincoln Center Theater (LCT). Jamie and Rob sat down with Bernard last summer for what would be his final interview. You’ll hear excerpts from that conversation along with remembrances and reflections...

On this week’s show, Jamie and Rob share their interview with Matthew Lopez, playwright of “The Inheritance”, which played on Broadway this season. Together, they talk about Matthew’s inspiration for writing the play, the importance of sharing history and experiences across generations—particularly within the queer community—Matthew’s reaction to the critical response to the play, and his collabor...

On this week’s episode, Rob and Jamie chat with Rob’s high school friend, actor, author, activist, podcaster, and producer Jenna Ushkowitz. Together, they talk about Jenna’s diverse career, from making her Broadway debut at age nine in “The King and I” to her recent Tony Award-winning foray into producing, including her star turn on the hit TV series “glee”. Jenna participates in another round of...

On this week’s show, Jamie and Rob celebrate the recent release of the “Soft Power” cast album with the musical within a play’s Tony Award winning composer Jeanine Tesori, best known for writing the scores to “Fun Home”, “Caroline, or Change”, and “Thoroughly Modern Millie”, among others. Together, they talk about the unique inception and development of “Soft Power”. Then, Jeanine offers a master...

On this week’s show, Jamie, Rob, and Jennifer chat with “Schitt’s Creek” star Emily Hampshire about her new online talk show “Humpday With Hampshire” that benefits the Actor’s Fund. Together, they discuss Michelle Obama and Dolly Parton, Emily’s love of bitmojis, and what it was like saying goodbye to “Schitt’s Creek” before throwing some Broadway trivia Emily’s way. At the top of the episode, Jam...

On this week’s episode, Jamie and Rob talk about the current state of Broadway amid the Covid-19 pandemic, what’s ahead, and what the road back to “normal” looks like with Dori Berinstein, a four-time Tony Award winning Broadway producer and founder of the Broadway Podcast Network, and Lee Seymour, a Senior Contributor on Arts and Hollywood at Forbes Magazine. At the top of the show, Jamie and Rob...

On this week’s show, Jamie and Rob bring you an interview with the extraordinary choreographer Camille A. Brown, who in the last year alone worked on the Metropolitan Opera’s production of “Porgy and Bess”, The Public Theater’s “For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide / When The Rainbow Is Enuf”, and “Toni Stone” for Roundabout, and earned a Tony Award nomination for her work on Manhattan Th...

On a special episode, Jamie, Rob, and Jennifer salute the Actors Fund with Seth Rudetsky and James Wesley, whose “Stars in the House” has taken the internet by storm; Erich Bergen the brainchild behind the one night reboot of “The Rosie O’Donnell Show”; and the one and only Brian Stokes Mitchell, Chairman of the Actors Fund. In this time of crisis, the Actors Fund is there for *everyone* in the en...

For their first “quarantine edition” episode, Jamie, Rob, and Jennifer chat remotely with Tony Award-winning director Rachel Chavkin. As we navigate through this difficult moment, Rachel reflects on what artists can do to help, talks about her latest work, and shares information on some organizations that are doing great things to support artists, theater-makers, and just about everyone else. To c...

On this week’s show, Rob and Jamie are joined at Orso Restaurant by actor, fellow podcaster, and all around fabulous human Ilana Levine. Together, they talk about Ilana’s performance in Richard Greenberg’s “The Perplexed” at Manhattan Theatre Club (MTC), her experience doing the 1999 revival of “You’re a Good Man Charlie Brown”, and her extraordinary podcast, “Little Known Facts”. Later on, Rob ta...

On this week’s episode, Rob and Jamie venture to the “City of Brotherly Love” to catch up with the fabulous Carolee Carmello. As she winds down the national tour of “Hello, Dolly!”, they sit down to discuss her remarkable career, her incredible voice, and what playing Dolly Levi has meant to her at this time in history. Before that, Rob and Jamie geek out about their Carolee Carmello fandom and, a...

On this week’s episode, while Jennifer begins previews with the revival of “Company”, Jamie and Rob settle in to discuss that show and the twenty other shows opening up on Broadway this spring season. Plus we learn that Jamie’s listening skills aren’t great. This week’s music: “Shy” from “Once Upon A Mattress”, “The Ladies Who Lunch” and “Exit Music” from “Company the 2018 London Revival”, “Lot’s...

On this week’s show, Jamie and Rob are joined at Orso Restaurant by “one singular sensation”: Priscilla Lopez! Currently starring in “Grand Horizons” on Broadway, Priscilla talks about her storied career, from her Broadway debut that wasn’t—the two performance flop “Breakfast at Tiffany’s”—to replacement gigs in “Company” and “Pippin”, and her landmark creation of Diana Morales in “A Chorus Line”....

On this week’s episode, Rob and Jamie go in deep with all things “Mack & Mabel”, discussing Jerry Herman’s legendary flop as it returns to New York for the first time in 46 years with a new production at New York City Center’s Encores! They speak with Jack Viertel, Artistic Director of Encores!; book reviser Francine Pascal, sister of the late bookwriter Michael Stewart; Rob Berman, long time musi...

On this week’s episode, Jamie and Rob are joined by Ben Brantley, co-chief theater critic for The New York Times. A consummate journalist and celebrated writer, Ben talks about how he came to the Times, his tenure there since 1993, his writing process, what theater criticism means to him, and why he loves the theater. A bit later in the show, Rob gives a look into the career of experimental playwr...

This week’s episode is a special live taping from the mainstage at BroadwayCon! Jamie, Rob, and Jennifer are joined by stars of the critically acclaimed, Tony Award-winning best musical “Hadestown”: Reeve Carney, Eva Noblezada, Jewelle Blackman, Yvette Gonzalaz - Nacer, and Kay Trinidad. Together, they talk all things “Hadestown” and take questions from Twitter and Instagram, including how the sho...

On this week’s show, Jamie and Rob speak with Peter Lawrence, the man who literally wrote the book on stage management. With a career spanning four decades, Peter has worked as a production stage manager on over thirty Broadway shows, including “Ain’t Misbehavin’”, “Sunset Boulevard”, and “Spamalot”— often collaborating with legendary greats like Mike Nichols, Neil Simon, Gene Saks, and Manny Azen...

On this week’s special in-depth package show, Rob and Jamie sit down with a cross section of theatre critics to talk about who they are, what they do, why they do it, and how they do it, in addition to their thoughts on the state of theatre criticism and the future of the form. You’ll hear from Ben Brantley, Helen Shaw, Jose Solís, Nicole Serratore, and Christian Lewis. Tune in and find out why “e...

On this week’s episode, Jamie and Rob are back at Orso where they are joined by Tom Schumacher, President of the Disney Theatrical Group and Chairman of the Board of the Broadway League. Over the past twenty years, Tom has created and overseen the Broadway productions of “The Lion King”, “Mary Poppins”, “Peter and the Starcatcher”, “Newsies”, and “Aladdin”, to name only a few. Together, they discu...

On this week’s show, Jamie, Rob, and Jennifer are joined by Tony and Academy Award nominated star of stage and screen, Barbara Barrie, who originated the role of Sarah in Stephen Sondheim and George Furth’s landmark musical “Company” in 1970. We discuss that iconic show, including her experience working with Harold Prince and Elaine Stritch, and the legendary eighteen hour recording session of the...

Happy New Year & Happy New Decade! On this week’s show, Rob and Jamie discuss their top ten favorite plays and musicals from the past decade, tweet us yours @fabulousInvalid! This week’s music: “It Means Beautiful”, from “Everybody’s Talking About Jamie”, “Nothin'”, from “The Scottsboro Boys”, “Hey, Boys”, from “Love’s Labour’s Lost”, “Here Lies Love”, from “Here Lies Love”, “Hello, Dolly!” from “...

On this week’s show, Rob, Jamie, and Jennifer are back at their usual table for the final Orso Restaurant episode of the decade! They’re joined by director Sammi Cannold, who just directed a stunning new production of “Evita” at New York City Center and will present Celine Song's “Endlings” at New York Theatre Workshop Off-Broadway this winter. Together, they discuss Sammi’s impressive career to-d...

We love a list! On this week’s show, Rob and Jamie discuss Rob’s top ten favorite shows from 2019 (plus a few of his honorable mentions) as reviewed on Stage Left. Tweet us your top ten @fabulousInvalid! This week’s music: “Burning Down The House”, “American Utopia”, “Election Night”, from “Soft Power”, “Prologue”, and “Who’s That Woman” from “Follies: 2018 National Theater Recording”, “Road to He...

On this week’s show, Rob and Jamie are back at Orso Restaurant. They sit down with composer, lyricist, and playwright Michael R. Jackson, creator of "A Strange Loop”, a fantastic new musical that played Off-Broadway last summer. “A Strange Loop” is a “self-referential” musical by and about “a black, queer man writing a musical about a black, queer man who’s writing a musical about a black queer ma...

On this week’s show, Jamie, Rob, and Jennifer are joined by the delightful Kate Reinders. Kate has starred on Broadway in the 2003 revival of “Gypsy”, “Something Rotten”, “Beautiful”, and as Glinda in "Wicked”. She can currently be seen on the new Disney+ show, “High School Musical: The Musical: The Series”. Before Kate joins the group, they talk about theatre etiquette; following the interview, R...